conspicuous and prominent of these was the Rev. Thomas Reynolds, of London. Mr. Reynolds' letter bore date December 24, 1712. After promising to advance thirty pounds for the support of one or more ministers, the letter closes in these words: "I desire to hear from you as soon as may be, and would be glad to be an instrument of disappointing any that encourage no expectation from us." The answer to this letter bore date September 17, 1713. From these extracts it will appear that from Ireland, England and Scotland, the spirit of Foreign Missions was alive in the bosom of the Presbyterian Church. The Presbyterians of the kingdom of Great Britain were laying the foundations and building the Church for Christ, in the distant American colonies, more than a hundred years before Alexander Duff sailed for India, or Adoniram Judson "embarked from Salem for Calcutta ;" and almost a century before William Carey, with his family, set sail for Bengal. This last meeting of this unique, original, and first Presbytery in America, was held in New Castle, in September, 1716. Provisions were there and then made for the organization of the Synod of Philadelphia. The order runs in these words, "It having pleased the Divine Providence so to increase our numbers, as that, after much deliberation, we judge it may be more serviceable to the interest of religion to divide ourselves into subordinate meetings, or Presbyteries, constituting one annually as a Synod, to meet at Philadelphia, or elsewhere, to consist of all the members of each subordinate Presbytery for this year at least; therefore, it is agreed by the Presbytery, after serious deliberation, that the first subordinate meeting, or Presbytery, to meet at Philadelphia, or elsewhere, as they shall see fit, do consist of the following men Powell, Orr, Bradner and Morgan."

This "first subordinate meeting of Presbytery" was and is the Presbytery of Philadelphia from that day on to the present time. Like provision was made for a second and a third, with recommendations for the organization or erection

of a fourth, on Long Island. The time of the meeting of these Presbyteries was "left to their own discretion." It was "ordered that a book be kept by each of the said Presbyteries containing a record of their proceedings and that the said book be brought every year to our anniversary Synod to be revised." The record goes on to say, "Our next meeting being appointed as Synod, it is ordered that the present Moderator open the same by preaching; and that the Moderator of the last Synod open the next by preaching always for the time coming, upon the first Tuesday of our meeting, at 10 o'clock."

There is no record that this original Presbytery was ever opened or closed with prayer during the whole period of its separate and independent existence.

Austin, Texas.

R. K. SMOOT.

I. CRITICISMS AND REVIEWS.

BEHIND THE PARDAH. The story of C. E. Z. M. S. Work in India. By Irene H. Barnes. With Preface by T. A. Gurney, M. A. Illustrated by J. D. Mackenzie and Percy R. Craft. New York.: T. Y. Crowell & Co. 1897. 16mo. Pp. 264.

A thoroughly entertaining, instructive and useful piece of missionary literature. Probably the best exhibition of what woman has done and can do for woman that has been given to the public. We may adopt the language of Rev. Mr. Gurney, in the preface: "It gives glimpses of the inner life of Indian women which, for picturesqueness of detail, vividness of description, and dramatic power, would be hard to surpass. And, throughout, the style is so easy and conversational that the mind never feels wearied. It may, therefore, be cordially commended not only to missionary circles, where it will be invaluable, but also to genuine readers who desire to know something of Indian life and forklore."

We may explain the title by saying that the "Pardah" is the veil that shuts off the females of the Zenana from the rest of the house, and from the sight of all strange men. The Church of England Zenana Missionary Society has been carrying on distinct and ever growing work since 1881. They have done a work vast and wonderful in itself, that cannot be estimated by any human standard. This book it well calculated to give a clear conception of the work, its difficulties, successes, needs, possibilities and manifold activities. The workers are continually introduced to describe their experiences and observations for themselves.

The introduction gives us some account of the great organization that is doing this work. Then follows "a glance at the land," a condensed view of India, its peoples, customs, religions. Then we are taken behind this pardah and permitted to see the condition-pitiable enough !—of the female inmates of the Hindo, Parsi and Moslem establishments. The hapless lot, the "ways and woes," of Indian girlhood next occupies attention, the full consideration that it demands. The authoress then portrays the "first experiences" of the Zenana Missionary. She devotes two chapters to the important matter of village missions. Discussing native helpers, many of them by name, and enforcing the plea "India's girls for Christ," she passes to the consideration of that desperately wretched host of 23,000,000 of widows in India. The simple narrative is enough to stir the most callous. So unhappy is their lot that they do not always regard the abolition of the Suttee as a mercy. That was the short anguish of death by fire. Now it is a lifelong torment, unless indeed the woman suicides or abandons herself to a life of shame. Six hundred thousand of these widows are under nineteen, many thousands are under ten, and thousands under four.

Two chapters are given to "our suffering sisters behind the pardah,"

depicting further the sad condition of the Hindu women; and the last chapter is devoted to "the daughters of Islam," showing the equally deplorable condition of the Mohammedan women. An Appendix of 28 pages gives a succinct history of the work of the C. E. Z. M. S., year by year, from 1881 to 1897. A sensible feature, not usually found in missionary books, is a full index.

The illustrations, some of them half-tone, are mostly good. The mechanical execution up to the mark. The author uses too many abbreviations, such as "T. Y. E." and "Z. B. M. M.," that do not explain themselves, and, therefore, puzzle the thinking reader. But that is a small blemish. D. J. BRIMM.

Columbia, S. C.

Robert WHITAKER MCALL, FOUNDER OF THE MCALL MISSION, PARIS. A Fragment by Himself; a Souvenir by his Wife. With Portraits, Fac-similes and Illustrations. London: The Religious Tract Society. 1896. Cr. 8 vo, pp. 252.

Dr. McAll was one of the great Field-Marshalls of the Church Militant. He has been recognized on all hands as one of the colossal figures of this century, to be ranked with Livingstone, Hudson Taylor, Paton, Moody, Miller, and others who have originated and had the boldness and faith to project and execute, in spite of all obstacles, wonderful works for the salvation of men and upbuilding of God's Kingdom. When he died in 1893, three of earth's greatest nations mourned. Here is Dr. Boardman's somewhat remarkable characterization of him, as given in the Appendix of the volume before us: "Dr. McAll was an islander, but not an insular; a Protestant, but not a propagandist; a Catholic, but not a Romanist; a Congregationalist, but not a denominationalist; a missionary, but not a proselytizer; a preacher, but not a doctrinaire; a reformer, but not an iconoclast; a philanthropist, but not a sentimentalist; an enthusiast, but not a visionary; a commander, but not an autocrat; a practic, but not a pragmatist; an opportunist, but not a time-server; a conciliator, but not a compromiser; a tactician, but not a manœuverer; an achiever, but not a boaster: in brief, a Christian Nehemiah, rebuilding the Jerusalem of the Huguenots, and sending forth his lieutenants through the Judea of France, to reconvert it to the true Messiah."

Such is the man that the attempt is made to portray in this volume ; a great subject for an able biographical artist, certainly. Knowing this to start with and realizing it continually, as we read, the wonder ever grows that the work has been so imperfectly done. We are loath to say this; we do hope, for the sake of the great subject of the memoir, for the sake of the great cause set forth, for the sake of the widow who pieced together the fragments and glimpses that compose the volume, that the work will have a wide circulation. But we are compelled in honesty to say that the work has been badly done. And we can scarcely divine the reason why. There was certainly no lack of material; much

is here and it is said to be only a selection. There is certainly abounding love and admiration; there was no need of excessive diffidence. We will do the compiler the justice to say that she disclaims any attempt to write a biography; but this is just where she made the prime mistake. Why did she not, when she had this great obligation laid upon her? If she really felt incompetent she should have declined and left it to abler hands. As a matter of fact, we believe the fair sex has furnished no approach to Boswell in the field of biography. Various explanations of this might be given, but we will not attempt to discuss this matter, further than to say that the explanation must lie near to that which accounts for no woman's having ever produced a great epic.

Among the points to be criticised, we note, first, the absence of objective delineation. There is a great number of picture-fragments of various shapes, sizes and colors, and the reader is left largely to his own acuteness in forming the pictures. Fragments that stand in consecutive order, sometimes without even a word of connection, frequently puzzle us to determine their relation to each other. This leads, in the second place, to lack of steady forward movement. We swing forward and backward in dates, sometimes, in a very confusing fashion; harmony all gone, amid the jangling discord we lose the strain and are bewildered for a time-like listening to a Liszt Melody, so-called. Then, the ends of the threads also appear in the embroidery, at times, as when extracts are given from Dr. McAll's diary, mere jottings, disjecta membra, of no more meaning or interest than are the quotations in a commercial report, to a society belle.

Another matter for criticism is the amount of French employed. French words, phrases, sentences, letters, poems really abound. The Menu is none the more appetizing because of all this French. It makes no differeuce whether the reviewer was bothered by it or not; we are sure that nine-tenths of those who would wish to read of Dr. McAll's life and work would be considerably bothered by the French. The proof-reading of the book is not good. We will not specify all. Several dates are made wrong thereby. Take this as an example of punctuation: "a wonderful copy for so young a child of an altar-tomb with recumbent figure." A child of an altar-tomb with recumbent figure is liable to do something wonderful. Perhaps the reader would like to practice himself a little on this sentence, also: "Whilst leaving the Hibel-road station, a short three minutes in the Manchester train shows us Prestbury, the mother-church of Macclesfield, with lych-gate, and the quiet village on the left bank of the little Bollin, making its unobtrusive way to the Mersey."

We refrain from further criticism. We wish that every one might be familiar with the life and work-especially that from 1871 to 1893, in Paris-of this great evangelistic hero. We only wish that Dr. George Smith would write the narrative.

Paper, type, binding and illustrations are good.
Columbia, S. C.

D. J. BRIMM.