room at a public-house, which, besides being an undesirable place, has become too small for the congregation. There is a large rope-making establishment in this village, in which many hands are employed; and these workmen are just the sert of people to whom Methodism is Ekely to prove serviceable.

October 17th.-Oar Sunday services are still well attended; and as the visiters leave, it is gratifying to see their places filled by residents. Several additional sittings have been taken recently.

October 22d.-Held our Foreign Missionary Meeting, which was numerously attended. We have doubled the income of last year.

November 11th.-We had a remarkably good Sabbath yesterday. In the evening I was much pleased to observe at least twenty of the working-class present. Their attention was deep, and some of Lese strong men wept. They were welcomed among us. On conversing with an artilleryman in hospital, who is consumptive, I found that his first acquaint. ace with the Methodists was formed at Gibraltar, eighteen years since, and that he had there been much profited by our istry. He has since attended our services whenever practicable. lle is deeply concerned for his soul's welfare. I have commenced a new class, and hope that many may be gathered by it into the Church of Christ.

November 25th.-This afternoon I walked ever the Downs to a village called East Dean, where a fortnightly service was formerly held. A congregation of thirty persons assembled in a kitchen; and I have seldom enjoyed so great liberty in ofering salvation to sinners. Many were deeply affected. I have arranged to visit them again in a fortnight. During the quarter, the ordinary congregations have b much enlarged; the members, with but few exceptions, meet well in their classes; and they are coming into closer fellowship with each other.

2. BOURNEMOUTH.-From the Rev. J. 1. Marquand-December 5th, 1867.Since our new chapel has been opened, our congregations have largely increased. Two years since, sixty would have been considered a good attendance; now we have three hundred present on Sunday evenings. There has been also a corresponding improvement in the weekevening congregations. Our classes have been re-organised, and the Tract Society remodelled. We have taken a new and more prominent position in the town, and are

hoping to complete and open a new Mission chapel soon at Springbourne, where we have formed a Society under encouraging circumstances. The whole Mission is doing well.

3. LEOMINSTER. From the Journal of the Rev. Henry Wilson.-September 10th, 1867.-We have to-day received the grant of £100 from the General Chapel Committee; so that our HomeMission chapel here is free from debt.

November 14th.-Held the Foreign Missionary Meeting at Kingsland, one of the places included in the Mission District. We have obtained more money

here for the Foreign Missions than in any village in the Circuit. The Mission congregations are good and increasing, and sonls are being converted. House-tohouse visitation reveals much of ungodliness, immorality, and consequent misery. The cottage-services are well attended.

4. MANCHESTER. (Regent-road.)-The Rev. James Daniel writes, December 10th, 1867.-I am glad to report favourably of the Home-Mission work at Regent-road. The congregation continues to increase most encouragingly, and the spirit of hearing is highly gratifying. We have lately been favoured with instances of conversion, and additions to the church are being made. Obstacles having been put in the way of the Wesleyan soldiers at the Infantry barracks, respecting their being marched to our chapel, the case, after some correspondence, was officially referred by us to MajorGeneral Sir John Garvock, the general commanding the northern district; by whose orders the men's rights were acknowledged, and directions given that they be duly marched to our services, according to the “Queen's Regulations."

5. MOSSLEY. (Ashton-under-Lyne.)—— From the Rev. John Colwell.-December 2d, 1867.--Our Mission chapel has recently been opened, under circumstances which show the success of the HomeMission work, commenced here four years ago.

Then there were thirty churchmembers, contributing £1. 15s. per quarter to the Circuit, and the chapel was small and uncomfortable, seating about one hundred persons. Now, by the blessing of God, we have one hundred and fifty members, whose quarterly contribntions are from £12 to £14. We have a beautiful chapel and school, &c., costing, with the site, £2,850. Towards this the Chapel Committee grant £100, and a

loan of £175. Our subscriptions amount to £1,700, and the collections at the opening were £300. 16s. We hope soon to be able to fulfil our engagements with the Chapel Committee. The chapel is a handsome stone building, providing, exclusive of the galleries, six hundred and fifty sittings. The opening services, conducted by the President of the Conference, (the Rev. John Bedford,) the Rev. Dr. Hannah, the Rev. Charles Prest, and other ministers, were well attended, and were seasons of great spiritual power and profit. Friends in all parts of the Circuit have liberally aided us in this work. Much patient toil has been necessary to overcome difficulties; and none but those who are well acquainted with the religious wants of the neighbourhood can estimate the gain to the cause of Christ which has thus been secured.

The Rev. Thomas T. Dilks writes, December 2d, 1867.-We view the Mossley Mission as an important illustration of the value of our Home-Mission work; and especially as an incitement to further and immediate operations of the same kind in another part of our very populous Circuit, in which we hope to have the concurrence of the District and HomeMissionary Committees.

6. SHEFFIELD. (Ebenezer.)—From the Journal of the Rev. Thomas Horton.December 11th, 1867.-The Home-Mission work in this neighbourhood has wrought a great change. In Ebenezer chapel we have as good congregations on Sundays as are found in any place of wor ship in Sheffield; and the contrast with the past history of the place is remarked by all. At our recent Foreign Missionary Meeting, the chapel was full, and the collection was £9 more than it was last year. We expect that the Home-Missionary Meeting will be equally successful. I trust that our past labours will prepare for still greater success. [The Journal shows great diligence in visiting some of the most wretched abodes in Sheffield, and of blessed effects resulting from this self-denying Mission effort in the conversion of sinners to God.]

7. DONCASTER. From the Journal of the Rev. J. P. Keeley.-October 29th, 1867. Our new chapel at Balby, was opened for Divine service to-day. This is one of the principal places included in this Home-Mission. It is a beautiful building, seating four hundred

persons. We hope to clear the cost of the erection, £900, by the end of the year.

8. SUNDERLAND.-From the Journal of the Rev. J. E. Hargreaves, to the end of November, 1867.-September 21st.Called, in company with the Rev. George Blanchflower, at the barracks, to inquire after Wesleyan soldiers lately returned from the Mauritius. The officer in command received us courteously, promised to consult his superiors, and afterwards called upon me to say that the men should be marched to our chapel. During the quarter, noonday prayer-mectings have been held with good effect. [The journal abounds with instances of deep conviction for sin, and of the conversion of the ungodly.] We shall return a large number of persons on trial for church-membership this quarter. Our Mission operations are hindered for want of a much larger place of worship as the centre of our work. This will have to be provided.

9. GLASGOW.-From the Rev. William Wilson.-December 20th, 1867.-Our new Mission-church in Claremont-street is a great success.* I hope we may secure a wise and energetic minister for it at our next Conference, when it is intended to make it the head of a Circnit. Although many of our members have gone to the new place, John-street chapel is filled; our church-members are steadily increasing in number, and our finances are better than they ever were. We have also secured two Mission-halls or rooms, and have obtained a suitable supply till Conference, when we must have either an additional Circuit minister, or one devoted to Home-Mission work. The latter would be preferable. We intend, with the new year, to introduce the "Blake System" of juvenile collecting for Home and Foreign Missions; much can be done in that way. Our Mission-halls are filled at the public services to the doors; and if the good feeling now. apparent in Glasgow be maintained, we shall soon require another church equal in size to the one just built. An encou raging improvement is manifest at Dumbarton.

villages, among the miners, I have found many Methodists from Cornwall and Devonshire. Good congregations have been gathered in them since the Mission Labour commenced. At Galston, the work has revived; twenty persons profess to have found peace with God through faith in Christ. One of the churches has been thrown open to our people for services

on Sunday, and on week-day evenings. Thirteen have been added to our Society, and others are likely to follow their example. Many satisfactory, and some remarkable, conversions have taken place during the quarter; and I have never heard more clear, consistent, and earnest declarations of Christian experience than were given at a lovefeast recently held.

THE WORKING MEN'S LORD'S-DAY REST ASSOCIATION.-At the ninth annual meeting, the Earl of Shaftesbury spoke thus in commendation of this Association and its work: "I would ask, What can be more noble, now that this Society has taken its place among the great religious institutions of the day, than to have it said, Here is a large mass of working people, not meeting together in a desultory and occasional manner, but binding themselves by annual subscriptaas, and, by laws and bye-laws, forming themselves into an organized Society for the simple and sole purpose of maintaining in all its integrity God's holy day, and transmitting it to posterity; securing for their children, and others who are to follow, that privilege which they have found

holy and blessed to themselves.' Where w you find anything like this on the ecaticent of Europe? Ay, and it is by sach means that we may save our country from falling into a state of things which is a disgrace, an affliction, and a curse in ecutinental countries. If you go to almost any of the great towns on the continent, and more especially if you go to Paris, you will there see every occupation carried on on Sunday, and you will see the working man on that day earning his bread by the sweat of his brow. You will see those who have toiled for the six days still toiling on the seventh; man and beast both labouring, as though there were never to be any rest. What can be more shocking, what more degrading, than such a state of things r...... Working men have often said to me: If the Sabbath is taken away

from us, our domestic life would be utterly destroyed. We go out early on the weekday, and return late; we scarcely ever see our children, except when they are in bed; and it will be impossible for parents to take their children on their kuces, and teach them their duty towards God and towards man, if the working man has not the Sabbath for himself; everything of that sort will then be utterly destroyed.' Now, my friends, stand out for that view of the matter. Give the Sunday to thought, to reading, to holy and legitimate recreation, to the house of God, and to prayer. It is in that way that you will raise yourselves; it is in that way that the mass of the people of England will rise in the social scale."

Independently of active and most successful exertions to stem the cause of what is styled the Sunday League, prizes have been given for the best essays on the Sabbath, written by working people; one hundred and ninety-five thousand copies of these essays have been circulated; one million copies of other publications have also been issued; three hundred and twelve sermons have been preached, and meetings, &c., held last year, under the auspices of the Association. Besides this, eleven thousand letters have been sent to ministers, seeking their co-operation in efforts to give the country letter-carriers Sunday rest. An immense number of favourable replies have been received, and seven hundred and five thousand papers on the subject of Sunday postal delivery have been issued in two years.

TURKEY IN EUROPE: CIRCULATION OF THE SCRIPTURES IN ALBANIA.Recent numbers of the Bible Society "Reporter" have contained portions of a journal kept by the Rev. Dr. Thomson during his late interesting tour in Albania. The Committee attach much importance to exploratory tours similar to that now described, as they furnish valuable opportunities for ascertaining the wants of various nationalities in regard to the Scriptures, and the means available for carrying out the object of the Society.

Our arrangements, says Dr. Thomson, being now complete, and having no intention of attempting sales in the town of Ioannina, we started, early on the morning of the 15th of May, for Argyro-Castro, which we reached on the afternoon of the 16th. I had visited this town four years before, and succeeded in selling Scriptures to a few Mohammedans as well as Christians. But since then little had been done, and during Mr. Davidson's visit last year the Christians had stood entirely aloof, and refused to purchase anything. I was anxious to try and break down this spirit of distrust, and curious also to find whether any of my former friends could recognise me. I was not disappointed. One man I soon met with, who had purchased from me the Acts and Epistles in Greek and Albanian, and who, from the interesting inquiries he made as to the train of argument in the Epistle to the Romans, had always been prominently associated in my mind with my visit to Argyro-Castro. We mutually recognised each other; but, though still fond of reading, and interested in Divine truth, he was less able to purchase than before. The shop he had formerly occupied he had been obliged to relinquish, and all his little capital was contained in a small pedler's stall; yet he was submissive, if not cheerful, and uttered no expressions of regret. Other recognitions soon followed, but I shall mention only one. The day after our arrival in Argyro-Castro was Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath. On paying our respects to the Pasha on the morning of that day, and expressing a desire to see the Mufti, a cavass ("officer ") was kindly sent with us to show us his house. We were very courteously received, and found gathered around him all the heads of the Mohammedan community-the Cadi, Imam, Muderris, Hoja, and others. Before I had time to explain that I had visited Argyro-Castro four years before, the Mufti himself saluted me, and, with much cordiality, asked if I did not recollect his paying me

a visit in Achmed Aga's khan. I had almost forgotten the circumstance; but I then recollected having been visited by a Mohammedan Effendi, of courteous but dignified manners, with whom, however, from the high style in which he spoke, I was unable to hold much conversation; nor had I the least idea who he was. He was pleased to compliment me on the progress I had made in Turkish since then; but he did not appear to have any special interest in Divine truth. Being a Gheg, however, or North Albanian, he was much interested in the publication of the Gospels and Acts in that language, though he alleged the Roman letter in which they were printed as an obstacle to his purchasing the book. I read to him several extracts, both from the Gospels and the Primer, which he and all present said they perfectly understood, and both books interested them much.

We afterwards visited the Rushdi Mekteb, and found the teacher an intelligent, mild, interesting person-a Tartar, who had come from the Crimea after the Russian war. He told us, among other things, that it required the unsparing use of the rod to enforce discipline among his youthful charge; a fact we could very well believe; for, having ventured within the precincts of the Mohammedan quarter, though well enough received at first by both old and young, we no sooner began to withdraw than the boys began to pelt us perseveringly with stones. The rest of Friday and all Saturday we chiefly spent, or at least I did, among the Christians and Jews, and not without success. But the people were cautious, and even suspicious; and few ventured to purchase a book, till after they had read various parts of it for nearly an hour. To this, however, I had no objection; on the contrary, I felt that, by allowing them to satisfy every doubt, I should best gain their confidence in the long run. Many villagers called upon us, and sat long, reading aloud to one another, and it was most gratifying that the result was always favourable. Whether they purchased or not, they pronounced the books good and cheap. On visiting the Episcopal School, we found it attended by about two hundred boys-there was no girls' school; and in the teacher I found

an

intelligent person, with whom I had spent a pleasant evening at the Monastery of Zitza, fifteen miles from Ioannina, in 1863.......

On the Lord's day we considered we should best fulfil the apostolic precept, "not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together," by attending Divine

worship in the Greek church, and so far recognising all that was good in it; while we well knew that our omission of the superstitions and idolatrous rites practised by the rest would at once attract attention, and open a way for useful conversa. tion. This was precisely the effect produced. The people were convinced we were Christians, which many of them were slow to admit, while they found themselves utterly unable to defend, on scriptural ground, the practices which we had omitted. It gave them, also, great confidence in our books, to find that they contained word for word the same chapter (John iii.) which had been read that day. Though the practice of attending worship in the Greek Church would certainly not be justifiable in ordinary circumstances; yet, as we were placed, it seemed advisable, and certainly it contributed in no small degree to conciliate the affections and gain the confidence of the people. I should mention, also, that we had several conversations with the priest who supplied the place of the bishop,-then on a tour among the villages, the schoolmaster, the secretary of the Pasha, and others, on various points of doctrine; and in particalar I reminded them that it was only at the Council of Florence, not long before the capture of Constantinople in 1453, that the Greek Emperor and certain of his clergy agreed to the doctrine of transubstantiation, amongst others, in the hope -a vain one, as it proved-of securing the aid of Western Christendom against the alarming aggressions of the Turks; but that, on their return to Constantinople, the clergy were excommunicated, and the Emperor himself received with a storm of indignation, which nothing but his gallant though unavailing struggle for his country effectually removed. They admitted this; but, however received, there the doctrine was part and parcel of the teaching of the Church, and they seemed at least to acquiesce in it, if they did not defend it.

At last we left Argyro-Castro on Monday afternoon, the 18th, having sold two Greek copies, eight Greek and Albanian, and four Turkish, for 79 pias, or 148. 41d. Our route lay northward to Tepeleni, the birth-place of the celebrated rebel chief, Ali Pasha, of Ioannina. As the route was considered somewhat unsafe, we were accompanied by an armed attendant, our only difficulty having been to induce the Pasha to give us one instead of two. That night we bivouacked, for the third and last time, under the open air, close by a fine old bridge that spans the Deropulo, or river

of Argyro-Castro, the largest tributary of the Viosa. Starting early next morning, we reached Tepeleni about nine A.M., but found it a miserable village, and its once strong and extensive fortress a mass of ruins. The house, however, in which Ali was said to have been born, was still standing, and apparently occupied. We did not enter the wretched khan, but first endeavoured, though in vain, to sell in the street some Scriptures to the Christians, and then directed our attention to the Moslems, who bought two copies of the Gospels and Acts. All that day we followed the course of the Viosa, and, towards evening, passed through some really magnificent scenery, the rocks rising precipitously five hundred or six hundred feet on both sides of the river. We next passed through a region rising into very lofty mountains, but verdant, and capable of cultivation almost to their summits, and sheltering in their bosoms numerous comfortable-looking villages, whose inhabitants cultivated the plains below. These tokens of industry, and of a dense population, were doubtless to be ascribed to the proximity of the port of Avlona, which we reached in the afternoon of Wednesday, May 22d. The town is but small, situated at the foot of swelling hills covered with olives, and is half an hour from the coast, which there consists of flat, swampy, alluvial soil, washed down from the mountains. Its name is doubtless derived from the ancient Apollonia, the ruins of which are at no great distance. After attending to some correspondence we went out and offered some books for sale, but the people seemed poor and illiterate. At last, as I was going with my books in my hand to the Austrian post-office, I accosted a nice, quick-looking boy, and asked him to show me the way. He did so, and, on learning what books I had, insisted on my going instantly to the Greek school, the teacher of which, he said, would be sure to purchase. I did so, and found about fifty boys, under the care of two teachers, the senior one being a priest. We had a long conversation as to the objects of the Society: the books, too, were carefully examined, and at last two were purchased.

CHINA-JOURNEYS INTO THE INTERIOR OF THE FUH-CHAU PROVINCE.— The following extracts are from the Journal of the Rev. J. R. Wolfe, of the Church Missionary Society.

Kuang-tau.-Jan. 19th.-Started very early for Kuang-tau, and arrived there about noon. The tide and wind were

both against us, else we should have