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opened to them, there was no getting rid of them. The Apple-tree began to complain. He had as yet not seen anything of the Christmas cheer, nobody having come for the Mistletoe; and at last he tried to rid himself of his unpleasant visitors. One night when there was a heavy gale he improved upon the occasion by shaking himself violently; but the only result was, that all his fruit blossoms fell off, and one of the best branches, hitherto free from the Mistletoes, broke off. What

was worse, the Mistletoes perceived the Apple-tree's anger, and laughed right out at him. He found they were getting the better of him, and consuming all he had. Ruin was staring him in the face; first one branch, then another, began to wither: and wherever there was an unhealthy part it was sure to be taken possession of by his unscrupulous and voracious visitors. At last, finding all his struggles to free himself and to restore to his frame the original vigour hopeless, he began to sink fast, and ere long died. He was cut down by the farmer and thrown into the cart; and as his funeral was passing along, the Apple-tree who had been proof against the solicitations of the Mistletoe, uttered a deep sigh, and murmured to himself, "There goes another victim to flattery !" The Mistletoe had again to look out for a home; but as all the apple-trees of that part of the country were now aware that his only aim was to live upon others, and lead an idle, useless life, all his applications met with a refusal. So

he made up his mind to go abroad; but, being without resources of his own, he found the long journey too much for him, and ultimately perished miserably on the road.

THE CHURCHES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.-I regard it as certain that the churches of the New Testament, so far as they correspond with their ideal, consisted of spiritual men who had a living faith in Christ, and again that each church formed a definite society, having its members duly registered or otherwise distinguished from the world. This is implied when St. Paul directs the excommunication of an offender, and when we find that the church was not co-extensive with the congregation of hearers, from which

even the heathen were not excluded (1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25). It would indeed be passing strange if the Christian church were the one voluntary society which had no right to accept or reject candidates for membership. As no rules for excluding the unworthy are laid down in the New Testament, each church must frame rules for itself. It is, therefore, beside the mark to say the practices generally observed are not sanctioned by Scripture. The same may be said of our colleges and Sunday schools. The one question is, whether our customs seeure the end designed, and secure it in the best way. When the matter assumes this form, it is evident that no categorical assertion can be made. What is suitable for one age and place may be unsuitable for another, and different regulations may all be equally good. It is, however, clear that, other things being equal, the simplest rules and tests are the best. Now, if a church is satisfied of the good repute of a candidate, and takes care that he learns what Christ requires of His followers, I think it has taken every necessary precaution, and that all further responsibility rests with the candidate himself. Let it also be an understood thing that all our members are bound, if they can, to engage in Christian work, and certainly the churches will present very few attractions to the worldly and insincere. A distinction between communicants and church-members would be a pernicious absurdity. We may not choose what duties to fulfil and what to forego. We are as much bound to unite with the church as to receive the Lord's Supper, and the requisite qualifications are identical.

PREACHING.-Look at the preacher if you want him to preach at you. The same sermon is often dull to a sleepy-head and helpful to an attentive listener, and the difference is one of reception. Oliver Wendell Holmes, picturing a lecture audience, talks of "faces without a ray of sympathy or movement of expression. They are what kill the lecturer. These negative faces, with their vacuous eyes and stony lineaments, pump and suck the warm soul out of him." And how many such people we find in every Sunday congregation!

Missionary Observer.

A SABBATH AT PIPLEE.

BY THE REV. J. BUCKLEY.

Cuttack, Sept. 24, 1868. I SPENT the first Lord's-day in this month at Piplee, and felt that it was a solemn and interesting day. I preached in the morning from 1 Peter v. 4, and exhorted the church bereaved of its beloved pastor to meditate on the tender, loving care of the "Chief Shepherd." The congregation for some time before our dear brother's death was much too large for the chapel, which was built eighteen years ago, and regularly met in the Girls' School-room, which is large and commodious. When they all rose to sing, after reading the first hymn, I felt that it was quite an inspiring, as well as touching sight. The Lord's Supper was administered in the afternoon, and we felt it good thus to renew our pledge in life and death to be the Lord's.

It is gratifying to state, that at the church meeting held the day before, eleven were proposed for baptism, and others were mentioned that appeared concerned about the salvation of their souls.

With some of these I conversed, and felt much encouragement and hope. These pleasing and hopeful appearances render the removal of our dear brother the more mysterious and painful; but we must gird ourselves afresh, and cry to God for help in carrying on the work in which he nobly fell. I need hardly say that our widowed sister, Mrs. Goadby, and our estimable friend, Miss Packer, will do all that it is possible for them to do; but Piplee requires the services of a devoted and faithful Missionary brother as well. It is an inviting and an important sphere of labour. The district contains half-a-million of souls. The native Christian community is happily increasing. The number of famine orphans on 31st March last was 380. None of our stations have been in the same length of time so fruitful as Piplee, and in none of our districts is there apparently so decided an impression made on the heathen as in this. Shall we cry in vain for help, burdened as we are with weighty responsibilities, while

still hoping in God. Will there be no response from a heart filled with love to Jesus, and with love to souls-" Here am I, send me ?" The Society will not, I am sure, be unjust or ungenerous to any of its old servants detained at home by personal or family affliction; but I am confident that if the Mission is to go on satisfactorily, there must be an infusion of young blood into it.

I am writing on Sept. 24th, and cannot forget that it is twenty-four years to-day since I reached Berhampore, Ganjam, and entered on the work. Mrs. Buckley has been engaged in it for three years longer. It is a day to write with a full heart and with devoutest thankfulness, Ebenezer; and it is also a fitting time to say that we are not tired of the work, but that, as years pass away, we love it more and more, and hope to die in it. Our gracious Master has given us, according to His promise, the "hundred-fold in this life;" and the recompense beyond the grave-not of merit, but of grace-will not be withheld. But we are all most anxious to hear of a revived Missionary feeling among the friends at home, and to be assured that they mean to be faithful to us and to the responsibilities they have incurred in seeking the evangelization of Orissa.

COLD SEASON LABOURS IN THE PLAIN OF RUDINGY.

BY THE LATE REV. J. O. GOADBY.

RUDINGY is a valley, or rather extensive plain, lying to the north of the Chilka lake, and between it and Pooree. It is low and flat, like the fens of Lincolnshire, and the waters of the Chilka lake are kept back by long embankments. This valley is studded with villages, which are built on mounds, mostly natural elevations, the houses of which are in addition well raised, the floors being generally from five to six feet above the ground. During the floods of the rainy season of 1866, owing to the vast amount of water flowing down the Mahanuddy, a branch of which empties itself into the Chilka, the waters of the

lake rose nine feet above the sea-level. This information I had from the Government officer, who narrowly escaped with his life, while clearing an outlet in the old channel by which the lake communicates with the sea. He contemplated effecting an opening of about 300 yards broad, when suddenly, without any previous warning, through the waters percolating underneath the sand, a whole mass gave way, forming an outlet of upwards of a thousand yards broad, through which the waters rushed with terrific force, sweeping the boat in which he was standing through it into the sea, where the torrent met the surf, and formed a huge wall of water, out of which it seems almost a miracle that he succeeded in extricating himself. As a natural result of this vast accumulation of water in the lake, the embankments gave way, and flooded the whole of the flat plain of Rudingy and its adjacent valleys. Thus each village was cut off from communication with the others, each becoming a small island. There seemed to have been but few boats in the vicinity, for in ordinary rainy seasons, communication was kept up by walking along the embankments, or wading through the shallow water of the rice-fields. Thus isolated from each other by ten or twelve feet of water, help was not forthcoming. The villagers were in possession of no signal code by which their distress could be made known to their neighbours, and even had communication been possible, all being involved in the same calamity, self-preservation was their first thought. Even those who had rice buried it, and professed to have none, lest violent hands should be laid on their store; and a harrowing tale was told me of suffering from hunger and thirst. So hundreds died of starvation, and their bodies being thrown into the water, famine was quickly followed by disease and pestilence. In nearly every village we visited, half the houses were in ruins, sometimes the whole of one side of a street. One, Badabennakunda, which before the famine and flood had contained 110 houses, and was thickly populated, at the time we were there had only five houses inhabited. ruins were a sad sad sight to behold. When passing one large and substantial house, which had belonged to the principal man of the village, on my asking a bystander who lived there, he replied

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"All who lived there are dead, the house is empty, you can go in and see." We went. The cow-house was large enough to contain twenty cows; through this we passed into the court or square, round which the other buildings were erected. In the centre stood the household god. In the various rooms were cooking utensils, fire-places, &c., but no living creature. On opening the door of the granary, not a grain of paddy was to be seen. This house contained forty souls, for in native families of good caste, when the children marry they do not leave the paternal roof, but accommodation is made for them, so that whole branches of the same family occupy different portions of the same building. The head of the family fell from small pox, and subsequently the whole, with but one exception, a child of six years, died off by disease and famine. The villagers said that for weeks nothing but the sound of weeping and mourning came from this enclosure. We preached in front of the next house, and our congregation was composed of the whole village, viz.-ten men, eight women, and six children. An old woman-a nice-looking old dame, who sat in the doorway, listened very attentively; she told us that in that house but five remained out of two-andthirty. As we were going, she said, very touchingly, "A blessing be on you, for you have indeed told us good news to-day."

Though during my tour through the Bonamalipore district, marks of the famine were every where visible in ruined houses, forsaken villages, uncultivated fields, and heaps of bones bleaching in the sun, I did not so vividly realise the awful nature of such a calamity, with its harrowing details, as during our stay in Rudingy. Famine, pestilence, and death, seemed to be concentrated in this valley, as in one focus. Its villages were almost depopulated, the people appeared bending under the recollection of the calamity that had overtaken themevery tongue was ready to tell its tale of sorrow and bereavement, and many a time ere we could begin to preach had we to give ear to their vivid descriptions of scenes their eyes had witnesssd, and never could forget during those desolating months.

Our reception by the people was all we could wish, and as we could point to ruined temples, and remind them of

instances they themselves had related of gods and goddesses being stolen for the sake of the trumpery ornaments upon them, and could appeal to their own acknowledgment of the fruitlessness of all their observances in averting the dire calamity through which they had passed, they appeared to have no ground for opposition. An unusual seriousness marked their demeanour, their spirits seemed subdued, and it was apparent that to many the tale of love and mercy, which was the burden of our message, fell soothingly upon their ears. We were every where welcomed, and should our lives be spared until another cold season, we hope to be able to visit more fully this interesting district.

A SPEECH ON FOREIGN MISSIONS,

Concluding with a Specimen of Spiritual Arithmetic-delivered at the General Conference of the American Board for Foreign Missions, Maine.

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I WAS in an assembly not long since, awaiting the service. I was early there, but soon the organ commenced. began on a single note, very sweet and tender. Soon another note was heard, in perfect concord; and then another, and another, all in exact harmony; till at length, all the range of keys was in use, and the grand resources of the instrument were waked.

So now, with a grander instrumentality in the kingdom of Christ. There was first the voice of the brother who told us of the Papist-what he is, and what he needs. Then came the plea for the sailors, a class that act as the nerves of the nations, in their intercommunication; then another-for the Bible, and the millions that are without it; still another for the Tract cause, that gives to the neglected so much good reading; and then the good word for the Freedmen, so helpless and wretched, as well as for the destitute that cover the great wastes of the west and north. But we now have, last of all-to crown all-the whole world. There is no clashing or jarring here. These things are in harmony, as the various notes and swells of the great organ. My plea does not displace the pleas of these brethreu, but expands them and complements them. I but put

my feet on the pedals of the great instrumentality and touch the silent keys, to get out the whole music.

I am agent, then, of the Bible Society, as it spreads out over the world. The missionaries of this one Board have put the treasures of the Bible into the tongues spoken by half the human race. I am agent, too, of the Tract Society, as it walks across the sea, sprinkling the nations with the leaves of life. I am agent, also, of a Church Building Society, that has dotted the lands with rude sanctuaries. I act for an Education Society, that carries light to the darker places of earth. We are helping the young men there; we are putting them through their course; and have more such in training than all the Theological Seminaries of our order in the land.

I work, too, for what is a Home Missionary Society, abroad. This one Board of Missions has two native pastors and preachers to one that is sent to its missions from our own churches. And best of all, those far-off churches, just planted, are sending the gospel to places still more distant. The seed is becoming a tree-a moral banyan in the East. The centres seek to evangelize their surroundings; and those fresh Christian impulses do not stop there, but reach out the hand over mountain ridges and broad seas, to feed the hungry and to save the lost.

So I come on last, to take what these brethren leave, to touch keys they have to pass over, and bring out the grandeur of the Christian benevolences. But we all alike call for money, and a great deal of it; not yours, brethren, but the Lord's, in your keeping; not for our societies, but for the poor and the neglected!

The fundamental rules of religion are these addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. "Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance," etc. And then, "put off all these, anger, wrath, malice,' and the like. You notice subtraction comes after addition. We don't put off till we take on, or in, and thus we come to multiply and abound in all good things, to the glory of Christ. Then follows the test rule of division,-the distribution, the tithing, the scattering abroad of the good things of God. This last is the proof rule of the others; and if well wrought, shows our work in the Lord to be right, and not in vain.

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SPAIN, A FREE COUNTRY. SPAIN, A FREE COUNTRY! This is the fact of deepest interest for the close of eighteen hundred and sixty-eight. That beautiful land, with its noble mountains, mines of precious metals, extensive vineyards, and richly cultivated fields, is now FREE! The Christian Missionary may now travel over most of its provinces, and receive a welcome from their interesting inhabitants. Twelve months ago the world would scarcely have believed such an announcement. Perhaps no country on earth, with such a bright intelligent population, was so thoroughly enslaved by priest craft and anti-Christian error. The stronghold of Papacy was here. Its most absurd idolatries were here practised by the duped and deluded millions. Not that there was any deficiency of mental power in the Spaniards, but Satan himself seemed to have concocted his schemes so cleverly as almost to have excluded the pure light of Scripture truth from the country. It was a crime against the nation's laws to introduce the Bible into Spain. Bible did enter for all that. was a British citadel, and the Spaniards would cross over to our territory, and in this town make themselves possessors of the proscribed book. Spanish traders would come to England, and, in the Port of London, the City Missionaries would supply them with the Word of God in their own tongue. In fact, as time went on, it was found almost as impossible to shut out the Bible from Spain as it would be to turn back an advancing tide. Christians had been praying for Spain, and prayer has power. It touches the world's springs. The most unlikely' instruments may be used. Men with political tendencies, be they right or wrong, may be led willingly, or unwillingly, to accomplish the purposes of Him who will overturn, overturn, overturn, till He shall come whose right it is to reign.

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The shackles which bound the Spanish nation were being rivetted more closely by the Ultramontane party; the Concordat with the Papacy rendered them still more galling; whilst the hollow pretensions of a corrupt and corrupting priesthood became daily more apparent. The people writhed under the yoke. They could endure it no longer. They had minds capable of intelligent thought,

and although their powers were weakened through the influence of the Confessional, and their meagre knowledge of Truth, yet they had strength enough to burst their bonds like Samson; to demand a purer government; and then to proclaim in the capital, " Long live religious liberty and free education!"

The change which has come over the nation has taken Europe by surprise; it has foiled the intrigues of Rome; and has rejoiced the representatives of pure evangelical Christianity. Now there is hope for Spain. If the affirmation of our own beloved Queen was a truth, that "the Bible made England a great nation," then what effect is it likely to exert upon the newly-liberated Spain, which has so long been desiring to possess the same boon? To what an extent the Word of God has been introduced into that country it is impossible to say; but this we do know, that in one city, at least, the Scriptures were read by thousands; that their perusal had been so much blessed, that above twenty small Christian Churches were privately organized; and that multitudes of people in that city were only waiting for a favourable opportunity publicly to profess their attachment to Protestant Christianity. In one locality they ventured to meet in numbers as high as forty, and even dared to sing hymns, without interference. But the recent attempt of the priesthood to crush out this work of the Lord, which we reported not long since, though it led to the dispersion, and temporary inconvenience of the Christians, led them also to prayer. We believe in the omnipotence of prayer; not of saying prayers as a clever parrot might say them, but souls in sympathy with God may draw forth the exertion of His Almightiness, and then the barriers of ages can be made to crumble in the dust in an incredible short period of time. Now see what an Omnipotent Friend has permitted to be done! Woe to the opposers of God's work, when their persecutors drive His people to their knees. If only the friends of the Most High can get into communion with Him about their position, there is no knowing how He may plead for them by terrible things in righteousness.

The Christians of Spain, though occasionally imprisoned in consequence of their confession of Christ, have continued, quietly and cautiously, to evan

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