Hungary. MR. KOENIG, of the Free Church Mission at Pesth, writes in the Free Church Record :-An incident has lately come to my notice, which is so full of interest, both as resulting from one of Mr. Neumann's late missionary travels, and because of its opening a new door for evangelistic labour in this country, that I would not leave it uncommunicated. valuable co-operators in the cause of tract publication. I shall not be slow to cultivate their acquaintance, and have already taken steps in that direction. Turning to the Jewish field, it will interest you to hear a few particulars of some of the members of our Proselyte Church. I rejoice greatly to say concerning them, that they walk in the truth. The eldest son of Mr. Frolich, baptized together with his parents in the former days of our Pesth mission, has just completed his theological studies. The two last years he has spent in the Basle University, and has now returned to Pesth, where he will meanwhile be occupied with general evangelistic work here and throughout Hungary. He is a young man of promise, and will, I trust, prove a true and earnest messenger of the cross. About three weeks ago, the printer of our Hungarian and Slavonic tracts in Pesth received a letter from a minister unknown to him who has a charge in a Protestant village in the midst of the well-known "Bakony-forest." This forestsixty miles in length, and from ten to twenty-five in breadth-belongs to the wildest regions of Hungary. The minister states that he had lately seen two Hungarian tracts in the possession of a student, and having for many years earnestly desired to see such literature diffused among his people, he took the liberty of addressing himself to the printer, whose name was marked on the title-page, inquiring whether he could procure without delay a quantity of tracts for him to the amount of ten florins, which he sent in advance. The order was of course executed immediately; and the student's tracts we were afterwards ena-pital, London. This position is of great imporbled to trace back to Mr. Neumann's visit this summer to Pápa, a town in Hungary, where he made the acquaintance of a number of students, and sold several hundred tracts. A week after I had despatched these tracts, | another incident came to light in connection with the foregoing, and of still deeper interest. A theological student from the Bakony-forest made his appearance in Pesth with the manuscript of a religious tract in the Hungarian language. His statement was, that he had been deputed by several pastors in that locality, who for some time past had been occupied in the translation of the tract, and that the discovery of a printer of religious tracts in Pesth had awakened the hope in them that he might undertake the printing of their manuscript, in which case they proposed holding themselves responsible for a certain number of copies. On looking at the manuscript, I found that it was nothing less important than John Hall's "Sinner's Friend." Our surprise was naturally not small to see such a tract and to hear of such desires coming from the Bakony-forest! Thus we have been providentially led into the track of new friends and future Mr. G., whose baptism along with his younger sister's we reported last winter, is a chemist by profession. Our efforts and his own having failed in procuring him occupation here and elsewhere on the continent, we were induced to send him to London. Through Dr. Schwartz's kindness and interest in our young friend, he obtained temporary shelter in the "Jewish Home." Christian friends were provided in London, and through their exertions Mr. G. has recently been appointed assistant-chemist at St. Luke's Hos tance, as it will bring him in contact with men of high science, and be a passport to the highest posts. From all our friends in London, he has the testimony of being a consistent, earnest Christian. His elder sister M. pursues her studies in Pastor Staudt's Normal Seminary at Kornthal. She is universally beloved there by superiors and companions, and her Christian character stands well. The younger sister of this family, already referred to, we have long desired to fit for future usefulness, but till now we lacked the means. During Mrs. Koenig's recent visit to Scotland, she had the pleasure of becoming personally acquainted with the ladies of the Jewish Association in Paisley. Mrs. Koenig met with a most cordial reception; and from themselves and a few liberal friends of the cause in Paisley secured a sum, to be repeated next year, sufficient to educate E. G. at an excellent seminary in Germany. An additional sum was requisite for outfit and travelling expenses, and the ladies of the Glasgow Association kindly contributed £10. Lapland. (Special Correspondence.) MARIA MATHSDOTTER, A NOBLE FEMALE PASTOR H. ROERICH, of Stockholm, sends the following most interesting letter to a German paper, from which our correspondent translates it :-I have had lately a great gratification, in which I am sure all will participate, who have been interested in the mission in Lapland. On the evening of the 30th of October, I was in my study, engaged in reading a newspaper which recalled my native land to me, when I heard a knock at my door. I opened, and whom should I see come in but two Lapps, one of whom was Maria Magdalena Mathsdotter. Imagine my astonishment and delight at again meeting this Christian woman, when I had been so long asking for tidings of her, and receiving no answer but the words, "Maria? It is not known where she is: she is wandering in the deserts of Lapland, accompanying her father's herds of reindeer." And now, here she was before me: the next moment she approached me and offered her hand. Immediately I said to myself, "Here is a new appeal which Lapland addresses to Sweden and to all the friends of the Gospel. Let us listen to it. Let us work while it is day: the night cometh in which no man can work.” Swedish colonists, who come thither, not to embrace a nomadic life, but to establish fixed habitations and to cultivate the soil. These persons receive from the state a space of ground which they engage to cultivate. What is the result? The colonists advance into the interior of the country, and take possession of it, in order to cultivate it, wherever that is feasible: the Lapps, on the other hand, are desirous of keeping the country for themselves, as they need it for the maintenance of their numerous herds of reindeer, which constitute their only wealth. Now, if any reindeer unluckily trespass upon the property of the colonists, the latter bring them down with their muskets without any form of law. Hence arise, as may be imagined, continual grievances and bickerings between the Lapps and the colonists. Such was the case this summer, and the more influential members of the parish of Wilhelmina (Maria Mathsdotter's parish) which is situated in the province of West Bothnia, in the south of Lapland, met together to discuss their compromised interests. The only measure they could adopt was to address the king,-to submit the question to him, and to implore his intervention and his succour. It was determined to do this. But who was to undertake the journey? No man in the parish would accept the office of deputy; all found the work too difficult and troublesome. Their eyes were turned then to one woman, Maria Mathsdotter: she offered her services, which were accepted, and the voyage was resolved upon. She started and went to Stockholm with one of her cousins. It was assuredly with God's favour that she went, for her presence in the midst of us warmed our This Lapp woman is not unknown to you: her name cannot yet, I think, have been forgotten by those who have read what she has performed for the love of her people and of her God. It was she who in March, 1864, came to Stockholm, after a long and difficult journey through snow and ice on skates, in order to show the king the state of misery and abasement in which her fellow-hearts and revived our zeal for the Lapps. countrymen existed. It was by faith she walked, we may well say,—she needed it certainly to perform such a journey alone; but her faith did not deceive her. She obtained precious promises of aid she had the gratification of learning that a "Society of the Missionary Penny" (Fem ære færening) was about to be established for Lapland to labour for the moral and religious elevation of her brethren; and herewith, her prayers having been granted, she returned blessing God. Two years and more passed without any tidings being received of her. Maria was with her reindeer traversing the country, shifting from hills to plains and from plains to hills, but constantly active in the Lord's cause. I must observe that a certain part of Lapland, the south of it especially, is partly inhabited by us. It was on Tuesday, October 30th, that Maria Mathsdotter came to my abode. The following day had been appointed for the working meeting, at which we make warm clothes for the school children in Lapland; of course I asked her to join What a pleasure it was for all our young workwomen to see this woman, whose great faith was known to them, and for whom they had so often prayed in concert. And you may imagine that this was no less of a treat for Maria herself, who was delighted to find herself in the midst of friends understanding the misery of her people, and willing to do something for its relief. Her countenance breathed tranquil satisfaction, and her look shone with ineffable joy. Maria, you may believe, did not remain with her arms folded; she took up a pair of scissors and begun cutting pat terns, and giving advice; and all our ladies were eager to receive such good directions. This work was nothing new to her; for, in the solitude of the forests, the Lapp-woman, while her reindeer are browsing, is accustomed to make garments for her self and her family, for which purpose she always wears scissors, needles, and thread, hanging at her girdle. The meeting was closed, as usual, by a reading from the Bible, with prayer. I performed the service, not in French, but as well as I was able in Swedish, in order that Maria might understand, and might pray more fervently with us. She wept much that evening, and pressed my hand cordially when I had ended, saying, "Thanks, thanks, my friend; we shall meet again some day in heaven!" Then she began offering her hand to every one else there, repeating her usual salutation, "The peace of God be with you!" At two subsequent meetings we had still the pleasure of having our dear Maria with us, and conversing with her; for we had an extra meeting on Monday, the 5th of November, in order to finish a good deal of work which had been commenced, and to be able to send to our school children as much clothing as possible. I myself determined, on learning how much misery the Lapp people were suffering, to make a collection in favour of the parish-school of Wilhelmina; this brought in, thanks to God, more than could have been expected. The Committee of the Fem-ære Society came together, moreover, to hear Maria, and to be enabled, by means of the newspapers, to give the public some particulars to encourage the work carried on in Lapland. It may be imagined that this session was interesting and encouraging. Maria told us how necessary her work was, and with what success she has been favoured. All the Lapps see with pleasure the foundation of new schools, and are glad to send their children to them; but this is not yet much; there is a great deal more to do. I cannot tell you how much good to the soul the converse does of this woman, whom I would willingly call the apostle of the North; how one feels at once humiliated and excited to labour when one is in the presence of such faith, such profound humility, such love of souls, such zeal for the advancement of God's kingdom. And another striking thing, when one hears her speak, is her appreciation of human distress, with her clear-headedness, her logical reasonings, and her precise expressions. She discourses with the greatest ease; and, although she has had no training, she comports herself quite calmly, and defends her opinion without allowing herself to be intimidated by her audience. She never loses herself in details, as untutored people commonly do; but she follows up the idea which she has in view, and always knows how to come back to it when she has been called upon to digress from it. All these gifts, let us not doubt it, are the share and one of the privileges of faith. Nothing in the world can terrify the believer, whether he speak before crowds or in national councils, because his power comes from on high, and the strength of God cannot in any wise be diminished by human frailty. This the apostles and the first disciples have shown us. On Sunday, November 11, at 7 a.m., Maria started in a boat which was to take her to Hernæsand, a small seaport in the Gulf of Bothnia, whence she has to travel about 150 leagues on her skates: it will take her about a month to rejoin her family and her herd of reindeers. She has taken a stock of clothing with her, and one not less valuable of affectionate remembrances and sweet consolations. We went to the shore to greet her again, and to accompany her with our prayers: her last words were, "The peace of God with you!" Ah, may the peace of God be with her also! May He keep her in those icy solitudes, and support the faith and the charity with which she is animated! May He be with us also! May the example of this pious, happy woman be to us, not a discouragement, but a stimulus to act better and more energetically! This is my prayer for you and for myself. Russia. A correspondent of the Czas, describing the state of matters in Lithuania and White Russia, says :-"The peasant who resolves to baptize his child according to the rites of the Catholic Church, is fined 30 roubles, while he who presents his child to a priest of the Greek Church for baptism, receives a douceur of 15 roubles. The Government officials and employés who refuse to adopt the Greek faith are pitilessly expelled from the service, without the least consideration for them or for their families. The funds belonging to the Catholic churches are being seized, and the ecclesiastics are deported, in order to accelerate the work of conversion." An officer of the gendarmerie who was commissioned to assist in the conversion of the Catholic population in one of the parishes of Lithuania, gives the following account of the process :-"When a considerable number of the peasantry were assembled in the Catholic church, a body of troops surrounded the edifice ; the pope (Greek priest), chalice in hands, was brought in ; and while the congregation in silence awaited what was to follow, the pope went from one individual to another to dispense the sacrament. If any one closed his teeth and refused to accept the sacrament, the soldier who accompanied the priest opened the mouth of the recalcitrant with his bayonet." Such is the pro cess of Muscovite conversion! India. THE AMERICAN MARATHI MISSION. Ir was our privilege to be present at the Annual Meeting of the American Mission at Ahmednuggur. As our readers are aware, this is something more than a mere meeting of missionaries; it is a gathering of the Native Christians from all the villages in the district; a kind of annual festival, a Feast of Tabernacles. On Monday, October 22nd, there was the examination of the Ahmednuggur Girls' School, and on Tuesday that of the Catechists' School; in the former there are about 50 pupils, in the latter nearly as many. These are almost all the children of Christians. The examination was satisfactory. Though the instruction is all given through the medium of the Marathi language, it was made evident that the scholars are very carefully and thoroughly taught. The Catechists' school is, in a sense, a high school, the more promising pupils of the common schools being drafted into it. On Wednesday there was the examination of the Theological Class, consisting of seven members, most of whom, or all, are now ready to be licensed to preach the Gospel as evangelists or pastors. Great pains have evidently been taken to fit these young men for the work to which they have been looking forward. This was followed by an examination of the candidates for admission to the Catechists' School, or Normal School, as it is now proposed to call it. 33 are 41 catechists and 40 teachers, the latter being also to some extent catechists, preaching the Gospel in the villages where they are stationed. There are 5 pastors of churches.- Bombay Guardian. THE ORISSA FAMINE. The Hurkaru of November 2nd enters into an elaborate calculation of the probable number of in excess of our previous conceptions. The calvictims by the famine, and the result is frightfully culation is that in the districts of Cuttack 502,212 persons have perished by the famine; in Balasore, 151,440; in Poree, 120,256; and in Maunbhoom, 100,000. Our contemporary adds :— "But these districts were not alone the sufferers. Tirhoot and Goruckpore, Behar and the Ganges Delta, the whole valleys of the Damooda and Roopnarian, and the 24 Pergunnahs have to be taken into account, and will all help to swell the ghastly total, which would thus reach a figure at which the imagination stands aghast; for we are driven to conclude that in Bengal the famine must have swept away at least 2,000,000 souls, or about one-eighteenth of the population, taking it at the lowest possible figure!” BAPTISM OF PARSEES. We insert the following notices by Dr. Wilson of recent baptisms, under very interesting circumstances, at Bombay :— "The first of the individuals baptized is a Kankubja Brahmani, the young wife of a native officer who was baptized by us in 1864, and who is now a zealous colporteur of the Bombay Bible Society. She joined her husband but a short time before his conversion, to which, for a season, she was very much opposed. A severe illness has, with the blessing of God, been the means of softening her heart, and leading her to regard with interest the doctrine of salvation; and to commit herself to the Saviour Jesus Christ, whose word she has learned from her husband, from the head female teacher of Mrs. Wilson's school, and from the Hindustani services of the mission conducted alternately by Mr. Dhanjibhai and myself. She has for some time manifested much simplicity and meekness of character, which have been very en The Anniversary Services proper were held on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Some forty or fiity short addresses, on a great variety of subjects, were delivered by the catechists, teachers, pastors, and missionaries, the subjects having been pre-couraging to her instructors. viously assigned them by a committee. A portion of every hour was given to devotional services. A paper was read showing the progress made by the Mission in the last year. The present number of communicants is about 650. There "The other two converts are both young Parsis, on whom the eyes of many have been placed for a considerable time, and in connexion with whom we have had much to do, especially for the last two months. "One of them, named Jijibhai Jivaji, has just commenced his eighteenth year. I have known him from his early boyhood, when he entered the vernacular department of our institution, in which he learned to read and write in both the Gujarati and Marathi languages; through the medium of which, too, he received much Christian instruction when, on Lord's days, he attended the mission-house at Ambrolie. When his progress in the vernaculars warranted the movement, he was transferred to the English department of the institution, in which he rose from the lowest to the second class of the school division. Altogether, excluding a year when he was absent from Bombay, he has enjoyed education under our care for nine years. He early manifested strong likings for Christianity. About four years ago he began to attend the weekly meeting for Bible-reading and prayer held at my house, from which, during this interval, he has been seldom if ever absent. He made no secret of his desire to enter the Christian Church; and often spoke to his father as well as myself on this all-important matter. His father did not seem much opposed to his views, but directed him to leave the institution, and to take employment where it could be found. For a few months he was engaged in the Bombay post-office; but he did not in consequence cease to attend us for religious instruction. For a considerable time we have fully anticipated the issue which, in the good providence of God, has now occurred to our most thankful acknowledgment of the divine grace and favour. In preparation for his baptism, he has been of late very frequently with us; and the opposition of his family to his Christian exercises, and his forcible confinement by them in a room, from which he had to liberate himself by forcibly breaking the door, led him to put himself under our protection, and to come to reside in my bungalow, about three weeks ago. "The other Parsi youth, Pestonji Jehangirji, is nineteen years of age. He has not enjoyed the same Christian educational advantages that Jijibhai has done. He was educated at the Jamshedji Jijibhai school, which he left some considerable time ago for a clerkship in the office of the translator of the high court. In one of the numerous native libraries in Bombay he found various Christian publications which attracted his attention; and in our bazaar shops he obtained copies of several of our mission publications, with notices of the occurrences in connexion with former cases of Parsi conversion. With these his religious inquiries and convictions commenced, which were deepened by conversations he had with one or two mission-agents, to whose addresses he once or twice listened. In November of last year he obtained a letter of introduction to me from our converted friend Mr. Cohen (now engaged in secular employment); but it was abstracted from him, and published as a note of warning in one of the native newspapers. On the 23rd of June, however, he came to me with another Parsi youth, and expressed his wish to be received as a candidate for baptism. On this occasion I introduced him to Messrs. Dhanjibhai and Stothert, who, I need not tell you, had the same gratification as myself in his application. During the last three months he has been much with us for private instruction, following, at the same time, a course of reading recommended to him; and he has also attended several of the mission services, including a course of lectures to young men lately commenced by Mr. Dhanjibhai. About a month ago he found it expedient to come to reside in Mr. Dhanjibhai's lecture-room (rented by an excellent Christian friend for native meetings), under the care of Mr. Ganpatras and Mr. Manikji, a Parsi convert. Another young Parsi inquirer took up his abode about the same time at the same place, where we daily attended for their instruction and encouragement. On its becoming necessary for them to leave that locality, Pestonji came to reside in my bungalow, when our other young friend, who had been expected to go to Mr. Dhanjibhai's, returned to his father's house, where he still con tinues, without, however, using any part of the symbolical dress, or practising any of the rites of the Zoroastrians, or discontinuing his visits to our meetings. Pestonji went one day to his father's house, about twelve days ago, where he had a great struggle of argument, &c., with his father and other Parsi and Hindu friends. By three of these friends he was taken, under various pretences, to the settlement of the Parsis in the south of Gujarat. At one of these he saw for a few minutes, at a railway station, our own missionary, Mr. Shapurji, who exhorted him to stand fast in the faith of Jesus. All along, on the journey by the railway, he had testified to the truth; and he so strongly denounced Zoroastrianism before the Dastars (or doctors) to whom he was taken, that his friends (as I have been told by one of themselves) were glad to bring him back to Bombay, where, without loss of time, he rejoined Jijibhai at my house. "The baptism of these two interesting youths took place in the Free Church in the Esplanade, |