A few extracts from the Report will be given here, respecting the missions in South America, China, and Japan. South America. "The different countries of South America, are, by the wonderful developments of divine Providence, brought more prominently before the church. A highway is opened up into many of them, and freedom given to the Church's laborers to do what they can, to publish the gospel of the Son of God. Into two countries [Columbia and Brazil] have we entered, and no restrictions are imposed upon any evangelistic effort. Much more could be done, if the resources of the Board were greater. Calls for help and helpers multiply. The outlay for these two missions is already considerable, but for the next year a larger sum will be needed to meet the appropriations already made for chapels. It is hoped, that with the increasing interest in this great field of labor, more funds will flow into the Church's own treasury, so as to prosecute the work at Bogota and in Brazil with greater vigor." China. "The work of the Lord in China, as promoted by these missions, has made encouraging progress in the last year. The additions to the churches are a signal proof of this; a larger number of converts is reported as having been bap tized than in any preceding year, of all classes from early youth to advanced age. The conversion of promising youths, and the training of young men for the ministry of the gospel, are also to be regarded as special marks of the divine blessing.... The Committee hope, in answer to the prayers of the churches, that more laborers will soon be sent forth to reap this great harvest. And they trust that prayer will still be made for the calling forth of native ministers, whose service is so essential to the progress of the gospel among the Chinese. The great favor of God in the gift of such excellent native brethren as have been already admitted to the ministry, should encourage large expectations in this respect." Japan. "The missionary work in this country is beginning to occupy a place in the sight of the people, and it is becoming apparent that the long cherished opposition to Christianity is not likely to be much longer maintained. The time has come when the number of missionary laborers should be increased, and the plans of the Christian Church for the evangelization of this country should be placed on a broad basis. It is for the salvation of a people nearly as numerous as the inhabitants of our States, that the entire Protestant Church has sent but a handful of men not half a score!" MISCELLANIES. A SPEECH ON FOREIGN MISSIONS; AT THE GENERAL CONFERERCE, MAINE. ity, in the kingdom of Christ. There was first the voice of the brother who told us of the Papist what he is, and what he needs. Then came the plea for the sailors, a class that act as the nerves of the nations, in their intercommunication; then another. for the Bible, and the millions that are without it; still another-for the Tract cause, that gives to the neglected so much good reading; and then the good word for the Freedmen, so helpless and wretched, as well as for the destitute that cover the great wastes of the west and So now, with a grander instrumental- north. But we now have, last of all — to I WAS in an assembly not long since, awaiting the service. I was early there, but soon the organ commenced. It began on a single note, very sweet and tender. Soon another note was heard, in perfect 'concord; and then another, and another, all in exact harmony; till at length, all the range of keys was in use, and the grand resources of the instrument were waked. clashing or jarring here. These things are in harmony, as the various notes and swells of the great organ. My plea does not displace the pleas of these brethren, but expands them and complements them. I but put my feet on the pedals of the great instrumentality and touch the silent keys, to get out the whole music. I am agent, then, of the Bible Society, as it spreads out over the world. The missionaries of this one Board have put the treasures of the Bible into the tongues spoken by half the human race. I am agent, too, of the Tract Society, as it walks across the sea, sprinkling the nations with the leaves of life. I am agent, also, of a Church Building Society, that has dotted the lands with rude sanctuaries. I act for an Education Society, that carries light to the darker places of earth. We are helping the young men there; we are putting them through their course; and have more such in training than all the Theological Seminaries of our order in the land. I work, too, for what is a Home Missionary Society, abroad. This one Board of Missions has two native pastors and preachers to one that is sent to its missions from our own churches. And best of all, those far-off churches, just planted, are sending the gospel to places still more distant. The seed is becoming a tree- - a moral banyan in the East. The centers seek to evangelize their surroundings; and those fresh Christian impulses do not stop there, but reach out the hand over mountain ridges and broad seas, to feed the hungry and to save the lost. Yes, and we are a Temperance Society also, and an organization for all reforms, and against all oppressions. We have in care a countless number of freedmen, who are set loose from idolatry, and are groping after Christianity. So I come on last, to take what these brethren leave, to touch keys they have to pass over, and bring out the grandeur of the Christian benevolences. But we all alike call for money, and a great deal of it; not yours, brethren, but the Lord's, in your keeping; not for our societies, but for the poor and the neglected! The fundamental rules of religion are these addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. 'Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance,' etc. And then, 'put off all these, anger, wrath, malice,' and the like. You notice subtraction comes after addition. We don't put off till we take on, or in, and thus we come to multiply and abound in all good things, to the glory of Christ. Then follows the test rule of division, - the distribution, the tithing, the scattering abroad of the good things of God. This last is the proof rule of the others; and if well wrought, shows our work in the Lord to be right, and not in vain. W. W. Ki LETTER FROM A NATIVE "BIBLE-WOMAN." MISS WEST sends, from Harpoot, the following translation of a letter, respecting the writer of which she says: " Bible-Woman.' toosh is the Diarbekir She is a middle-aged woman, (Syrian,) of great respectability and excellent appearance; commanding the respect of all classes. Her native tongue is Arabic, but she speaks Armenian and Turkish almost as easily. She has no family to care for but her husband." The letter indicates something of her spirit and her usefulness. "DIARBEKIR, March 27, 1868. "My dear Sister in Christ, Miss West: 66 I have many times wished to write to you (your belovedness'), but the reason for my not doing so is my inability to write. I am ashamed for this thing, that I do not know how to write well. "We much desired your presence with us this winter, that you might labor among our sisters; because all our sisters love you much. They do not forget your counsels; again and again do they desire to hear them. But now we hear that you will go to America. That is more pain to us. Would that your America were Diarbekir! You would find much work to do for Christ. But blessed be the will of our all-good Lord! The Lord be with you. Do not forget us in your prayers. Especially for me- the weak one — - be prayerful, that I may labor faithfully in the work of the Lord. I think you remember my work that I visit from house to house to read the Word of God to poor sinful women, like myself. "The beginning of this work I did with you. The first day we visited three houses. In the last house there was a young Armenian woman of the 'Liberal party.' You spoke considerably with her. Now that woman has become a very dear sister. She loves Christ and his work very much. I have great hope concerning her. For a time she suffered persecution from her husband; but now she sometimes brings her husband also to the place of prayer. She had a boy who was learning a trade. She took him from it and brought him to school; and her daughter is also learning to read. Oh, with what joy she remembers the day that we came to her house! She often says to me 'What a blessed hour was that when you brought that teacher to our house; and what sweet words were those I heard from her lips.' She often speaks of it with weeping. She is present at every meeting, however difficult it may be. She entreats your prayers. "I am greatly rejoiced that at whatever house I go I find a reception; especially is there much work in the houses of the Armenians. With joy they listen to the gospel. I do not find a house among them where their boys and girls do not learn to read. But it is not so among the Assyrians; they are more negligent. It often happens that the Armenians send after me, if I am a day or two late in going to them. "If you see Mrs. Walker in America, remember us to her, with our loving salutations. We cannot forget her. Her labors for us, and her kindnesses, were innumerable. The Lord be to her a support (a 'back') and a refuge, and comfort her under all circumstances. "I often wish to write to Mr. Williams, but he knows not Armenian, and I cannot write in Arabic. For this reason, please read this letter to him, and give my loving salutations to him and to the hauum. Let them be prayerful for me, the weak one, that in the houses to which I go, and in the words I speak, I may be unceasingly useful. MORE SLIPS FROM THE TREASURER; WHICH MAY SERVE AS HINTS TO MANY. AN aged person writes from R—, N. Y.: "Inclosed please find five dollars, a donation from me to the American Board. I regret that my situation prevents me from sending a larger sum; but my age (eighty-five) and ill-health for more than four years, prevents me from engaging in any business. Indeed, I have not, within that time, been able to walk a fourth of a mile. Besides, I find it difficult to meet all necessary expenses; but seeing, in the Herald, the situation of the Board, I feel that I must do a little to aid in the great work that I have loved from its commencement, believing that if all who are no better able than I am would do as much, it would go far in relieving the treasury of its present embarrassment. "I hope the next Herald will show a large increase of donations.” ANOTHER, not quite so old, but eighty, writes from 'G——, N. H.: "Please find enclosed ten dollars, to aid the Board of Foreign Missions. You will recollect I sent something for the Herald, thinking that, in my age (80 years) and circumstances, I could not afford $10 this year. But taking my scythe and rake, I have earned the $10, and transmit it, in view of the prospects of the Board. Let many do likewise, and the year will not close with a heavy debt." ONE "no longer able to preach,” but who "tries to do something occasionally in a humbler sphere," writes from Iowa: "Inclosed find five dollars for the A. B. C. F. M. It would seem as though I could hardly spare it, as I am in very feeble health and my resources very scant. But the state of your treasury demands a sacrifice from many, and why not from me? I will therefore send this mite and trust in the Lord." THE following is from New York : “A friend gives me the reading of the Missionary Herald after she has read it, and another friend has given me five dollars. Now I propose to send this money to help Annual Meeting of the Board. The fifty-ninth annual meeting of the A. B. C. F. M. will be held at Norwich, Connecticut, commencing on Tuesday, October 6th, at 3 o'clock, P. M. Rev. Dr. H. A. Nelson, of Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, is expected to preach the sermon Tuesday evening. Special attention is invited to a notice from the Committee of Arrangements on the last page of the cover of this number of the Herald. The Treasury. As the financial year of the Board will close about the time at which most readers will receive this number of the Herald, it is too late for any statement here to have much influence upon the income. Yet it may be well to say, that the receipts for the month of July ($59,704) were more than $28,000 higher than they were last year-pretty nearly double. This is very cheering. Yet a sudden advance in the price of gold early in August may add several thousand dollars to the expenses of this closing month of the year; some unexpected expenses have occurred; several mission families are about to sail; and the Treasurer supposes that the receipts of the month must be at the least $140,000, that the year may close without a debt. For August, 1867, they were $83,610. If the income for the present August can be as nearly double that of a year ago as was the income for July, all will be well. May God give still, to many donors, a spirit of cheerful and enlarged liberality. New England Women's Foreign Missionary Society. The Treasurer acknowledges the following receipts for July. Brimfield, Mass., Miss Eunice B. Knight (which makes her a Life Member), $25. Wellesley, Mass., N. E. Women's Aux. F. M. Society to constitute Mrs. A. D. Webber and Mrs. G. G. Phipps Life Members, $50; to support a girl in Miss Smith's school, Madura, $25; for Mrs. Edwards' Zulu school, $30; for a Biblereader, in Cesarea, $45. West Roxbury, Mass., $75, — of which from R. B. Smith, Esq., to constitute Mrs. R. B. Smith and Miss Mary F. Ellis, Life Members, $50; from Lucius A. Tolman, - to constitute Mrs. Julia M. Tolman a Life Member, $25. Chelsea, Mass., Chestnut Street Church, from Hon. Mellen Chamberlain. - to constitute Mrs. Chamberlain a Life Member, $25. Broadway Church, Mrs. Elbridge Snow, $5. Boston, Shawmut Congregational Church, Mrs. Charles B. Wilson (thus made a Life Member) $25; Mount Vernon Sabbath-school, by O. S. Merrill, $15.86. Watertown, N. Y., Mrs. Susan H. Morgan, annual subscription, $1; Mrs. James R. Bates (to constitute her a Life Member,) $25; Wells, Maine, Ladies' annual subscription, $30. Total for the month, $376.86. Total receipts, $3,692.11. MISSIONS OF THE BOARD. Western Turkey. Mr. and Mrs. Lock, who sailed from New York April 25, reached Philippopolis June 11. Mr. and Mrs. Bond, of the same company, had gone to Eski Zagra, and Mr. and Mrs. Andrus were on their way from Constantinople to Eastern Turkey when Mr. Lock wrote, but dates are not given. Letters from Mr. Clarke, of Philippopolis (page 287), report serious persecution at Tartar Pazarjik, which has at last led to the starting of a Protestant community there, among the Bulgarians. Mr. Bartlett, of Cesarea (page 285), speaks of the openings in unoccupied portions of the field as very encouraging, notices efforts to raise up native helpers, and dwells at some length upon the propriety of young pastors in America becoming foreign missionaries. Central Turkey. Mr. Perry wrote from Aintab June 3: "Mr. and Mrs. Schneider left Aintab May 22, for Constantinople, where they will spend the summer. The people felt very deeply their departure, and have taken every possible means to express it, both to them and to us; and we young missionaries, who are left in Aintab, took leave of them as we would separate from a beloved father and mother. "The Second Church in Aintab is put ting forth every possible effort to raise the amount pledged for the building of their new house of worship. The promised permission to build, from Government, has not come yet, but we seem to be sure of it, and no objection is made to the building operations, which have now commenced in good earnest. "The young men of the church are paying regularly 135 piasters a month towards the support of three of the Aintab students in the Marash school. We have sent from Aintab, three new theological students to Marash this year. The female boarding-school is filled to its maximum, as increased this year, and the girls are doing well." Eastern Turkey. A letter from Mr. H. N. Barnum, of Harpoot (page 284), notices the marvelous work at Diarbekir, an interesting movement in the way of sending laborers to the Moosh plain, a society of workers for Christ at Harpoot, the seminaries with their many students, and additions to the church. Syria. Mr. Samuel Jessup wrote from Beirut, June 20, in regard to an examination of the female seminary, just closed: "It was the most interesting I have ever attended. The labors of Mr. and Mrs. Dodge, Mrs. Bliss, and Miss Thomson, were well rewarded, by the fine appearance of the girls. Two days were spent in comparatively private examination, and then two days were entirely public. The chapel was overcrowded. As many went away as found places to sit or stand inside. Such work cannot but have a most powerful influence on this country, in elevating and purifying it. The change in the character of many of the girls shows that our principal object the saving of soulsis being attained." Nestorians. Mr. Coan (page 282) presents several points of importance in connection with the work in Persia. Mahrattas. A letter from Mr. Atkinson (page 280), giving some of the impressions of a new laborer, will be read with much interest. Madura. Mr. Chandler, writing April 28, notices an itinerating tour of unusual interest, and then speaks of "two somewhat new enterprises in the great heathen city of Madura." The first of these is the formation of a new church, near the west gate, composed of persons dismissed for the purpose (at their own request, because of their distance from the place of worship) from the "Madura church" connected with the mission, and some who had been connected with the Church of England, (the letter leaves numbers blank), and the ordination of A. G. Rowland, a graduate from, and for about 19 years a teacher in the mission seminary at Madura, as the pastor of the church thus formed. He was ordained on the first of March, after a "well-sustained" examination. Mr. |