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In addition to this absence of fear, Mr. Hannington had a strong will. After his days of preparatory study were over, he took charge of St. George's Church in Hurstpierpoint, the place of his birth. He set himself against intemperance, and became a total abstainer; conceiving himself bound everywhere by this resolve, years after, while seeking health in Switzerland, he was making the ascent of Monte Rosa. He was not well, and suffered from "snow-sickness." The usual remedy is a mouthful of brandy, and it would, no doubt, have been effectual. The guides repeatedly urged him to take it, but he resolutely refused, and, conquering by sheer effort of will, he reached the summit. This same strength of will and power of endurance saved his life more than once in Africa. At one time he was left for dead by his bearers, but found strength to crawl after them into camp.

During his earlier years Mr. Hannington had no very earnest religious life. The conversion of a friend was the means of deepening his convictions and purposes. He became the humblest of learners, and received the kingdom of God as a little child. He was soon a helper to others, and especially to young men. There was no stiffness or reserve in his manner with them. A mill-worker in his parish said: "We all like Mr. Hannington, and no mistake. He is so free like. He just comes into your house and sticks his hands down into the bottom of his pockets, and talks to you like a man."

It will be seen how well fitted he was for a missionary life. His Oxford friends were delighted when they heard that he had been chosen as the leader of a mission party going into Central Africa. He conducted that mission with so much success that the Church Missionary Society proposed that he should be made Bishop of the Christian churches of Eastern Equatorial Africa, which region he had been exploring. But his health had broken down. Thirty-seven times in one year he had been stricken with fever. He recruited at home in England, accepted the bishopric and entered upon its duties with entire self-devotion. He sailed for Africa in October, 1884, going wholly at his own expense, also taking out two workingmen as assistants at his own cost. On the threshold of his work he has met a martyr's death. July 5, 1885, he wrote home, where his wife and friends were anxiously waiting, these touching words: "Starvation, desertion, treachery, and a few other nightmares and furies hover over one's head in ghastly forms, and yet, in spite of all, I feel in capital spirits, and feel sure of results, though perhaps they may not come in exactly the way we expect. In the midst of the storm I can say: :

'Peace, perfect peace, the future all unknown;
Jesus we know and He is on the throne.""

In conclusion he wrote: "If this is the last chapter of earthly history, then the next will be the first page of the heavenly—no blots and smudges, no incoherence, but sweet converse in the presence of the Lamb."

Does the news of the death of this noble man check the ardor of his countrymen for the service of their King? No; Englishmen are not so daunted. Within four weeks after the rumor of this great sorrow came, fifty-three persons offered themselves as missionaries to the very society with which Bishop Hannington was connected. Men fall, but the great work goes on.

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NINE MONTHS.

- The total receipts for the first nine months of the financial year were $344,790.88, about nine thousand dollars in advance of those of the preceding year for the same period. This sum includes a little over eight thousand contributed as memorial thank-offerings. We still wait patiently and prayerfully for the additional ninety thousand so urgently needed to carry out the resolution adopted at the last Annual Meeting, which reads as follows: "Resolved, That the constituency of this Board of Missions are affectionately invited promptly to raise a special and additional sum of $100,000 as a cheerful thankoffering to the Lord of missions and as the earnest of a higher consecration to the Master's cause."

THE Chinese are proverbially dull when first reached by the story of the gospel. It seems difficult for them to take it in. Yet we read of one woman in Shanse who, though a cripple, came a long distance for a second visit to the missionary, and when asked what she remembered from the previous Sunday's talk, replied: "I am old, and my heart is thick, and I have no memory. I only remember two things: That God is my Father in heaven, and that his Son Jesus died on the cross for my sins." Would that all who hear the gospel preached might remember as much!

THE Japanese are still coming to the Hawaiian Islands as laborers on the sugar plantations- nine hundred and twenty-six having sailed for Honolulu in one steamer in February last. More than half of these emigrants were women. In this respect the Japanese differ widely from the Chinese, who seldom take their wives with them when they go to other parts of the world to labor. This fact renders the Japanese a specially hopeful class of emigrants for the Hawaiian Islands.

REPORTS from Burma are that Buddhism, by reason of the withdrawal of all government support, seems tottering to its fall. The Burmans in alarm have memorialized the viceroy, asking that the English government henceforth appoint the Buddhist pope, which the viceroy declares cannot be done. The missionaries, as they see the walls trembling, call for a good blast from the trumpets to finish the work. Who will blow?

In what striking ways is good seed often carried over the world! One of our missionaries in Japan, reports that, while preparing a tract on giving, he used as a basis the well-known Sermon on Tithes, by Blind Hohannes, of Harpoot. The scribe employed by this missionary was a Christian, and while writing out that tract he felt constrained to come up to the standard of one tenth. The manuscript was then placed in the hands of a native pastor for revision, and he, too, was convinced by it in regard to his own duty and the duty of his people. The result is that there is now one more self-supporting church in Japan.

BLUEBERRIES AND MISSIONS. "I must tell you about a family of girls here. They picked blueberries last summer, and paid the owner of the field where they grew one and one-half cents per quart, and sold them for four cents a quart, and devoted the proceeds to missions.”. Extract from letter of a pastor in the State of Maine. Query: When children pick blueberries for missions and sell them at four cents a quart, would it not be the handsome thing for the owner of the field to throw in the one and one-half cents a quart and let the whole four cents go to the good missionary work? Certainly the children who pick the berries would be gratified with this arrangement, and not improbably the owner of the field as well.

THE Bombay Guardian reports that a year or two ago there were three English papers in India established for the purpose of opposing Christianity and defending infidelity. Two of these papers, The Anti-Christian and The Philosophical Enquirer, have come to an end. The third was on the point of discontinuance when somebody in England furnished the means for carrying it on. The two features of this statement which are of interest are, first, that East Indians who read English do not care for anti-Christian literature; and second, that there are those in Christian lands who are devoting their time and money to the overthrow of the only religion which can deliver the Hindus from their debasing superstitions.

It is still the law in Japan that all foreigners who pass beyond the treaty ports, into the interior of the empire, shall obtain passports. In order to prevent mercantile transactions in the interior by foreigners, the government formerly gave passports only to those who were traveling for the purpose of "health or science." These are the terms still used on the government passports, but it is now well understood by officials and the people that the phrase is not to be interpreted strictly. Mr. De Forest, in writing to The Hiogo News in reference to some complaints that the missionaries were passing through the empire on false pretences, says: "A chief of police once gave directions that no foreigner should be allowed to preach in his jurisdiction, on the ground that passports could not be stretched to cover preaching. But within twenty-four hours that chief was compelled by a far higher authority to rescind immediately his unwarrantable order, and this superior command was accompanied with the statement that foreigners could speak anywhere in the country on any subject whatever, only if, in speaking of political matters, the laws were violated, the local police should have the right to close the meeting."

ATTENTION is called to the notice of the Committee of Arrangements for the next Annual Meeting of the Board, to be held at Des Moines, Iowa, during the first week of next October.

In one of the "circulars of information" issued by the Bureau of Education, at Washington, on "Education in Japan," full of interesting and surprising information in regard to the rapid progress now making in that country in improvements in education, we notice, as a proof of the enthusiasm of the people, that there are in Tokio thirty voluntary societies organized for the purpose of scientific investigation.

THE kind of missionaries needed, and the kind which many of our missionaries are, is thus well described by Mr. Perkins, of Tientsin, who calls earnestly for recruits in his field: "Not the one whose missionary enthusiasm is so low that he can be won to the work only by the greatest persistence, but he whose missionary conviction is so deep that even after years of small results he shall remain a happy and earnest worker."

A PASTOR writes of a collection taken for the American Board since the Annual Meeting, in which the amount was quadruple or quintuple that of any preceding year, the result being due to an effort to lead the people to study for themselves the objects for which they were asked to give. At the outset the pastor named a sum which was even beyond his own expectation and far beyond the faith of his people, but the amount aimed at was reached. Sermons were preached, the missionary concert was revived, and the natural result followed. The contribution-boxes were passed at the houses, and twice the usual number of people contributed. It is not strange that both pastor and people rejoice in the result. There are those on the other side of our globe, to say nothing of other worlds than this, who will also rejoice.

The Church Missionary Intelligencer for May gives a brief summary of letters received from Mr. Mackay, of Uganda, dated December 20, promising the greater part of the letters next month. It is a story of severe trial and anxiety. King Mwanga was made very angry by the fact that the missionaries seemed to know all about the killing of Bishop Hannington, though he had forbidden all his people to report the occurrence to the missionaries. Mr. Mackay and Mr. Ashe were cross-questioned as to who it was who gave them information, but as they declined to tell him the king was furious, and they had little expectation of leaving his presence alive. The Christians, it seemed, were too numerous for the king's policy of silence to avail anything. Every event was quickly reported to the missionaries. Another of the converts had been burned to death because he had ventured to remonstrate with the king for the killing of Bishop Hannington, yet several more had been baptized at their own earnest request. Mr. Mackay writes: "The devotion and courage of the young Christians are wonderful." A pocket-diary of Bishop Hannington had been recovered, and is in the possession of the mission. It seems that he sent a message to the king as they were about to kill him, that he had purchased the road to Uganda with his life, and that he died for its people.

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