You speak of the fact that few missionaries pass through the long period of waiting without experiencing some hours, or days, of home-sickness, and possibly feeling regret that they are on foreign soil. So far I have had no such experience. I feel that the Lord has led us hitherto, and we can trust him still, wherever he bids us tarry. We will put forth every effort to bring the Caroline Group to Christ. This is our life's work, and our earnest desire is that we may be continued in it as long as our lives are spared. We pray that these lives may be spared until we see a teacher on every island of the Caroline Group. Mr. F. E. Rand, Ponape,

Micronesia.

- We plod on at a slow pace on our

- Visiting Hikone two months since, I took passage from Otsu in one of the little steamers, built, owned, and run entirely by Japanese, which ply between Otsu and the upper part of Lake Biwa. A storm arose, and in a little while the waves ran higher than the steamer, now and then breaking entirely over it, while the little cockle-shell rolled so as to dip water on each side. The Japanese passengers were, many of them, on their knees crying, "Namu Amida Butsu!" "Namu Amida Butsu!" "Save, Eternal Buddha!" "Save, Eternal Buddha!" As for myself, I stood on the deck

go by steam, while the spiritual chariot drags slowly on. There is a great advance in mental power and in material industries in this land. I once thought

that I should never live to see all our natives shod with leather shoes; but many of the men wear $14 to $17 boots, with other articles corresponding, and all are comfortably shod and clothed in foreign fabrics. — Rev. Titus Coan, Hilo, Hawaii.

One week ago last Sabbath, the prairie about us took fire, and as the wind was very high, we feared that the mission house and chapel could not be saved. The Indians worked well. Almost all the men, and a number of the women, worked as hard as they could to extinguish the flames. If white people could have seen the anxiety of these Dakotas for our welfare, they would find

on a lake that much resembles Biwa, said, " "Peace! be still!" After about two miles of this kind of sailing, we wide enough for the steamer to enter. ran into a little rock-locked lagoon just - Rev. J. D. Davis, Kioto, Japan.

Last Sabbath

the

new Kobe church, which will accommodate some 450, was so full that it was not easy to find an empty seat, and this, though the day was stormy and there was no special attraction, a native assistant preaching. This evening there is to be a wedding at Mr. Gulick's. The mother of the girl, who has the most to say about such matters here, has not seen the young man, but she has a neighbor who knows him, and says he is a Christian. The mother says, "If he is a Christian that is enough."-De Witt C. Jenks, Japan.

THE FRENCH MISSION IN CENTRAL AFRICA.

ALLUSION was made in the last number of the Herald to the remarkable incident concerning the finding by Mr.

Coillard of a section of the Basuto tribe on the Zambesi, eight or nine hundred miles north of the French Basuto mission which Mr. Coillard has been conducting in South Africa. The fact that the Makololo, on the Zambesi, are of

the same family as the Basutos, was discovered by Livingston (see Travels, p. 215, 1857), who was the first European visiting that section of Africa. Livingstone made a second exploration of that region, described in his volume, The Expedition to the Zambesi. And now Mr. Coillard and his party, consisting of his wife, niece, and native help ers, have reached the town of Sesheke, near the junction of the Chobe and Zambesi rivers, and letters from them are published in the journals of the French Missionary Society, some of them dated as late as November 9, 1878. We translate, chiefly from Le Petit Messager, a condensed account of the movements of the party while they were awaiting an answer to their request for permission to visit the country of the Barotse :

"On the 1st of August the party finally saw the majestic course of the Zambesi, with its islets covered by forests, above which towered here and there the baobabs and palms. For six days they followed the course of the river, finding at each turn a new picture more beautiful than the last. The cataract of this mighty river [named 'Victoria Falls,' by Livingstone], is shut in by lofty walls of rock, and here the Zambesi, generally calm and tranquil, rushes on, striking upon enormous rocks, roaring, eddying, and sending into the air clouds of vapor, which have given it the name among the natives, of 'The Sounding Smoke.' From this chasm, where the eye can scarcely see the green waves, the river escapes by a narrow and very deep fissure. The poor natives believe that this chasm is inhabited by an evil spirit. In order to conciliate his favor they make offerings to him of necklaces, pearls, or bracelets, which they throw into the abyss while they sing doleful songs expressive of their terror.

"The report that the expected missionaries had arrived was soon spread through the country. Canoes put out upon the river, and our travelers at once found themselves surrounded by troops of natives, who came to bring them the salutations of the chiefs and to give them presents of welcome. They invited Mr.

and Mrs. Coillard to come and see them upon their island. They were received with great demonstrations of joy and clapping of hands, accompanied by the salutation of the country. Mr. Coillard was able to speak to them of the love of God, and was well understood. The people heard with gladness. They led them from village to village, and all wished to hear them. If they were silent awhile, some one would say: "Will you not sing to us of Jesus?' Finally they left the island, escorted by a small flotilla of canoes, and carrying away all sorts of little presents. Mr. Coillard then went to Sesheke.

"Strangers are not allowed to traverse the Zambesi without a special permit; but such is the influence which Livingstone has left wherever he has passed, that the simple name of missionary is a passport and recommendation. Mr. C. was heartly welcomed by Morantsiane, the chief of Sesheke.

"The Barotse much resemble the Bassutos. They speak the same language, have the same dress, and the same customs. Mr. Coillard used his short stay in Sesheke to preach the gospel. The men came in great numbers to hear him, the women keeping at a distance and hiding in the neighboring yards. Everything that the missionary said of God greatly surprised them, and prayer was a sad mystery. Yuale goa shuoa,' they said, (Now some one is going to die.') Mr. Coillard, finding that the Sessouto songs, even the simplest, were above these poor people, composed two or three yet simpler. The native songs are made up of meaningless syllables, and it was difficult to teach the people words. After several weeks, Mr. Coillard, having received no response from the chief of the Barotses, returned to Leshoma. Here two of his native helpers, who seem to have been faithful and devout men, died. One of them, Eleazer, when asked, as he was dying, whether he regretted having come on this journey, replied: 'I have offered my life to the Lord. It is for him to say where my grave shall be: to me it makes no difference; heaven is as near Zambesi as Sessouto.""

"Gladly will I; listen: - ... "Three hundred kathams beyond the country where the English live is America. The people in that country once lived in England. They, too, worship the same God and follow the same good example of the Saviour which the English do. It is from that country the missionaries come, who are at work in this district, in hospitals, orphanages, schools, etc., in Madura, Dindigul, Pulney, Periakulam, Battalagundu, Pasumalai, Tirumangalam, Melur, Tirupuvanam, and Mandapasalai, and who come to your villages. The very same good Christian people who sent the missionaries to do your souls good, showing you the worthlessness of idols and the true way to heaven, as soon as they heard of our distress collected thousands of rupees, which they sent to missionaries to expend in buying clothes and food for us.

"Thus you see, O friends, who have been our benefactors. They have not looked upon our faces. They have not seen our distress. They are not of our race. They do not worship our gods, or attend festivals like ours. Why did they pity us? Why did they pour out their charity upon us, strangers? It was because their Bible bid them have such a mind, because their God and Saviour taught them to do so by his example when he was incarnate.

"Moreover, their Christianity stimulated them to do other good things for

us. It is this, their religion, which causes the missionaries to come here and teach our children in schools, heal us when we are sick, and teach us the same holy way. They did not give this great charity in the famine to bribe you to become Christians. They did not ask what your religion was before giving it. They did not require you to become Christians in order to obtain it. They distributed it through Christians and heathen. They desired to do us good and to remove our hunger.

"As the fruit so is the tree. Behold some of the fruit of their holy religion, and judge you of the tree. If this religion has been so good for them, changing their cruel disposition and making them powerful and prosperous, generous and pitiful, will it not be good for us also?

"Listen. At this time many of the Hindoos living in Tinnevelly, near to the Christians, have waked up to consider all that this religion has done now for the people in the famine, and in years past, for villagers who have become Christians, and they say, 'It is better that we, too, become Christians, our children should learn, our wives should improve.' More than 20,000 people of all castes, in more than 200 villages, have within a few months thus broken their idols, and begun to worship their Creator and Saviour, Christ Jesus; and in Arcot and Canara many more have done likewise.

"Note well, O friends, this statement which I have now made to you. Consider among yourselves whether the religion which has done these things is a good religion or not. Judge for yourselves whether you should not embrace it, that your children and you may enjoy its benefits also."

subdued BY THE GOSPEL.

IN the mountains to the north of Tarsus, in ancient Cilicia, lives an old man, who in past years was about equally

noted for his great bodily strength and for the fierceness of his untamed and untamable passions. He was the terror of all about him, and a curse to the whole region. His poor wife was blind. But this, instead of moving the pity of the husband, seemed only to exasperate him and make his treatment of her more cruel. One day this wild man of the mountain overheard some one reading the Bible. The Lord's prayer in the garden, especially the words: "Not my will but thine be done," lodged in his mind. He could not forget them, and was led to seek further acquaintance with the teaching of the gospel. In the end he was converted, and became a thoroughly changed man, a blessing where he had been a curse. With his new life has come many trials, - reproach, poverty, and sickness; but he bears all with the utmost meekness, and so faithful have been his labors for others that forty persons already ascribe their conversion to his efforts in their behalf.

THE BIBLE AND THE HUMAN HEART.

DOES this "old Bible," given so many centuries ago among the Jews, describe the human heart of to-day, and the condition of man in different lands, or is it antiquated and defective in this respect?

On a certain occasion, some fourteen years ago, I went into a native city in India, where the name of Jesus had never been heard, there, for the first time, to show them and give them these Scriptures, and to preach to them of Christ and his salvation. As an introduction, when we had assembled an audience in the street, I asked my native assistant to read the first chapter of Romans

the chapter a part of which has been read in your hearing to-night; that chapter which those who call themselves liberal-minded tell us is too black to be true; that chapter that describes the heart of man wandering away from God and into sin, and conceiving vile conceptions of God, and then wandering away farther, until at last, “though they know the judgments of God, that they which

do such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them;" the chapter which many tell us is a libel upon human nature. That chapter was read. The most intelligent man in the audience, a Brahmin, stepped forward and said to me, "Sir, that chapter must have been written for us Hindus. It describes us exactly." The photograph was recognized. It had been taken centuries before, and among a Jewish people; but the artist was divine, and the heart that was photographed was that, not of a Jew, but of a man.

On another occasion I was reading from the seventh chapter of Romans that declaration of Paul of the power of sin over us, where he says, "When I would do good, evil is present with me, and the good which I would I do not, but the evil which I would not that I do." As I read it the most intelligent man in my audience spoke up, saying, "That is it! that is it! That is exactly what is the matter with us Hindus. Now, does your Book tell us how we can get rid of that evil disposition, and do the good we would and avoid doing the evil that we would not?" How gladly, from this same old book, did I point them to Him who can create a new heart and renew a right spirit within us; who can give us not only the desire, but the power to do good: "For I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me."

On another occasion and in a different city, I read the description in the fortyfourth chapter of Isaiah, of the making and worshiping of images. When I had completed the reading, a sharp man in the audience, a Brahmin, stepped out and said, "Now, sir, we have caught you. You told us that this was an old book, given long ago, in another part of the world, to tell us how we might find God, and how, worshiping him. we might attain to peace with him; but, sir, that that you have just read you have written since you came here and saw how we Hindus managed it.' The photograph once more was recognized. — Dr. Jacob Chamberlain.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL.

Our Gold Mine. The Story of the American Baptist Missions in India. By MRS. ADA C. CHAPLIN. Third Edition. W. G. Corthell, publisher. 1879. This is a third edition of a volume which was noticed favorably in this magazine on its first appearance. The story of the Baptist missions in India is very remarkable, and calculated to kindle the faith of all who study it in the final triumph of the gospel. This volume brings down the history to the latest dates, including an account of the marvelous awakening among the Teloogoos during the past year. It will be strange if this story of the mine does not make miners of many who read it.

ARRIVALS.

REV. RICHARD C. HASTINGS and Miss H. E. Townshend, arrived at Jaffna, January 22; Rev. James K. Kilbourn and wife, and Rev. D. F. Watkins and wife, arrived at Guadala

jara, February 21; Rev. George H. Gutterson and wife arrived at Madras, March 4, on their way to join the Madura mission.

DEPARTURES.

REV. J. E. SCOTT and wife sailed from New York, February 15, on their return to Van, Eastern Turkey.

MARRIAGE.

AT Beloit, Wis., April 2, Rev. H. D. Porter, M. D., of Tientsin, North China, to Miss Elizabeth C., daughter of President A. L. Chapin, of Beloit College.

DEATH.

AT Bebek, February 22, Grace Darling, daughter of Rev. J. K. Greene, of the Western Turkey mission, aged four and a half.