appearances, stood fast and firm. Their many strokes had been apparently lost, but the architect knew that they were gradually communicating motion to the wall, creating an agitation throughout the whole of it, and that, by-and-by, when they had continued long enough, the entire mass would come down beneath a single stroke. The workmen, no doubt, attributed the result to the one crowning concussion, but their master knew that their previous strokes had only culminated in that one tremendous blow, and that all the non-resultant work had been necessary to prepare for the stroke which achieved the purpose. O, Christian people, do not expect always to see the full outgrowth of your labours! Go on, serve your God, testify of His truth, tell of Jesus' love, pray for sinners, live a godly life, serve God with might and main, and if no harvest spring up to your joyous sickle, others shall follow you and reap what you have sown; and since God will be glorified, it shall be enough for you. Be uneasy about it, but not be discouraged; let not even this iron break the resolution of your soul; let your determination to honour Jesus be as the northern iron and the steel.-C. H. Spurgeon.

PASTORAL Visiting may be done in such a way as to be absurd. I saw a caricature the other day in one of our papers in reference to it; a Presbyterian minister going around with an elder, reading a chapter, catechising the children, etc. You can put that in such a way as to make it look supremely ridiculous; but the thing rightly done is not ridiculous. No man of sense would now go about it in that way. The charm, the essence of pastoral visitation, is thisthat a man goes into the bosom of the family; he talks to them in their own vernacular. The children, perhaps, as they looked up at him in the pulpit on a Sunday, did not realize very distinctly that he be

longed to the human race at all The language he spoke, even the box in which he stood, is peculiar to a church; but when the man goes into the family, it is a kind of pleasant surprise to the children to see that he is really a man of flesh, and in many respects something like their own father. He can bring down to the family the tones, and common, ordinary feeling of humanity, and they will feel themselves a little nearer to him than before. He asks them about the children, and if he has children they will ask about his own in return; then the sorrows come up; they perhaps weep, and if he is a true man, perhaps a tear will come into his own eye. There is no studied ceremony about it; if he sees the family is not just then engaged, he perhaps will say in a quiet serious way, "These troubles we can best get rid of by telling our Father of them. Had we not better pray gether?" A simple prayer is offered, but it has linked in communion the hearts of these people to his heart. He knows them now. They know him now. They feel that they know him. When he goes to these people in the pulpit, it is a conversation to his friends, a talking to those who trust him. A bond of sympathy is one of the strongest helps that you can have toward thoroughly good preaching.—Dr. John Hall.

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Irever it appeared as if there might be a just revolt against the will of Providence, it seemed to be at the time when the meek Saviour, innocent, lowly, and loving, was sold by the traitor, deserted of His disciples, assailed by the false accuser, and condemned by the unjust judge, whilst a race of malefactors and ingrates crowded around their deliverer, howling for His blood-the blood of the Holy One. But though the cup was bitter, it was meekly drunk, for it had been the Father's will to mingle it, and his was the hand that held to the lips of the Son the deadly

raught. Lawlessness is hushed at e sight of Gethsemane. In the arden and at the cross you see illusrated the sanctity of law as it apears nowhere else. It was Mercy ndeed that was forcing her way to he sinner; but as she went, she was een doing homage to Justice, and aying the debt, ere she freed the aptive. That dread transaction roclaimed the truth that transression could never in God's unierse occur with impunity: and that one did not suffer, another must. Tenderness was there lavished, such as the heart of man never conceived in its hour of most impassioned and concentrated affection. Yet that enderness leaned on the sternest

principle. The Father loved the Son thus sacrificed as his well-beloved one; yet it " pleased the Father to bruise Him." Surely here is found no precedent for the lawless tenderness that exonerates the criminal and blames the law. It is not at the cross of Christ that ministry has learned its lesson, which employs itself in weaving silken scabbards, in the vain hope to sheathe the lightning of God's law; or which is full of dainty contrivances to muffle "the live leaping thunders” of Sinai, and make them no longer a terror to the evil-doer. In the last scenes of the Saviour's life that law was not contemned, but "magnified and made honourable."-William R. Williams.

THE following particulars, we rust, will be useful to our readers, as ompressing within a short space he principal facts connected with he present history and position of he Baptist Missionary Society.

Year by year, the fields occupied by the Society have multiplied as well as extended, so that now we have missionaries in nearly all parts of the heathen world: in India, China, Ceylon, Africa, Hayti, Triniad, and the Bahamas. We have missionaries also in Jamaica, now no onger a heathen island, and in Noray, Brittany, and Rome. In these arious fields there are sixty-three missionaries, two hundred and wenty native pastors and preachers, nd one hundred and forty-three choolmasters: a grand total of four undred and twenty-six agents. his is a very considerable amount agency, and it goes on increasing very year.

No account of our missionary ork would be complete now, if othing were said about the Zenana ission. The Ladies' Association

in London are conducting this with great efficiency and zeal. At present, the Association supports eight lady visitors and fourteen Bible women in India. All these are so many valuable additions to the staff of workers mentioned above.

Our readers know that during the past year, the Rev. J. G. Gregson, of Portsea, offered his services to the Society to go out to India again. The pressing need of men for that large and important field of labour induced him to give up a happy and useful position in this country. In this step he has secured, as he certainly deserves, the wide-spread sympathy of all friends of our missions. We invoke upon him, his wife and his children, the blessing and protection of their Heavenly Father. The committee have also accepted the services of Mr. De St. Dalmas, for India. This young brother is now pursuing some preliminary studies prior to his going out. These two brethren, however, only supply the places of those we have lost, for Mr. Supper has died, and Mr.

John Gregson has gone to Australia. So many of our missionaries in India are aged, or in inferior health, that it becomes an anxious question how in future the work is to be carried on. We can only look to the Lord of the harvest for more labourers.

Two brethren have been sent to Jamaica: the Revs. T. L. Rees and P. Williams. The society has engaged to support them for four years, while they are doing a work of evangelisation in a hitherto somewhat neglected part of the island. It is hoped that by the end of that time, if not before, they will have succeeded in forming two or more self-supporting Churches. From present signs there is every prospect of their being able to do so.

The Rev. Joseph Hawkes has been sent to Hayti, where he is working very happily and successfully. Two additional brethren have been taken up in Norway; and the Rev. James Wall, of Rome, to the delight of a very large number of friends, has been placed on the list of the Society's missionaries.

The returns of missionary work are always necessarily imperfect, and there is always much more done than can be reported; nevertheless it is encouraging to know that the missionaries have baptized during the year, in India one hundred and sixty persons; in Ceylon, forty-one; in Norway, sixty-nine; in Rome, fifty; in Trinidad, seventy-three; in the Bahamas, one hundred and twenty-three; in Africa, seventeen: a total of five hundred and thirtythree persons; a larger number

than the average.

The itinerating labours of the missionaries have been unusually extensive, not only throughout the districts occupied, but in the regions beyond. Mr. Richard, our missionary at Chefoo, has penetrated Manchuria, in northern China. Messrs. Etherington and Bates have visited central India. Mr. Page has

spent three months among Buddhists of Independent Sikk Melas, fairs, and markets have b diligently visited, and the Go preached to many hundreds of th sands of persons, ignorant of way of Life.

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Encouraging progress has b made in establishing porting Churches in Bengal in Delhi. In the former sphere, Kerry, and in the latter, Mr. Jam Smith, have been cheered by m success than they had anticipat The younger members of Churches, especially, are showing more active and earnest spirit th heretofore. We trust that ere lo not a few native Churches will altogether independent of the ciety.

Our work in China, though it the day of small beginnings with is very interesting and encouragin Besides Mr. Richard's work, t which we have referred above, D W. Brown, our medical missionar has acquired the language and co menced a dispensary, having fitt up and set apart a portion of t native chapel for this purpose.

In Ceylon, the churches are d playing a praiseworthy activity the erection of chapels and scho houses. The Old Testament, trai lated by Mr. Carter, is undergoing thorough revision, preparatory its being sent to press. A Singh lese hymn-book has also been pu lished for use in Christian wo ship.

In Africa, Mr. Saker, who many years has been translati the Word of God in the Dua tongue, has now completed his wor The whole Bible is now rendered that language.

In Hayti, Mr. Hawkes has ceived a hearty welcome from people. He finds the Church sened in numbers by death, from the effect of the recent revo tions through which the island passed; but the members

maintained the means of grace, and tre steadfast in the faith.

In the Bahamas, distress and loss of trade continue to press on the people of Turk's Islands, and Mr. Pegg will henceforward, at the instance of the committee, make the Island of St. Domingo his head quarters, where there is a large and untrodden sphere of missionary labour.

All the accounts we have had from Jamaica during the past year have been very encouraging. The institution in Calabar, for the training of a native ministry, is very efficiently carried on, and not a few useful ministers have been sent out from thence. We have already referred to those comparatively destitute parts of the island where we have sent two fresh missionaries. Besides these, the Churches of the island are supporting several more. Jamaica has long ceased to be a heathen island; and few parts of our old mission field have been more blessed.

In Europe, the missions in Italy, Norway, and France, continue to afford the most gratifying results. occupied in Rome are filled with hearers; many persons

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have been baptized, and in the neighbouring cities several small knots of persons regularly meet for the reading of the Scriptures and prayer.

All the above work has been done with a comparatively small amount of money. Our income, from all sources, has been something over thirty-two thousand pounds. Our expenditure has been considerably in advance of this sum. We began the year with a debt of sixteen hundred pounds, and we close it with a debt of three thousand seven hundred pounds. This great increase is mainly due to the unforeseen, but unavoidable_extra expenditure of the year. One thing encourages us: the contributions from the Churches are better this year, by more than one thousand pounds, than they were last year. This betokens increased interest in many places, and a more systematic way of working in many more. We shall want this year an increase of at least two thousand pounds. It really is not much to ask. We look to the Churches and to the God of the Churches for the help we want to carry on our great work.

C. B.

A NEW Schoolroom has been opened at Calstock, Devon, in connection with the church of which the Rev. D. Cork is the pastor.—The memorial-stone of a new chapel has been laid at Longford, near Coventry, for the church of which the Rev. J. P. Barnett is the pastor. The Baptist Chapel, Cross Leech Street, Staleybridge, under the pastorate of the Rev. A. North, has been re-opened, after considerable repair and improvement. The memorial-stone of a new schoolroom has been laid at Harrow-on-the-Hill, near London,

in connection with the church of which the Rev. J. Bigwood is the pastor. The Baptist Chapel, Dunkerton, near Bath, has been reopened after alterations.

The Rev. E. K. Everett has been

publicly recognised as the pastor of the church in Wakefield Road, Staleybridge. The Rev. A. Rollason, late of Rawdon College, has been recognised as the pastor of the church in Ebenezer Chapel, Scarborough.The Rev. W. Anderson has been recognized as the pastor of the church