planted on the rocks and nourished in the storm. Tempest and hail have beaten upon it, and it promises to be as sturdy as an oak, while bearing precious fruit. The mention of no place gives me such joy as Sert. No harm has been done there by nursing and over-tending. From the first they were made to understand Christ's terms, -'In the world ye shall have tribulation'; and they accepted that gospel when they became Protestants. Perhaps you remember, that with a membership of only six, the church at once assumed one half the support of their pastor and schoolteacher."

Pleasant facts are noticed respecting several other places, and Mr. Williams closes his letter thus: "But I have said enough. The great thing is, that in all the field the stumbling-block which of all others most hindered the work is taken out of the way, by the entrance of the people upon the work of self-support, to wit, the belief so universal, that men were paid to become Protestants. When the mission did every thing for them, there was soil in which such a misunderstanding could grow; but it shrivels and disappears before the telling fact of building their own churches, supporting their own pastors, and sending missionaries to their Koordish-speaking brethren; and outsiders are drawn to inquire what is the secret of this religion which pulls piasters out of poor pockets; and so they worship God, and report that He is among them of a truth.'"

has a dispensary at Dindigul, where great numbers of patients not only receive medical attention, but hear the truths of the gospel, in the religious services of all “dispensary days.”

Many Labors - Itineracy. "This has been the busiest year of my life. Day after day, through the whole of the warm season and the whole of the rainy season, I have found work for more than sixteen hours every day, and work, too, which I think has told upon my station. On our itineracy, during the year, we have spent 91 working days in the tent. The we means the native pastor of Dindigul, five catechists, and the writer. We have visited 818 villages, had a total of 31,360 adult hearers, and sold Scripture portions, tracts, and Christian school-books, to the amount of 50 rupees.

"The pastor and catechists have done noble work, and have done it cheerfully and joyfully. They have improved in their preaching to the heathen, and I think have grown in grace. I seldom walk less than seven miles a day, on the itineracy; always walk with the two catechists, in whose company I go, to the most distant village of our morning or afternoon visit, and then to one or two more, and ride back to the tent. I have not, this year, asked from any helper more work than I was both willing and ready to do myself, and have actually done. If the tent is at any time at a distance from Dindigul, I frequently walk in, twelve or fourteen miles, to attend my dispensary. And I must, in simple justice to my helpers, say, that in my absence, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, from the tent, as these are my dispensary days, they have carried on the work faithfully and ably.

Dispensary Work. "In my dispensary, we have had 4,351 new cases this year, being 726 more than last year; and a total of 11,966 since the dispensary was first established. These have come from more than 380 different villages. I have had many important surgical operations to perform this year, and know that, by the blessing of God, I have saved many a life. As Government has just furnished me, as

a part of its grant, with a most valuable case of eye instruments, I have begun to operate for cataract. I have scores of these cases.

Schools. "My English school has reached a total on the register of 132, and a daily attendance of over 100, of which number 34 are Brahmins. The school was never in better working order. The teachers have been thoroughly engaged in their work, and the regular attendance of the scholars has been remarkable. I am sometimes not able to spend an hour a week in this school, though I seldom fail to give two hours on the Sabbath to instructing the first and second classes, numbering about 22 boys. The Bible is taught the first hour of every day in the school, and a majority of the boys attend two services in the church on the Sabbath. The boys of the station-school, with one exception, attend the Tamil school on the compound, which now numbers 72 on the register, and has reached an attendance of 66. This school

is also in excellent working order. "Mrs. Chester has the charge of two day-schools for girls, one on the compound, where all the girls are of Christian parents, and the other in the town, where most of them are heathen. She is exceedingly interested in many of these girls from among the heathen, for they have not only learned to read, but are daily reading the Testament in their houses. She meets them at the school five days in the week, and the girls often come to the bungalow, to see her.

"Three of the girls in the compoundschool united with the church at our last communion. Four adults united with the church at Murugampatti, three months since. This is the village where the members of the congregation have, within a year past, given almost the entire amount expended in erecting a new church for their use.

"I am glad to be able to report much less trouble from the Romanists, during the past few months, than for a long time before." The agents of another society are annoying and injuring us more than the Romanists,

BATTALAGUNDU.

(32 miles N. W. of Madura.)

LETTER FROM MR. WASHBURN, March 10, 1868.

Characteristics of the People. Portions of this letter present some of the difficulties which the attempt to establish Christian institutions must encounter in India, from long-established habits and characteristics of the people, — difficulties which should be kept in mind when the degree of success attending missionary effort is considered.

"The country has enjoyed four years of astonishing prosperity; and these have been followed by two years of famine such as had not occurred within sixty years; and still the heavens are cloudless and dry, so that we begin to look forward to scarcity again. Yet, with all these admonitions from Providence, and with considerable knowledge of the true God and of Jesus Christ his Son, the people are little disposed to leave their dumb idols, or to learn righteousness. Providence without revelation is as a dumb teacher teaching the blind.

"Let not any one in Christian lands imagine that the mass of the people of India, or any considerable portion of them, have waked up to want any thing Western because it is better than what they have had for thousands of years. There is indeed scarcely one Hindù who is not scrambling for money and place, for himself and his children. And if western education, if science, if work at service, if any thing will tend to procure this, he will do any thing, endure any thing, to obtain it,- always contriving how he can make the largest gains with the least possible exertion. The perfect security of property under the present government the free opportunity of displaying wealth without the least fear that it will be seized and carried off by those in power has created a universal desire for it, as irresistible and as all-pervading as the tides of the ocean. This is one aspect of society about us; let me try to paint another.

"One who was born and educated in a

country where the government is but the people acting for themselves, where every one hopes and expects that the next year will bring something new and better than the last, where each one will do every thing for himself that he can possibly do, I say one who has been educated with such surroundings, cannot easily conceive or deal with a state of society where the government is entirely outside and beyond the sphere of the people, and is of that parental kind which provides for them whether they will or not, takes care of them without asking their opinions, and, in general, treats them like incompetent wards, where it is no shame to be idle or to beg, where the beggar receiving seems to himself to be conferring a favor on the giver, where the new is disliked and rejected simply because it is new, and the old is cherished and valued simply because it is old. Yet this is exactly the state of things around us."

-

Some facts are mentioned as illustrations of "the order of things with which we have to deal"- the unmoving indifference of the people as to improvements or progress; and it is said:

"Under such circumstances as these we are attempting not only to substitute Christianity for heathenism, but also to develop a sense of individual responsibility, to introduce social forethought and concerted action for themselves, without waiting for the Government, or some one, to take the initiation in every enterprise -to do their work for them. This is no easy matter to break down the social order while it is still in vigorous life, and remould it on a new scheme. Indeed, unless God soften, nay, melt, with his Spirit, we can do nothing.

Progress. "But we are certainly making some progress. I doubt if, eight years ago, a rupee could have been raised cheerfully from the Battalagundu congregation. This year, the duty of the congregations to contribute a part of the wages of their catechists is freely acknowledged and acted upon. We have raised for catechists and pastors what amounts to one tenth the sum expended upon them in this station

field. Our arrangements are such that I hope there will not be a family connected with us which does not contribute something for its catechist or schoolmaster.

Giving the Tenth. "I was gratified, a while ago, when one of the catechists announced that they the catechists and schoolmasters-had all determined to contribute one tenth of their income for the year, to religious and charitable purposes. They have now had an experience of from three to six months, and I think the scheme will not be a fruitless one. The people in Ammopatti have contributed enough to keep their church in repair, and they have some funds on hand for a belfry.

"The people in Silukkuvarpatti are making efforts for the erection of a brick church, and have met with so good success that the building will be commenced in a short time. I rejoice to hope, that with this outward interest in religion there is rather more of earnest purpose among the catechists. But no one who has not lived in a heathen land can tell how much we need a revival of piety, and an outpouring of God's Spirit, on ministers, churches, and the heathen."

Micronesia Mission.

PONAPE.

(Lat. 6° 48 N., Long. 158° 19/ E.)

LETTERS FROM MR. STURGES.

LETTERS recently received from Mr. Sturges have been very long in coming, being of earlier date than one from which extracts were published in May; but a few passages will still be of interest to readers. On the 25th of March he wrote from his "new home, some twenty miles up the coast from the old base of operations," where he had become convinced that it was best for him to reside, at least a portion of the time, and where the people had built "a very comfortable native house" for him. They had also made frequent trips in their canoes, moving their missionary and a portion of his goods, without expense to him.

New Church-A great Change. Under date April 23, 1867, he wrote: "Last night we returned from a tour of the island, the first I have made with my family for some time. We found the people everywhere flocking in to see us and hear our teachings. They have now, on the northwest side of our island, what has long been needed, a meeting-house. We have agreed to return there and hold the communionservices, two weeks hence. As I preached to the great crowds gathered in their new church, all giving the best attention, I thought how wonderful is the preaching of the gospel to reform savages. The church stands on the very spot where, thirteen years ago, I came near being robbed; the very men who then had their muskets ready, were before me, and giving the most undivided attention.

The Mountain Patriarch. "And there sat, at my feet, good old Simion, the 'Mountain Patriarch,' his face all radiant with heavenly smiles and thought. How changed since he first visited us at our station, in 1859! Our cook's wife had gone up there and told of the wonders she had heard at the missionary's house. He and his wife crossed the mountains, visited us, heard of the Saviour, and carried the news back to his people. After a while others were charmed by the songs and teaching of the strange religion; a meeting-house was built; I visited them, married, baptized, and formed them into a Christian society. Oh, how my heart filled with joy and hope as I looked into the face of that good old man, listened to his address, and thought of the changes in all that region. That little rill from the mountain, what a stream it has become, and what fragrance all the fields around send forth! I have never had such a strong conviction that the gospel will yet save this people from extinction. Many there who were almost gone years ago, in their filth and reveling, are now strong men and women; and this is most apparent among the chiefs. Those who have abandoned the kava are so much improved in looks -now looking like not only working but thinking creatures

that we wonder others are not more ready to abandon it.

Wrong by a Sea Captain. "A captain of a trading schooner, a notorious fellow in these seas, and who says himself that he led the French in their attack upon the missionaries on Lifu, has just left here. He made our Nanakin drunk and then bought of him the mission premises at Kiti. He has ordered me to leave, and says he will push me off at the point of the bayonet if I don't leave in a suitable time. I don't know but he may give us trouble; we look only to the Lord to save us from such scourges. We wonder that we have been left in such peace when so long alone, and far away from all human aid and sympathy."

A New Stage in the Work. On the 26th of April he wrote again: "There is not much of special interest to report respecting our work. Some are joining us from the heathen party. One large district, headed by its chief, has lately come over, making the opposition very wrathful.

"We seem to have reached what may be called the second stage in our work. The great mass of the people have abandoned heathenism, and religious ceremonies and teachers are hardly more here than witches and witchcraft in New England. We have Christian communities in all parts of the island, scarcely a neighborhood where there are not praying ones; our church members are everywhere; but how like some whom the Apostle addressed as doing the things not to be named among the Gentiles.

Difficulties. "The roving habits of our natives are much in the way of church discipline and improvement. Few of the common people have houses or cultivated lands of their own. They attach themselves to some chief or landholder, stay till they get tired, then try another place, and then another; to come around again when the circuit is completed. It is not easy to keep such wanderers together long enough to do them much good; and especially difficult is it to get hold of one for discipline. The want of government keeps