and seriously interrupting the beneficent work carried on for many years with much success by Dr. Moffat and his colleagues.

The Directors, looking with deep concern at this unjust and ruinous outcome of disregard of native claims, recently addressed a fraternal letter on this subject to the ministers and members of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Transvaal, regarding them as Christian brethren, who would dissent from the unchristian views of the status and claims of the natives which prevail around them, and who would strongly object to the marauding acts of some of their fellowcountrymen. In this letter an appeal is made to them to use their influence to promote a more just and kindly feeling towards the natives, and thus, indirectly, to lead on to a practical recognition of their rights, and to create a public opinion which shall firmly discountenance and strongly oppose the procedure carried on close upon their borders, which is ruining native industry and arresting the healthful social and Christian progress of nearly three-quarters of a century. The letter referred to above is as follows:

:

Foreign Department.

"LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

"14, Blomfield Street, London Wall, E.C., "June 25, 1883.

"TO THE MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH IN THE TRANSVAAL, SOUTH AFRICA.

"CHRISTIAN BRETHREN,-The Society which we represent, and in whose name we address you-the London Missionary-has, from the beginning of its history, taken a deep interest in the native races of Southern Africa.

"Two years before the end of the last century your illustrious countryman, Dr. Van der Kemp, under the auspices of this Society, made willing sacrifice, in the spirit of his Divine Master, of all the blessings of civilised life, to carry the Gospel to the Hottentots. And from his time, until now, this Society has continued to send men whose one aim and ambition has been to bring their fellow-men, members of barbarous and degraded races, to the knowledge of the Great Redeemer of the World. In pursuing this course, we, of the London Missionary Society, have been only giving effect to the will of Him whom you and we alike call Lord and Master, and who charged His disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Our Lord's apostles understood this charge to include, not only the civilised nations which surrounded the shores of the Mediterranean, and which had for many ages rendered famous the

peoples which occupied the lands of the Euphrates and the Tigris, but all nations and peoples wherever found and in whatsoever condition. God, they believed, had made of one blood all nations that dwell on all the face of the earth. And the great apostle of the Gentiles glories in obliterating all national and social distinctions in view of our common humanity and of our common interest in the love of God to our fallen world, telling the Colossians, for example-who, though their home was in Asia, were not only possessed of the arts of Greek civilisation, but were versed in the philosophies of both the Eastern and the Western world-that in the Kingdom of God 'there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bondman nor freeman, but Christ is all in all.'

"This, we are aware, is but a commonplace of our Christianity, and we might also regard it as a commonplace that the nations of Europe, now foremost in the world, owe all that is best in them to Christianity, and have received the Christian faith and its many fruits, spiritual, moral, and social, not for their own sakes alone, but for the world's sake; in fact, that they may be the means of enlightening and regenerating the world, It is the law of the Divine Kingdom that no man liveth to himself; that he who receives any gift from God is bound by the very fact of his having received it to regard it as a talent to be used for the good of others. Two thousand years ago, your forefathers and ours, when their condition is first revealed to history by the Roman conqueror, were 'Barbarians,' not merely in the boastful classification of Greeks and Romans, but in fact. And the memory of this fact awakens our sympathy with those who are 'Barbarians' still, and at the same time inspires hope with reference to their future. If we are not 'Barbarians' now, we owe it to our Christianity; and if we are Christians we owe it those who are Barbarians to make it our supreme concern to raise them to that blessed fellowship in which Christ is all in all.

"This duty the nations of Europe have miserably and sinfully forgotten, ours as well as others. They have failed to realise their true character as stewards of the gifts which God has bestowed on them for the benefit of the less favoured, and have often used their power for most selfish ends, inflicting cruel wrongs on feeble tribes whose very feebleness should have commended them to their protection and care. So far are we from assuming that England is guiltless in this matter that we are free to confess that there are many pages in the history of our country which we would fain blot out. And we address you, dear Brethren, not as English, but as Christian. We wish to rid ourselves of everything like national pride, and to look at things, not in the light of national policy, either past or present, but in the light of Christian duty. And in this respect there is 'neither Dutch nor English ;' we are one in Christ.

"In the providence of God you occupy a position which we regard as one of extreme difficulty, and one which requires a large measure of Christian grace and virtue for the discharge of its duties. And our prayers shall not be

wanting that you may have wisdom and strength equal to your day. You, Christians and inheritors of European blood and civilisation, are few, and the uncivilised around you are many. The ignorant and barbarous are in your midst, or you in their midst, and are ever before your eyes: thus mutely appealing to you for compassion and for aid to lift them out of their low estate; but we are conscious that the very fact of their perpetual presence may, through the infirmity of our nature, produce a repulsive and hostile effect. This is a drawback to which English Christians were not subject when they had to fight the battle of the Negro slaves in the West Indies. In adopting as their motto, 'Am I not a man and a brother?' they were not exposed to the danger of having their affections cooled or perverted by constantly seeing what was low and offensive in those for whose rights they contended. But if your circumstances, dear Brethren, involve a difficulty of which we have not had practical experience, the triumph of your Christian faith will be all the greater if you are enabled to act habitually towards the native Africans around you on those principles which, we are assured, your Christian convictions and instincts dictate.

"Assured of your concurrence in these sentiments, we anticipate with confidence your concurrence likewise in our earnest hope that your influence, as a Christian Church, will be zealously exercised in favour of the native races within and around the borders of the Transvaal, for their protection from social wrong, and for the protection of those Missions by which this and other Societies are labouring to bring them to a knowledge of Christ. You will not be surprised that we feel deeply interested in the welfare and safety of the Bechwana people, who have been the objects of so much successful missionary labour. And you will accept it as a proof of our respect for you, and our love to you, that we solicit your aid on their behalf, and pray that whatever good offices may be in your power may be put forth zealously to secure that Christian work among them may not be hindered by lawless men.

"We are the more emboldened to address to you this our appeal on behalf of the objects of our solicitude by the memory of the relations in which Holland and England stood to each other in former days. These relations were not, indeed, always of a friendly character. There have been wars between England and Holland in which sometimes the one and sometimes the other has been the victor. But we prefer to recall relations between the two countries on which both may reflect with satisfaction. We cannot forget that, when England seemed on the eve of losing its hard-won liberties through the despotic aims of our James II. and his devotion to the See of Rome, your great countryman, the Prince of Orange, came to our rescue and became our William III. From his days our liberties have widened and been confirmed into the constitutional freedom in which we now rejoice. In earlier days, the days of the father and brother of James II., our Charles I. and Charles II., your fatherland was an asylum in which our persecuted forefathers found protection and rest.

And there are few pages of English Church history since the days of the Reformation which we read with greater satisfaction than those which tell us of the kindliness with which some of our greatest Englishmen, driven from home by persecution for conscience' sake, were welcomed at Utrecht, Rotterdam, Leyden, and other parts. It was from Delft Haven that those English exiles known to us as the Pilgrim Fathers sailed for that far-distant Western shore where they laid the foundations of the now great Republic of the United States. Before these times your country was the scene of perhaps the fiercest war that has ever been waged to crush freedom of conscience. And the story of the great conflict between the Spanish Duke Alva and your noble native Prince, William of Orange, is read in England with as deep an interest as it can be in Holland, or among the descendants of the Dutch in other parts of the world. May we not, then, plead our historic as well as our Christian relations when we take the liberty, as we do now, to solicit your active and powerful co-operation in promoting the welfare of races which have not enjoyed such privileges as have descended from your ancestors and ours?

"You will not fail to observe that we write to you as Christians to Christians. Our appeal to you is in no sense based on, or has reference to, international treaties; it is absolutely independent of all political relations between England and the Transvaal. You and we owe a common allegiance to Christ, and a common obligation to make known His Gospel 'to every creature.' And so far as we fail in this we fail in accomplishing the very end for which we have been called into the Kingdom of God. Moreover, you and we are descended from men whose faith enabled them to submit to imprisonment, exile, and even death rather than be untrue to their Divine Lord. And if we would be worthy of our ancestors we must use our freedom, and our power of free action, to speed the time when all nations shall be blessed in Christ, and shall call Him Blessed.

"With assurances of our Christian respect and affection, we are, dear Brethren, yours in the faith of the Gospel, and in the name of the Directors of the London Missionary Society,

"ALEX. HUBBARD, Chairman of the Board.

W. SPENSLEY, Deputy Chairman.

S. R. Scort, Chairman Eastern Committee.

A. MARSHALL, do. Southern do.

W. BLOMFIELD, do. Western do.

G. F. WHITE, do. Funds and Agency do.

HENRY WRIGHT, do. Finance do.

JOHN KENNEDY, do. Examination do.

JOHN K. WELCH, Treasurer.

ROBT. ROBINSON, Home Secretary.

EDWD. H. JONES, Deputation Secretary.

J. O. WHITEHOUSE, Acting Foreign Secretary
(in the absence of the Rev. R. W. THOMPSON,

Foreign Secretary).”

VII-Widows and Orphans' Fund.

NEW YEAR'S SACRAMENTAL OFFERING.

T

THE Directors, encouraged by the considerate kindness and liberality of the churches for many years past, again venture to ask attention to their appeal on behalf of a Fund, on the gathering of which the comfort of so many widows, orphans, and superannuated missionaries largely depends.

This Fund has long been provided by means of a special offering from the churches throughout the country at the first Communion service of each year. When it originated, £1,400 sufficed to meet all claims; but so largely have these grown, that, last year, no less than £5,443 was expended; and, during the year on which we are entering, at least an equal amount will be required to carry out the object for which the collection is made. Though called the WIDOWS AND ORPHANS' Fund, it should be distinctly understood that it seeks the comfort, not only of the families of DECEASED MISSIONARIES, but also of RETIRED MISSIONARIES themselves. During the year the Fund will have to provide for THIRTY-TWO WIDOWS of missionaries; for FortySEVEN CHILDREN; and for TWENTY-TWO MISSIONARIES, who, by length of service or through broken health, have been compelled to retire from their accustomed work. Several of these esteemed friends commenced their service in the Society half a century ago.

While paying due regard to every case that may be brought before them, the Directors are anxious to administer the fund placed at their disposal wisely and with care. The obligation which it acknowledges is of a distinct kind; and the Directors feel sure that the friends of the Society prefer that it shall continue to be met in this distinct way. The Directors earnestly appeal to the liberality of the churches to enable them completely to meet the pressing claims of those on whose behalf the offering is sought. They trust that, at the first Communion Service of the New Year, these widows and fatherless ones will be remembered with loving sympathy, and the wants of those who have served Christ's Church in bygone years will be fully and fitly provided for.

Should it be found impracticable to make the Sacramental offerings now solicited on the first Sabbath of the New Year, will our Christian friends kindly set apart the first Sabbath in FEBRUARY for the collection?

MISSION HOUSE, November 29th, 1883.