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May 19. J. J. HINDLEY, B.A., Southwold, Canada. Introductory Sermon, Rev. J. N. R. Dickson. Prayer, Rev. T. Pullar. Right hand of fellowship given by Father Silcox, the oldest Congregational minister in Canada. Charge, Rev. W. H. Allworth. Sermon to people, Rev. J. Brown. June 17. E. DANIELS, Hollingworth. Revs. T. Willis, A. Stroyan, J. Robinson, J. Gwyther, took the leading parts of the service.

RECOGNITIONS.

May 17. Rev. J. ELLIS, New Tabernacle, Old Street Road. The Revs. D. Hewitt, W. Tyler, I. Jacob, J. Spong, W. Grigsby, A. McAuslane, &c., took part in the services. May 19. Rev. M. BIGGS, Welford. Revs. W. H. Edwards, W. Clarkson, B.A., S. E. Noyes, B.A., B. W. Evans, and M. Braithwaite, joined in the engagements of the day.

May 25. Rev. J. A. GRIFFIN, Little Ilford. Revs. E. T. Egg, T. E. Stally brass, G. Firth, and B. Beddow, took part in the service.

May 25. Rev. G. CHISHOLM, Bourne. Revs. P. Strutt, J. Bevan, B. O. Bendall, R. Bruce, M.A., &c., took part in the services.

May 28. Rev. H. HUSTWICK, Market Drayton. Revs. R. W. Lloyd, D. D. Evans, G. Kettle, and C. Croft, joined in the services. May 31. Rev. G. ORME, Chepstow. Sermon, Rev. W. H. Dyer. The Revs. T. Jones, J. Killick, P. W. Darnton, B.A., and T. Jenkins, spoke at the subsequent meeting.

CALLS ACCEPTED.

C. J. C. NEW, of Cheshunt College, to be assistant to Rev. J. Griffin, Hastings.

W. H. FOTHERGILL, to Barrow-inFurness.

E. H. SMITH, of New College, to Abergavenny.

J. W. PARKER, of New College, to Banbury.

T. PARKER, of Nottingham Institute, to Lye.

M. H. LE PLA, to Pheasant's Hill. T. CARTER, to Albion Road, Hammersmith.

T. HAMER, of Lancashire College, to be assistant to Rev. R. Spence, M.A., Dundee.

REMOVALS.

Rev. J. RAVEN, Ipswich, to Felstead.

Rev. T. DAVIES, Clapham, to High Wycombe.

Rev. J. WOOD, King's Lynn, to Leicester.

Rev. C. H. PARRETT, Moulton, to
Glastonbury.

Rev. T. ORR, Mitcham, to Poole.
Rev. R. HAY, Pine Grove, Ontario, to
Crystal Lake, Illinois.

RESIGNATIONS.

Rev. R. CUTHBERTSON, Cleckheaton.
Rev. H. J. BUNN, Abergavenny.
Rev. N. HURRY, Bournemouth.
Rev. M. I. EVANS, Stratford-on-Avon.
DEATHS OF MINISTERS.
May 9. Rev. S. THOMAS, St. Clear's,
South Wales. Age 54.
Length of
ministry, 26 years.

May 21. Rev. J. HUMBLE, late of
Martock, at Bolt's Burn. Age 37.
Length of ministry, 7 years.

May 22. Rev. W. BREWIS, Penrith. Age 64. Length of ministry, 44 years.

June 5. Rev. J. HAMMOND, Handsworth. Age 94. Length of ministry, 67 years.

June 7.

Rev. E. D. J. WILKS, London. Age 65. Length of ministry, 33

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To Rev. R. CUTHBERTSON, on leaving Cleckheaton. Timepiece, &c.

To Rev. W. GUEST, on leaving Clermont Chapel. Purse.

To Rev. W. ROAF, on completion of the

30th year of his ministry at Wigan. Purse, and to Mrs. Roaf, portrait and tea-service.

To Rev. J. FOX, B.A., on leaving Dorchester. Purse.

To Rev. J. W. RICHARDSON, on leaving Rotherham. Purse.

The MERCHANTS' LECTURE will be delivered by Rev. Thomas Binney, at Poultry Chapel, on Tuesday, July 6th, at noon.

FOREIGN CHRISTIAN WORK.

Quarterly Supplement.

OUR LATEST MISSIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

FOR twenty years the Mission Station at the Kuruman, with its immediate neighbours, stood forth, the last of the border lighthouses on the shore of that wild sea of savage life and savage wars, which stretched northward without a break to the unpeopled Sahara. Then for nine years Livingstone maintained a station beyond it among the Bakwains. In 1859, in two bands, our brethren entered the wilderness, to found new Missions among the Makololo and the Matebele. Strange disasters broke up the first. The second was established successfully at Inyati, and has grown in strength and influence. Two others have since been fixed at intermediate stations between the Kuruman and Inyati: and thus a chain of Missions, at intervals of three hundred miles, has been carried onwards into the centre of savage heathendom, and to the neighbourhood of the Victoria Falls. Amid powerful difficulties, our brethren have not laboured in vain. They have had to contend with inveterate prejudices; they have been preaching lofty truth to minds which, in religion, are on the level of childhood, yet in wickedness have the experience of age. Still they have held on. In perils of journeys, in peril of sickness, in perils of the wilderness, in abundant labours, in privations, in loneliness, they have lived on, if by any means they may save

some.

The life which our brethren lead is not destitute of special interest; and the scene of their labours has fascinations of its own. Leaving the noble Kuruman fountain, and the Batlapi town which Christian activity long since gathered around its waters, the traveller enters on the broad Barolong plains, over which the mighty thunderstorms sweep with violence, and the vast herds of graceful antelopes feed. Lions, hyenas, and rhinoceroses, haunt the small rain pools; and balmy nights, with a clear sky and a bright moon, bring rest and comfort after the hot and thirsty days. Passing the small towns of broken tribes, Bahurutse and Bangwaketse, once populous and flourishing, at two hundred and seventy miles from the Kuruman, we reach the wooded hills of the Bakwains, four thousand feet above the sea. To the eastward, bright glens with their running streams, hills of copper, and forests of timber, offer endless riches to the hand of diligence and

VOL. V.-NEW SERIES.

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enterprise. For many miles on every side may be seen the ruins of villages and towns, emptied of their effeminate and prosperous inhabitants, when fifty years ago the African Napoleon, with his Zulu warriors, burst like a tornado on the Bechuana tribes, and slaughtered them in myriads. Here, among the Bakwains, still under their noble chief Sechele, the Society has placed its first outpost; commenced in 1840, by Livingstone, and now after many changes, resumed with better prospects than ever by Mr. Price. Upon the green hill, above the old cavern, stands the little town of Logageng. In the little chapel, conspicuous from afar, during the past year, a Christian Church gathered around the Lord's table for the first time; to sinful wanderers a refuge and a home, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. One mourns that the head of the tribe, so brave and able, a friend to his people, a man who from the first clearly apprehended the purpose of the Gospel, should stand aloof, halting between two opinions, and hesitating to take it for himself.

Skirting the hills, or driving through some pass in the dry river-bed, the traveller once more comes out upon the yellow plains, with their tall tufts of grass and thorn-bushes; amongst which the heavy waggon, with its huge wheels, and long string of oxen, slowly wends its way. Here and there an open glade appears of bare white rock; or a thorny thicket with its fishhook spines; or a solitary baobab stands out grandly in the landscape; or creeping plants, matted thickly together, carpet the sandy soil. Or in the rainy season, the ground is full of huge tuber-roots; or is covered for miles with a profusion of water melons and wild cucumbers, in which elephants and antelopes, and the rough rhinoceros rejoice, as well as man. Passing the fountain of Mashue, and the hot springs of Serinane, six hundred miles from the Kuruman, we reach the black basaltic hills and grassy valleys of the Bakaa range; full of cup-like hollows and old lava streams, amongst which Sekomi and the Bamanguato fixed their home. Among this prosperous tribe of Bechuanas, the second outpost of the new Mission was fixed in 1862 at the town of Shoshong, by Mr. Mackenzie. Here, too, good congregations, attentive scholars, and a new Church, show that work is not unblest, and that divine truth is a new power, quickening dead souls.

Still journeying many days, and leaving drought behind, crossing rich plains, ornamented with noble trees, we reach the fertile fields and flowing streams within the tropics; and in the broad valley of Inyati, with its pretty river, we find the last outpost of the Mission, at the head-quarters of the Matebele. Here in 1859, led by Mr. Moffat, three missionary brethren, commenced their appointed labours. The old chief, who had formed the tribe, and led its first onsets fifty years before, was still living. But the old man was hard to win: and the patience of our brethren was sorely tried. He could not submit to the Gospel. For seven years he gave no permission to his people to learn, and they dared not learn without it. When the authority of the Word of God was pressed on him as far higher

than his own, he could meet the assertion with a scornful laugh. More than one warrior in the tribe was on some pretext put to death, because of his sympathy with the teachers. At length, two years ago, Mr. Thomas having cured his daughter of some disease, the long-desired permission was granted, and many began to learn in earnest. And now intelligence has reached us that the old chief is dead.

The death of Moselekatse is no common event among the South African tribes. His career has had a terrible effect upon their numbers, their position, and their history. Leader of a tribe of Zulu Kafirs, about 1816, he was driven from his own country by the anger of Chaka, the savage head of the nation, and began to carve out an inheritance for himself in new lands. Brave, bold, and shrewd, he knew how to grasp opportunities, to make use of the right men, to reward fidelity generously, and summarily to stamp out opposition. Throughout life he had a wonderful influence over both nobles and people. His army was disciplined, and its courage was stimulated by stirring songs. In the little court-yard of this African lion, the yells of battle, the cries of the wounded, the shouts of victory were imitated, and the stories of brave deeds were told by rude minstrels, as effectively as in old days in Scandinavian halls. His rule was despotic in the extreme; its barbarities were unparalleled. His warriors were rewarded by slaves and plunder, and their warlike expeditions have been incessant to the last. Bursting upon the Bahurutse tribes beyond the Zulu territory, myriads of lives were flung away. The tribes were crushed, destroyed, and scattered. The remnant fell upon their neighbours, or fled into the desert, or escaped, like the Makololo, to a new land. For twenty years the country was a sea of war, in which Mantatees and Bergenaars, Barolongs and Bangwaketse, Bakwains and Matebele, were flung upon one another, until the storm spent itself, and but a remnant were left. Often did the Matebele themselves suffer terribly. Often did the stratagems of Scythians and Libyans in ancient days re-appear in this modern warfare. The refugees decoyed their terrible enemies into the desert, and left them to die miserably of thirst. Driven to the northward by fear of Dingaan, in the Makololo, and their brave chief, Sebituane, the Matebele found their match. But on the weaker tribes, to the banks of the Zambesi, they have waged incessant and successful war.

What a mighty need is there of the Gospel here! In no field of the Society's efforts is that need so strikingly manifest. The incessant wars, the shocking inhumanity, the indescribable vices, the universal degradation, all attest the depth of sin and misery in which millions of our race pass their lives. Acuteness, bravery, manliness, are not wanting; right and wrong are not unacknowledged; the future world is not unknown. Even tenderness is not unfelt; the sorrows of children could touch Moselekatse's

heart to its very core. But how appalling their ignorance, their misery, their SIN! Is it true that they are responsible-that "they are without excuse?' Is it true that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men;" that "neither thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God;" that "the fearful, the abominable, murderers, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the second death?" How loud the call upon us to save them, to waken them from their sleep of evil, and proclaim with tenderness and power, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" For all this wrong and all this misery the Gospel is a perfect remedy, and we have only to apply it fully. To enlighten these degraded souls by knowledge; to humanise their hardness; to save women and children; to deliver all from sin; to bring them upward to the Father whom they have forgotten, by opening to them His divine compassion in the Lord Jesus; to make life worth living for, because it is the portal of a heavenly life for ever: this has been the purpose and this the work of our faithful brethren for fifty years. Other men have gone there with very different aims. When once the missionary had made it safe, the trader followed with his muskets and powder, his exciting firewater, with his brilliant beads, his gorgeous chintzes, his convenient cutlery; he followed with sugar, and coffee, and tea, which he was willing to exchange for karosses and deer-horns, and cattle; for teeth and tusks of ivory. Aids to civilisation such things might prove, but standing alone how could they elevate, when powder fed the wars, when the drink prostrated chief and people, and even Englishmen as well as Portuguese could encourage the sale of slaves.

From Report of London Missionary Society.

RECENT EVENTS AND CHANGES IN MADAGASCAR.

ON the day of the coronation of the present Queen, April 2nd, 1868, three hundred thousand people gathered to meet their sovereign. Preceded by a hundred ladies, and by her Ministers and Council, the Queen was borne to the assembly in simple state. The old scarlet banners, which were the emblems of the idols' presence, were wanting in the procession. Around the canopy that shaded the throne, were written the words of the angels which welcomed the Redeemer into the world. In front and to her right stood the table which bore her crown. On another table to the left, was the Bible presented to her predecessor by the British and Foreign Bible Society. Her royal speech contained many elevated sentiments, but it specially announced to all her people liberty of conscience in regard to Christianity of the fullest kind. "This is my word to you, O ye under heaven, in regard to the praying: it is not enforced: it is not hindered: for God made you."

For several weeks in a quiet way, worship was maintained, and the Bible read in the palace on the Sabbath-day; the native ministers were invited to conduct the service. Recently one and another of the English missionaries have been requested to do the same. In the country districts similar

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