Three colporteurs are appointed exclusively for travelling for the sale of Scriptures and religious literature, chiefly in the Hungarian, Slavonian, German, and Hebrew languages. We have also one evangelist engaged in travelling, and at present endeavouring to obtain openings for holding missionary meetings throughout the country. V. Our Hospital opened on January 1, 1866; the first and only Protestant hospital in the Austrian dominions. Its object is the introduction of Christian nursing by trained Protestant nurses, or deaconesses, and to serve as an evangelistic centre. It is attended by two medical men. The nurses are two deaconesses from the Institution of Kaiserswerth, on the Rhine. A third deaconess attends to the poor and sick in their houses; and, among numerous other duties, she teaches the juvenile class above mentioned. The number of in-door patients in 1866 was 59; and of out-door patients, 109. VI. Printing and Sale of Tracts and Religious Literature. Eighteen tracts have been translated and printed in the Hungarian language, and ten in the Slavonian. Total number of tracts printed in Pesth in Hungarian, 100,000; in Slavonian, 65,000. Baxter's Call to the Unconverted,' printed in Hungarian, 2000 copies. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress,' Abbott's 'Mother at Home,' both in Hungarian, are in the press; several other books and tracts in Slavonian are in the hands of translators. Nineteen depositories have been established in Transylvania and Hungary, in ministers' houses, for the sale of religious literature. From 40,000 to 42,000 tracts were distributed in Hungarian, Slavonian, German, and Italian, among the military last summer in the hospitals. Otherwise the tracts are sold (in depôts and through colporteurs) at about two-thirds of the cost price. The amount of tracts sold from October to December 1866, is 12,830 copies, for fl. 142, 22. May the great Head of the Church continue to bless all these agencies to the building up of His spiritual kingdom in this land! R. KOENIG. PESTH, March 21. APPENDIX D. EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF MR. KOENIG AT PESTH TO LONDON TRACT SOCIETY. LAST Summer's war afforded opportunities such as have never before occurred in Austria for the scattering of tracts among the troops. The Pesth military hospitals were filled with soldiers, sick or wounded, of many different nations, languages, and creeds. It is computed that during the months of July to October the number of sufferers accommodated in the various hospitals in the two sister cities, from day to day, was 14,000. Permission to visit the hospitals, for the purpose of distributing scriptures and tracts, was sought from the military authorities,-readily granted and improved. The total number of tracts distributed among the military during the months above mentioned in the Hungarian, Slavonian, German, and Italian languages, has been between 40,000 and 42,000. Regarding general distribution, the principle has been adopted that the tracts should not be given gratis, but sold,—the books at the cost-price and the tracts at two-thirds of the cost-price. This has met with general approbation. Ministers and people are ready to purchase, and consider the tracts very cheap. Up to the end of December, 12,830 tracts have been sold, realizing fl.142, 22. This is not a complete return for the year, as some of the depositories were established only in October and November. Among other incidents the following is mentioned : : In the month of September last the printer of our 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 forest, 60 miles in length, and from 10 to 25 in breadth, belongs to the wildest regions in 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 10 florins, which he sent in advance. The order was of course executed immediately. A week after I had despatched these tracts another incident came to light in connexion 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 occupied themselves with 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.' APPENDIX E. EXTRACT FROM REPORT OF GLASGOW LADIES' ASSOCIATION, 1867. It becomes us to record our grateful sense of all God's mercies, both in the preservation of our valued missionaries and teacher during the dreadful ravages of the cholera, and for the great comfort and confidence with which we can repose in our band of faithful labourers. We have also cause to render thanks for the doors of usefulness that have already been opened up, and that are still, in God's good providence, being opened up, proving that there is much work to be overtaken and an ample field for all our funds. Miss Primrose writes: We hope the truth is silently working in many hearts. We know the children listen to, and learn and repeat, with evident pleasure, the words of life with which we are commissioned. Verses are selected for each day bearing on the lesson; and these are learned often in homes of one apartment, where the whole family hear, and sometimes learn the words repeated by the children. The hymns they sing are also a great source of delight to children and parents. And who can tell the amount of missionary work that even now these little ones may be doing?' EXTRACT FROM Report of EDINBURGH LADIES' ASSOCIATION, 1866. ONE of the encouraging marks of progress is the increasing number of girls from Spanish Jewish families who have of late applied for admission to our school. Formerly they were bigotted and difficult of access, but now the parents are grateful to us for receiving them. From the similarity of Spanish to Italian it is not long before the Spanish girls understand all that is said to them, and thus access is found to the native Spanish Jewish population, which is very large. After a full account of the school examination, the Report goes on to say:-Miss Whittet continues her visitation of the families, and, willing or unwilling as they may be to listen, she finds a ready entrance. Miss Ewan spends what time she can spare in the same way. There are many evidences that the girls take home the truths they learn in school to their parents. One of the exercises of Miss Whittet's elder girls (a class of twenty-eight) is going over every morning what they have read in the Bible the evening before. Sometimes Miss Whittet asks who have read the chapter to their friends, -and they are so pleased to tell, one that she has read to her father, another to her mother, a third to the whole family, a fourth to servants. Strange as it may seem, these young Jewesses have been led to take an interest in the circulation of the Scriptures. Eighteen attended the annual meeting of missionaries in connexion with the Bible Society. Two of them are collectors, aud they were greatly pleased with the arrangement that half of the money collected should go to the Society and the other half be kept as a fund from which any poor Jew who could read, and had no Bible, might get one at a reduced price. MEMBERS OF COMMITTEE. Rev. A. Moody Stuart, 43 Queen Street. Rev. Dr. Duncan, 10 Dalrymple Crescent. Rev. John Thomson, Free St. George's, Paisley. Rev. W. Wood, Elie, Fife. Rev. J. W. Wright, Haddington. Rev. W. Cousin, Melrose. Rev. R. Lang, Nenthorn, Kelso. Rev. J. Fairbairn, Greenlaw, Dunse. Rev. John Thomson, Jamaica Street, Leith. Rev. James Black, Dunnikier F.C., Kirkcaldy. Rev. Thomas Brown, 16 Carlton Street. Rev. Dr. H. Bonar, Grange, Edinburgh. Rev. W. Laughton, Greenock. Rev. T. S. Anderson, Crailing, Kelso. Rev. James M'Gregor, Free High Church, Paisley. Rev. Alexander Munro, Campbeltown. Rev. Alexander Cusin of Lady Glenorchy's. Rev. Dr. David Brown, Aberdeen. Rev. J. H. Wilson, 10 Gilmore Place. Rev. A. MOODY STUART, Convener. Free Church of Scotland. REPORT OF THE CHURCH AND MANSE BUILDING COMMITTEE TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. MAY 186 7. THE Committee had reckoned upon receiving last autumn the biennial general collection, to which they had for a considerable period been reduced; but instead of the whole collection, they received only one-half, the last General Assembly having been constrained to admit another object to come in and participate in the collection to the extent of one-half. As the amount of the collection was not materially, if at all, increased by the admission of this participant, the effect was simply to abstract from this Scheme one-half of the Funds to which it had been accustomed to look forward, and bestow it upon another and a different object. And this was done in the face of very strong and reiterated representations by this Committee of the great inadequacy of its resources, and the urgency and importance of the claims upon it. The amount realized by the Collection was £2852, 14s. 4d., onehalf of which fell to this Committee Giving, for Church Building, And for Manse Building, £713 3 7 713 3 7 £1426 7 2 With resources so seriously reduced, the Committee have found the task of meeting the numerous claims upon the Fund far from agreeable to themselves or satisfactory to the claimants. It appeared to them that where there was little distinction as regards the strength and urgency of the claims, all were entitled to participate, and consequently the share allotted to each was necessarily very small. Referring to the annexed accounts for details, the following is a summary of last year's procedure, under the two branches of Church and Manse Building : I. CHURCH BUILDING. So soon as the Committee could ascertain what amount of Funds they would have at their disposal, they proceeded to consider the applications for aid. Of these, there were no less than thirty-one, of which twenty-two were admitted to grants, and nine were postponed. The grants were as follow :— Eight Grants for the erection of Churches where no Deduct Grant to New Territorial Church in Dundee, Three Grants, where grants had been previously given but claim reserved for more, Eleven Grants for re-building, in whole or part, or enlarging or repairing Churches, £400 0 0 50 0 0 £350 0 0 60 0 0 340 11 7 A number This is the amount of new Grants passed this year. of these have been already paid and are included in the discharge of the annexed accounts, along with nearly the whole of the grants which remained unpaid at the end of the previous year. At the close of the year the following is the state of this branch of the scheme as regards funds and liabilities: Balance of Funds in the hands of the General Treasurer at 31st March 1867, Amount of Unpaid Grants, . £375 16 3 335 0 0 Balance of Fund, £40 16 3 |