heavenly grace. And may we not hope that in answer to these prayers, God will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing upon all lands? May we not hope that the shower that gathered first in the west, and has been steadily progressing eastwards, will continue its course till it has visited and refreshed Turkey, India and China? It is at least our duty to pray that it may be so, and to pray in faith. The sure word of prophecy informs us that one day it will be so; and they who make mention of the Lord should give him no rest, but entreat that that day may be now, and that the rain which has begun to fall may be the beginning of that great Pentecostal shower by which idolatry is to be finally subverted over all the earth, and the great spiritual wildernesses of the world made as Eden, and as the garden of the Lord. -Home and Foreign Record. IS YOUR MINISTER PAID? Is your minister paid? He should be. He earns his money. He spent much time in getting an education, and qualifying himself to serve you well. And he labours hard. Could you spend a single week with him, witness his cares, his toils and anxieties; could you look into his mind, and see all his mental labours and conflicts; and could you know how often he retires with a burdened heart and a weary head to a restless pillow, you would confess that no man better earns his money. Is he paid? Adequately and most promptly paid? wants and feelings of his family, you should pay your minister promptly. Is your minister paid? He should be. His usefulness depends upon it. If he is not paid, how can he give to the poor, and to missionary and other benevolent efforts? How can he labour when oppressed with care, or harrassed with debt, or in constant anxiety and perplexity as to the wants of his his own reputation suffers, because his enfamily? And how can he do good, when gagements are not promptly met? Reader, if you would help your minister to be useful, you must pay him. Do you say this is a worldly view of the subject? Very true; but ministers live in the world as well as you; and how can they live without a living? And how can they labour without it? And how can your minister live if you do not pay him? Do not rest till you can say, "My minister is paid!"-Montreal Witness. True, there was one century, during the Is your minister paid? He should be.madness of the crusades and locking up of It is but justice. He earns his dues. has a right to them. You would not keep But take the past, and you have an advance He the Bible, after which there was a decrease. back your neighbour's wages; and will you deal more unjustly with the one who labours for your soul? (James v. 4.) It is not charity he asks; he is not a beggar; justice demands for him a fair, and full, and prompt compensation. of 5,000,000 each century, or 146 every day. Is there not really something inspiring in such a view? It is stated that actual statistics show, that during the last fifty years Is your minister paid? He should be. "" the numHis family may suffer if he is not paid; for ber of members in the Evangelical Churches he may not be able to procure for them what in the United States has increased from four they need. Provision and clothing cannot hundred thousand to three millions and a be had without money. He is a man, and he half, being an increase of eight-fold," while must eat, and drink, and live, as other men our population has increased only four-fold. do; and so must his family. Even if his So much for the oft-reiterated statement, family may not suffer, yet he himself may suffer much mentally, because not able to that the growth of Evangelical Churches meet his bills as they become due. If you has not kept pace with the growth of the have any regard for his feelings, and for the population.-Western Watchman. Missions. CHINESE MISSIONARY GLEAN INGS. a proof of the value of Mission Schools in India :-"Went to a village, called SumasSWATOW.-Letters have been received poor (about eighty miles to the north-west from Mr. Smith to the 20th of April. The of Calcutta). A number of weavers reside two converts there continue steadfast, and in the village, and make up its principal inhabitants. Bhoyrab Chunder Mukhergea are making progress in Divine things. Mr. S. had visited the large town of Am-Pow, (a Pariah man), is a poor, helpless, blind about eight miles from Swatow, three man, a resident of the place. I had an interview with him when I visited his school. times. He was well received the first two He was one of the earliest students of the visits, but was rudely treated the last time, Free Church Institution, and at one time apparently on the ground of his preaching one of its teachers. It appears that he was against idolatry. A sailor, lately returned from that part of China, says, Mr. Smith is employed subsequently in the treasury, but that he lost his employment owing to his the only white man there, and is respected by the natives. They are a wild, unruly being deprived of sight. Bereaved of the set, and the crew of his ship were not permeans of supporting himself by active emmitted to land. The coolie trade had, for ployment, he has engaged himself in eduthe time, been put a stop to. Mr. Smith cating boys of his native village. I was asked to examine his boys. In doing so I earnestly entreats that prayer may be put have been extremely gratified to find that he up for the converts, and that others may has bestowed indefatigable pains in teachbe brought in. He writes that he often ing; and, as the result, the boys manifest a feels as if there was much prayer offered up at home for the cause of Christ at Swatow. Progress that is highly cheering and satisPATHAUPO.—Mr. Jones gave a copy of factory. They answered me with promptthe Scriptures some time ago to a Buddhist priest, who is making them his diligent study. He is of some standing in his religious order, and has been led to renounce Buddhism. Much prayer is asked for this man, and for others who are hopefully inquiring about the Gospel. An aged Christian at Aberdeen, who never ceases to remember in her prayers Mr. Smith, and the work of the Lord at Swatow, has presented Tan-kai-lin, the first baptized convert, with a Chinese Bible. The Treasurer at Edinburgh has received five pounds from Italy for the Mission, and five pounds from Africa. The Mission has sustained a loss lately by the death of an aged believer at Moulin. Old Nelly was the last surviving fruit of the revival which took place there after Simeon's visit in 1800. She had her first love greatly quickened by Mr. Burns' preaching twenty years ago, and continued to pray for Mr. Burns and China. Though poor in this world's goods, she laid by for the Gospel. Dr. Carnegie was taken to see old Nelly before he left Scotland for China, and after he had prayed with her, in parting, she brought out a pound, saying, "Give this to Mr. Burns to help the work." THE MISSION SCHOOLS IN INDIA. The following incident is related by Dr. Duff in a recent letter, and is mentioned as ness on the subjects of their studies-in grammar, geography, mechanics, a brief survey of history, and moral class-books; and what pleased me well was to find their pronunciation of English unexceptionable. One-half of the boys pay him a trifle, but The school has forty pupils on its roll. the rest are free. the poor blind man, and could not help ad"I could not but feel a deep interest for miring his patient perseverance in doing good to his fellows for more than three years, without reaping any very satisfactory remuneration for his services. A sense of duty to his Maker, and a conviction of obliwork, and sustains him in his laudable gation to his neighbour, impels him to the efforts. He visited me two nights when I was at Dhonea Bhalli. He told me he was very happy to hear my voice, and that he conversation for a long time. He is most had not heard the glad sound of religious anxious that a Christian mission should be established at Sumaspoor, and is willing to could not, for want of funds, remunerate him. give his time and labour freely, if the mission I can bear my testimony with regard to this individual, that he seems to me a thorough Christian in heart, and merely requires some favourable opportunity to make an open profession of faith, thereby proving to the world the sincerity of his principles, and the soundness of his conviction by the consistency of his life. As it is, the surrounding villages speak of his school. I mention it as a missionary school without knowing that it has no connection with the mission. | great degree, lose their interest and relax It is a very pleasing proof that the work of their diligence on its behalf. But it should education is not labour lost in missionary be remembered that all that the Bible tells operations. Education, by bestowing moral and religious culture, and diffusing intelligence, gives to the recipients a permanency of character which fails to be visible in those who have not been taught, especially by the reviving Spirit not being awakened in the earnestness of sincerity and clearness of perception. I have no time to dilate on this head. The good seed which is sown early, the repeated lessons, which are more impressive when the tender mind is adapted for them, remain unobliterated for a long time. They may show no immediate fruit, but they cannot fail to evince their beneficial effects in future life. They often bloom in the secresy of a wilderness, and luxuriate unseen to the eye of man, but known and approved of by the Disposer of all good." Such an incidental testimony, from so simple-hearted and disinterested a witness, ought to weigh something with the greatest enemy of our educational system, unless, indeed, where the whole subject is foreclosed and foredoomed. I can only repeat my solemn conviction that the day which sees any of our mission-schools closed will see the extinguisher put on a lamp that is sending rays of Divine knowledge athwart the darkness of many a soul. Missions are not like the selfish mercantile system, where the success and gain of one may be the loss of another. It is a divinely-benevolent system, where the success and gain of any one, in any one branch or department of the vineyard, which is the world, is, or ought to be, regarded as the real gain of all. And hence it irresistibly follows, that to open, or keep open, a door of usefulness in one quarter, by closing a door of long-established usefulness in another, can be no gain to the general cause of Christ. But having, in some measure, disburdened my own mind on the subject, I can calmly leave the whole to the over-ruling providence of a wonderworking and gracious God. FELLOW WORKERS WITH GOD. IN various quarters there have been signs of dissatisfaction with missionary results. We fear that some Christian people have looked at these results as if they saw in them blighted hopes, unrealized expectations, and human imperfections and shortcomings, rather than a glorious measure of success, which should lead them, with adoring gratitude and praise, to exclaim, "What hath God wrought!" and that, consequently, they get into a state of despondency about the future progress of the Gospel, and, in a us of the evangelization of the world proclaims that it is a result for which we must learn both to wait with patience and confidence, and to labour with long-continued cheerfulness, and with unconsuming zeal. The field over which such a text as Isa. xlix. 12 bids us cast our eyes will never be radiant with men in the shining garments of salvation, and the ways that are in it will never be thronged with the soldiers of the cross, marching to the citadels of Zion, without much effort. The utmost bounds of the habitable globe will never ring with the shout of deliverance from souls that were ready to perish, if they who are the Lord's do not fight manfully under his banner, and bear it far hence to the Gentiles. Never will there be a nobler task put to our hands by the Captain of our salvation. Never will a work be given us to do more worthy of our devotion. Never will that blessed book, whose leaves are bedewed with drops of love Divine, and bright with rays of light from the everlasting throne, point us to a wider, or more commanding range of service. Never will we have such ample opportunities of adding flowers to the garland, and jewels to the crown of the Redeemer. Never will we find such an array of motives and encouragements, of appeals and entreaties, combining to urge us forward to help on the jubilee of the world's redemption. And if our soldiers and our seamen rush to the post of danger as to the post of honour; if they will bear, without a murmur, the severest privations; if we can trace their footsteps written in their own blood afar, "in the north and the west, and in the land of Sinim;" if men of science and adventure will go through pestilential swamps, or burning climes, or arid deserts, or frozen seas, that they may watch the stars, or measure mountains, or trace the course of rivers, or open up the highways of commerce; if, for this world's goods, parents will send their sons and daughters abroad, to the contagion of idolatry, and misery,jand vice, and death: why should we hold back from that great enterprise, whose issue is sure to be the coming unto glory of redeemed souls from far, from the north and the west, and from the land of Sinim? Why should we not bring to it the mighty energy of interested minds, of believing hearts, of fervent aspirations? Why should we not bring to it the wondrous power of willing hands, of watching eyes, of sympathetic affections? Why should we not for it bring gifts and presents, the silver and the gold, into the treasury of the Lord? Why should not our young men bring to it a consecrated life, saying unto God, "Here am I send me ?" Why for this should not fathers part with their heirs, and mothers give up their best and dearest sons? Why should not all who love the Lord Jesus arise, breathing the missionary spirit, which is his Spirit, to do the missionary work, which is his work, and to share the blessedness and glory of seeing the splendours of his kingdom brightening upon this fallen earth, and of helping for. ward that joyous consummation, which will usher in the great day of the Lord ?-Occasional Paper of F. M. Committee. Correspondence. OUR SABBATH SCHOOL which then met in an upper room in the heart of the town of Funchal. With the exception of the English chapel it was, and is, the only Protestant place of worship in To the Editor of the Presbyterian Messenger. the island; and, during my residence there DEAR SIR,-It does not appear, from it comprised not only Presbyterians from the Report presented to the recent all parts of Great Britain and America, but Conference, whether, by the number persons connected with all the Evangelical of scholars given, we are to under- denominations. Many of them of course stand the average attendance or the children whose names appear on the roll for the year. Any one acquainted with Sabbath schools, especially with Mission Sabbath schools, will know that the difference between these two quantities may be such as greatly to lessen the value of statistics which take no notice of this difference. My impression is, that some superintendents would frame their returns on the principle of the average, others on that of the roll. I trust that, in any future statistics of Sabbath schools, specific information on this point may be obtained. I am, Sir, yours, &c., PRESBYTER. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN MADEIRA. To the Editor of the Presbyterian Messenger. DEAR SIR,-You will allow me, I am sure, to avail myself of your columns to give some publicity in England to the following statement regarding a Presbyterian Church abroad, in which many of your readers will feel a special interest. The names appended to the statement are sufficient to vouch for the peculiar force of the claims of Madeira. It was my privilege to minister, for a considerable period, to the congregation of which Mr. Braid is Now the PASTOR, and were in declining health; some had only come there to die; all more or less in that state which renders the visits of a Christian pastor tenderly welcome and doubly im pressive. some response amongst the members of our I trust that this appeal will meet with own Church; and it will give me sincere pleasure to take charge of any contributions with which I may be entrusted. Yours, very truly, JAMES D. BURNS. Hampstead, July 25, 1860. "About twenty years ago a Presby terian congregation was established at Madeira. Very soon after its establishment it took steps for the erection of a church. Obstacles, however, were thrown in its path, by which its wishes and plans were for a time frustrated. At length a suitable site was obtained, on which an elegant and modest church has just been built. The cost of the building and site has been £1,400 sterling. Of this sum £800 have been already paid, so that there still remains a debt of £600. "The congregation is composed of persons who reside permanently in the island, and of invalids who resort to it for the sake of health, and whose sojourn in it is but temporary. The congregation has thus some claim on the liberality of the public. Its members and adherents have already been fully canvassed, and have given their contributions. "To clear off the debt on the church, an appeal is now made to those in this country ΓΕ who feel an interest in Madeira from previous "WILLIAM BRAID, "Minister of the Presbyterian Church “Edinburgh, July, 1860. "Contributions will be received by the Rev. William Braid, 14, Northumberland Street, Edinburgh. "We, the undersigned, from personal knowledge of this case, earnestly recommend it to the favourable consideration of the Christian public. "PATRICK CLASON, D.D., Edin. "JAMES HENDERSON, D.D., Glasgow. Presbyterian Church in England. SCHOOL COLLECTION. THE annual collection in aid of the our Church blessed with zealous and In the name of the School Committee, raise the income of the year to £400, and this accession of means would infuse new life into the scheme, and give a new impulse to our efforts. All other branches of the Christian Church in our land are advancing in the educaThe subjoined Report contains ample tional field-advancing rapidly-and information regarding the progress and so should we. A well-served school is present position of this useful depart- only inferior in blessing to a wellment of the Church's labours. It con- served pulpit; and never ought we tains a summary of the results which to pause in our exertions till we see have been reached by the efforts of the last seven years, and exhibits a comparative view of the state of our schools-both Day and Sabbath-at the beginning and at the end of that period. Our ministers and other officebearers are requested to examine it with attention, that they may see how much has been achieved, and how much still remains to be done. It is plain that the work proposed to be done by our school scheme is as yet only half done; and that to do the THE following Report was presented to the remaining half, it is indispensable that Synod at its recent sitting in Sunderland :the fund put at the disposal of the It is now seven years since the School ComCommittee should be largely increased.mittee came before the Church with a geneThis can only be effected by all our ral survey of the whole Day Schools and congregations giving something; and Sunday Schools connected with our congreby all who have hitherto given something beginning to give a good deal more. The annual income of the Committee has, for some years back, stood at £300. So long as this sum is all which they have to work upon, it is impossible for them to extend their operations, or to occupy new ground. The Committee must stand still if the Church stands still. Let the Church SCHOOL REPORT-1860. gations, as distinguished from the account, which it is their duty to render annually, of the limited number of Day Schools which are aided out of the School Fund. They sults of another such general survey on the have the satisfaction of submitting the represent occasion; results which, when compared with those obtained in 1853, will furnish very gratifying evidence of the progress which has been made since that time in this unobtrusive, and not very popular, but still |