greatness of the Chinese work, and especially that connected with the women. The picture of that hour is still in my memory, and I shall carry it to the grave. On the one hand I see the maimed bodies, the sightless eyes; on the other, souls clothed in the garments of the grossest superstition and of the blackest darkness. Their bodies are diseased, but their souls are far worse affected than the human frame, which soon must waste away. O light that has illuminated so many darkened lands, come to this vast empire, where woman is still a slave, and infanticide of the female sex is no secret!

A CHILD BAPTIZED.

One of the Christians, once a faithful helper in Sacramento, wished me to baptize his young son, not yet quite a month old. The mother is still a heathen, although her husband says she does not worship. “But,” said I, “do not all your relatives still worship images?” “Yes; but my child is going to be a Christian.” “I fear you do not understand the nature of infant baptism: it is a solemn thing for a parent to offer a child to God in baptism. I am afraid I cannot baptize your child while his mother is a heathen.” “If I do not have my child baptized, my relatives will teach him to worship idols.” “But what assurance have you that when you have returned to California they will not compel him to kneel to Buddah? You know it would be an awful thing if he should become an idolator after being baptized in Jesus' name.” “I realize all this,” said he; “but if my child is baptized, all the rest of my relatives will look upon him as being a Christian, and will not require him to worship the idols for them.” And so, upon the solemn promise that he would bring up his child in the fear of the Lord, I consented to administer the rite. It was rather a mixed company that gathered in a small room in a newlyerected house. A few heathen men, with quite a number of children, were curious enough to see what was going to be done. A short prayer, a few words from the Bible read by all present, and then the administration of the sacred ordinance. “Do you promise that you will not permit this child to worship idols, images, or ancestors?” Slowly I uttered the words, waiting for the answer; and in a firm and unfaltering voice he said, “I promise.” The other questions were equally as well answered, and so I baptized Lam Ch’eung Fat's little son. During the same time the gentry of the village were dedicating an ancestral hall. Would it not be interesting to know the future career of this child? Let us hope it may be one of the chosen vessels of God to preach the gospel to many.

WOL. XV. JUNE, 1885. No. 6.

BO ArtDING-SCHOOLS.
[From the Annual Report of the Mission.]

THERE are at present five boys' and four girls' boarding-schools, and one for both boys and girls. Those at Battalagundu are for the stations of Periakulum and Pulani, as well as Battalagundu. As a rule, no pupils are taken into the boys' schools without having passed the government second-standard examinations. This rule is more flexible in regard to girls' schools, except the Madura Boarding-School, which is an advanced institution, taking pupils to the middle school examination.

. . . Miss Chandler mentions items of interest in regard to the girls’ boarding-school at Battalagundu. “With few exceptions the pupils have shown diligence in their studies, and as a result passed a most satisfactory examination at the end of the year. The teachers' staff has been well filled by the head-master and two graduates of the Madura Girls' Boarding-School. As the principal building was too crowded for comfort, a small thatched building has been put up outside the inclosure, to accommodate ten or twelve of the youngest pupils. We put one of our oldest girls in charge of the cooking department, promising her slight wages if she did well. This has proved an excellent arrangement, and we are thus enabled to reap from her faithfulness what has been sown in the years past. At the communion in October three girls were admitted to the church on profession of faith. Six others who had also shown a desire to be received were formed into an inquirers' class, and met with me weekly for the study of the Bible on subjects relating to their souls' salvation. At the last communion four more were admitted to the church. A class of three girls goes from us to the Madura Girls' Normal School.”

Of the Madura Girls' Boarding-School, Mrs. Jones reports:–

In some respects it has been a year of trials and changes. Miss Rendall left at the beginning of the year, and since then no one has been able to devote as much time and attention to the school as we felt it needed. In May, Mr. Thomas Rowland, the efficient and beloved head-master, died, after a long and painful illness, and it was some time before his place could be filled. Miss Swift has been now for some months studying the language, and will ere long be able to take charge of the school.

The year closed with the government examination, which showed the classes in good order and training. There have been seventy-three pupils connected with the school this year. One, a day scholar, a little Hindu girl, died recently of cholera. Eleven of the older girls have united with the churches in the city, and others leave with the desire of uniting with the churches in their own stations. We expect to establish a normal department in the school the coming year, in order to prepare our girls more efficiently for teachers. This special course will begin with the fifth standard, and extend through the middle school. We look upon the work of the school as very important in its influence upon our educated Christian women, and hope the changes in prospect will add in every way to its usefulness.

HINDU GIRLs’ schools.

There are at the close of the year twelve Hindu girls' schools, with a total of five hundred and eighteen girls in attendance. Mr. Tracy mentions as a pleasant feature of the school at Tirumangalam, the readiness of the girls to attend regularly the Sabbath services. He reports, also, that, through the kindness of friends in America, a convenient and substantial building has been erected this year. That the children enjoy their school, and derive benefit as well as pleasure from being in it, we have many evidences. In times of sickness the Bible-woman is welcomed to their homes, and Bible-reading and prayer are not forbidden. Although there has been no resident missionary at Pulani, the Hindu girls' school has not only been kept up, but has done remarkably well. There has been an increasing amount of Bible instruction in the school at Dindigul. Dr. Chester adds, that there is no doubt that those who have studied in this school make better wives and mothers.

Mrs. Capron writes of the Hindu Girls' School in Madura City as follows:–

I have charge of four of these schools, with three masters and nine mistresses. The whole number in attendance during the year has been four hundred and twenty-two, and our number at present is two hundred and sixty-one girls. . . . The constant removals are a hindrance to substantial progress. In the North School an interesting little talk had been given on the words, “His name shall be called the Everlasting Father.” A few weeks afterward a little girl who had seemed to be impressed with the words, died of small-pox. During her sickness she found pleasure in saying over those words. There have been two deaths among those connected with the South Gate School. One of the girls had passed the fourth standard, and had been prevailed upon to join the girls' boarding-school as a day-scholar. She had for a long time shown the effects of the truth by her changed conduct. She and her mother have, in the face of much opposition, long expressed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The other case was that of a little girl in the second standard. When I went to see her, I asked what the blessed Saviour said to dear little girls like herself. Though burning hot with fever she promptly replied: “He says, “I am the bright and morning star. They that seek me early shall find me.’” The next day she begged her grandmother to take her to school, that she might see the teacher once more. We have much comfort in remembering how her heart seemed to open to all holy influences.

VILLAGE SCHOOLS.

Outside the larger towns the village schools are usually small and irregular. The fact that the children of the Christians have to work during the busy season, often breaks up a school for months at a time. In the larger towns anglo-vernacular schools are kept up more easily, the pupils consisting of high-caste Hindu children. While the majority have more or less Christian pupils in attendance, there are quite a number who do not have a single Christian pupil. The Bible, however, is taught in all the schools. Mr. Chandler speaks of the examination in Bible of a village school where there is not a Christian pupil, as very creditable. He mentions, also, another heathen school where the boys hold a meeting by themselves to study the Bible, and who always begin their meeting with prayer. Pastor Seymour speaks of a similar instance. Owing to the new and increased fees called for by the Government for schools which have fifth-standard pupils, some schools have decreased in size by the discontinuance of the fifthstandard classes.

A native pastor writes: —

I have eight Christian schools in my village. I visited one of them on a Sunday, when the teacher was away. I found, to my surprise, all the boys and girls assembled, and asked them why they had come together on Sunday. They said they had been having a prayer-meeting. When asked how they conducted it, they said one of them read the forty-sixth Psalm, and then they all prayed. When I asked them for what they prayed, they said they asked God to bless their teacher and pastor, and to move the hearts of their parents to give up their idols, and become Christians, and that they might build a large church for the worship of the true God. The parents of these children are heathen, and the boy who conducted the meeting is the son of the head man of the village. -o-o

TURKEY.
LETTER FROM MISS WEST.

AINTAB, TURKEY, Dec. 27, 1884.

MY DEAR FRIENDS IN AMERICA: It is with a joyful heart that I write you at last of my safe arrival at Aintab. This first week in my new home has been full of varied experiences, but all have caused me to give a hearty response to the Khosh gel den (welcome) that I hear everywhere. As I look at the bright, interesting faces of the girls assembled in the schoolroom, and think of the influence they will exert in their homes here and in adjoining towns, my heart rejoices in the new field of labor to which the Lord has called me.

Eleven weeks ago to-day I was sitting on the stern of the Cephalonia, watching the lights along the western horizon that marked the place where I had had such an affectionate farewell. Many thousand miles intervene now, but God has heard the prayers following our missionary party. The journey has been a very pleasant one; it seems as if the sunshine had followed us all the way from America. The voyage was considered an unusually fine one. From Liverpool our route was a most interesting panorama, the cultivated lands of England; Holland, with its dikes and windmills; the picturesque scenery of the Rhine; and Vienna, with its