There were many hundred years when it was only found in England in dead languages, when its treasures were shut up in Greek and Latin, and only here and there a "Gospeller" went about telling the "good news" to those who had never heard it, translating as he went from his manuscript portion of the Story of Peace."

And still in how many a dark low street of London those "Healers," the Gospels, are needed as much as ever to comfort the sad dwellers in our crowded city; and as we tell the old, old story we can see the sunshine enter their souls one by one. We see the gladness shed abroad; we see them making ready to meet the King in the robe of His own righteousness and His only; and as that good news must spread from every one who has truly received it, we never know where the work of that day for Christ will end. And how far better worth while it is to take them straight to the fountain of God's Holy Word, of which they know so little, than merely to amuse them with some pretty story, which will divert their attention from the ONE THING NEEDFUL," seeing that the TIME IS SHORT.

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We now rejoice to turn to similar work in Syria, Madagascar, and India.

THE MAHOMMEDAN WOMEN'S SUNDAY BIBLECLASS.

Is the present momentous crisis of the world's history, when every eye and heart is turned towards the East--and the very "distress and perplexity of nations" are among the signs of the coming Redemption-it is with special feelings of gratitude that we would turn back to the "day of small things; when, at the entreaty of our beloved friend, Mrs. Bowen Thompson, we gave her the right hand of fellowship, and engaged to adopt her first native Syrian widow as Bible-woman for Damascus, then still lying in blackened ruins after the fearful massacres of 1860. Wonderfully did the Lord raise up the proper agents-ministering women, whose hearts He had opened by the iron key of adversity; one by one, too, did He strengthen the stakes and lengthen the cords of our Bible-tent. More

than fifteen Bible-women and Scripture-readers are now in active work, many being themselves first trained by our own faithful blind Scripture-reader, ABOO SELIM, for their work among the conflicting and manifold ramifications of religious sects in Syria; four are in Beyrout, attached to the Mahommedan, Druze, Jewish, Greek, and Roman Catholic quarters of the city; three in Damascus ; three in the Lebanon; while Aboo Selim himself visits the prisons, barracks, hospitals, and holds Sunday services.

Lately one of the readers of the MISSING LINK offered to pay for a blind teacher at Tyre, another for a Bible-woman to the Jewesses, and now again she offers to support an additional Bible-woman to read the Word of God among the Mahommedan

women.

THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS.

Truly we may say it was the babes and the sucklings, out of whose infant lips the first message of God's love was brought to their mothers' ears. The little Mahommedan children were early suffered to attend the British Syrian schools; and on one occasion, when they repeated in their own homes the hymn learnt at school-

"God is in Heaven-can He hear a little prayer like mine?

Yes, thoughtful child, thou need'st not fear, He listeneth to thine," the astonished mothers embraced them, saying, "The little darlings, they know more than we do."

One of these Mahommedan ladies earnestly besought her husband to allow her to learn to read. "The old blind sheikh, who came to the house to sing, could teach her!" "How can you suffer a man to teach you? face, and that is a sin-I cannot allow it." blind, and cannot see me." "Well, if he is an angel sitting on each shoulder: they are not blind, and will see you-and that would be a great sin!"

He will see your "But he is quite blind, yet he has

She afterwards procured his sanction that Mrs. Thompson's Bible-woman should come and teach her, and when I was last in Syria she showed me the Testament Mrs. Thompson," the beloved," had given her. It was her constant companion even on her pilgrimage to Mecca! This was an early introduction into a Turkish harem, and one which by God's blessing has been

followed up by the stated and welcome visits of our Harem visitor to nearly 100 harems, besides the daily visits to the poorer Moslem and Druze women.

On one occasion, when reading the Gospel to a very high Moslem lady, her nephew entered, he listened for a time, and then begged Sofie to give him the book as he wished to read the chapter. It was Matthew, v. 27, "Whosoever looketh on a woman," &c. He said, "What a holy religion is this of your Christ; who can keep it? but our hearts are too wicked; I would give much to be so holy!" Many are the instances now when learned Moslem Effendi have thus eagerly sought conversation and teaching from a WOMAN!

When this terrible war first broke out we greatly feared that it would hinder, if not altogether put a stop to, our intercourse with the Mahommedans, and that they would remove their children from our schools; but so far from this, it has as yet proved to be rather for the "furtherance of the Gospel."

And now by the blessing of God, this day of small things has, at their earnest entreaty, resulted in the formation of a large Mahommedan Woman's Sunday Bible-class, described in the Syrian sheet attached to our February number, to which we are glad to point attention. The following letter from Mrs. Mott refers to a mixed Mothers' class under one of our Bible-women. She says:

There were 26 women present yesterday at the Bible-class. They were attentive and interested in the subject selected for consideration; those three precious parables in Luke xv. The Lost Sheep was perfectly understood by them, for in the East the shepherd goes before his flock, they follow in his footsteps. The wandering sheep did not tread in the narrow path, but went astray into the broad road;-then, too, the lost piece of silver-each woman present had lost money or treasure, and had searched diligently till she found it. How easy and simple the application to the Good Shepherd, -the faithful owner of his lost precious ones! The parable of the Prodigal Son gave rise to interesting conversation" The young man went up straight to his father to ask forgiveness, he needed not to ask some friend to go for him to his father to plead for him." This led to remarks on the Confessional (several of the women belonged to the Greek

Church). I said, "We Protestants never confessed to a priest, but went up direct to our Heavenly Father, confessed our sins to Him, and from Him received forgiveness, through Christ's merits." The wife of the Greek priest, and some of the women seated near me, spoke together in an under-tone, and then remarked, "That this was very well for us, who can read the Bible, and learn from it what God wants us to do; but as they cannot read, it was needful for them to go and tell the priest everything, in order that he might give them rules and regulations for their conduct and guidance."

Earnestly do we trust that the Scriptural education of their children, their own attendance at the Bible-class, and the instruction they receive from the Bible-women of the district, may, by the entrance of God's Word into their benighted souls, send light into the understanding of some of these really attentive and inquiring hearers!"

RUSSIA AND JERUSALEM.

A still more recent letter from the same quarter, mentions that the statement is daily gaining ground in Syria that RUSSIA'S ulterior object in the present conditions of peace with TURKEY is to get possession of the HOLY PLACES. These have been, as in the last Crimean War, the one great subject of contention between the Russian and Roman Churches, and Russia it seems desires not only Jerusalem but Syria.

Before the recall of the late Russian Consul-General, Count Pikowitsch, he is said to have remarked, " As for our occupying Constantinople, that is nothing, we shall not rest till we have Damascus for our Merchant city, and Jerusalem for our Church. As the Roman Catholic Church has Rome, so we will have Jerusalem." Members of the Greek Church are perpetually repeating this, and, in consequence, it is the one desire of the JEWS here that England should take Syria, and allow them to occupy Palestine, and there seems a general expectation that such will be the case. There is in Moscow a model of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, with its shrine of large size, erected long ago, where the Russian people pay their devotions to the Holy place by proxy, as it were, until next year, when they say they hope to worship at Jerusalem itself. This expectation is constantly

fostered in the Russian mind.

MADAGASCAR.

SCRAPS FROM THE JOURNALS OF RAFARA AND RAZAFINDRINA, AMBOHIPOTSY BIBLE-WOMEN.

"And this is what we do in the villages. We gather together the women, and talk with them, instructing them from the Scriptures concerning the following of Christ, and the bringing up of their households in obedience to the Word of God. And at the village of Imalaza the women are very numerous now in their attendance when we go, and are growing better also, knowing the Word of God. And if there are any who are unwilling to attend at the chapel (on Sundays), we are informed of them by our friends, then we go to visit them in their houses, and encourage them to go to the worship.

"While we were going about there we came to one woman whose house had been robbed, and property stolen, and we found that she was faint in heart, so we sought to cheer her by saying, 'Set not down your heart here on earth, for Christ has still plenty of possessions for you.'

"And we saw another (a praying woman), and she was mother of six children, but dead entirely they, and only one remained. And this woman was not sound in her praying, for she was afraid that she and her house had been bewitched by wicked persons, so she abode always within her house, with locked door, until the time of her giving birth to her last child. So we visited her, and talked with her, and she, with her husband, grew better. And when she gave birth, then died again the child; and she sent for us, and she said, 'I dreamed last Thursday night, and lo I saw there, somewhere above, all my children playing and happy. But I did so long for them, and that is why I have sent for you; pray for me, lest I shall not get there to meet with my bairns.' And then we said, 'Be of good comfort, for they are there with Christ, so be diligent to pray to Him and be diligent to attend His house.' And these two, wife and husband, are diligent now.

"And there were three grown-up women there too, said to us, 'We heard you had arrived, and so we are come that we may get near to the Lord, for we have been a long time sinning.' And then we asked them, saying,

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'Why do you want to approach the Lord ?'

"Then said they, 'We have been ailing for long, and were not able to get to a meeting nor obtain any relief. And so we read to them the Word in 2 Cor. xii. 9. Since then they have been baptized.

"And as we were going, then there was a leper called to us, ' O ye two women, tell me some of the gladdening words, for long has been the abiding alone.' And so we spoke to him, and encouraged him, and read the Word in the twenty-second Psalm. And then he said, 'I am a man who am able to read, and so I beg a Psalm book;' but the 'Acts' were what were given him by us, for we had not any Psalm-books.