The Project Gutenberg e-Book of Fruits of Toil in the London Missionary Society.

When our fathers established this Society they were met by a formidable array of difficulties of which we know nothing. Gathered in fellowship when the infidel principles of the French Revolution were doing deadly work, and soon involved in the national struggle of the great war, they found little to encourage them in the outward aspects of their position. Christian men were few; Christian churches were small and scattered; money was scarce; Christian benevolence was little understood. The wide world of Christian effort opened to us was almost wholly closed against them. They could enter the South Seas; though their islands were almost unknown. But the West Indies were close shut. "If you preach to the slaves," said the Governor of Demerara to a missionary, "I cannot let you stay here." They were excluded from South Africa and from India. China was sealed, and remained so for forty years. Passages were expensive; voyages were full of discomfort; letters were few. They knew little of the manners and systems of heathen nations; they knew less of their literature; they knew nothing of their languages. Dictionaries, literature, buildings, converts, everything had to be produced. Their fields of labour were unprepared. Their message and their aims were little understood.

In all these elements of usefulness we occupy at this hour a position of usefulness, in marked contrast to that of our predecessors. With a mighty advance in practical freedom, in intelligence and education, in social comfort, in material resources, the entire religious life of England has secured a solidity, an elevation, and a general influence of the most marvellous kind. In the number and wealth of our churches, in the character and position of the ministry, the Society ought to find supporters immeasurably in advance of the few but earnest friends of seventy years ago. Our missions have made indescribable progress. Our agencies continue to grow more complete. Churches have been gathered; the members of which are no longer novices in Christian truth and Christian life. The time has come for a native ministry; and a larger number appear on our lists than ever before. And last, but not least, the full and faithful preaching of the gospel, for which our missionary brethren have ever been distinguished, and the employment of Christian education, have made a marked impression upon heathenism; have broken its prestige, have silenced its objections, and have prepared the way for future victories, more triumphant in their grandeur than anything the Society has yet seen.

But this advanced and noble position, which is the proof of success in the past, and the guarantee and instrument of larger results in days to come, is precisely that attainment and possession of our Society, which the friends of the Society appear least to appreciate. It seems to be thought that now, as ever, missionaries just preach to the heathen and give away books; they teach a few boys and girls; win a few souls; and send a few teachers into the districts around. All that is true. But the high and solid work beyond it—all that superior influence which the Society and its missionaries are exercising, in Christianizing communities, in sanctifying all the great elements of their public and social life, in destroying the very roots of their heathenism, and in preparing the way for enlightened, disciplined, independent churches, sound in faith and full of life—all this has been little understood. Had it been duly realised, it is incredible that the ministers and churches which sustain the Society should quietly continue to give for its maintenance the same narrow income which they gave to it thirty years ago.

The result of this irrepressible growth, fostered by the kind providence and loving care of the Master for whom the service has been done, was for the Directors, in their management of the Society's affairs, embarrassment, difficulty, and debt. That embarrassment commenced with the year 1866, when the accounts were closed with a balance of £7450 against the Society, which was paid from the legacy fund reserved for such a contingency. During the entire year the Directors had the difficulty in view, and adopted a series of measures to meet it. Special Meetings were held with the London ministers and officers of churches, to lay before them the growing needs of our Foreign Missions. Papers were published by the Home Secretary, showing the growth of those missions, with the increased claims they present for agency and help; and urging that an addition of at least £10,000 a year is needed to the Society's permanent income. In the autumn Auxiliary meetings the missionary Deputations were urged specially to make the facts known. In February a solemn and impressive meeting for prayer was held by a hundred and twenty of the London ministers and Directors.

But these measures did not at once remove the difficulty. In numerous instances old friends of the Society, and churches which have ever been its chief supporters, not only expressed hearty sympathy with these efforts, but increased their contributions and rendered substantial help. Various consultations ensued, and a Special Committee was requested, to indicate the course which, in their calm judgment, the Directors ought to take, to meet the difficulties of their position.

Their Report pointed out various defects in the Society's system of account, and in the audit of details in the expenditure which is incurred abroad. It noted especially that since—on the system till then in force—the initiative in that expenditure had been placed to a large extent in the hands of the missionaries themselves, the Board did not possess sufficient and effective control over its growth and its specific application. And it recommended that, as in some other Societies, a system of annual appropriations should be adopted, by which the available income of each year might be made to sustain existing schemes of usefulness, without bringing the Society into debt. Further, the Committee recommended that, as the expenditure had greatly increased in recent years, on the one hand, in consultation with the missionaries, that expenditure should be carefully revised; and, on the other, all available efforts should be made to increase the Society's income. After full and earnest consideration of this truly valuable Report, the Board adopted the following R ESOLUTIONS , which gave special satisfaction to the Delegates and country Directors, and met with the marked approval of all the Society's friends:—

In considering the state of the Society's finances, the Special Committee recommended, in strong terms, not only that some reduction should be made in the expenditure, but that the character of that expenditure should be carefully examined. They recommended that the Board should take full advantage of the opportunity furnished by the present crisis, for placing the entire system of payments in their Foreign Missions upon the soundest footing, and for determining the principles by which those payments shall be regulated. The Directors accepted these suggestions, and since then the three Foreign Committees, into which the London Board is divided, have devoted much attention to the system of their Foreign Missions.

In the case of each of the Missions examined, they carefully laid down the principles applicable to the condition of the Native churches; the forms of missionary labour among the heathen; the number and work of the Society's missionaries; the number and labours of Native agents engaged in purely mission work; and the state of education. The present scale and details of expenditure were examined; and then, to every element of the system an APPROPRIATION for the year was made of that amount of money which, in the judgment of the Directors, the Society could justly spare from the funds which they have at their command. A Schedule of these allowances in every group of Missions was next drawn out, exhibiting the sums available for the expenditure of the year, and was forwarded to the Mission concerned. And finally, a special DESPATCH which accompanied the Warrants, was written to the members of every Mission, in order to explain in the fullest manner the views of the Directors respecting that Mission, and the form which, in their judgment, the aid of the Society should for the future assume. Again, while the Society enjoys the services of a large number of able, conscientious, and spiritual men, as devoted as ever their predecessors were to missionary work, it was seen to be essential to their fullest efficiency, that they should be brought into closer union with each other abroad, and with the system of the Society at home; that the personal comfort of the mission families should be more fully secured under the changed circumstances of modern days; and that the experience of each field of labour should be so wrought into the general system as to prove a helper to all the rest.

The result of the system to the Society's finances has been economy, compactness, and strength. While in several cases the personal income of the missionaries has been increased, yet, by limiting the amount of the Native agency to be employed in evangelistic work; by reducing the help hitherto granted to the Native Christians for their incidental expenditure; and by enforcing economy in all minor matters at home as well as abroad; the Board have been able to bring down the total expenditure of the Society to a point much nearer the range of the Society's ordinary income than it has for several years past. They have provided, however, only for the necessities of their present operations. They need a larger income still, if the friends of the Society would wish them to undertake that extension of their Missions into new fields which the world needs, for which the missionaries earnestly plead, and which they themselves are most anxious to secure. The effect of the system on certain of the Native churches has been a most healthy one. As hoped for, it is beginning to stimulate them to manliness, and to a more earnest consecration, not only of their means, but of their personal service to the Saviour's work.

The revision now described has furnished materials for exhibiting, in a more complete form than usual, the present agencies of the Society, and some of the results with which its labours have been blessed. In a few of the older Missions of the Society, the duty of instructing the heathen has been almost complete; the population are nominally Christian, and in most of these communities there is a strong nucleus of spiritual life in a valuable body of Church members. This is the case in Polynesia, in the West Indies, and in many stations in South Africa. Around many strong churches in Madagascar, in India, and in China, the sphere of heathenism is still very large. Several stations in those Missions—well planted for the influence required of them—may now be occupied by the Native minister instead of the English missionary. The number of chief stations in all the Missions is 130.

The N ATIVE C HURCHES of the Society are 150 in number. They contain 35,400 members: in a community of nominal Christians, young and old, amounting to 191,700 persons. Of these, nearly 13,000 are in Polynesia; nearly 5,000 in the West Indies; over 5,000 in South Africa; and 3,400 in India. The converts under the Society's care speak altogether twenty-six languages.

The general scope of the Society's efforts, so far as figures can show it, is set forth in the following Table:—

But Statistical Tables cannot show the real character of the Society's work, or the breadth of influence which that work has attained. The hundred and fifty-six English missionaries of the Society in foreign lands constitute the central force and stimulus of a wider agency, numbering twelve hundred persons, gathered among people once heathen, now Christian; an agency adopting the same aims, ruled by the same Christian spirit, and fulfilling the same Divine command. This body of true and devoted men were never rendering to the Society a nobler service than at the present time; and were never more worthy of our highest esteem. It is, therefore, with indignation and regret that Christian men have seen the recent attacks made on the whole missionary body, and the contemptuous terms in which their labours have been described. Looking away from all that is temporary and special, and contemplating that which springs from their ordinary duties, the Directors would never forget what a noble position missionaries occupy, and how truly great, from its very nature, their work is. They have gone forth from home and country as ambassadors of God, to preach His message of forgiveness; to bring the Saviour in His human life to those who have never understood Him; to save the perishing, and bind them as with golden chains to the feet of God. They are battling with error, and breaking up the iron systems of priestcraft, inhumanity, and wrong, which have enslaved men for ages, and have shut off from them the light and love of their Heavenly Father. They are staying the progress of crime; they lay the hand of law on the slaveholder; they appeal to the drunkard; they clear out the dens of vice; and to the hopeless and despairing they open up long vistas of light and gladness, which terminate only in Heaven. Everywhere they are preaching with power. Their Divine message is quickening the dead conscience of nations: it is converting the wicked, and saving souls from death; it is lifting women from the dust; it is purifying family life; it is putting trade under rules of honesty, and teaching humanity where cruelty was the universal rule. Its principles are going down to the very roots of national life; it is substituting law for force; and is moulding young communities for a higher life in all their people, a closer union to their fellow-men, because they are gaining a holier and truer union with God.

They are doing this among great varieties of place and people; amid many forms of outer life; amid many grades of human comfort and human resources. Some labour among the most glorious manifestations of creative might; others upon scorched and barren plains; others in the busy life of cities; others in lonely isles. In labours abundant, in perils oft, by example, by preaching, by prayers, everywhere they seek to approve themselves unto God, and serve their generation according to His will. Politicians may lecture them: men of science may undervalue them. Time-serving editors may pour on them their scorn; they may be called enthusiasts, or be socially despised; but steadfast in duty, unmoved by reproach or praise, they will reply: "Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause." Our "meat is to do the will of Him that sent us, and to finish His work."

It is impossible for any Report to describe in detail, and with full justice, the varied labours in which these brethren are engaged. Like ministers at home, our Missionaries preach the Gospel; instruct, govern, and build up churches; watch over the young, and stir up their people's zeal. But they do a great deal more. Placed in many cases in simple states of society, on a low level of education and social connection, as well as of religion; in states of society saturated with heathen vices and heathen beliefs, our missionaries have not only to Christianize individual souls, but to Christianize literature, to Christianize public law, to form a healthy public opinion, to sanctify public taste. Forms of agency, therefore, unneeded at home, are required on every hand; varied in character, at times expensive, all carefully adapted to the case with which they deal. And it is in the employment, the adaptation of these means to their appointed ends, that missionaries specially prove themselves "wise to win souls."

Thus it is that not only on the Sabbath but through the week, not only in the pulpit but in the school, the market, the private house, in a boat, under a spreading tree, our brethren expound and enforce that Gospel which shall sanctify and govern the hearts of many nations. Thus it is in the cities of China and India, in the villages of Africa, among the swamps of Guiana, beneath the palm groves of Samoa, they seek to be instant in season and out of season. Some are pastors of churches, others preach almost entirely to the heathen. Some are training students in seminaries. Some superintend a range of simple schools; others, in Indian cities, give large time and effort to the important Institutions taught in the English and Native languages. A few are revising translations of the Bible; others are preparing commentaries, school-books, and other Christian literature. All have to share in building; and, besides the Medical missionaries, a great number constantly give medicine to the sick. Here we see Dr. T URNER , in the admirable seminary at Malua, training the Native Teachers; Mr. E DKINS and Mr. M UIRHEAD penetrate the Mongolian desert, to inquire into the place and prospects of a Mission among the Tartar tribes; while Mr. J OHN , after completing the new Hospital, is isolated within a vast sea, the overflowings of the mighty Yangtze, which has drowned half the streets of Hankow. We see Mr. A SHTON and Mr. J OHNSON , Mr. C OLES and Mr. B LAKE , Mr. H ALL and Mr. R ICE , surrounded by the hundreds of their students and scholars, diligent in daily English studies. We see the T RAVANCORE brethren in the midst of their many agents; advising pastors, instructing catechists, reading evangelists' journals, examining candidates, and auditing accounts; while, in their midst, Dr. L OWE and his seven students administer to their crowd of patients in the hospital that medicine which shall relieve their pain. Dr. M ATHER re-edits the Hindustani Scriptures. The brothers S TRONACH , fellow-labourers indeed in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ; still watch over the prosperous churches of Amoy, which they were honoured to found. In the midst of barbarism, Mr. M OFFAT carefully revises that Sichuana Bible of which he was the first translator. In the midst of civilization, after reading the proofs of the Chinese New Testament, Dr. L EGGE , consulting his learned pundits, dives deep into the ancient Chinese classics, and strives, by an erudite commentary, to make plain the early history of China. While Mr. L AWES , who describes himself as the "poet laureate" of Savage Island, after completing the New Testament, prepares the first Christian hymn book, for the use of the converts he has brought to Christ. Mr. T HOMPSON , visiting the Missions in Cape Colony, drives with hard toil across the fiery dust of the Karroo desert; Mr. J ANSEN and Mr. M UNRO , in their long canoe, traverse the gorgeous and silent forests of Guiana, to visit the little Mission among the Indians below the rapids of the Berbice. Mr. M URRAY , opportunely arriving in a screw steamer, prevents war among the Christians of Manua; Mr. C HALMERS , voluntary leader of the band of converts who keep the John Williams afloat, sticks by the vessel to the last, and, with his brave wife, refuses to quit the ship till she is anchored safe in Sydney harbor. While Mr. P HILIP , pastor and schoolmaster, doctor and lawyer, engineer and magistrate, of the flourishing Hottentot Christians of Hankey, when overturned in a ravine on a visit to his out-station, preaches to his people with a broken arm, rather than deprive them of that bread of heaven which they had come many miles to hear. Who would not rejoice and thank God for such men? Of the ninety Protestant Missionaries labouring in China, the five who stand first in public estimation for character, scholarship, and zeal are missionaries of this Society. Among the five hundred missionaries of India, not a few of our brethren occupy a high and honoured place; while in all other of the older Missions the men who with fidelity and zeal have steadily maintained their posts for twenty-five and thirty years are numerous, and are all held in honour. A just consideration of toil like this will show that never in the Society's history had the Directors greater reason to thank God for the grace bestowed upon their missionaries, or stronger ground for holding them in esteem as workmen not needing to be ashamed.

While discussing, amongst other matters, the expense of the Society's Seminary at Highgate, the Special Committee suggested an inquiry into the question of the training of the missionary students generally. It was felt by them that the advanced position attained by our Missions in all parts of the world, gives to the missionary brethren, as a body, very great opportunities of usefulness. A large number of them are called to be superintendents of several churches and many native agents, to be counsellors of native pastors and missionaries, and tutors in theological seminaries. All the brethren in India and China may hold intercourse with Native scholars and priests, and have to defend truth and assail error by argument, spreading over a wide range of thought and knowledge. Several of them have charge of educational institutions of a high order, and are associated with Native ministers who are themselves men of superior education and position.

It is an injustice to our missionary brethren themselves to place them in such positions of weight and influence without giving them the opportunity of acquiring a complete fitness for the important duties which those positions involve. It is an injustice to the Society that the training of its missionaries should be incomplete. And it is an injustice to the Missions generally, should they be placed in the hands of men who are unable, from defective education, rightly to comprehend their claims, and to fulfil the important duties which the charge of them now involves. In addition to considerations such as these, the Directors observed that for some years past their missionary students had been trained in a variety of ways; a few being educated in the ordinary colleges, and the remainder in private Institutions, adopted by the Board, at Bedford and Weston-super-Mare. Aided by a valuable memorandum from the Rev. J.S. Wardlaw, which went fully into the entire question, the Directors, after careful consideration, arranged it on the basis of the following R ESOLUTIONS ; which have given the students, the missionaries abroad, and the friends of the Society great satisfaction:—

The Directors regard it as a matter for great thankfulness, and as a token of continued approval of their work, that they have recently received, as they did in 1867, a large number of offers from young men to enter upon the Society's service. The applicants have presented a great diversity of natural gifts, attainments, and position: some of them are already studying for the ministry in our Theological Colleges. The Directors have during the year accepted no less than eighteen. Amongst them are two of the missionaries' sons. The total number of missionary students in the Society is now forty-two. On the first of May, 1869, they stood thus:—

The increase of our Church Members, and the enlargement of their spiritual life, have from time to time placed at the disposal of the Society an increasing number of Christian helpers for the local service of our various Missions. No exact account of them was taken for several years. But from the complete returns recently gathered, it appears that at the present time they are more than twelve hundred in number.

The Christian Assistants not engaged in schools are divided into several classes. Some are R EADERS , who go from house to house, and explain the Word to families or individuals. Others are preachers of greater or less education, and are more or less trusted, either to work alone, or in company with more experienced brethren. In India and China, these brethren are usually termed C ATECHISTS , though in the South Seas the missionaries have retained the title of N ATIVE T EACHERS . One class among them, of higher character and education, in whom great trust is reposed, are termed in India E VANGELISTS . These brethren frequently occupy stations by themselves, or are immediate and trusted assistants of the missionaries. Several of the excellent preachers in China belong to this rank; as also others in the South Sea Islands and in Madagascar.

It has from the first been a settled rule with the Society's missionaries that catechists and preachers should be men of known and proved piety; and that all candidates for theological classes shall be members of the church. The Directors believe that it is largely owing to the observance of this sound rule that the Missions have received a great blessing from above, and have been built up on a solid basis. It is the effect of this blessing, and a result of the development of the churches, that a steady improvement has taken place in the general character and fitness of Native Agents. And not the least benefit is that at length it is giving rise to the long-desired class of N ATIVE O RDAINED P ASTORS .

In 1865 our lists showed twenty such Pastors and Missionaries, not reckoning the Tahitian or Madagascar brethren; and of the twenty, fourteen were in India. During the last three years fifteen have been added in India, and one has died. In the Leeward Islands several of the Tahaa students have been ordained as pastors in Tahiti and the out-stations; the Directors have recommended the ordination of others, as T AUGA , the Evangelist in charge of the churches in Manua; E LIKANA , the Evangelist of the Lagoon Islands; and I SAIA , the well-known Evangelist of Rarotonga; and five have been ordained in Samoa. In Madagascar a practical Native pastorate grew up in the days of persecution, which was judiciously fostered by Mr. Ellis and his associates, and was placed by them in a most healthy position. Of the five hundred preachers placed over the churches, some twenty may be reckoned of that high standing and independence of management accorded to the other brethren in the ordained lists. The Directors rejoice that, through the wise foresight of Mr. Ellis, the Madagascar pastors receive no support from the Society; they are almost wholly sustained either by their own labour or by the Native Churches. In Travancore, three of the pastors ordained last year have become entirely free of all help from the Society. The Board desire that in all cases the same independence of support from English funds shall be steadily aimed at, though for a time it may be necessary to guarantee a certain salary, and to supplement such portion as the native members give, by an annual grant from the Society's funds. In all the Society's missions the number of these pastors is about eighty. It is desirable that all our native agency shall be of the best kind, and shall be trained in the most efficient way.

The high and useful position attained by the Society is further illustrated by the character and importance of the Native Churches. These are our actual converts, the most striking, the most patent, if not the most real among the fruits of our past labours. These churches are unevenly distributed, but the explanation is easy. As a rule, they are largest in fields of labour which have been longest cultivated, and where converts are easily won. They appear, therefore, in inverse ratio to time and difficulty. To the native races of Polynesia, desolated by wars, torn in pieces by faction and strife, Christianity came as the healer and peace-maker, and was welcomed as soon as understood. To the native races of South Africa, and to the people of the West Indies, to the weak who had been crushed and enslaved by the strong, it came with loving smiles as deliverer and friend. By the devil-worshipper of Travancore, ignorant, degraded, friendless, afraid of malignant spirits, it was welcomed for its kindness. To the caste-ridden people of the great cities and towns, to the sudra of South India, to the Brahmins everywhere, it came as an enemy, destroying their social life, breaking up the bonds of Hindooism, smiting the gods, putting down the priesthood, destroying the vested interest, and drying up the wealth produced by centuries. Who can wonder that to the learned, the powerful, the bigoted, it was "foolishness;" while to the despised and poor, accepted in a child-like spirit, it became the power of God unto salvation? As a rule, the converts, who were easy to win, have been hard to raise; and in ordinary Christian life some of the most zealous, the most consistent, the most liberal, the most missionary, have been found among the few converts, drawn by hard struggles and heavy penalties, from the caste population of our Indian towns. It is from such came nearly all our first ordained Native Ministers.

But, whether easily or hardly won, we rejoice in the fact that at this hour the three hundred Churches gathered through the ministry of this Society contain thirty-five thousand members; and that round them, looking to them for instruction, and influenced by their example, lives a population of not less than one hundred and ninety thousand souls, who have given up all idolatry, and call Christianity their religion.

The GENERAL CHARACTER of these church members, their attainments in knowledge, the amount of their moral strength, the enlightenment of conscience, their peculiar deficiencies, are topics frequently dwelt upon in missionaries' letters, and find a conspicuous place in the annual reports. Who can doubt that, should occasion arise, the converts of M ADAGASCAR would still emulate the fidelity of the brethren who gave themselves to clanging fetters and the fiery flame rather than deny Christ? When bitterly persecuted by bigoted priests, the Christians of U EA still possess their souls in patience, and with their chapels burnt, their plantations desolated, and their companions beaten, they hold on to the truth as it is in Jesus, and refuse to bow the knee to the Baal of Rome. In the Calcutta Mission last year, as heretofore, converts have been found to bear reproach and shame for Christ rather than be numbered among idolaters. Still do the tried Christians of P OKLO show how grace reigns in China.

The great Christian virtues, the fruits of the Spirit, are developed in these churches as in the older realms of Christendom. In them enlightened conscience makes war with sin; Christian love casts out fear; the eye of faith sees heaven in a dying hour. Scarcely a report is written that does not illustrate these excellencies. We must not undervalue what here we have gained. It is not only that so many individual souls have been saved. We have rescued them from heathenism, from false religion, from the advocacy of error, from the practice of error, from open, unchecked vice and crime. We have drawn them from the world's disorders and cruelty, from wrong and misery. In the great warfare with vice, they have changed sides, and are now valiant for the truth. We have drawn not only them but their children; we have drawn them, not as isolated individuals, but as families, as neighbours, as fellow citizens, as nations. We have drawn into the church, for man's happiness, and the Lord's glory, all the influences of their private, social, and public life. We have won their intelligence, their moral life, their literature, their material resources, their public law. Henceforth heathenism has lost them, and Christ has placed His sanctifying hand on all they have and all they are. These Christians are all His; their children His, and generations as they succeed each other shall be more completely His, to give Him all the glory of their growing love, and add their contribution of immortal souls to His Millennial reign.

Our earliest mission in Polynesia is constantly offering evidence of the power of the Gospel. The Rev. J. King of Savaii, gives the following striking illustration:—

Much more might be written on this topic, and these illustrations of Christian experience might easily be multiplied. Our native churches give proof in every direction of the soundness of the teaching from which they have sprung, and of the Divine blessing by which it has been followed. They differ greatly in the outer form of their life from English churches: they differ scarcely less from one another. They differ in their knowledge, in the character of their excellencies, in the form of their defects. They differ in their experience of the truth, as they have had a varied history. But one heart and one mind are found within them all. It is the Bible which touches their feelings most deeply, which quickens their conscience, which inspires their richest joys. Everywhere the tribes, once heathen and hard-hearted, now Christianized, care for the orphan, show kindness and courtesy to women, and watch over the aged and the sick. Everywhere they lead a pure life, they cultivate and practise mutual kindness, they are brought under public law. These things are not novelties in Christianity; but their daily recurrence in all our Missions is the best testimony we can offer to the reality of our work. They are seen in all our Churches; they are written on every page of our reports. The heathen natives of Travancore and of the Lagoon Islands, far distant from one another, get drunk with toddy: their Christian fellow-countrymen of the same class in both places abstain from it. Touched by the gospel, the negroes of Jamaica came in hundreds to be married: the Bechuanas on the Vaal river have done the same. Our new converts in the plains of Shantung try to evangelize their stalwart neighbours. The same efforts of love are put forth by the new Christians among the hills of Fokien. Our South Sea Converts observe the Sabbath better than Englishmen. When accompanying the Queen down to the sea-coast, our Church members held Sabbath camp-meetings in the forests and jungles of Madagascar.

Would that the English churches realized more completely what they are! Follow them in their daily life. Look at them on the Sabbath-day. There, where once all seasons were alike, they gather on the first day of the week in the house of prayer. From China eastward, round to Lifu westward, in twenty-six languages, these Christian converts gather for holy worship. In the broad streets of Peking; among the green hills of Amoy; amid the tall roofs of Antananarivo, and the well-watered gardens of Hankey; among the deep ferns of Raiatea and in the cotton-fields of Samoa; in Calcutta and Benares, within the shadows of the wealthy temples of Kali and Mahadeo; or where the creamy surf in curling waves throws up the garnet sands of Travancore,—each Sabbath-day rises the hymn of praise, the earnest prayer; each month they break the bread and drink the cup in memory of Him whom, not having seen, they love; in whom, though now they see Him not, yet believing, they rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory; receiving the end of their faith, even the salvation of their S OULS .

The S OUTH S EA M ISSION lies deep in the affection of the Society's friends. Seventy years have passed since the first missionaries were landed by the Duff on the Island of T AHITI . After long trial of patience, amid a most depraved and corrupt people, heathenism gave way, the gospel triumphed, and the Society Islands became Christian. In 1823 R AROTONGA was discovered, and the Hervey Islands, now containing one of the brightest groups of our Christian churches, were evangelized. In 1830, S AMOA received that gospel which has sanctified the gentle habits of its people, and produced in them a zeal in the extension of the church which none of their neighbours have excelled. In 1840 and onward, the efforts to evangelize the dark races of the N EW H EBRIDES were commenced and partly frustrated. In 1848, the L OYALTY G ROUP received teachers, and in spite of priestly intolerance, have since been largely christianized.

When T AHITI first fell under the French Protectorate, fears were entertained respecting the stability of its people. By God's blessing on the means of grace, they seem at the present time to be more spiritual and more firm in their attachment to the truth than ever. Several young pastors, trained in our Tahaa Institution, have been warmly welcomed among them, and their numbers are larger than for some years past:—

In the Hervey Islands, in the midst of their desolation, the churches of R AROTONGA insisted on holding their usual Anniversary, and gave a larger contribution to the Society than in the year before. The S AMOAN M ISSION continues to enjoy prosperity and peace; the Seminary at Malua flourishes; an extraordinary demand exists for the Scriptures, which every Christian seems resolved to make his own; the influence of the missionary diminishes the risk of social war; and the liberality of the churches still abounds. S AVAGE I SLAND , becoming more closely allied to the civilised world, through the influence of its beautiful cotton, begins to encounter the greater temptations to which a community of simple manners is by that contact exposed; and the first drunkard has been seen upon her shores. As truly as a pious lad on entering London life needs the daily support of a mother's counsel and a mother's prayers; so do these young communities, exposed to the vices and temptations of stronger nations, demand the help, the sympathy, and the prayers of the English churches from which their piety springs. In the L AGOON I SLANDS and in the L OYALTY G ROUP the Word of Christ is winning many dark hearts; but in the latter the fanatic hatred of Romish priests continues to the stricken Christians of U EA that system of oppressive persecution against which they appealed long ago.

Of the S AMOAN M ISSION a most pleasing account has recently been given by a writer in Blackwood's Magazine , which fully sustains the reports of its prosperity given by the missionaries:—

Special mention has frequently been made of the great liberality of the S AMOAN churches. The Rev. G EORGE P RATT thus describes the energetic effort made last year to increase it:—

The Rev. A.W. M URRAY informs the Directors that the contributions so gathered have been the largest of all. They have amounted to the extraordinary sum of £2,236 18 s.:—

Nor are others of our Polynesian Converts behindhand. The Native Churches in Mangaia have also given generous gifts, of which the Rev. W.W. G ILL speaks thus:—

When it became clear from the letters received from the islands that the M ISSIONARY S HIP was really lost, the Directors without delay devoted their attention to the question of securing a new one. Several important facts were clearly shown in the statements laid before them. Some six or eight small vessels are now running regularly between the chief groups of islands and Sydney: a few vessels also pass irregularly between the islands themselves, and can at times be chartered, or be employed to carry goods. So far, therefore, as mere goods are concerned, there is no great difficulty in supplying about twenty out of the twenty-seven missionaries of the Society who are labouring in the South Seas. But, besides supplying stores to their missionaries, the Society is carrying on most important evangelistic work in several small and isolated groups; as the Pearl Islands, the Penrhyns, the Ellice and Lagoon Islands, and in detached islands of the larger groups. These isolated spots require to be visited regularly, for the protection of the people, the encouragement of the teachers, and for the supply of new men, medicines, and books. The vessels that may be hired are not always available. They are often far from suitable to the work; they are very deficient in that amount of comfort which on public duty the missionary brethren ought to enjoy. Not seldom they wish to go where the missionary finds no work; to stay at some places when his work is finished; and to leave others when the work requires him to remain. Besides, evangelistic work is growing on our hands; the native churches are strong; labourers are abundant; the groups lying to the north and west are more open than ever; and the Directors are called upon to look fairly in the face a large extension of the South Sea Mission among three hundred islands, containing millions of people who are heathen still. All the objects desired through the entire range of the Society's interests and the Society's work, can with ease be secured by a vessel of our own, commanded by a truly missionary captain, officers, and crew.

With considerations like these before them, the Directors were unanimous in resolving that another M ISSIONARY S HIP should be provided without delay. They had clear evidence that the ship should be smaller than the last. They were urged also on every hand to keep the ship between the islands and Sydney, and to recall her to England only at long intervals. Accordingly, another vessel, the third bearing the name of the John Williams , has been launched, fitted out and despatched to the Islands. Amid the busy work of the past two years, no single matter has occupied a larger share of the Directors' attention and care than the building and equipment of this vessel. She is a beautiful barque of 186 tons register; she went to sea well equipped in every respect, and specially provided with certain fittings that will conduce to the comfort of the missionaries and their families. The Directors placed on board an excellent library, a large Atlas of the best maps, illustrative of the South Seas and the Australian colonies; also a quadrant and barometer for general use; and it only remained to supply the library with a set of the different Polynesian Scriptures.

Rare in the world are those scenes of enchanting beauty, which the islands of Polynesia so frequently display. Yet nowhere did heathenism descend to deeper degradation; nowhere did it develop blacker vices and commit more hellish crimes. Incessant war, merciless cruelty, infanticide, indescribable vice, in many places cannibalism, made the strong races a ceaseless terror to each other and to the world outside them. Over millions of their brethren such heathenism and wickedness hold the same sway still. In all but Western Polynesia, the Gospel has swept this heathenism away. The four great Societies which have sent their brethren forth as messengers of mercy, have gathered into Christ's fold 300,000 people, of whom 50,000 are members of the Church. They have together expended on the process less than £1,200,000, a sum which now-a-days will only make a London railway, or furnish the Navy with six ironclads. Yet how wonderful the fruit of their toil! "The wolf dwells with the lamb; the leopard lies down with the kid." The destruction of life has been stayed. Beautiful as were these lands by nature, culture has rendered them more lovely still. Everywhere the white chapel and school have taken the place of the heathen marai. The trim cottage, which Christianity gave them, peeps everywhere from its nook of leaves. Land and people are Christian now. The victories of peace have taken the place of war. Resources have multiplied: wealth has begun to accumulate. Books, knowledge, order and law, rule these communities. Large churches have been gathered; schools flourish; good men and good women are numerous. Not a few have offered themselves as missionaries to heathen islands; and in zeal, self-sacrifice, and patient service have equalled the earnest men of other climes.

All over the southern groups of Polynesia, this is the work which missionaries have been doing. This is the influence which they have exercised, and these are the fruits of their devoted toil. It is not merely Admiral F ITZROY , and Captain E RSKINE , and Admiral W ILKES , who testify to the reality of such results; but to these Christian islands, where sailors were once afraid to land, hundreds of whalers run gladly every year to get the refreshment which their hard toil renders so grateful. From icebergs and boundless seas, and heavy gales of wind; from the exciting chase, the capture, the boiling down of their huge prey; and from all the filthy, weary work of whaling life, they now run north to New Zealand and Samoa, to Tahiti and Rarotonga; not only to refit their vessels and to replace their broken gear, but to buy fresh meat and vegetables and coffee; to get medicine for their sick; to revel in oranges, plantains and water-melons; to feast the eye on green mountains and cultured valleys; to walk among white cottages and flower gardens and groves of palms; to attend Sabbath services, and be reminded of their Christian training and their Christian homes. Where have unaided men, however wise, produced a moral change like this? With us the G OSPEL alone has done it, and to G OD we give all the praise.

In the course of their revision, the Directors found that the S OUTH A FRICA Mission needed at their hands an unusual amount of attention and care. Owing to peculiar circumstances, it had been to a considerable extent lost sight of for several years. At the outset of the inquiry, several questions of vital importance presented themselves for settlement. While the mission numbered on its staff thirty-five European missionaries, no less than twenty-one of these brethren were labouring in the christianized portions of the colony; where the native population has grown thinner rather than more numerous; and where the ministers and missionaries of other Societies have considerably increased. Only fourteen of the Society's missionaries were labouring in the heathen territories, in Kafirland and among the Bechuana tribes.

The six mission estates, termed I NSTITUTIONS , which for a series of years proved a valuable refuge to the Hottentot labourers, and trained them in habits of industry, have changed their character, with the improved position of public opinion and public law. They have long since accomplished their special work; and socially, in recent years, some of them have been doing evil rather than good. Again, the close relation subsisting between several of the missionaries and the Native Churches of which they were pastors, has operated much to the disadvantage of these brethren during the years of drought; and the system required readjustment without delay. The incomes of all the missionaries, especially of those within the Cape Colony, were insufficient, and the education of the young was in general very imperfectly provided for.

After careful consideration of the whole case, the Directors found themselves able to meet the numerous difficulties which it presented, and to shape out a system of management which may duly provide for these missions in the future, on definite and healthy principles. A series of R ESOLUTIONS was passed by the Board, embodying that system; and these were conveyed to the brethren in the mission, with a D ESPATCH which contained a full explanation of their views.

In considering the future of the Mission, the Directors remember that many christian agencies have been set at work in the Colony, in addition to their own, since they took up the cause of the Native tribes, and successfully fought the battle of their freedom. Some of these agencies have given especial attention to the European Congregations, to which the Society has never devoted its substantial strength; but amongst them the Natives also, especially in the eastern parts of the colony, have found pastors and friends. The time has therefore come to shift the Society's labours more decidedly to those districts of South Africa which are still occupied by heathen tribes, and which have but few instructors. In the western parts of the colony our churches are few. In the neighbourhood of P ORT E LIZABETH there is a cluster of important stations, which have exercised great influence for good over the Native races, and have brought many of their people into the Church Of Christ.

In K AFIRLAND , in districts within the English dominion, the Society has five stations, in most of which there is fair access to a population still heathen. In each a Christian Church has been gathered; the members are nine hundred in number, and the congregations contain nearly four thousand persons. Four English missionaries have charge of these missions, and a Native Pastor, the Rev. A. Van Rooyen. These missions, however, are surrounded by the agencies of other Missionary Societies; and they have not that full scope for development which is desirable, and which they possessed in earlier years. It is among the Bechuana missions, that enlargement is most practicable.

For twenty years the Mission Station at the K URUMAN , with its immediate neighbours, stood forth, the last of the border lighthouses on the shore of that wild sea of savage life and savage wars, which stretched northward without a break to the unpeopled Sahara. Then for nine years Livingstone maintained a station beyond it among the Bakwains. In 1859, in two bands, our brethren entered the wilderness, to found new Missions among the Makololo and the Matebele. Strange disasters broke up the first. The second was established successfully at I NYATI , and has grown in strength and influence. Two others have since been fixed at intermediate stations between the Kuruman and Inyati: and thus a chain of Missions, at intervals of three hundred miles, has been carried onwards into the centre of savage heathendom, and to the neighbourhood of the Victoria Falls. Amid powerful difficulties our brethren have not laboured in vain. They have had to contend with inveterate prejudices; they have been preaching lofty truths to minds which, in religion, are on the level of childhood, yet, in wickedness, have the experience of age. Still they have held on. In perils of journeys; in perils of sickness; in perils of the wilderness; in abundant labours; in privations; in loneliness; they have lived on, if by any means they may save some.

The death of M OSELEKATSE is no common event among the South African tribes. His career has had a terrible effect upon their numbers, their position and their history. Leader of a tribe of Zulu Kafirs, about 1816 he was driven from his own country by the anger of Chaka, the savage head of the nation, and began to carve out an inheritance for himself in new lands. Brave, bold, and shrewd, he knew how to grasp opportunities, to make use of the right men, to reward fidelity generously, and summarily to stamp out opposition. Throughout life he had a wonderful influence over both nobles and people. His army was disciplined; and its courage was stimulated by stirring songs. In the little court-yard of this African lion, the yells of battle, the cries of the wounded, the shouts of victory were imitated, and the stories of brave deeds were told by rude minstrels, as effectively as, in old days, in Scandinavian halls. His rule was despotic in the extreme; its barbarities were unparalleled. His warriors were rewarded by slaves and plunder, and their warlike expeditions have been incessant to the last. Bursting upon the Bahurutse tribes beyond the Zulu territory, myriads of lives were flung away. The tribes were crushed, destroyed, and scattered. The remnant fell upon their neighbours; or fled into the desert; or escaped, like the Makololo, to a new land. For twenty years the country was a sea of war, in which Mantatees and Bergenaars, Barolongs and Bangwaketse, Bakwains and Matebele, were flung upon one another, until the storm spent itself, and but a remnant was left. Often did the Matebele themselves suffer terribly. Often did the stratagems of Scythians and Libyans in ancient days reappear in this modern warfare. The refugees decoyed their terrible enemies into the desert, and left them to die miserably of thirst. Driven to the northward by fear of Dingaan, in the Makololo and their brave chief, Sebituane, the Matebele found their match. But on the weaker tribes, to the banks of the Zambesi, they have waged incessant and successful war.

What a mighty need is there of the Gospel here! In no field of the Society's efforts is that need so strikingly manifest. The incessant wars, the shocking inhumanity, the indescribable vices, the universal degradation, all attest the depth of sin and misery in which millions of our race pass their lives. Acuteness, bravery, manliness are not wanting; right and wrong are not unacknowledged; the future world is not unknown. Even tenderness is not unfelt; the sorrows of children could touch Moselekatse's heart to its very core. But how appalling their ignorance, their misery, their SIN! Is it true that they are responsible—that "they are without excuse"? Is it true that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men"; that "neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God"; that "the fearful, the abominable, murderers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the second death"? How loud the call upon us to save them; to waken them from their sleep of evil, and proclaim with tenderness and power, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world"! For all this wrong and all this misery the Gospel is a perfect remedy, and we have only to apply it fully. To enlighten these degraded souls by knowledge; to humanize their hardness; to save women and children; to deliver all from sin; to bring them upward to the Father whom they have forgotten, by opening to them His divine compassion in the Lord Jesus; to make life worth living for, because it is the portal of a heavenly life for ever: this has been the purpose and this the work of our faithful brethren for fifty years. Other men have gone there with very different aims. When once the missionary had made it safe, the trader followed with his muskets and powder, his exciting firewater; with his brilliant beads, his gorgeous chintzes, his convenient cutlery; he followed with sugar, and coffee, and tea, which he was willing to exchange for karosses and deer-horns, and cattle; for teeth and tusks of ivory. Aids to civilization such things might prove; but standing alone how could they elevate, when powder fed the wars; when the drink prostrated chief and people; and even Englishmen encouraged the sale of slaves.

True civilization springs from pure religion. Where grace touches the heart of a man, it quickens all his powers.

Among a barbarous people the gospel effects changes in one generation which ages without its grace have failed to secure. "In coming back to the station on the Kuruman," says Livingstone, "from the tribes in the interior, I always felt that I had come back to civilization." It is the Gospel which has made the Kuruman; and what it is, other stations are already beginning to be. Apart from its christian church and christian community; apart from the many who have lived a holy life and died in the Lord; apart from the well studied translation of the Bible to which Mr. Moffat has given the strength of his life,—all over the northern territory the tribes which have heard the Gospel are waking up to new, strange thought; conscience is struggling upward into power; and life is taking for them a new form, and is exhibiting a higher purpose. Peace is desired more than ever; towns and settlements are becoming seats of constant industry; waggons are purchased by chiefs and people; cottages and gardens multiply. When Sechele and five thousand of his people hold a meeting to pray for rain, and gather again to offer thanks for the blessing bestowed, the influence of the rain-maker must be on the decline. And when the Matebele hope that the successor of Moselekatse, wandering in other districts, will have learned the religion of the gospel, and rule gently according to its precepts, surely the time for their deliverance is nigh at hand.

The M ADAGASCAR M ISSION is peculiarly dear to the friends of the London Missionary Society; and not to them only, but to all the supporters of Foreign Missions. It is the child of their affection; the object of their most tender compassion, their yearnings, and their prayers. Its long trial of suffering, the grace given to its scattered members, their patience, their fidelity, have drawn to its churches the love, the confidence, the reverence of all christian hearts. Its history is a very simple one. Founded in 1818, it was between 1820 and the death of Radama in 1828, that the Mission Schools, the printing press, and instruction in the industrial arts, laid deep the foundation of that education and enlightenment which have so greatly benefited the population at large. And it was during those brief years the seeds were sown of that true spiritual life and christian principle which produced a native christian church, and enabled it, nourished by Divine grace, to bear the bitter persecution of twenty-six years. No fiercer resolve to maintain an old national idolatry has been witnessed in modern days, than that from which this persecution sprang. It was steadfast, uncompromising, and unrelenting. Maintained throughout the lifetime of the persecutors, it was especially bitter and violent on three occasions. a . In July, 1837, when the profession of christianity was forbidden, when all christian worship was stopped, and all books were ordered to be given up, our first martyr, a true christian woman, R ASALAMA , was speared. R AFARALAHY followed her, a year after. In 1840 nine were speared; many hundreds were made slaves; two hundred at least became fugitives. In 1842 the persecution extended to V ONIZONGO , and, of five brethren who suffered, two were executed, and three were poisoned. By this time seventeen had lost their lives: and both christian and heathen had learned the great lesson, that a true faith in Christ enables its followers without fear to meet all penalties for conscience' sake, and even with gladness to lay down life itself. b . The second great trial, intended to be more severe, fell on the scattered church with the year 1849. Nineteen confessors were seized, but they answered their persecutors bravely, and looked on death without fear. Fourteen were thrown over the lofty precipice; the four nobles sang hymns amid the burning flames, while the bright rainbow arched the heavens and inspired them with more than mortal joy. Nineteen hundred of their faithful companions were fined; a hundred were flogged; many others were enslaved, and made "to serve with rigour" in public works, in felling timber and hewing stone. But still was it true of these "children of Israel," "the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and grew." c . The third persecution was more bitter and resolute still. In July, 1857, when mutiny and massacre were at their height in Upper India, fourteen were stoned to death at F IADANA , followed by seven others; and sixty-six were loaded with heavy chains. The church was still more scattered; but many of the leading brethren were securely hidden, and "had their lives given them as a prey."

In 1861 the church obtained its long-lost liberty, and was permitted again to profess its belief in open day. Rich in faith, steadfast in principle, it only needed a wider range of Scripture knowledge and some little guidance in its public affairs. Singularly free from the admixture of foreign elements in its constitution, it had pastors and teachers; the brethren were accustomed to edify one another, and were zealous for the spread of the truth among their fellow-countrymen.

The progress of the churches during the last eight years has been sound as well as rapid. Conviction has ripened where the good seed was sown; thousands have become members; many thousands more have joined our congregations; numerous churches have been organized both in the capital and in the country round. The members of the churches have been true missionaries where they have gone; and thus many, whom public duty or private interest had led far away from home, have been the means of planting churches in the district of Vonizongo, and even in the distant town of Fianarantsoa.

If the measure of our suffering be the measure of our greatness, we cannot wonder that this martyr church is strong in faith, giving glory to God. Hence all the quiet but solid strength of their present prosperity. Hence the great but not too rapid increase, in their numbers. Hence it is that, though persecution left them poor, they have built nearly a hundred village chapels; that their search into the Word of God is deep, continuous, and unwearied; that their congregations are crowded; that, at a missionary prayer meeting held early in the day, sixteen hundred persons gather together; and that, when a volunteer preacher finds it inconvenient every Sabbath to visit a distant village, his brethren invite him permanently to reside there, and offer to pay him a sufficient income till that village shall be christianized.

How shall we forget their grateful rejoicings when the first stone church in memory of their martyrs was set apart for worship! By the entire christian population, and even by many heathen, it was felt to be a truly festive day. From early dawn they began to gather around the edifice, eager to secure a place on an occasion so memorable. You see the little parties of christian villagers making their way across the western plain; coming in from the southward, where many churches lie; or from the north, where, in the sacred village of Ambohimanga, the man who should have been chief guardian of its heathenism, is now the teacher of its christian church. Streaming along the public roads of the city, the many processions, headed by their singers, mount to the noble platform of rock on which the Church of A MBATONAKANGA stands. The building will hold eleven hundred people, but over four thousand have gathered around it: the doors are opened at eight; sixteen hundred manage to squeeze in, and the remainder wait in patience for five hours more, to get their turn in the afternoon service. Attended by a procession, duly marshalled with music, high officers of the government bear from the Queen a condescending message of congratulation and encouragement. And then the native pastor opens the service. He is one of the earliest Christians in the island; a man of great ability, of noble, long-tried character. He was a convert in the old chapel that stood on that very ground. For years he was hunted for his life; but the Lord kept him. His noble wife, a true martyr, died in chains; but, hid in hollow walls, in holes of the rock, in solitary huts and cowhouses, he marvellously escaped. And when at last, like the rest of the "slain" church, after long silence, he walked once more through "the streets of the city," his "enemies beheld him" in wonder. There he stands in the face of day, honoured and known, the native pastor of that church, and the appointed tutor of the Queen's adopted children.

When the late Queen took her journey to the sea, large numbers of christians attended the camp on official duty, and, by faithfully observing the Sabbath and holding meetings for worship, afforded numerous opportunities to their heathen companions of hearing the gospel preached and of listening to christian prayers. The impression produced was deep and widespread. When the camp returned to the capital, hundreds of new faces were seen in the churches, and the congregations increased so greatly, that chapel building and enlargement were necessitated on a very extensive scale.

With the reign of her youngest sister, the new Queen, all hesitation on the part of the Government respecting christianity seemed to pass away. The leaders had doubted whether it did not necessarily involve the introduction of purely foreign elements into the general government of the island. But reassured by the steadfast loyalty of the Protestant missionaries, who have adhered strictly to their position as religious teachers, and whose prudent, sober conduct in difficult circumstances the Directors consider deserving of high praise, the nobles, believing that christianity had proved itself a great public blessing, began to accept it heartily for themselves.

Kind messages were sent from the Queen to the missionaries on her accession; with assurances of public protection for all their converts. The diviners and idol keepers, who had been so influential in the palace, were dismissed to country villages. Numerous members of noble families joined the several congregations in the city, and many of the highest rank were baptized. The congregations both in town and country grew larger and larger, and it was most difficult to find them room. Next a law was passed, putting a stop to all official work on the Sabbath-day: and was followed by another law, which directed that Sunday markets should be held on some other convenient day. After full consideration, the Council repealed the ancient law, which forbade the erection of stone buildings within the capital, and had sanctioned only palaces, houses and walls of wood. Such a step may appear to be a trifle. It may seem to be a matter merely of economy, safety, and convenience, whether a people shall build in wood or earth or stone. But the repeal meant more than this. It was a veritable Reform Bill: it swept away old traditions, conservative customs, and those rules and motives of the past which were the buttresses of idolatry, and which had hitherto hindered all public progress. It was a sign that this young nation had entered on a new career of life and thought and happiness.

On the day of the coronation three hundred thousand people gathered to meet their sovereign. Preceded by a hundred ladies, and by her Ministers and Council, the Queen was borne to the assembly in simple state. The old scarlet banners, which were the emblems of the idols' presence, were wanting in the procession. Around the canopy that shaded her throne, were written the words of the angels which welcomed the Redeemer into the world. In front and to her right stood the table which bore her crown. On another table to the left, was the Bible presented to her predecessor by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Her royal speech contained many elevated sentiments: but it specially announced to all her people liberty of conscience in regard to christianity of the fullest kind. "This is my word to you, O ye under heaven, in regard to the praying: it is not enforced: it is not hindered: for God made you."

For several weeks in a quiet way worship was maintained, and the Bible read in the palace on the Sabbath-day: the native ministers were invited to conduct the service. In the country districts gratifying advance has been made. Village chapels have increased in number. In the sacred city of Ambohimanga which foreigners may not enter, two churches have been gathered outside the walls: and on one occasion one of the missionary brethren addressed a vast congregation in the open market near. In Vonizongo the churches have increased. Far away to the south of the capital, the visits of our brethren to the B ETSILEO awoke new life among the converts; and, among the forests of Tanala, the noble princess Ittovana, one of the ablest among the able nobles of the island, has declared herself a Christian.

The most conspicuous manifestation of the sympathy of the Queen and her leading nobles with this advance of religious opinion appeared in November last, on the opening of the second of the Memorial Churches, the church at A MBOHIPOTSY . Thirty years ago, in March, 1836, on a Sunday morning, the little prison of the capital at Ambatonakanga was opened, and a young woman was led forth to be put to death. She was just thirty, fair to look upon, and of gentle manners; and her face was lit with that bright radiance which springs from the conviction that God and heaven are very near. She walked forth with firm step; she was surrounded by the guards; and though going to die, she began to sing in a joyous tone the hymns that she had loved. Followed by a crowd, of which some hooted and some were lost in wonder, she passed through the city, towards the dreary ditch at the south end of the long ridge on which the capital is built. The scene before her and on either side was one of unusual beauty. East, west, and south, the broad green plain of Imerina stretched to the distant horizon, presenting to the eye bright gleams of lakes and watercourses, of fertile fields and wooded hills; amongst which nestled the rich villages, and the flocks and herds were feeding in peace. She saw it not. She saw not the smiling land, the taunting crowd, the cruel executioner: she saw only the face of her Lord. Descending the hill, she knelt to pray; and so praying she was speared. No common honour descended upon her that day: she was the first martyr of Christ's church in the island of Madagascar. "Strange is it," said the executioner, "there is a charm about these people; they do not fear to die."

Thirty-two years have passed away. Again the crowds gather at the "White Village," and another woman comes down to pray, the object of attraction to all eyes. But this is the Q UEEN of Madagascar. On the white ridge which overhangs the ditch where R ASALAMA died, stands a handsome church, with its lofty spire, which has been erected to her memory, and will bear her name upon its walls. The church is crowded with christian worshippers, and vast numbers are compelled to remain outside. The Queen, not a persecutor, but a friend, comes to join her people in dedicating the church to Christian worship; and, in special sympathy with the occasion, offers her Bible for pulpit use. The Prime Minister, whose predecessor had assigned christians to death, now urges his countrymen, in stirring words, to believe in C HRIST , because He is the Saviour of the world. To all who are present, ruler and subjects, the occasion is one of unfeigned joy. Once more the Queen and her christian subjects met before the year closed. On Christmas Day the palace court was crowded by converts wishing to present their congratulations, and, at the Queen's request, they sang some of their hymns and offered prayer. The Report of the Mission speaks of 20,000 hearers added to the congregations during last year; and returns the converts at 37,000 persons, including 7,000 members.

Now we hear, on the very eve of this May anniversary, that the Q UEEN herself has been baptized. Humbly and simply, like one of her subjects, she has sought instruction from her Native Pastors; has told the story of the growth of her convictions; and has not been afraid to confess her faith.

All this the Directors of the Society have observed with deepest thankfulness; and they know that many have sympathized with this feeling, and have joined them in recognizing these wondrous answers to prayer. But they feel that heavy responsibilities still rest upon them as christian men; and that continued care and grace are needed from the Spirit of God to keep these young churches from surrounding perils. They have a very definite work before them, and definite principle to guide them in the doing of it. The third Memorial Church is being completed, and plans have been adopted for the fourth. They are strengthening the country mission among the Betsileo tribes; increased agencies are now at work in general education; and plans have been suggested for the training of a Native ministry. A reprint of the Malagasy Testament has been undertaken by the Bible Society; the general operations of the press are being enlarged; and they are anxious to strengthen the Medical Mission. The missionary brethren are watching with wise and jealous care over the purity, the discipline, and the spiritual independence of the Native churches; and a U NION of those churches for mutual aid has been inaugurated during the year.

With numerous Romanist priests and sisters in the capital, the Protestant ministers, English and Native, are firm in their adherence to the Bible alone as the appointed instructor and guide of their people. And it is because the preaching of vital truth has been so blessed, that the Directors are anxious to prevent the introduction of all minor controversies. Therefore they cannot but consider that, in the absence of any number of converts in the Episcopal missions, the appointment of a Bishop of the Church of England to Madagascar, promoted by one of those missions, is undesirable; that it is calculated to introduce confusion among young converts; to hinder their spiritual progress; and to do them vital and lasting injury. They have therefore very earnestly pressed upon the proposers of the scheme that it shall be reconsidered; and they trust that, as a result of friendly conference, it may be altogether laid aside.

In India two hundred millions of people are placed under the indirect jurisdiction or the direct rule of the Queen of England. The empire is divided into many great provinces, in which are spoken ten principal languages. All along the great rivers are scattered great cities, surrounded by hundreds of large towns, and thousands of populous villages. Many of them are centres of a trade growing greater every year, and many are also headquarters of Mohammedanism and of Hindoo idolatry. The endowments and vested interests of idolatry are of enormous value; the Brahmin families may be counted by millions; the Hindoo religious books were commenced 1200 years B.C., and the system itself goes back a thousand years farther still. Such a system is a formidable antagonist and the barriers it raises against change are very strong. Yet even Hindooism, so powerful, so rich, so ancient, is giving way at every point. In the external life of the Empire, a just government, providing for every one of its subjects complete security of person and property, and giving them perfect religious liberty, is adapting its public laws and forms of administration more fully to the circumstances of the time; and is introducing the natives more numerously to those posts of duty and of usefulness for which they become fitted. The order and peace of the country, encouraging production and trade, have raised the wages of labour, and given the peasant a command of comfort which he never knew before. Englishmen have done many wrong things in India, for which they have been justly chastised. But a new spirit has entered into the public government of the Empire, and during the last seven years, a degree of improvement and a solid advance have taken place, in the course of legislation and in the material wealth of the empire, of which none, except men who have seen it, have any idea. Three Universities, whose annual examinations in the English and native languages draw hundreds of native students, stand at the summit of a sound system of education which is spreading more widely every year.

In the direct religious teaching of the people, nearly six hundred missionaries from Europe and America, sustained by twenty-two Missionary Societies, have planted stations in the most populous and influential cities. Joined by two hundred ordained Native Ministers and two thousand Native Preachers, they carry on a system of christian agency which costs the important sum of £300,000 sterling a year. Many calumnies have been uttered respecting missionaries, and their work, by men who have professed to visit the cities where they labour, and saw nothing of its results. But these are more than answered by the striking fact that, of the money annually expended on these Missions no less than £50,000 are contributed by the English residents in India, who live among the missions and see them with their own eyes.

And what is the result? We can point to 50,000 adult communicants, to congregations of 250,000 people, and to our two hundred native clergy, as fruits of grace and proofs of blessing from above. But one of the greatest fruits of all missionary labour in India in the past and in the present is to be found in the mighty change already produced in the knowledge and convictions of the people at large. Everywhere the Hindoos are learning that an idol is nothing, and that bathing in the Ganges cannot cleanse away sin. Everywhere they are getting to know that to us there is one God, even the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all nations. A native scholar, speaking of his own religion, has said of it, "Hindooism is sick unto death: I am persuaded it must fall."

A crowd once asked a Berlin missionary, "Sir, why does not the Government abolish Juggernaut, and save us from the penalties of outcasts if we profess Christianity?" While the new school of educated men, calling themselves Theists, in myriads are seeking for a better way, without encountering the same great penalties. A glorious future is indicated by these "signs of the heaven," which seem to me to prove that in a great Empire in which public opinion is compact and firm, a vast change in preparation for the future may be produced while churches and converts are comparatively few. Like Israel of old in presence of Moab, in the darkness of night we have been digging ditches by Divine command; but when His day of grace shall dawn and the morning sacrifice be offered, He shall fill them in abundance with His Spirit's streams, and the whole Empire be revived.

Shall the children of the world, in these matters, be wise in their generation, and the children of light not go and do likewise? It is the universal conviction of residents in India that it is a wise course not to denationalize its inhabitants, but to keep them a distinct people; merely introducing into their dress and style of living those improvements which are demanded by health or by propriety. To make them Europeans is almost certain to do them irreparable injury. Adaptation is the law of life. Europeans, wherever they go, adapt their houses, their dress, their habits, and their food to the climate under which they live. However strong may be the belief of Englishmen in the excellence of our constitutional government, yet in all our colonies and dependencies the form adopted is one suitable to the knowledge, the power, the training, the degree of self-government attained by the people of that particular place. In no case do the English rulers force upon a dependency a system of government unsuitable to it, however excellent that system may in itself be.

So ought missionaries and Missionary Societies to act in building up native churches in foreign lands. Nowhere ought we to import and force upon them those systems of church government which amongst ourselves have been largely shaped out by political struggles, by numerous controversies, by local experience, and by the far reaching thoughts of a few great minds. In most cases we are ourselves outgrowing them. In striking instances these systems in Europe are found in certain of their elements to trammel and to cramp the life, the energy, the lofty aspirations of spiritual minds. And among the great problems now before us for the edification and extension of our modern churches, are not all thoughtful men anxious to see how in every case they may be made more elastic, more perfectly adapted in their organization, as well as in their plans of benevolence, to the demands of the present day; and specially how they may be so widened as to draw into the church in largest degree the piety, the experience, the zeal of the lay members of which our churches are chiefly composed?

Why should we put upon the neck of our young disciples a yoke which we and our fathers have not been able to bear? We must teach them some system, and missionaries of different churches will naturally, as well as from conscientious principles, teach their own. But let us teach the systems in their essential elements; let us teach those elements which have stood the test of time, and are found suitable to the spiritual power, the self-management, the general resources, the christian civilization of the churches which we are asked to guide. We may well separate the theory and the principles of our different churches from the churches themselves as shaped out by history and by the conditions and the course of our own national life. Then will their real worth and excellence be more truly manifested, to the honour of God and the edification of His children. Let us not only open our alabaster box, let us also be willing to break it, if only the perfume of the Divine ointment may fill the house of God, and cheer and refresh the weary souls within its walls.

The most prominent feature in the I NDIA Mission of this Society has been the ORDINATION of Evangelists to the work of the ministry; either as Pastors of Churches, as missionaries to the heathen, or assistants to the missionaries. English education continues to extend its influence. The I NSTITUTIONS in Calcutta, Madras, and Bangalore, are fuller than ever, and very efficient. The school fees in India during 1868 amounted to £940. The attitude of the educated classes towards christianity has wonderfully changed, and the impression it is making on them is very strong. In the same great cities Female education now occupies a larger place than ever in the labours of the Mission. In two of the missions of South India, seven among the well-trained evangelists of those missions have been ordained as pastors or missionaries during the past two years, and eleven others have been proposed for the same responsibilities. The number in Travancore still stands at eleven, and in North India at six. The total number of Native ordained pastors and missionaries in the Indian Missions of this Society is twenty-eight, of whom fifteen are pastors of churches, and thirteen are employed as missionaries. It will probably ere long amount to forty.

The T RAVANCORE Mission has now been established more than sixty years. The settled agencies, which have shaped it into its present form, have been at work just half a century. And none who contrast the present state of the province with what it was when the mission began, can fail to mark the wonderful progress which it has made during these sixty years, in every element of true prosperity. The province has enjoyed an increasing degree of security and order under its native rulers, and has made special advance under its present enlightened R AJA and his able minister Sir T. Madhava Rao. While slavery and serfdom have been abolished, the intensity of Brahminical bigotry has been diminished, and a very large measure of religious freedom has been secured for the varied classes of the population. Sound knowledge and freedom of thought on the most important subjects prevail to an extent utterly unknown at the commencement of the present century. At the same time, the direct work of the mission has met with the most encouraging success. In the seven districts of the mission, recently reduced to six, the great number of native churches, the large congregations, the number of scholars, the order and general purity of christian society, and the liberality with which the agencies of the gospel are supported, exhibit that success in a striking manner. The crowning proofs of blessing and prosperity are seen in the congregations prepared for complete self-support; in their great liberality; in the large band of well-educated Native preachers and teachers; in newly appointed elders; and in excellent and tried native pastors. In these latter points the Travancore mission has begun to take rank with some of the most advanced missions of all Societies, and to approach the position of rural churches in Great Britain itself.

In the Empire of China the London Missionary Society occupies seven principal stations and employs twenty-one English missionaries. By their efforts several churches have been founded, which have been blessed with true prosperity. No cases of earnest personal effort have been more striking in their character and results than those which have occurred among the prosperous churches of A MOY . Last year the Directors published, in the usual way, detailed information from the Rev. J OHN S TRONACH , of the opening of new stations at B O-PIEN and T IO-CHHU , and showed from Mr. Stronach's journal the hearty reception which he met with on his visit to these villages in the interior of the province. In the R EPORT of the Amoy mission further particulars were given, which indicated the progress of the movement, and the healthy manner in which it has been carried on. The Directors trust that from the outset these earnest Christians will understand that it is their privilege and their duty to sustain for themselves the ordinances of that faith which they have now received:—

The Report further observes with respect to the general character of the churches in Amoy:—

The city of H ANKOW , far up the river Yangtse, in the centre of C HINA , has often been spoken of in the Society's periodicals as one of the most wonderful mission stations in the world. The Society's work commenced in H ANKOW in 1861. It has steadily prospered from the first. But during the past two years the Church has received unusual blessings; has doubled its numbers, and has received several remarkable accessions from the heathen. The Rev. G. J OHN thus describes these results:—

The great value of Hankow as a mission station, and the variety of persons which it brings into contact with the Gospel, are strikingly illustrated by Mr. J OHN :—

From the ample information recently furnished by the missionaries to the Directors, we learn that these two colonies of the British Crown contain together a population of Negro extraction amounting to half a million individuals; viz.: B RITISH G UIANA , 100,000; J AMAICA , 400,000. Besides these there are Indian Coolies, 28,800 in number, of whom G UIANA has 25,000. That province also contains 7,000 Indians, while Jamaica has its thousands of heathen Maroons. The ruling population of whites is 13,816 in Jamaica, and 2,000 in Guiana, or about 16,000 in all. This native population of half a million, just equal in number to the population of the single city of Calcutta or Canton, spread over an occupied territory of twelve thousand square miles, and situated only four thousand miles from England, enjoys the services of three hundred professed ministers of the Gospel; of whom a hundred and forty are supplied by Missionary Societies not connected with the established churches and supported by voluntary funds. The bulk of the population is nominally Christian, and has been for some years as well instructed in Christianity as an equal number of persons in the country parts of England. And doubtless it has been thus christianized the more fully because of the large supply of religious teachers furnished by the different sections of the Church of Christ.

It is evident that the converts in Jamaica occupy a much higher position of physical and social comfort than those in G UIANA , and that the latter are not so well off as they were five-and-twenty years ago. While wages have fallen and prices have increased, it is evident that the moral influence of the 25,000 Coolies from India, with all their heathen vices, on the 100,000 Creoles has been exceedingly injurious. In neither colony has there been that thorough spiritual growth, that self-control, that self-reliance among the christian converts generally, which their best friends hoped for and thought they were able to find. This cannot be deemed unnatural, when it is considered that only thirty years have passed since the Act of Emancipation, and that ages of training will be needed before the moral taint of slavery is purified away.

The Directors therefore feel that it would be in every way a mistake to throw these young and imperfect churches at once upon their own resources. They have also not seriously entertained the suggestion made to commend them to the care of some other evangelical denomination seeking the same end as ourselves. Nevertheless the Board cannot think it right or wise to continue the present system unchanged. If unable completely to run alone, our churches are too large, the members too numerous, and their resources too great to justify any continuance of that complete dependence upon the Society which has prevailed with them hitherto. The Board desire to see the churches strong in themselves, managing completely their own affairs, providing the ministry by which they shall be instructed, and engaged heartily in missionary efforts for the conversion of their heathen neighbours. This is the end which, they trust, will henceforth be distinctly kept in view, and which should be sought by every means which practical experience finds suitable to promote it.

They have resolved, therefore, to adopt the following measures:—First, they limit the staff of English missionaries to the number of men (thirteen) now left in the field. They desire that steady efforts shall be made to place all the churches under the pastoral charge of suitable Native ministers. They desire that all the local and incidental expenses of the mission shall be entirely defrayed by the Native Churches. Lastly, they will limit their grants from England to the allowance of the English missionaries.

This statement shows that the greater ordinary income secured during the past year is needed every year, to maintain the Society at its present strength. Even with revised establishments working at a reduced cost, the Directors still require £75,000 a-year to meet the various items of general expenditure for which they have directly to provide. But that is precisely the amount which the revived interest and the earnest exertions of deputations and collectors have brought into their hands; and no margin is left at their command to cover any extraordinary expense which may arise. Nowhere, therefore, may our friends relax their efforts or diminish their recent gifts. Givers, collectors, ministers who plead, are still invited to uphold the hands of the Society, and to urge its claims. And if we look to extension, that extension which comes naturally to a prosperous field: still more to that extension for which the field untouched cries mightily day by day: how shall this enlargement of our operations be secured but by still augmented resources, by still higher consecration, still greater liberality, and more earnest prayer?

The S OCIETY DESERVES such help from our Churches; its history, its sphere of usefulness, the spirit in which it is managed, the rich prosperity which the Lord has granted to its labours, all appeal in its name. T HE FIELD DESERVES AND NEEDS IT . How little has been accomplished of the holy purpose which Missions have in view. Compared with the millions unevangelized, the converts gained are numerically nothing. Indeed, the sphere of our labour has continued ever to grow wider, and every answer of God's providence to the Church's gifts and prayers and self-denial has been to extend its power to be useful and give it much more to do.

And does not the L ORD CLAIM from us this larger service? He has shown the need of the heathen world more clearly, and made the argument for instructing it unanswerable.

We have prospects for the future to which the gains of the past are poor. With our skilled agencies, all shaped by experience, with plans well-tried, with our versions and our literatures in every tongue, with China opened widely in answer to prayer, with India deeply moved, with Africa free, with Polynesia raised and civilized, with Madagascar purified by fire—what tokens have we of manifest blessing, of approval, and of divine help! The old systems have fallen, or are paralysed, or are trembling with fear; and the young life of the world is drawing towards freedom and truth. Our results are incomplete; they are but an earnest of successes yet to be gathered; and the full reward will be reaped more truly as the years go by. But how noble that reward will be!

A pleasant custom prevails in India which will illustrate our position. At all the military stations of the Empire, the troops are summoned to parade in the early morning by the firing of a gun. The night may still be dark; the restless sleeper may fancy it will yet be long. But suddenly amid the stillness loud and clear booms out the morning gun. The stars are still shining, and the landscape is wrapped in gloom. But THE DAWN IS NEAR ; and soon every eye is open, every foot astir, and the busy, waking life of men again begins. The fleecy clouds that hang on the eastern horizon grow ruddy with gold; and the arrowy light shoots its bright rays athwart the clear blue sky. The dust and foulness which the night has hidden stand revealed. But in the forests and hills the pulses of nature beat fresh and full; the leopard and the tiger slink away; the gay flowers open; the birds flit to and fro, and with woodland music welcome the rising day. In the city all forms of life quicken into active exercise. The trader sits ready on his stall; the judge is on the bench; the physician allays pain; the mother tends her child. The claims of human duty come again into full force; benevolence is active; suffering and disappointment, forgotten in sleep, press with new weight on weary hearts. What a mighty change one hour has made!

Long has the night of heathenism and of wickedness ruled over the world. "Darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the people." But the gun has fired and " THE MORNING COMETH ." The nations once wrapped in gloom are waking to life and truth. Divine light is quickening all the pulses of human thought; the heart beats more warmly; the eye looks upward, and the great world is drawing nearer to its Father. The Gentiles are coming to the light, and kings to the brightness of His rising. And when at length the Sun of Righteousness shall rise in power, His new creation, "with verdure clad, with beauty, vigour, grace adorned," shall give Him loving welcome; and He shall shine, to set no more, on "the new heavens and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."

One valuable result has followed the recent revision of the Society's missions, which was scarcely expected when that revision began. The Directors already find themselves able to contemplate an extension of our missions into new localities long crying out for aid. They are moving in the following direction:—

For several years past the S OUTH S EA M ISSION has taken up but a small quantity of new ground. Small groups like the Ellice group, the Lagoon Islands, and the Tuamotus, with a few hundred people, have been instructed. But since Niue and the Loyalty group were evangelised, nearly twenty years ago, not a single large island has been occupied. Meanwhile the Theological Institutions have been training native students in considerable numbers, and many are now ready for evangelistic work. The Directors therefore are anxious to commence such work in new localities without delay; and they have arranged that, during her next year's voyage, the John Williams shall visit the large islands of the northern New Hebrides, together with the Kingsmill and other groups, in order to establish new missions among the thousands of heathen which they contain. The Directors hope that not less than thirty competent and devoted native evangelists will go forth on this expedition. In due time English missionaries will follow: and three of our valued brethren on the spot have already volunteered for the service. In Eastern Polynesia the brethren in Tahiti and the Leeward Islands will complete on system the efforts which they have recently commenced in the Tuamotu or Pearl Islands. For this desired extension funds have been already provided or offered by two of the Society's warm friends.

The Mission towards C ENTRAL A FRICA suggested by Mr. Moffat and Dr. Livingstone, was zealously commenced eleven years ago. Successfully established, notwithstanding many disasters, it has continued to hold its ground. When their revision commenced, the Directors proposed at once to strengthen this important mission. Several new stations have been named by the missionaries which the Directors hope in due time to occupy. During the last two years three new missionaries have been added to the former staff of labourers, and two others will join them next summer. The missionaries north of the Orange River will then be thirteen in number, of whom nine will be engaged in direct missionary work. This increase, required by our duty to the tribes waiting on our instructions, is entirely dependent upon the Society's general funds.

Many years ago the M ONGOLIAN M ISSION , which had been carried on by our honoured brethren, Messrs. Swan and Stallybrass, near the Siberian edge of the Tartar deserts and among the Buriat Mongols, was broken up by the Russian Government, and our brethren were withdrawn. The Directors have not forgotten that mission, nor lost their interest in the Mongol tribes. Recent enquiries have shown that the effort may be renewed with excellent prospects, on the China side of Mongolia, and that the city of Peking will form a suitable base of operations. Among their present missionary students the Directors believe that they have found a suitable man; and he will proceed in the spring to Peking to take up his new position. The funds necessary at the outset have already been provided in the generous gift of Mrs. Swan.

Generally in I NDIA and C HINA the Directors have been enlarging their operations by the completion and filling in of existing agencies. New chapels at Tientsin; a chapel and dwelling house in Wu-chang; two houses in Canton; a school and dwelling in Almorah; a house at the newly-founded station of Ranee Khet; a new High School in Benares; a medical missionary in Singrowli; an additional house in Calcutta; additional missionaries in South India and Travancore; all have been asked for: and the greatness of the requirements bears testimony to the importance of the sphere and of the opportunities which are open to the Society in these Eastern Empires. Several of the buildings have already been provided or have been sanctioned: others are under consideration. But any solid extension of these two great missions must for the present be deferred.

The needs of M ADAGASCAR cannot be overlooked. The call of God's providence and grace is so clear that the Directors have not hesitated to arrange for a decided increase of the English staff. Five ordained missionaries will proceed to the Island early in the coming summer; and one, if not two, medical missionaries. The Betsileo province has long waited for help, and it is proposed to place, if possible, four ordained missionaries and one medical man amongst its important and populous towns. The mere sending of these brethren will cost a sum of £1,500; their maintenance will require £2,000 a-year. The Directors however cannot hesitate to offer this aid to the churches and people among whom the Spirit of God is so powerfully at work: and they do it in the faith that the Lord to whose call they listen will prompt his people to provide the means by which the brethren shall be sustained. They have had great difficulty in finding suitable medical missionaries, and they ask their friends to make it a matter of earnest prayer that the Spirit of God will touch the hearts of the right men to offer their service to His cause.

The Directors adopt these moderate measures for the extension of the Society's usefulness in hope. From every quarter they continue to receive gratifying proofs of the increased interest taken in their work. The attendance at the autumn gatherings of country auxiliaries has been large, and the spirit that has been displayed was generous and earnest. At Birmingham and Bristol; at Hastings and Halifax; at York and Leeds this spirit was specially manifest: the Bristol meetings, always warm and earnest, were this year enthusiastic. And everywhere the missionary brethren testify to the kindly manner in which they are received and heard.

God is giving us the means of usefulness. He is also bringing a steady supply of suitable men. But the fields are "white unto the harvest," and we must pray the Lord of the harvest to send more labourers to reap in his name. To extend our work larger means are required; and the friends of the Society will see that all additions to the present income will be available for the extension so desirable. Never were the exhortation and prediction more applicable: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations; S PARE NOT , lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes." "And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, THAT THEY ARE THE SEED WHICH THE LORD HATH BLESSED ."

*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRUITS OF TOIL IN THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY ***

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will be renamed.

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away—you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.

START: FULL LICENSE

PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK

To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work (or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at www.gutenberg.org/license.

Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works

1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property (trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.

1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.

1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the United States and you are located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when you share it without charge with others.

1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any country other than the United States.

1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:

1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, copied or distributed:

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.

1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™.

1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project Gutenberg™ License.

1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website (www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.

1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.

1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works provided that:

• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.”
• You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ works.
• You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of receipt of the work.
• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.

1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.

1.F.

1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.

1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further opportunities to fix the problem.

1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.

1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any Defect you cause.

Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™

Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from people in all walks of life.

Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org.

Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation

The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws.

The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact

Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation

Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread public support and donations to carry out its mission of increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations ($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt status with the IRS.

The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate .

While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who approach us with offers to donate.

International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.

Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate.

Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works

Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.

Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.

Most people start at our website which has the main PG search facility: www.gutenberg.org .

This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.

MISSIONS.	English Missionaries.	Native Ordained Pastors.	Native Preachers.	Church Members.	Native Adherents.
1. CHINA 2. NORTH INDIA 3. SOUTH INDIA 4. TRAVANCORE 5. MADAGASCAR AND MAURITIUS 6. SOUTH AFRICA 7. WEST INDIES 8. POLYNESIA	21 18 22 8 12 1 33 13 28	4 6 11 11 20 . . . 1 2 26	40 20 65 190 532 . . . 30 14 249	1265 284 882 2228 7066 . . . 5866 4972 12,924	2367 1374 3408 32,362 37,112 . . . 31,197 14,240 69,738
TOTALS	156	81	1140	35,487	191,798

MISSIONS.	SCHOOLS.						LOCAL CONTRI- BUTIONS, &C.
	BOYS.			GIRLS.
	Schools.	Scholars.	Fees.	Schools.	Scholars.	Fees.
1. CHINA 2. NORTH INDIA 3. SOUTH INDIA 4. TRAVANCORE 5. MADAGASCAR AND MAURITIUS 6. SOUTH AFRICA 7. WEST INDIES 8. POLYNESIA	16 15 47 180 28 . . . 39 35 229	354 2076 2858 6646 1735 . . . 1332 2040 6715	£ s . d . 0 13 6 1036 3 1 706 2 10 . . . . . . Boys and Girls. 9 7 6 . . . . . . 32 10 11 317 0 10 . . . . . .	7 16 31 30 . . . . . . 25 35 212	103 375 1494 1595 . . . . . . 1473 1691 6695	£ s . d . 26 0 0 12 10 0 9 2 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 2 0 269 11 1 . . . . . .	£ s . d . 374 1 4 1435 14 9 1793 13 6 1220 0 0 479 17 7 . . . . . . 2125 3 10 4730 16 8 3687 14 7
TOTALS.	589	23,756	2101 18 8	356	13,426	336 5 9	15,847 2 3

On Probation.	1st Year.	2nd Year.	3rd Year.	4th Year.	5th Year.	Total.
6	13	10	3	6	4	42

Population	over 9000
Members of Protestant Churches	2800
Children in Protestant Schools	1260
Roman Catholic Congregation, Members and Scholars, Natives	700

1.—RECEIPTS.
1.	C ONTRIBUTIONS FOR G ENERAL P URPOSES —
	a . Subscriptions, Donations, and Collections	£56,685 2 11
	b . Dividends	584 4 9
	c . Australian Auxiliaries and Foreign Societies	3,191 6 10
	d . Legacies	10,875 13 7
	e . Fund for Widows and Orphans and Retired Missionaries	4,500 15 0
	f . Mission Stations, English and Native Contributions, raised and appropriated	19,414 16 4
	g . Ditto, additional from the South Seas, unappropriated	1,070 19 5
		———————	£96,322 18 10
2.	C ONTRIBUTIONS FOR S PECIAL O BJECTS —
	a . For the Extension of Missions in China	552 12 10
	b . For the Extension of Missions in India	371 5 4
	c . For Madagascar Mission	1,521 7 11
	d . For Memorial Churches	1,267 17 0
	e . For Training Native Agents, other than in India	1,000 0 0
	f . For Missionary Ship	253 19 0
	g . For Expenditure of 1867 and 1868	79 7 8
		———————	£5,046 9 9
			———————
	Total Income		£101,369 8 7
3.	Balance in hand, May, 1868	1,062 8 4
4.	Funded Property, Tasmania Bond, paid off	500 0 0
5.	Value of Stock transferred from Ship Account	2,432 0 0
6.	Rev. Dr. Tidman's Testimonial Fund	3,483 18 11
		———————	7,478 7 3
			———————
			£108,847 15 10
			============
2.—EXPENDITURE.
1.	F OREIGN E XPENDITURE .
	a . China Mission: allowances of the English Missionaries; Rents; Repairs; Sick Leave; Expenses of Itinerancies; Native Agency; Education, and the Press (as detailed in the last Annual Report)		£10,103 7 3
	b . India Missions: Bengal and North India; the Madras Presidency; and Travancore		35,386 13 11
	c . Madagascar Mission		6,686 4 4
	d . South Africa Mission		9,872 1 6
	e . West India Mission		9,225 10 9
	f . Mission in the South Seas		13,454 19 2
	g . Education of Missionary Students		2,109 10 4
	h . Retired Missionaries; Widows and Orphans		3,398 8 0
			———————
	T OTAL F OREIGN E XPENDITURE		90,236 15 3
2.	H OME E XPENDITURE .
	a . Expenses of Administration	£1,913 16 10
	b . Expenses in Raising Funds	3,477 12 4
	c . Periodical Literature	1,539 1 1
	d . General Home Expenses	794 19 8
		———————
	T OTAL H OME E XPENDITURE		7,725 9 11
			———————
	Total expended in 1868		£97,962 5 2
3.	Investments		9,017 0 0
3.	Balance in hand, May 1, 1869		1,868 10 8
			———————
			£108,847 15 10
			============

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Fruits of Toil in the London Missionary Society

FRUITS OF TOIL

IN THE

LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

FRUITS OF TOIL

IN THE

LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Fruits of Toil

IN THE

LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

I.—RECENT DIFFICULTIES.

II.—REVISION OF THE MISSIONS ABROAD.

III.—THE SOCIETY'S PRESENT OPERATIONS.

IV.—THE SOCIETY'S MISSIONARIES.

V.—MISSIONARY STUDENTS.

VI.—NATIVE PASTORS AND MISSIONARIES.

VII.—THE NATIVE CHURCHES.

VIII.—THE SOUTH SEA MISSION.

IX.—SOUTH AFRICA.

X.—MADAGASCAR.

XI.—MISSIONS IN INDIA.

XII.—CHINA.

XIII.—THE WEST INDIA MISSION.

XIV.—INCOME AND EXPENDITURE.

APPENDIX.

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE