3rd volume of the Calcutta Review. Dr. Pfander's works will prove of great service. They ought to be published in English. With the exception of a small pamphlet, they are yet procurable only in Urdu and Persian. The idea is current among the Mahommedans that Christians corrupted the Scriptures. The Missionary should obtain a copy of Mr. Muir's "Testimony of the Koran to the Scriptures," in which it is shewn that Mahomet does not countenance any such assertion.-See Appendix for list of books, Parsiism.-The descendants of the ancient Fireworshippers are now estimated at only about 150,000 in number. Bombay and Surat are their head-quarters. Dr. Wilson's work on the Parsi Religion forms a treasury of information and argument. The writings of Dr. Haug should also be consulted. Buddhism and Jainism.-The first is of special interest to Missionaries in Ceylon and Eastern Asia, though India was its birth-place. Speir's Ancient India gives a good account of the spread of the system. The works on Buddhism by the Rev. R. S. Hardy, the Rev. D. J. Gogerly, and some other writers will be found mentioned in the Appendix. The self-righteous Jains are met with chiefly in Western India. Colebrooke has some observations on the sect, and further particulars are given in the Journal of the Bombay Asiatic Society. MISSIONS, It is of vast importance to know the results which have been arrived at by means of past experience. The Missionary who, from thoughtlessness or conceit, does not investigate the history of Missions, will fall into numerous mistakes which will, in a great measure, nullify any good he may accomplish. The whole Bible, but especially the New Testament, should be studied, with earnest prayer, by the Missionary to obtain guidance in his great work. "Apostolic Missions," by Hopkins, contains some valuable thoughts. Many important lessons may be drawn from Church History. The Rev. T. V. French, in a paper read at the Punjab Conference, characterised Neander's work as a store house of argument for almost every form of controversy in which Christianity has been assailed, as well as containing a mass of Missionary information from the early churches and middle ages." Brown's History of Missions and Aikman's Cyclopædia of Christian Missions, will be found useful. The large work of Newcomb, The Cyclopædia of Missions, is valuable for reference. The Reports of the Missionary Conferences held at Calcutta, Ootacamund, Lahore, and Liverpool, the Memorial Volume of the American Board, and "Ten Years' Missionary Labour in India," are of special value. Every Missionary should possess copies of them, and they should be carefully studied. The ordination charges by Drs. Duff and Wilson, in "Missions, the chief End of the Christian Church," and" The Evangelization of India," contain weighty counsels. Grant's Bampton Lectures, though high church and with some questionable views, are able and deserve attention. Caldwell's Tinnevelly Missions, Winslow's Hints on Indian Missions, the Series of Tracts by the American Board, Clarkson's India and the Gospel, Hough's Missionary Vade Mecum, Swan's Letters on Missions, Buyer's Letters on India, may all be read with profit. The sixth chapter of Arthur's Mysore will yield some valuable hints. Among Missionary biographies may be specially mentioned those of Swartz, Rhenius, Judson, Weitbrecht, Ragland, and Lacroix. "True Yoke Fellows in the Mission Field," or the life of Anderson and Johnston, will be read with peculiar interest by Missionaries engaged in English Institutions. Works like Bridges' Christian Ministry may be turned to excellent account. Missionary Reports and Periodicals should be perused with care. Often they are thrown aside with the remark, "There's nothing in them!" Though it must be admitted, that sometimes there are only a few vague generalities, mingled with pious reflections, not unfrequently the fault lies in the reader. Mrs. Barbauld's well-known story of" Eyes and No Eyes" explains the whole. One Missionary may learn valuable lessons from what another treats as useless. The causes of success and failure should be investigated. Library. Some Societies provide Mission Libraries at central stations, from which Missionaries in the neighbourhood may obtain standard works. This is an excellent system: the money is well expended. It is utterly impossible for a Missionary, with his limited income, to obtain for himself all the books he should read. Besides, the Home Secretaries have much greater facilities for knowing which books will be of real service. Few Missionaries in India have the means of looking at a book in a shop before deciding upon its purchase. It sometimes happens that an Indian Missionary, ordering out a book from its title or an incorrect notice, finds himself quite mistaken on its arrival. Reading Club.-Every small Mission circle should have its Reading Club. A supply of a few of the best periodicals may thus be secured. In addition to denominational Magazines, the following may be received from home Illustrated London News, the Athenæum, Edinburgh or Quarterly Review, Good Words, Leisure Hour, Sunday at Home, Bibliotheca Sacra, Journal of Sacred Literature, and the Church Missionary Intelligencer. Most Missionaries now receive Christian Work and Evangelical Christendom. The Athenæumis valuable as giving information on general literature and science, enabling the Missionary, in some measure, to keep pace with the age. The Bibliotheca Sacra will serve a similar object with regard to biblical science. The Church Missionary Intelligencer often contains valuable papers on general principles, as well as detailed accounts of important mission fields. The following should be obtained in India: Local Newspapers, the Friend of India, Calcutta Review, Calcutta Christian Intelligencer, Calcutta Christian Observer, Missionary Notes and Queries, Madras Church Missionary Record, and the Harvest Field. The Appendix contains information about the publishers and cost. The Journals of the various branches of the Asiatic Society occasionally contain papers of value to a Missionary. Sedentary Habits to be deprecated. To guard against misconception, it is distinctly stated that while a number of books have been named, it is not to be supposed that the Missionary must shut himself up and read them all within a year or two. This is a course strongly to be condemned. The Missionary should rather lead an active life. The course proposed will occupy years. Still, if time be well husbanded, much may be done. A few of the best books well studied, are worth a large number read cursorily. VII. SELECTION OF STATIONS. Though the young Missionary in the great majority of cases, will not require to choose a Station for himself, a knowledge of the principles which should be followed is of very great value. It is lamentable to think what an amount of Christian effort has been spent to little advantage, from a wrong mode of procedure in this respect. Evils of Isolated Stations.-These are well pointed out in the following extracts. They are given at length, notwithstanding some repetition of sentiment, as corroborative testimony :-Douglas in his "Advancement of Society," says, The first requisite in benevolent operations, as in all other undertakings, is system; a fixedness of design and a steady adaptation of the means to the end. Opposite to that of system, is the pursuing of what are called openings, or the being caught with every change of circumstances, and drawn by every chance of success into new paths of pursuit having no connexion with each other, and leading to remote terminations. Every step gained in a system strengthens, every step gained without it weakens. The first object acquired leads to the possession of the second, and that to the attainment of the third, if all the objects to be attained are originally chosen with reference to the accomplishment of a plan. Every new object, where there is no system, divides the already scattered forces, and success, if pursued, might dissipate them entirely, and leave but the vain pleasure of having a number of defenceless stations, each calling for assistance, and all calling in vain, while the Society only retained the empty boast of an extended line of operations, and of being equally helpless and inefficient in every quarter of the globe. On a system, each part strengthens the other; the line of communication is kept up entire; as each point is gained, the whole advances they are all in movement towards the same position, and they rest upon the same centre of support."-pp. 240-1. : The Rev. W. Buyers thus points out the mistake which has been too often committed in India :— "Most Missionary Societies in this country have fallen into the error of scattering their agents over too extensive limits, to admit of their acting on any well arranged system of co-operation. A want of concentration has perhaps been one of the chief causes of the little success of which so many complain. Over the whole continent of India from Cape Comorin to the Himalayas, there is scarcely one Mission so strong as, in my opinion, it should be in a country so peculiarly situated. At most of these stations only one labourer is to be found, though almost every Mission is in some city or populous town, or district. Hence not one-half of them can be regarded as permanent institutions. When one labourer dies, there is generally no one to succeed him for a considerable time. Perhaps his successor is to be sent from Europe; and before he arrives, and is able to learn the language, scarcely a trace of the previous cultivation remains, Sometimes it so happens, that |