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BEFOR

OUR ANNIVERSARIES.

EFORE the close of the present month, our friends and supporters will have come up to the Metropolis to receive the usual statements of the Mission work of the past year, and to seek the stimulus they need for the prosecution of their plans and efforts in connection with our great cause for the year to come. Of the character of these statements, we are, happily, in no doubt or fear. In the main they will be found to be satisfactory, and, in some respects, so to a very high degree. This being the case, we cannot doubt that encouragement to further effort will be felt by all. We pray that, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, gratitude for the past, and a deepening love to the Redeemer and to the souls of men, may supply the zeal necessary, not simply to the maintenance of our present operations, but also for the undertaking of any new work that may fall upon our hands.

We do not propose to anticipate the report which will shortly be presented to the constituency of our Missions, but we think it well just to state, in a few sentences, the actual position of our operations in the many fields we occupy. The accounts we have received show that prosperity has been shared by all. Our Missionaries in India speak of a widely-spreading spirit of inquiry, and their returns show that the number of additions to the churches under their care have been above the average. In some parts there has been a revival of religion, and much of the blessing which we have enjoyed in this country has been vouchsafed to our brethren afar off. Our staff, moreover, has been strengthened by the recent additions made to it, and the new brethren sent out are approving themselves as fitted for the work they have undertaken. The self-help of the native churches, too, is being developed, surely, if not rapidly, and that in spite of the pressure of the recent famine.

In China, our brother Richard, of Chefoo, has pursued his itinerating work with much encouragement. There are not a few signs of the gradual opening of that vast country to missionary enterprise. We hope that, ere long, we shall be able to occupy a wider field there than we do at present.

Our African mission has entered upon a new phase, of a most hopeful and interesting character. Mr. Thompson's removal to the Cameroons mountain will be the means of opening a wide field of operation among

the many surrounding tribes, while Mr. Saker and his young colleague, Mr. Grenfell, by means of the small steamer now at their command, will penetrate much farther into the interior than has been possible hitherto.

In Rome, we are now in a more settled condition than ever before. The opening of our new chapel secures for us a local habitation for many years to come. Mr. Wall has the confidence, not only of the Committee at home, but also of all Christian people who have had the opportunity of making themselves acquainted with his work.

In Brittany, our three missionaries are working hopefully, with signsall around them, of a religious awaking. To some extent, the same may be said of Norway.

Of course, the prosperity so graciously vouchsafed to us by the Lord increases our obligations. We must be prepared for a greater expenditureof money as our fields are enlarged, and the number of our agents is. increased. And it is in this direction, almost exclusively, that our present anxieties lie. Our friends are already aware that the contributions from Wales are much smaller this year than last. Will they not resolve to make up the deficiency? We have asked, in faith, for men, and God has answered our prayer. That faith, however, must be exercised still, and must show itself in the practical help which is needed. We believe it will. The coming meetings will show us, we trust, that our hope has not been cherished in vain.

C. B.

CHRIST

The True Test.

HRISTIAN friends! we have no fires of martyrdom now to test our fidelity to Jesus Christ; but we are not left without a test. God is testing us all continually; testing the measure of our faith, of our love, of our devotedness to His Son, by the presence of EIGHT HUNDRED MILLIONS OF HEATHEN IN THE WORLD. It is a tremendous test! so real, so practical!

It is no trifle, no myth, no theory,

no doubtful contingency, but a great, awful FACT, that we Protestant Christians, who rejoice in our rich Gospel blessings, and claim to be followers of Him who gave up heavenly glory, earthly ease, and life itself, to save these heathen, are actually surrounded · by eight hundred millions of brothers and sisters who must perish in their sins, unless they receive the Gospel. This Gospel they have never yet.

heard! This is a fact too many forget, but a fact none can deny; a fact of which we dare not pretend to be ignorant; a fact that ought to influence our whole Christian course from the moment of conversion; a fact that ought to shape our plans and prospects and purposes in life.

It tests our faith. Do we believe that "idolaters shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone-the second death"? Do we believe that "the Gospel is the power of God to salvation"? Where, then, are the works wrought in us by our faith in these truths? What Do we to turn idolaters to the worship of the true and living God? What Do we to carry to them the Gospel which can save them?

It tests our love. "If ye love me, keep my commandments," said our Master and His last commandment was, that we should preach the Gospel to these heathen. Judged by our obedience to it, how much do we love Him? And how much do we love these poor neighbours, stripped and robbed, and cruelly handled by the Devil, and left half dead in our path? What oil and wine have we poured into their wounds? What efforts for their recovery have we made? We ought to love each one as ourselves. Has the aggregate of our love for the whole eight hundred millions ever led us to endure a single suffering, or to deny ourselves a single indulgence, for their sake?

It tests our devotedness. Hearts wholly given to Jesus would lead us to long that his wishes should be gratified, his desires fulfilled. What are those wishes and desires? Let his

We

life, his death, reply. That all should return, repent, and live; that the lost should be found, and the dead quickened. If, knowing that eight hundred millions of our fellow-creatures are still lost in heathenism, we make no effort for their enlightenment, how do we show our devoted attachment to Jesus Christ our Lord? devoted to Him! What, even of ours, is devoted to Him? Is even a tithe of our time, a tithe of our substance, devoted to Him? Have we surrendered to Him for this service even one child of our family, or one year of our lives? No! but we give an annual subscription to some missionary society. Ah, friends, gifts that cost us no personal self-denial are no proofs of devotedness! Christ's devotedness to our interests involved Him in suffering,. loss, and shame, because of the statein which we were; though, hereafter devotedness to us will involve to Him only joy, "the joy set before Him."

Devotedness to Him now must similarly involve suffering, loss, and shame to us, because of the state of those for whom He died; hereafter it will in-volve only joy and honour, the bride's share of her royal Bridegroom's throne. But that time is not yet! Devoted-ness, consecration to Jesus, in a world tenanted by eight hundred millions of heathen, means stern labour and toil, means constant self-denial and selfsacrifice, means unwearied well-doing even unto death.

Judged by this test, how many faithful, loving, and devoted followers has Jesus Christ? Are we of their number?-From the "Baptist Missionary Magazine."

Getting and Giving.

(A paper by REV. A. B. WHITE, of Trinity Baptist Church, Springfield, O., United States.)

G

ETTING and giving are closely

and inseparably united, and reciprocally dependent in the Word and works of God. In nature everything tends to equilibrium. It expends to live, and lives to grow and multiply. It advances by gathering strength, and exercising strength; by collecting forces, and operating forces. Nature never hoards, but spontaneously gives. God has His own way here; no warfare against His economy in nature. Everything gives, as well as takes.

We find the same law in human society, and know that it would work as sweetly and beautifully as in nature, were it not for the interfering human will. God has made "life a partnership, and humanity a brotherhood;" but depraved selfish nature resists and violates this order. Yet the law stands, and its violation is severely punished.

The law is, all honest getting is linked with honest giving. The manufacturer is not only to make good profits, but must pay fair wages, and turn out an article that will do good service. The merchant must not only be happy over big and profitable sales, but also that he has misrepresented no article, and taken advantage of no man's ignorance, and given a full equivalent for money received. The farmer must congratulate himself not merely over round prices and liberal returns, but that his corn was sound, his wheat clean, his cattle healthy, his butter and lard sweet and pure, and that he has no money for that which will contribute to another's injury and disadvantage. The labouring man

must not only desire his earnings, but also to render good and well-done service. Each must give as well as take. When getting becomes the only object, the making of money the chief desire and design, men work grudgingly and unfaithfully; articles are turned out that will not wear; food is adulterated; and society becomes sordid and corrupt. The violation of this most righteous principle brings men into antagonism. The manufacturer and mechanic, the producer and consumer, become hard and reckless of each other's rights and interests, and grow sharp in the practice of plucking and plundering each other. Christian men must recognise and conform to this law in every-day life transactions. Here is the starting-point of Christian giving. Here we must learn and practise the principle which is to guide us in a higher and more generous benevolence. If we do not make our labour and exchanges a service to others, a supply to human wants, we shall have no disposition to conform to the law and spirit of Christ.

In the Christian life this law is enlarged and intensified. The Word of God reveals the harmony between getting and giving, receiving and imparting, most clearly and fully. As the gifts increase in value, their right use increases in importance. God bestows blessings on the condition that we hold ourselves stewards to distribute his bounties. When we take His priceless gifts into our hands, we hold them under weighty obligations and severest penalties. When God spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, and freely with

Him gives us all things, it was that we might freely give Him all things. When His love has been shed abroad in our hearts, it is that we may live unto Him who loved us and died for us. When the riches of His grace, wisdom, and mercy have been revealed to our adoring wonder and gratitude, we are to hasten to present ourselves in a living, acceptable, and reasonable service. When the light of His truth has dissipated our darkness, quickened our powers, and brought us into new life, we are to shine as lights in the world, holding forth the Word of Life. The God who redeems a man will accept as tribute nothing less than the man. When He stamps anew His image, and writes his superscription of love and peace upon his soul, that man is God's coin, and must render service to Him who has sent him forth.

This principle of getting and giving we dare not sever. They are united with a living link, and are in the Christian life like the great artery that joins the heart to the members of a living body, both the channel of life and the bond of union. Sever or hush the heart's pulsating life, and life departs.

So in religion. Sever the thoughts that burn in the soul, as it views and experiences God's grace, from their right expression in duty, or hush its beating sympathy and love to do all it has to do for others, and the person will soon give evidence that God is not with him; he has no spiritual life. Getting and giving are mutually dependent, like the roots and limbs of a tree. The one gathers and carries up the nutriment for the other to expend and unfold in leaf, blossom, and fruit. Separate them, and the tree withers, and gives up its life. So with the Christian. Getting is the little rills hastening from the hidden recesses of the hills to the bubbling,

rippling spring; and giving is the spring quenching thirst, and carrying life and growth to every living thing it touches. If it is resisted, and walled in, it rises to become a dead, stagnant pool, ever ready, like a "Mill River," to sweep away everything. We have seen family after family go down because that which should have been used was hoarded. A son by dissipation, a daughter by frivolity, the mother by extravagance, and the father in venturesome enterprises, opened little rivulets here and there, till a crash came, and desolation, broken hopes, disaster, and death marked the way of the rushing flood. God's gifts, if used, are a water-power to turn the busy wheels of spiritual enterprise; but, if selfishness build walls around them, they become constant sources of danger and destruction. Like the Siamese twins, getting and giving must live, act, and move in harmony, or there is discord and misery. If one develops and the other remains undeveloped, life to both will be dreary and useless. If they part company, or one dies, both must die. This relation cannot be too fully insisted upon. The sentence in God's Word which speaks of the treasures which flow from God so freely and cheerfully into our hands and hearts, is generally followed by one which declares the service and tribute which we should render. We are not only, as merchantmen, to seek with a diligent and intense spirit the costly pearls which God has hid away in the fields of earth and heaven, but also to put them into use in churches, missions, and reforms, where they become a transforming, penetrating leaven, to quicken, make wholesome, and sweeten cold, sluggish humanity to its very centre. God puts wealth and want, power and weakness, high and low,

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