frequently unintelligible, it is deemed preferable to publish, from time to time, in one of the Indian medical journals, whatever appears to be strange, interesting, or instructive.

For the professional improvement of the native doctor and the dispensary assistants, classes were held throughout the season for the study of materia medica, chemistry, and anatomy. In conclusion, we would repeat what has already been said under the head of mission accommodation, that the medical department of the work, in an especial manner, labours under considerable difficulties from the want of proper and sufficient buildings.

MISSIONARY WORK.

This is the particular feature of our proceedings which is most distasteful to the local government of Kashmir. Like all bigoted, illiberal, and tyrannical governments, the native rulers of the valley thoroughly hate and fear the enlightening and elevating influence of Christianity. Every means is taken advantage of by those at the helm of affairs of Kashmir to continue and perpetuate the worse than Egyptian darkness that at present prevails in that unhappy and deplorable country. For a native to enquire even about the Christian religion, is still considered a heinous crime, worthy of fines, stripes, and imprisonments. The avenues leading to the mission bungalow were closely watched by sepoys, and it is well known that many who were sick, and much in want of medical and surgical aid, were thereby intimidated and deterred from frequenting the dispensary. This most reprehensible policy on the part of the native rulers of Kashmir, renders genuine mission work peculiarly difficult.

Last summer an effort was made to get the people to buy at small prices the Gospels and religious books which, during the first year of the mission, we had been in the habit of giving away gratuitously. This effort, however, failed. Education is at such a very low ebb in Kashmir, and the people have so little thirst for knowledge, that they are not yet willing to pay for books on the Christian religion; consequently, those who were found able to read, and who expressed a desire to have religious books, received them for nothing, and in this way numerous copies of the Gospels and religious books were given away. May God's Holy Spirit be with the readers of these books.

The religious exercises of the dispensary were conducted in the same manner this year as last. Before the physical ailments of the people were

attended to, a carefully selected passage of Scripture was read and briefly commented on in the hearing of the people, after which a short prayer for the Divine blessing on the patients, the word read and explained, and the advice and medicine about to be dispensed, was offered up. This was our daily practice. On all occasions, without a single exception, the behaviour of the people was quiet and attentive. In these addresses seldom was any express reference made to the absurdities of Hinduism, or to the falsities of the religion of the false prophet; because we deem such references better fitted for the solitary interview than for the crowded assembly. We wish our hearers to know what Christianity is, to look at it with their mind's eye calmly and dispassionately. And if we know anything of the workings of the human mind, we believe that one of the main ways of effecting this is not unnecessarily to rouse the prejudices of your heathen listeners. The surpassing reasonableness and excellencies of the Christian religion should be the chief theme of the preacher to a crowd of heathens, leaving them to institute a comparison between their own corrupt and false religion and that of Jesus Christ.

Such, then, are the leading particulars respecting another six months' Medical Mission work in the Valley of Kashmir. Unquestionably much in the local government and present condition of the inhabitants is well fitted greatly to discourage us. But, on the other hand, the thought that more than three thousand sufferers from various maladies have either been wholly cured or their pains alleviated, the thought that the wondrous story of God's marvellous love to a sin-ruined world in the stupendous gift of His own dear Son, has become more extensively known, and the absolute certainty of the final triumph of the Gospel throughout the world should nerve, cheer, and encourage us to advance steadily, joyfully, and believingly in our Divine Master's great and good work. "As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord."

Contributions to the various objects of the Medical Missionary Society are received in Edinburgh by the Commercial Bank, or Dr. Omond, 43, Charlotte Square; and in London by Mr. James Watson (Messrs. Nisbet & Co.), 21, Berners Street, W., or by Messrs. Fuller, Banbury, Mathieson & Co., 77, Lombard Street.

England.

(From our own Correspondent.) THE publication of the report of the Ritual Commission in August has been followed by the still more important publication of a large portion of the evidence. This evidence is likely to be much more important than the report itself; and its revelations have given a shock to the Protestant feeling of the country. It brings to light an audacity in the proceedings of the ritualists which may force the legislature to action. There is nothing more repulsive to the feelings of Englishmen than the mysteries of the Confessional. In the Church of Rome the Confessional is guarded by certain restraints as to time and place, though it is known to be the source of wide-spread moral evil; but in these churches of the Establishment there is no security of any kind. The confessions are heard, as stated by Mr. Wagner, of Brighton, and others, in the vestries, at times selected by the clergy. One witness spoke of a young lady penitent kneeling for four hours upon her bare knees, at the altar, as a penance, for failures of temper. The ignorance of the ritualists of the first principles of Christianity is shown by their avowing that they impose as penances most frequently the repetition of prayers, thus converting into a torture the highest privilege of the Christian religion, and leading their penitents to commit blasphemy in the presence of God. It turns out that St. Alban's, Holborn, and other churches, built avowedly for the working people, are little patronized by them, being chiefly visited by strangers. Some of the city missionaries gave very important evidence on this subject.

The meeting of the Pan-Anglican Synod, with the preparatory services, has created some interest. Bishops have come from all parts. The total number of Anglican bishops is 137, of whom 75 have been present. Out of 28 members of the English bench, 10 have declined to attend. These, headed by the Archbishop of York, are chiefly of the Evangelical party. There are 43 bishops in the United States, of whom 19 have come. The Irish bench is represented by 8 out of 11. Twentythree. Colonial bishops have taken part, and all

The

the Scotch bishops-7 in number — except one prevented by old age. The complexion of the Synod is decidedly High-Church, and one of the chief objects is to consider union with other Episcopal churches, though the subjects announced are only connected with internal arrangements among the various sections of the Anglican church itself. Some disappointment is felt that Bishop Colenso's case is not in the programme. Bishop of Cape Town has been greatly vexed at the omission, and thus expressed himself at a recent meeting :-" It made him inexpressibly sad to think that he had left behind in his distant province one who was sent forth to preach this truth, and did so at one time, but who now avowedly in the name of the Church of England, and upheld by the courts of law, was declaring our Lord ignorant and Satan non-existent. He could not but feel this a grievance, and he was much depressed in spirit, notwithstanding the kindness with which he was welcomed. For he could not but bear in mind how those brethren in Natal who stood up for the faith were being persecuted and deprived of their means of existence. He did hope that the Church of England would not look on calmly and supinely, whilst their brethren were suffering as confessors. If ever Christ had a true confessor, it was that primitive Christian, his dear friend, the dean of Pieter-Maritzburg. He found, too, the poison existing in South Africa being sown more widely here, for he found clergy declaring that our Blessed Lord did not come into the world to found a spiritual kingdom, that He did not rise from the dead, and consequently that He did not ascend into heaven, or send the Holy Ghost, and will not come back again. He saw the Church indeed moved to its very foundations, but for what? About the shape or colour of an ecclesiastical dress. A commission of great men in Church and State was sitting on this subject, while the infidelity spreading at home and in the Colonies does not move to its foundation the consciences of the English people. He knew good men were grieved and distressed beyond measure, and he acknowledged the many hearty addresses of sympathy he had received, but he thought two things were binding on the Church of England;

(1) that she should as a Church say that she holds no communion with Bishop Colenso, if she is to be clear from all complicity with that which the whole Church regards as fearful heresy; (2) that she should give the right hand of fellowship to him elected in Bishop Colenso's room, or, if dissatisfied with him, to some chief pastor acceptable to herself, who might fold the scattered sheep and witness for the Church against heresy." Daily services were held in the week previous to the conference, at which addresses were delivered by many of the Colonial and United States bishops. The Bishop of Rhode Island referred to the joint clerical and lay action in the Convention of the Episcopal Church of the United States, and said, amidst an audible murmur of assent from all parts of the building, that if the Church of England would have its work well done, it must admit the laity into its councils. The exclusion of the laity from them was the great blot upon its system. In all the colonies, as well as in the United States, the lay element has been introduced.

The Times gives interesting statistics in regard to the Church of England, by which it appears that the number of incumbents has increased, in thirty or forty years, from 5,000 to about 13,000; one great cause being Bishop Blomfield's act against pluralities. The number of curates has remained stationary, being close upon 5,000. These statistics prove the growing activity of the Church, and also the large amount of work done by private voluntary effort, in founding new incumbencies and providing livings. Mr. Gladstone has delivered a speech on missions, for which he has always shown a warm interest, in which he says: "It is almost an elementary truth, almost a truism, to lay down this doctrine,--that Christians, individual Christians, and a people of Christians have positively no right to enter into social and civil relations with those parts of the world which are not Christian, and decline to communicate to them the great treasure which they possess in the Christian religion, and without which all other treasures are valueless." It would be well if our statesmen generally were impressed with the importance of the truth here stated.

The Church Missionary Society has presented an appeal to their supporters for increased support. They fear that the expenditure, an increase in which has been caused by the great rise in the price of food in the large missions, may exceed the income by nearly £13,000 in the current year,

unless a special effort be made. The appeal will, we hope, be heartily responded to.

The Bishop of Carlisle (Waldegrave) has spoken out very vigorously in his Triennial Visitation Charge on the sacerdotal theory, which is the centre of the whole controversy between Romanism and genuine Protestantism. The following are brief extracts :

The question which he proposed for their consideration was this :- -What constitutes the essence of the ministry under the Christian dispensation? There was no concealing the fact that two distinct and contradictory theories are held upon this subject. The one theory might be called the Sacerdotal, and the other the Evangelistic theory. One, the Sacerdotal, found its most full and complete exposition in the formularies of Trent and the communion of Rome; the other, the Evangelistic, was embodied in the documents and the constitution of the Protestant Church of England with a reverence, simplicity, and chastity which justly vindicated for her the most honourable place of all the daughters of the Reformation. . . Turning to the Evangelistic theory of Christ's ministry-in no ecclesiastical authority was that exhibited more clearly, more fully, and more practically than in the United Church of England and Ireland. It was a ministry of Evangelism. The Lord Jesus, having made perfect our redemption by his death, sent abroad his apostles, prophets, evangelists, doctors, and pastors, by whose labour and ministry he gathered together a great flock in all parts of the world to set forth the power of his holy name. . . The scriptures decided unequivocally against the pretensions of sacerdotalism. Where, when admitted into the inner life of the pastors of the Church, did they find the sacrament of penance or the sacrifice of the Mass ? Nowhere; and yet, for the sacerdotal theory, they ought to have been everywhere. Surely, as was well spoken many years ago, not only was it improbable, but, on the supposition of the apostolic inspiration, it was quite inconceivable that the priestly attributes, if they really existed in the Christian ministry, should not have taken their place, at all events, in the charges to pastors, as, in this view, they ought to have been the most awful part of their office. If they had any existence at all, they were not capable of a secondary place. It was possible to point out some isolated text which seemed at first sight to countenance the sacerdotal theory; but if they examined carefully the several passages they would find that it was not so, but that every

where ministers were spoken of as apostles, teachers, ambassadors, and heralds, each term implying the delivery of a message, the teaching of a message, the propounding of a doctrine, and the propagation of a decree, and nowhere, he proceeded to contend by a comparison of texts, was the sacerdotal theory propounded.

Scotland.

(From our own Correspondent.)

THE British Association met, this month, at Dundee. It was most cordially received and hospitably entertained. The only point to be noticed, in a Christian relation, is the determination shown by a few of the members to assail the chronology of Scripture. At such an association all scientific facts must be received; but the crude and hasty attempt to make use of these, when often ill understood, to create a prejudice against the statements of revealed religion, gives evidence of a spirit of strong hostility. The unity especially of the human race is not only a statement of Scripture, but upon this unity rests the value of the Christian revelation; and with its rejection the whole fabric of Christianity, as a religion given by God to man, is undermined.

The quiet and beautiful village of Aberdour on the Forth has been disturbed this summer by the running of steamers from Leith. It was never felt more necessary in Scotland to guard the sacred observance of the Lord's-day; and the rushing in of crowds to quiet country retreats is most obnoxious to the feelings of the people. The question has been agitated in different church courts, and addresses have also been forwarded to various public bodies who might, it was hoped, possess influence.

A very interesting report is given of the Ladies' Highland School Association, in connexion with the Free Church. Schools have been planted in the most remote districts of a high character, in which even Latin and mathematics are frequently taught; and these schools are maintained at a fabulously cheap rate. The desire of the Highlanders for learning is proverbial, and it is in these schools very strikingly shown. To give an idea of the strange, isolated places in which some of these schools are planted, we quote the following from the well-known Dr. Mackay of Harris, who has been indefatigable in this good work. He is describing Renigidil and Molinginish, two schools on the opposite sides of an inlet branching off from Loch Seafurth. "Of all secluded and inaccessible

corners known to me either in the Highlands or islands, these two inhabited spots are the most inaccessible. They are mountains, and not mere hills, that form the two sides of this inlet of Loch Seafurth, and mountains not less precipitous than any mountains in Scotland-one of them named Odin, a remembrance of Scandinavian rule in Harris. One stream runs into the head of the sea inlet, of very considerable body, and is frequently impassable to the stoutest men. This, of course, the children going from Molinginish and Renigidil have to cross, and sometimes do so to the danger of their lives; and other numerous streams, bursting into violent torrents, pour down into the sea from ruts, and I may say rents, in these mountains-changes occurring frequently in the course of a few hours-rendering it dangerous to cross them. We may form some idea of the extreme remoteness of this place by the panic occasioned by the appearance of a quadruped common enough in civilised regions. Not one of these children had ever seen a horse before (they encountered it on their way to school), and on beholding the strange apparition, in one simultaneous fit of terror the poor children fled pell-mell, rushing out upon a small beach up to their waists in the sea, and raising the cry of terror."

The following extract shows how these schools are managed :-"By making a point of employing students in training for the ministry, the Ladies' Association secure well-educated teachers, some of whom indeed, have recently obtained the highest honours at the Edinburgh and Glasgow universities. Ministers in whose parishes the schools are bear ample testimony to the high character of the young men, and the good influence exercised by them over the neighbourhood. Sabbath services are conducted by the teachers in places where the people cannot get to church; as, for instance, at Kinlochewe, where the nearest church is eighteen miles distant. Sabbath schools are always held in connexion with the day schools, and sewing classes are as frequently as possible added to the ordinary schools. This can generally be done for the sum of £5 or £6 per annum-a great boon conferred at a wonderfully small cost. There are now fifty-six schools, to thirty-seven of which these sewing classes are attached."

These schools deserve the warm support of those who enjoy in summer the beautiful scenery of the Highlands. The treasurers, from whom all particulars can be got, are Miss Maitland, 9, Walker Street, Edinburgh; and Miss Wood, 2, Oxford Terrace, Edinburgh.

Ireland.

(From our own Correspondent.)

EARL RUSSELL is in Ireland, and it would be impossible to persuade nine-tenths of the people that he has not come to prepare himself for the great question of the Irish Church. The Commission promised at the close of the session to investigate the present relations of that Church has not yet come into existence, and, on the authority of the Attorney-General, will confine its attention to internal reform; but vigorous efforts are made to spread the Church Institute through the country, and by county meetings and otherwise to rouse the Church to its own defence. The prelates themselves come forward, like Bishop O'Brien of Ossory through a pamphlet, or like the Bishop of Killaloe through a charge, which is noteworthy also for its vigorous denunciation of Ritualism and its exhibition of some of the political dangers that may attend this ecclesiastical movement. Yet there is an impression among some of the ablest men that the Church will be disestablished,—an impression to which the Dean of Cork lately gave eloquent utterance at Salisbury. The Irish Church, he says, is the Church of the English Colony in Ireland; and if she is to be stripped of her dignity and wealth, he claims for her the freedom of a Colonial Church and the prospect of a noble future. The policy of the Romish Bishops is uncertain. They ostentatiously declare they will accept no endowment from the State; but endowment may be made in indirect ways, and it is whispered they would accept glebes: nor is there any principle involved in their refusal, since they receive already Government grants for the education of their clergy and for their convent schools. They are immediately to meet in session; and Monsignor Nardi, the Pope's private chaplain, is flitting about from diocese to diocese, like a petrel before the storm.

The Bishop of Cork has been confirming 1,241 of the young in twenty parishes of his diocese; and in Connemara, the Bishop of Tuam has recently confirmed 223, only 33 of whom were the children of original Protestants. The latest Bishop, as yet only designate, promises also to be among the most energetic, and is understood to have inaugurated his episcopate of Derry by an act of generous self-sacrifice, offering £1000 a year from his income of almost £5000 to supplement the see of Cork, which counts but £2000 of

revenue. It has been remarked that his name, in company with the names of the Bishops of Ossory, Killaloe, and Cork, is not found in the preliminary list of prelates attending the PanAnglican Synod.

Mr. Campbell, the clergyman who was so grievously assailed at Granard, has been threatened in various places since; and the Roman Catholic press takes no little credit for the forbearance by which he was actually suffered to speak without being knocked on the head. The forbearance seems entirely owed, however, to the active interference of the police; and there is sufficient evidence that the Romanists of Ireland have not yet learned the first principles of religious toleration. There has been a still more recent instance. Mr. Wakefield, an Englishman, settled in county Westmeath, and was on perfect good terms with his neighbours. His wife visited among the cottages of the poor, with whom she sometimes read the Bible. As the result was that a girl joined the Protestant Church, the priest wrote, "I will feel obliged if you would confine your zeal in religious matters to those of your own belief, whatever that may be, and don't attempt to interfere with any of my flock. Should you make any further attempt to do so, you may rely you will find it very unpleasant." It was not a courteous letter, and Mr. Wakefield replied in considerable heat, demanding an apology. The result was a monster meeting, over which the parish priest presided, which decided that Mr. Wakefield's letter was an insult to their faith, and denounced him as an intruder, and was followed up by withholding from him any labourers to cut his harvest.

Whatever may be the immediate issue, Romanism does not now ignore but studies Protestantism. It is an attitude that manifests itself in various ways, that betrays a consciousness of danger and of the strength of the Protestant Church in days when the press becomes the missionary. The efforts to plant some Romish organization everywhere is one index, and has recently been successful in putting a convent and chapel for sisters of mercy on the poor-rate of Tullamore under the plea of providing hospital nurses. Another index may be found in the circulation of Protestant books among the priests, evidently with a view to form acquaintance with Protestant teachings. A different motive-the simple one of reading what is good-may explain the curious fact that there are booksellers whose best customers for Mr. Spurgeon's sermons are Roman Catholic priests;