it was to be opened this day, and a collection made towards meeting the incidental expenses of putting it up. These two things being thrown together made a confusion. I found that the candidates for Confirmation had all been warned to attend in the morning, and that the collection was to be made after the morning service-or rather after the Confirmation only. The church was crowded in the morning, a number of persons having come in from other parishes. The afternoon attendance was thin; about two hundred poor black and coloured people in the galleries, but I think not more than five pews occupied in the body of the church. The drive, as I have said before, is a pretty one, and the evening was very pleasant.

The following Sunday, I held a Confirmation at All Saints, situated nearly nine miles from Clare Hall. The church was crowded, and fifty-two candidates were presented for confirmation. Service was over about half-past one.

Sunday, October 10th, was a day of much enjoyment. I had a Confirmation at St. James', a little more than four miles from here; and it was agreed that we should go over after breakfast, taking the children with us; that I should preach in the morning, we should all have a cold dinner in the middle of the day, and that the Confirmation should take place at the evening service, which, as usual, began at four o'clock. The church in the morning was full. There were some heavy showers during the day-indeed, we have had 'fine rains' during the week, even up at high windward;' but it was only necessary to get out the pony-chaise for the ladies and children, to go to church in the afternoon, that they might not get wet feet-a much more serious thing sometimes here than in England. Mr. Greenidge and I walked, though it was a little dirty. But the church was crammed-a few white faces up in the chancel, the rest a perfect mass of black faces. The service went off very happily for me. Nothing could be more attentive than the people were; and the demeanour of the candidates was very devout. It is not a large district, but there were thirty-eight or thirty-nine candidates presented. Forty were prepared, but the rain probably kept one or two away. After service, we went back to the Parsonage; and I wished for some of my many friends behind to witness the scene. There was

the congregation clustered under the trees which surround the church, just as an English congregation would do to see their Bishop depart. But the scene was so different from an English one: the trees, Indian fig, sand-box, palms, &c.; the path bordered, after getting out of the churchyard, with some chumps of bamboo; and the flowers, though rather washed away by the rain, of tropical scarlet and gold. And then the people-the newly confirmed, the women and girls all in white, with white turbans or veils on their heads, but much more dressed than English country-folk, all in white muslin, many of them worked and fashionably made, with the black or brown face looking out between the collar and the head-dress (there was not one white countenance among the females, and only one Portuguese among the males-brown enough himself, poor fellow !);

the men in white jackets and trousers—or, if in black coats, in white neckcloths, as a matter of course; and the rest in their ordinary Sunday dress-men in coats of rather bright colours, or else black, and women in the tasteful scarlet and yellow turban, in which they look so well-just a few smart hats and oyster-shell bonnets, to look absurd; and some old women had a broad-brimmed straw or grass hat upon the turban! And then their exclamations: How d'ye, my massa?'' Hope di missis and di children well.'-'Eh! dear long time since we seen di same in di church.' (The last time or two, the St. James' candidates have gone up to the Cathedral.) There is the sketch for you, to fill in for yourselves. The thermometer was about ninety, and a crowd to increase the temperature in the building, and alas! the sashes of the east window closed (this is the only glazed window) during part of the service, because a tropical shower (you would have called it a pouring rain) came on, and also unfortunately in. It must not be supposed that the church is a shabby one because there is so little glass. Public and private buildings alike may be very well, neatly, and even elegantly constructed, and have nothing to the windows but jalousies and shutters. In churches, it is not uncommon to have the east window only glazed, as in St. James'. Half an hour more, and it was dark, and we on our road homewards, with a splendid view of the comet, and a constant play of lightning in the south-west. You can hardly have seen it so finely in your 'misty northern clime.'

Monday, October 25th, was fixed for the Confirmation at St. Paul's Church, Falmouth (English Harbour is the next bay, and in the parish). The morning was lovely, but rather warm; but the air was so pure and transparent, that the heat was not oppressive, and the views magnificent. As we came over Horseman's Hill, from which we look right over Falmouth Harbour, Guadaloupe was as distinctly visible as I have seen Nevis from Clare Hall; and Montserrat literally looked as if it were not three miles from the harbour's mouth. We found the church very full. After the Litany, proceeded to the Confirmation service. Mr. Bindon read the exhortation, Mr. Culpeper bringing up and presenting the candidates. I think only one was pure white; there were forty-four in all, and six or seven of these were elderly people. All were extremely attentive, and apparently impressed with what was said to them. It was nearly six, and just dark when we returned home (alas, for twilight!); the comet still visible, but very faint; the tail is, in a great part, not to be distinguished from the Milky Way.

November 1st.-Confirmation at St. Philip's. Litany and Communion service for All Saints' Day. I made my address to the candidates turn on the subject of the day as far as I could; they were very attentive, and there was a good congregation. The singing was nice, although, as usual, they all sing in unison, part-singing being as yet unknown to our negro choirs. There was not a single white person confirmed. The church, as I before mentioned, is a very pretty building, with more of real Gothic architecture about its windows,

especially in the great chancel window, than in any other church in Antigua. The mullions and tracery are in iron, and so have stood earthquakes and hurricanes. The situation is lovely, and with black and coloured population before me, the cocoa-nut and other tropical trees shining (I use the word advisedly, for they really did glitter) in the sun, and the blue Atlantic visible if I glanced out through the chancel window, it was as un-English a scene as can well be conceived. Twenty-five were confirmed, very few of them young."

OPENINGS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS.

(From New York Church Journal.)

THE past year has been distinguished beyond any other in modern history, for the vast fields thrown open to the heralds of the Cross. First of all, India ought to be mentioned, where, though much of angry feeling must needs remain after the bloody scenes which have marked the suppression of that extraordinary rebellion, yet every one feels that the result established upon the minds of the natives everywhere in that country, is, the final conviction of the irresistible power of Christendom. Revolt will hereafter be hopeless. The policy of the government, too, is changed. There will no longer be any discrimination against Christianity. A native pagan who has been in the service of the government will not be cashiered as soon as he has been baptized. England has been roused to an appreciation of her duties to the 160 millions of her Mohammedan and pagan subjects, such as she never felt before; and the efforts of the friends of Missions are redoubled in every direction.

China has been opened, through all its length and breadth, to Christian missionaries. Already have extensive preparations been made to take advantage of this-the first breaking down of the policy which has been dominant over the Celestial Empire for centuries. To our American minister, Mr. Reed, who is a churchman, the chief credit is universally given, for the liberty thus conceded, all over that empire of 360 millions, to missionaries; and we ought therefore to be first in the field, instead of last. The Russo-Greek Church led the way, having months ago sent a numerous mission, under the Archimandrite Goori, to establish itself at Pekin. The Romanists have also lost no time, bishops, priests, monks, and nuns being all organized for the work, and some of them on the way already. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel has appointed a new station at HangChow, to which four men will soon be sent and others are in contemplation. Our own two zealous missionaries, Messrs. Williams and Liggins, have established themselves at Dzang-Zok during the past year the first time such a thing has been attempted in the interior : and we cannot but regret, that just as they are familiar with the new ground, and their new work, the Foreign Committee should have

decided to select them for the pioneers of the mission in Japan, especially since the peculiar experience gained in the one field is of little or no use in the other. But as it was of old, so it is now: the harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. It would be a shame that the force in China should be diminished, at the very moment when an increase is most loudly demanded. Who will go?

Immediately after the opening of China, another long-closed empire unlocks its bars and lifts up its gates. Japan-once more owing to the skill of an American diplomat, also a churchman-gives up the ceremony of trampling on the Cross (adopted on crushing out the popery which could not help meddling with politics); and, with a friendliness wonderful considering the past history of that strange realm, admits freely the missionaries of Christianity. England is already moving to enter upon the field. Our Foreign Committee, with noble promptness, have at once organized a mission, and Messrs. Williams and Liggins will soon, we trust, be on the way.

Africa, too, will find this a year for rejoicing. Dr. Livingstone's return acquainted England, for the first time, with those vast regions of the interior through which he had passed and already a new mission has been organized in the two Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, for carrying to that land of darkness the light of the everlasting Gospel. The Church is pushing, also, with remarkable energy and zeal, in South Africa, as well as on the Western coast: and there is good hope that Madagascar-larger than the British Isles-will soon welcome, under a baptized king, the full triumph of Christianity. We might enumerate other fields,-Borneo, New Zealand, Melanesia, Australia,-where the work begun before is still prosperously carried on. But we turn rather to an organization which proves that the missionary spirit is penetrating to such a depth in the heart of the Church, that it must soon bring forth fruits richer and more abundant than ever. Our readers all know what St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, is the exquisitely beautiful ruin of a grand old abbey, desecrated ever since the time of King Henry VIII. until a few years ago, when it was purchased by that noble-hearted layman, Mr. Beresford Hope, and given back to the Church for a Missionary College, repaired, completed, and greatly enlarged, at a vast expense. Missionaries here trained for their various fields of labour, have yearly left the beautiful gates of St. Augustine's, to go to the ends of the earth. A union of heart and soul and prayer, especially for the furtherance of their great work, is a natural bond of men thus trained together, and thus labouring far asunder. "The Missionary Union of St. Augustine" has therefore been formed: but, as there was no reason why such a noble association should be limited to those who have been trained within its walls, the rules, as drawn up by the warden of the college, provide a simple means for the indefinite enlargement of its numbers. There is only a small payment required, and all the publications of the Missionary Union are sent in return, for use and circulation. Each member, according to opportunity, shall search out promising candidates for missionary work, and further

NO. CXLIII.

them in their preparation; and shall also endeavour to obtain additional members of the Union. There is no distinction of parties, and no preference given to any particular Society engaged in Church Missions. But the union in daily devotion, and in an annual communion, is the highest proof that the blessing is sought from the right. source. Besides promoting the cause by conversation and exertions in collecting funds, each member is pledged "to offer up prayer for missions daily ;" and all the members are to "receive the Holy Communion" on some day in the year (Whitsunday is proposed) "with special prayer for the Divine blessing, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Missions of the Church."

Why may not a Missionary Union of this sort be started also on our side of the water,-perhaps affiliated with this of St. Augustine's in England? It makes no distinction of party or section within the Church and the union of "all churchmen everywhere," at "one time," in heart and soul, in working and praying for the progress of the glorious Gospel,-would surely bring down a blessing such as we have never known hitherto.

Reviews and Notices.

The New Testament of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, in the Original Greek with Notes. By CHR. WORDSWORTH, D. D., Canon of Westminster. Part III.-St. Paul's Epistles. London: Rivingtons, 1859.

In this work the Epistles of St. Paul are arranged in their chronological order. A review of the book would be out of place here—all we need do is to announce its publication-but the following observations, from the Introduction to the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, are very suitable to a Missionary Journal:

"The success which attended St. Paul's apostolic labours in Thessalonica is very remarkable.

It would seem from the Acts of the Apostles (xvii. 1—9), that he had spent only a few weeks at Thessalonica; and while he was there, as he himself relates, he laboured night and day, working with his own hands.' He was also the first person who preached the Gospel there.

By what means were these works produced?

(Our limits compel us to omit some paragraphs.)

But these auxiliaries would have produced very little permanent result, unless a settled provision had been made, by the Holy Spirit animating and directing the Apostle, for the subsequent regular and continuous watering of the seed of the Word which had been sown there by his ministry when he was in that city.

One of the most interesting and instructive characteristics of this Epistle-the first written by St. Paul-is therefore to be found in evidence it affords of the provision made by him for this purpose. This evidence is more valuable because it is so unobtrusive that it would hardly attract the attention of cursory readers.

For example, we do not find in the Epistle any direct commands given to the Thessalonians to constitute a Church; but they are addressed as already incorpo