Many in this way have left me, not, however, without solemnly assuring me that they would continue searching the Scriptures. When I remembered the individual, though but little is stated about him, and I know nothing of the particulars of his public confession, I could but shed tears of joy and gratitude to my Lord and Saviour, as I and my family had taken particular interest in him, in his way of studying the Scriptures, his progress, his prayers, his earnestness, his struggles with the Lord of the covenant for faith to overcome the suggestions of Satan, of rationalism, and of a world lying in wickedness. Everything about him awakened my sympathy. I took him to my house, and regularly instructed him. However, in some mysterious manner, his connection with me was broken off, to my great despair concerning him. But now, blessed be the Holy One of Israel, I look back with feelings impossible to be described, upon the many hours we spent in meditating on, and praying over, various portions of the Scriptures.

With regard to two other cases, I may very fitly apply the following passage:"But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."

Mr. B, a young man, who visited me almost daily the first year of my stay in Ibraila, and whom Mr. Davidson used frequently to meet in my house, was always a scrupulous observer of the rites of Judaism, rather with a touch of superstition. Nevertheless, he actually trembled when pointing out the Scripture passages in corroboration of the claims of our Lord to the Messiahship. I demonstrated to him, that, in rejecting Him, he shares the guilt and the condemnation of those of our forefathers who exclaimed, "Crucify Him! crucify Him!" or with those who said, "His blood come upon us and upon our children." His heart was sinking within him when I repeated words to the same effect. After the lapse of the year he discontinued his visits; unfortunate circumstances may have induced his doing so. The genuine spirit of Protestantism was diametrically opposed to his views as a self-righteous Jew, laying so much weight on ceremonies, and strictly clinging to the letter. When I occasionally met him, he used to console himself with the idea, that in his heart he believes in Jesus as the real Messiah, whom the Jews of old were looking for. When lately passing through the chief street, he most cordially invited me to enter a shop, at the door of which he was standing. He expressed his anxious desire to call upon me on the following Saturday, and, if possible, to do so every Saturday, as he keeps his shop closed on that day. We had a very long and, I may say, devotional conversation. The tenour of his observations indicated that a hard inward struggle was going on in his mind between truth and error:-" I have not forgotten anything of what you taught me, and, though three years have elapsed, I have even told my friends that your instructions can never be eradicated from my mind. The 53rd chapter of Isaiah is sufficient to convince me of the truth, that the Messiah has become that sacrifice which alone is able to remove all our sins, even that one of having rejected Him for so many centuries." He visited me again on the following Saturday, and all his conversation was to the same effect. It is the mighty Spirit alone that is able to give the ascendancy to truth over falsehood, even to the truth of the sublime principles of the Gospel over Judaism. For this Spirit I am fervently praying.

Mr. B—, a young man of respectable appearance, introduced to me by Brother S-, comes to me regularly every evening, from six to seven, when the warehouse he is in is closed. I am sorry to say he knows nothing either of Judaism or Christianity. He must be instructed in things relating to eternity; like a heathen, his education in general having been very much neglected. He is very humble on

this account, and manifests a spirit of contrition, like the publican of old. He drinks in the words spoken to his soul with the greatest avidity. My evening class this season is attended by six young men. Though apparently for secular knowledge, my chief consideration is religion. Every opportunity for this purpose is anxiously seized by me, and it seems my labour is not in vain. At present the historical parts of the Gospel chiefly engage our attention. Religious conversation in general, and visiting, where practicable, are, I think, on the increase. Brother B― has removed to Galatz, having obtained a situation there in a large English establishment. I hope, in the meantime, Pastor Neumeister will minister to his spiritual wants, as he now takes much interest in the conversion of Israel, as the missionary spirit and exertions have had their beneficial influence on him, as it was once manifested at Pesth. Brother L- thank God, is doing well.

Mr. NEUMANN writes :

TULTSCHA.

Blessed be the Lord, who does not withhold His loving-kindness from His servants, however unworthy we may be, but still continues to own and bless the efforts we are making to promote His glory. In furnishing you with this monthly report, please let me begin with my recent missionary visit to Babada. It had been for a long time my heart's desire to pay a visit to the Jewish community of that place, but it ever interfered with my labours here; at last, during the half holidays of the recent Jewish festival of Tabernacle, I embraced eagerly the good opportunity to carry out my long-felt desire.

Babada, a miserable, filthy Turkish town, as they all are, twenty English miles in a northerly direction from here, is nicely situated in a lovely, fruitful valley, close to a lake, an outlet of the Black Sea, and surrounded with a chain of hills with thick woods; the population may reach 4000 human beings of different nationalities and creeds, as Turks, Tartars, Greeks, Armenians, Bulgarians, Moldavians; the last and least, twenty most poor Jewish families. As I once reported, one of the wealthiest Jews of the place has brought his girl into town, since the spring, to profit by my school, and to his house I drove directly, sending word before hand. As soon as I entered his large shop, some six or eight Jews were presently there, saluting each other with hand-shaking, and with the truly oriental phrase, Shalem Alechem! "Peace be with you!" After some minutes' talk, I addressed a venerable old man, with a long white beard, saying, "As I see the Almighty granted you to come to this good age, doubtless you prayed, during your many years of pilgrimage, the sweet and excellent psalm of David; now there is a wonderful verse in the cxviii. Psalm, (citing it in Hebrew:) The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner. This is the Lord's doing, it is marvellous in our eyes.' Can you give me the true sense of this verse? Besides this verse, we have some more remarkable passages in the Old Testament, where the holy prophets of God, moved by Holy Spirit, prophesy of a stone, attributing him a saving and punishing character, as for instance, Isaiah viii. 14; xxviii. 16: Daniel ii., 3-4."

He said: "I thank you, my dear sir, for your expressed kind words. It is true, that I pray often shehillim (the psalms are a favourite extra prayer-book with nontalmudical Jews); but I confess, I understand only the simple meaning of some of them." Here he began to translate the above-cited 22nd verse literally; but added

be, "The true sense and meaning of the verse I don't know; for we do not study so close and minutely the Scriptures as you do; and, besides, our rabbis render a quite different interpretation."

I answered: "God gives every rational being a sound mind, reason, and understanding, to understand by himself God's Word, and especially when we pray, with David, with an upright heart, the 18th verse of the next following cxix. Psalm: 'Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law."" I was now about to expound these verses, when an intelligent-looking young man interrupted me, saying, "I mark well to what purpose you selected and cited these difficult passages; I will give you the exact and true meaning of all these verses, but not at this moment, as it is now too late in the evening, but to-morrow morning, after having consulted Rashi and other talmudical books."

I said: "Very well, be it so; we postpone the discussion of these verses for tomorrow morning;" and, turning to the rest, "I invite you all, and even more than you, to be present here to-morrow after the morning prayer, in order to continue our conversation." Consequently I changed my topic, speaking for half-an-hour more of man's original sinless state, and what the Scriptures tell us, in so many dark-coloured passages, of man's character since the fall of our first parents. Indeed, now being late in the evening, we separated for the night, inviting them once more to come tomorrow at the stated time to the shop, intimating I would distribute Hebrew tracts. Being ten o'clock, and my host weak from fever, I retired to my bed, thanking and praising God for affording me the good opportunity to proclaim and confess Him who is Lord of lords and King of kings.

Next morning, after prayer time, I was at my post in the shop; soon gathered again a number of Jews around me, among them the young man, my antagonist, who kept well his promise of the previous evening; he entered boldly the shop, saying, "Now I am prepared to answer your questions of last evening; the 22nd verse in the cxviii. Psalm," he said, " refers to David himself, earnestly asserting his 'being the corner stone of the temple." I refuted him,by simply remarking, that at David's time there was no such temple building of stones, and a man cannot be a real corner stone of a building; the Jews present laughed at hearing such an exposition, but none of them knew it better; he tried then to escape from this his first assertion, but could not do it satisfactorily to the understanding of the bystanders. In such a way he referred the other verses in Isaiah to Hezekiah, Sennacherib, Shalmanasser, and that in Daniel to Cyrus. Patiently I heard all his nonsense; then I said, "Now, my friends, allow me also to give my exposition, or rather the opinion and meaning of God's holy word;" pointing all those most important passages relating to our blessed Redeemer and Saviour, especially I dwelt longer on Isaiah xxviii. 16, that He will be the greatest blessing to those of Israel who will believe in Him, and a curse and punishment to those who will reject Him, as He is the best and greatest boon, God in His unspeakable wisdom and loving-kindness, could bestow on fallen sinful mankind; exhorting them urgently not longer to remain in their utter spiritual darkness, and heart's hardness. They listened silently, but dared not to contradict much; after then I distributed among them Hebrew tracts, especially Dr. M'Caul's liii. chapter of Isaiah. My young antagonist promised to call upon me, coming into town; but he has not yet made his appearance. Then entered a man in the shop, who expressed his joy in seeing me after so many years, knowing me from Constantinople, since 1846; he heard at that time much gospel truth there. I reproved him that he does not profit his immortal soul's salvation, by accepting God's gracious offering in Christ? He excused himself

by being a poor man of family: he must give all his time and thought for his daily bread.

I hope (D.v.) to repeat my visit there in the spring, when it will not interfere with my other duties here. I am further pleased to say, that I have, since the last Jewish festival, better-attended meetings on Saturday than the whole summer; both the two first and the two last days of last Tabernacles I had much to do. Especially I am cheered with a third earnest inquirer, an interesting young man ; also a journeyman shoemaker, lately arrived from Jassy; he fled from that place to avoid serving in the army of the Principalities, as the present government will force the Jews also. From the Old Testament he knows only the Pentateuch, but, happily, understanding Hebrew tolerably, I read with him the Prophets and the New Testament in Hebrew. He is very regular and attentive at the meetings, above all, upright and frank in his thoughts and sentiments; he has also a great reverence for the inspired oracles, which gives good hope and encouragement. May the good Shepherd draw unto Himself also this lost sheep of the house of Israel. He is likewise anxious to learn reading and writing in German, but for the moment he cannot command the desired time in the evening, for his trade is for the present in its most prosperous period; after some weeks, he hopes to have a little more leisure in the evening, which favourable time he looks for with pleasure.

From the dear young brother in the Lord at Constantinople, I received lately another cheering letter; he feels himself very happy in the faith, and the bonds of love and mercy of our glorious and blessed Redeemer, Jesus Christ. The Rev. Mr. Koenig bears testimony in his letters to the same effect; the former addresses also a letter of encouragement to my oldest inquirer, clever poor B, in which he tells him that he found the only precious pearl in Christ, encouraging him to seek it earnestly. He concludes his letter by expressing his hope that they may soon be able to tell one another the wonder and mystery of the dying love of the Redeemer of Israel. Lord grant it!

The School. The fifth semi-annual term I re-opened the day after the last festival, the 27th of last month; the attendance was very good, till the last few days, when the heavy rains set in, making the paveless streets quite impracticable for the younger children, and for those who live at a distance. You are well aware, dear sir, that the Secretary of the Moravian Missions sent a letter of thanks and encouragement to the school children, for their contribution of £1 2s. 6d., for the education of the fur-clad little Esquimaux children at Labrador. At our last usual monthly missionary concert, I read them the letter translated, making, at the same time, some remarks on it, which cheered them much; it is a good stimulus for them, when they see and know that other good people take an interest in them; therefore, I would suggest, you may address the children with some lines of encouragement.

The monthly report of the operations of this station during the closing month of the year, will be read with devout expressions of gratitude for mercies received :

The school had been again, during the whole month, very well attended, owing to the dry state of the streets; greatly contributed also to it the kindly sent out wearing articles, with which I could help out some of the most needy, for which the poor parents are very thankful. I wish I could do more for them.

The Bible class finished again the whole book of Genesis in the Old Testament. In the Gospel according to St. Luke they had read twelve chapters. Though they are

earnest at the daily prayers, reading, and understanding the Word of God, yet I long to see more effect of these gracious means on their hearts. Dear N-- Band RB, the clever daughter of the watchmaker, are cheering and hopeful exceptions. This good girl likes the school fondly, not less her Bible. The junior reading-class have now Dr. Barth's Catechism, well known, far and wide-spread, short Bible histories, for their reading book. Geography-I have taken the rudiments of mathematical and physical geography. We are now again at the map of Europe. In natural history we finished the quadrupeds; in arithmetic they are going on gradually. In the course of the month they learned another evening hymn with a sweet tune to it. The 30th instant we had again our usual monthly missionary concert. The topic this time was the annual bathing feast of the Hindoos in the Krishna river, in that part of India called Telugu. They contributed this month 3s. 4d.

In one of my previous letters I mentioned my efforts in behalf of the future temporal and spiritual welfare of dear NB, I addressed myself not only to Constantinople, but also to some Christian friends in Odessa, Russia. From these latter I received no favourable answer. After a lengthened and expensive correspondence (each letter one shilling) with the Rev. Mr. Koenig, Constantinople, who took a kind interest in the matter, we were well-nigh at the desired point. The 25th October last I received a hasty note from him, to equip and send off the boy for the capital, having been so fortunate to apprentice him in the bookbinding trade, with the same master where S learned the same trade. Full of joy I equipped him, paid his passports and passage on the French steamer out of my own purse. But, alas! in the meantime I received another hasty note which blasted my hopes, like the mildew on the ripe hopeful corn-field. The master asked 1500 Prussian thalers-£15. How can I pay this sum? So were my expenses partly quite useless. I addressed a letter three weeks ago to the "Society of the Friends of Israel," at Basle, expecting soon their answer. In the meantime the poor boy still attends the school-the Sabbath-school and the preaching of the Gospel every Lord's day. His heart is entirely inclined to our most holy faith. I am very sorry to say that it is this winter quite impossible to collect an evening class. There are very few young men this winter in the place.

But the more I am pleased to report that my Saturday meeting is, since the last Jewish festivals, far better attended than the whole summer. There are five or six regularly present. The young journeyman shoemaker, mentioned in my last report, proved all the time very interested in the Word of God. I could distinctly mark that it is the Spirit's operation in his soul. Last week he left the place for the capital. He requested a letter of introduction to the Jewish missionary there. With great pleasure I furnished him with one to my respected friend, the abovementioned Rev. Mr. Koenig. He promised to attend his meetings and evening class. Besides the two old inquirers, three other Jews are regularly present; and I have conversations in the street, and in the shops, when the time allows me to do so. I am very thankful for the many opportunities the Lord grants me to testify of Him, who is the Lord and King of Israel, and came to give Israel repentance and remission of sin.

CANNSTATT.

From Rev. P. E. GOTTHEIL :—

I think I mentioned in my last that the baptism of the young inquirer, originally fixed for the 2nd of this month, had to be delayed, in consequence of our having