Mohammedan Hafiz, greatly pleased me. As often before, he took his stand quite near where we were preaching. He commenced shouting out passages from the Koran and other passages of his own, in opposition to what we were saying, greatly to the distraction of the people around us. Having often warned him, I felt it was time to interfere and insist upon his observing a well-known local law, that rival preachers should stand at such distance from each other as not to interfere, lest a disturbance of the peace should result. As he refused to obey, I felt it but just on this occasion to call upon the police to see the rule carried out, and hailed a passing policeman, who happened to be a Mohammedan. He at once interfered and told his fellow Mohammedan to move on. This made the Mohammedan preacher furious, and having hurled many curses at the head of the policeman, he said he would rather die as a martyr to the cause than move a yard. I then appealed to the Mohammedans, who stood around their preacher, for fair play. Having carefully ascertained that we first commenced preaching and that their preacher was in the wrong, they tried to move him by persuasion, and said it was a law among them to obey the voice of ten fellow Mohammedans, and they were more than ten who asked him to move on. Still he refused, saying he would die first. They then took the law into their own hands, and a dozen strong Mohammedans hustled their own preacher away. This exhibition of fair play and good feeling I greatly appreciated. And I may add, our Mohammedan rival has since shown me much greater respect."

WONDERFUL STEADFASTNESS. Remarkable stories of patient endurance of persecution for Christ's sake are often received from India, but the following account of the steadfastness of some poor and unlettered people in a village not far from Secunderabad is quite remarkable. The account we take from the Harvest Field, as given by Rev. W. B. Boggs. It seems that in that village there were three Christians, a man and his wife and her sister, who had been Christians a comparatively short time. About thirty people in the village had died of cholera, and the people accused the Christians of introducing cholera by means of mantrams, that is, by incantations or witchcraft. The report says: "Having raised this cry against them, they dragged them into the middle of the village, and bound one of the women to a wooden cross, which I afterwards saw, and beat her and her husband severely. It was a stout stake about five feet high fastened in the ground. About a foot from the top a hole had been made through it, and a transverse piece of wood was driven through this. To this Moothamma, one of the Christian women, was bound with her back to the stake and her arms over the cross piece, and then they said to her, 'Now repeat the mantrams by which you brought the cholera among us.' She replied, I know no mantrams, but I know that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour of the world.' The moment she uttered this sentence they caught at it and exclaimed, There it is; that is the mantram that she uses; beat her, beat her;' and the blows were laid on without mercy. All day she was fastened to that cross, and her sufferings were great. In the evening they released her, but seized her and her husband again the next day and fastened their hands in the stocks. I myself, a few days after, saw the piece of wood lying there. It was about five feet long and six inches in diameter, with two holes near each end. At one end they fastened the husband's hands by thrusting them through these holes and driving wedges around the wrists, and at the other end they fastened the wife's hands in like manner. There they left them sitting on the ground for a day in the scorching sun. Then they took the sister-in-law, and, placing her hand on an old cannon ball on the ground, set one leg of a cot on the back of her hand, and four men sat on the cot for a long time until her hand was nearly crushed. In other ways they treated them most shamefully; and this persecution lasted about ten days. It was some time before even the preachers, living in Aler, two miles distant, knew anything about it, as people were not allowed to go from village to village while the cholera was

raging. But one night Moothamma escaped the vigilance of her enemies, and came through the fields at midnight and told the preachers her sorrowful story, and so the matter came to our knowledge. These poor despised, unlettered people remained firm. They were promised favor if they would renounce Christ and turn back to Hinduism, and they were threatened with worse things if they persisted, but they did not waver." The story concludes with an account of a visit of the missionary to a village where the people denied the charges of cruelty brought against them, and the Christians could not find any one bold enough to tell the truth on their behalf. The police officials, however, warned the people against such persecutions, and they have ceased; and the result has been that already the persecution has resulted in the addition of sixty-four converts to Christ.

AFRICA.

SWISS MISSION. — A recent copy of the Bulletin de la Mission Romande, the organ of the Free Protestant churches of the Swiss cantons of Vaud, Neuchâtel, and Geneva, gives a view at once cheering and depressing of their work in Southeast Africa. At each of their six stations there is a joyful ingathering of converts and a growth in all departments of the spiritual work. On the other hand, one of the missionaries writes that the past year lives in their memories as "a year of the plagues of Egypt, drought, locusts, famine, the cattle plague, mortality, war, intense heat; nothing was lacking." "But," he adds, "this impression will fade away before the still stronger one of the spiritual results which affliction has wrought and of the miraculous deliverances of which they have been the objects."

As to the growing needs of the mission, it has sent to the Swiss churches an estimate of 200,000 francs for the year 1898. Knowing this to be asking more than could be granted, "with aching hearts they have cut down the estimates to 138,000 francs." They give in detail the cruel effect of this reduction upon the enlarging work and leave their case with their home supporters, and their last word is one of trust and hope in God and of joy in his smile upon their labors. A map accompanying the Bulletin shows the location of their stations: Valdesia, Elim, Shilouvane, and Pretoria, in the Transvaal, and of Lorenzo-Marques, on the coast, and Antioka.

EAST AFRICA. — The region between Uganda and the coast, over which the railway is now in process of construction, ought to be occupied by Christian missionaries. It was a bold undertaking to strike for the interior, passing by the many tribes on the way to Lake Victoria, and such a course was only justified by the singular preparation for the establishment of a mission in Uganda through the efforts of Mr. H. M. Stanley. Now the duty of occupying this intervening region is become apparent. Bishop Tucker, of Uganda, makes a special plea for the occupation of Kikuyu, which is a high tableland 6,000 feet above sea level, and very populous. The bishop reports that in passing through Kikuyu the missionaries were often asked by the people, Have you no good news for us? Is your message only for the Waganda?"

44

SPECIAL TOPICS FOR PRAYER.

Notes for the Month.

For the Mission in Spain: that nothing may interfere with its work, that present perplexities and trials may eventuate in the progress of the gospel, and that peace between this kingdom and our own country may be speedily established upon a basis of justice and love.

For a mighty movement of the Spirit of God upon the churches of our own land: that they may hear and heed the calls of Providence summoning to a Forward Movement for the better support of our missions in unevangelized lands. (See pages 176–182.)

DEPARTURES.

March 23. From San Francisco, Miss Annie H. Bradshaw, returning to the Japan Mission.
March 28. From Vancouver, Rev. James H. Roberts, returning to the North China Mission,
Mrs. Roberts and family remaining in this country.

ARRIVALS IN THE UNITED STATES.

March 22.
March 30.

At New York, Miss Agnes E. Swenson, of the Central Turkey Mission.
At New York, Rev. Royal M. Cole, of Bitlis, Eastern Turkey.

Donations Received in March.

25 00

65 50

DAVID L. YALE, H. M.

Freeport, Cong, ch.

Gorham, Cong. ch.

Hampden, 1st Cong, ch.

support Rev. J. K. Greene,

Kennebunk, Union Cong. ch.

15.00
38 41

North Berwick, Mrs.

Nathaniel

MASSACHUSETTS.

Amesbury, Main-st Cong. ch., toward
support Rev. H. G. Bissell,'
Amherst, South Cong. ch., 18.21;
Amherst College Alumnus, toward
support Rev. E. Fairbank, and to
const. FERDINAND Q. BLANCHARD,
CHARLES G. BURD, and FRANK C.
WELLMAN, H. M., 300,
Andover, Chapel ch., to const. PEM-
BERTON HALE CRESSY, EMILY
CARTER, Mrs. ARTHUR F. DRINK-
WATER, Mrs. EGBERT C. SMYTH,
H. M., 143; do., Theol. Students,
17; Mrs. John Richards, 40,
Auburndale, "Collected," 5; Friend,
3: Friend, 2,
Bedford, Friend,
Boston, Shawmut ch., 400; Walnut-
ave. ch., 341.43; Eliot ch. (Rox-
bury), 265.74: do., Member, 100;
Central ch., Jamaica Plain, 273.20;
Old South ch., 175; Mt. Vernon ch.,
11; do., Miss Sarah Pratt, 25.50;
do., H. S. Kimball, 2; Pilgrim ch.,
6.76; Second
ch., Dorchester,
Friend, 5; H. Fisher, 200; Thank-
offering for work in Turkey, 2,

100 00

318 21

200 00

IO OO
15.00

322 48

Colerain, Cong. ch.

16 91

615 78

East Northfield, Miss Agnes M. Bige

VERMONT.

low,

100 00

Clarendon, Cong. ch.

II 47

Fitchburg, Rollstone Cong. ch.

14 70

East Corinth, Cong. ch.

25 00

Fairlee, Mrs. A. H. Fuller,

Granby and Victory, Cong, ch. (of

Harvard, Cong, ch.

23 00

which 20.30 from Geo. A. Apple

Haydenville, Cong. ch.

6 18

Holbrook, Winthrop Cong. ch.

33 or

Holyoke, 1st Cong. ch.

Newfane, 1st Cong, ch.

5 00

Newport, 1st Cong, ch.

21 58

Northfield, Cong, ch.

15 61