in my last has met and separated, after a most interesting and successful session. Our mission came up in full force, and Mr. Gordon, even, was able to be present during the last day. Neither the American nor the English Episcopal missions thought it best to send delegates, but the Rev. Mr. Syle, of Yokohama, late Seaman's Chaplain at Shanghai, and Rev. Mr. Nelson, of the American Protestant Episcopal mission at Shanghai, were invited to seats in the convention, attended all the meetings, and took prominent parts in the debates, adding much to the interest of the occasion, encouraging us, by their manifest sympathy, to hope that in the future our Episcopal brethren will heartily cooperate with us in all matters of common interest, as well as regularly unite with us in subsequent gatherings, which we hope we may have at intervals of two or three years." "The subject which, in the minds of all, seemed the most pressing, was the same that, in our mission meeting last July, we thought best to bring to the notice of the Prudential Committee, namely, coöperation in the translation of the Bible..... At the outset we had no doubt but that the result would be formally what it is, but that all should so cordially acquiesce in it, we hardly dared to hope, and cannot but regard it as an evident sign of the Divine favor. "With reference to the question of Church Union .... we are encouraged to hope for union on terms satisfactory to all. The majority of our Presbyterian friends seem ready to concede all we could reasonably ask. Prof. Seelye, when with us, expressed himself most decidedly in favor of an organic union if such could be brought about, and we now think it can, eventually. "With reference to the education of the native ministry, we hope some day to be able to work economically by making one institution do the work of several, but we none of us think it expedient to make .any move in that direction at present, though there are even now several men in process of training at Yokohama, and we have reason to hope that at Kobe there will before long be one or two looking forward to the preaching of the gospel. "On Sunday afternoon the convention met with the native church to celebrate the Lord's Supper, at which exercises were conducted, both in Japanese and English. It was an occasion of the most intense interest to us all, and one which we can never forget. Mr. Davis spoke of it as the most delightful day of his life, and we could all sympathize with him in saying so. "The value of the conferences we have enjoyed with our missionary brethren, and the gatherings of the native Christians which we have attended, cannot be too highly estimated; the experience here will prove itself valuable in our efforts at missionary work in our own peculiar fields. "To me, personally, the issue of these meetings comes home with peculiar force, bringing, as it does, my appointment on the committee for the translation of the Bible. I feel myself incompetent in every respect for a work of such importance, yet I do not feel at liberty to decline the appointment. Just how we shall enter upon the work has not yet been decided, nor has any opportunity yet offered for a conference on this subject. We have simply met once to choose our chairman, who is to be Rev. S. R. Brown, D. D." CHEERFUL ENTRANCE ON THE WORK. Mr. Gordon, who reached Yokohama September 24th, wrote briefly on the 30th: "I believe it is Carlyle who says, 'Blessed is the man who has found his work,' and as I look upon this beautiful land, as I see the rapid strides which it is making toward civilization, as I see these minds so willing to receive Christianity, I feel like shouting Eureka! Eureka! "It seems to be the impression that I am to go to Osaka, but this will not be decided, I believe, till I go to Kobe. I shall consult the will of the mission, as they probably know more about the case than I." On the 17th of October he wrote that the mission had assigned him to the Osaka station. Micronesia Mission. A FEW brief letters from Micronesia have recently come to hand, two of them copies of letters to the Secretary of the Hawaiian Board. One from Mr. Sturges, of Ponape, was sent by a whale-ship, and two from Ebon, Marshall Islands, were sent by the U. S. steamer Narragansett, by way of Sydney. The more important portions will be given here. MRS. DOANE'S HEALTH-SLAVERS-CALL FOR HELP. Mr. Sturges, expecting soon to be left with no American associate, wrote on the 3d of May, 1872: "Mrs. Doane's health is no better; there is no help for us; she must get away in the Morning Star. It is a great pity she must wait to long. "There is little to report from our island. Two slavers have called here. One came in for supplies, the 'steward' left, and gives shocking reports of stealing and shooting all along in Eastern Micronesia. They have gone west. It is fearful to think of the hate and revenge in store, and likely to be visited upon the Morning Star! Will not something be done to put a stop to the movements of such desolating craft? "Our work goes on slowly, but I hope surely. Our meetings are all well attended, and some new regions are coming into the light. With the care of all the churches,' we can do little at school teaching. I started Mrs. Sturges' school and carried it on three months, but found I could not stand it. I have kept up a class specially with reference to teaching at this place. I have also been able to carry on schools at my three stations, under native teachers. They do well. We mourn over the little we can do to go forward' in our weakened state. We find our people poor 'timber' to manufacture into foreign missionaries. We have some who are quite helpful at home, but see not how we can have any ready to go west this season. If some two or three were mated equally we could have teachers to go! It is one of the many strange things about our people that they will not 'pair off'' so as to have man and wife equal in age, sense, good looks, or anything else! This is one of the great difficulties in the way of getting teachers. "What light and help have you for us? What am I to do if left alone with all this work upon me? I still feel, as I have long felt, that two American families, in good health, could so develop this field (island) as to raise up teachers to take their places soon, and also to supply many of the isles around. If we can have help so as to carry on a training-school here, we can do a good work; but if help cannot be furnished us, we cannot do more than keep our churches along as they are. "We pray much for our dear Micronesia, and are happy in the feeling that you will do all you can for us." EBON-SCHOOLS- PROSPECTS. Mr. Whitney wrote from Ebon, August 27th: "The Narragansett, U. S. N., is now at anchor in our lagoon, bound direct for Sydney, and will take our mail. We learn that she has placed affairs at Apaiang and Tarawa in a better condition. I do not think the natives of Tarawa are as ready to fight as they were before her visit. She reports the Morning Star as having been at Apaiang, and we also suppose she was seen at Butaritari on Sunday, August 18th, by a trading vessel. "Our flock is increasing, and I trust that there is growth, advance, among the older members. We see, almost weekly, some new one, or some one who had fallen, coming back again with the voice of penitence. On one of the islets, Enelok, there is a work in progress which encourages us very much. Several have come forward, and we hope to hear from others. "Another pleasant feature of our work is the interest now apparent in our schools. The number of pupils is on the increase, and the interest is much more apparent than heretofore. Different parts of the island are wishing schools, and we had last week four in session. But our men are not sufficiently trained yet to labor away from our inspection, at least not many of them. We much need more books, and have prepared copies for reprint, and also new translations. The old editions are exhausted, except Acts. We are now discussing as to the best plan for supporting native teachers in the schools. I think we shall be able, in perhaps three or four years, to establish free schools supported by the people. What we want is, to place the schools on such a footing that both teachers and scholars will feel that they are theirs. "In regard to teachers - shall we call them catechists?— who are upon the different islands, we must support them to some extent, but they will be cared for in great measure by the people to whom they go. There is much readiness on the part of some of the chiefs to help them, and some are doing it because they feel that the education they receive is a compensation. The chief who planned to kill Aea and all the mission is one who helps most, and is learning, we trust, the true way." WAITING FOR A MAIL-SORROW. Mr. Snow also wrote from Ebon, August 27th. Readers cannot fail to sympathize with the mission company as they read. "As the Morning Star is still below the horizon, so far as we Ebonites are concerned, and as we have a convenient opportunity for getting letters homeward by the way of Sydney, by the U. S. steamer Narragansett, allow us to report ourselves - we four Americans as in our usual health; or at least as well as could be expected of those so long without a mail! Not a word yet from home since we left San Francisco last year, June 23d, nor from Honolulu since July 22d of last year, until yesterday, when the arrival of the Narragansett, Capt. Meade, brought us Honolulu and some American papers. Our English and German friends have kindly favored us with an occasional foreign paper. "You can judge of my surprise, but not of my sorrow, on opening the first of those papers last evening. The first thing my eye fell upon was a notice of the death of my very dear Hawaiian associate, Rev. H. Aea, who returned to Honolulu last year with his children, after the death of his wife on Mejuro. He was expecting to return, and we were anticipating his return on the Morning Star, to continue the work he had so well begun on that island, the most populous of our group. "So far as I could learn, he had won largely upon the confidence and respect of the chiefs and people; and the way seemed fully prepared for his accomplishing a great and good work there. It is a dark providence that has taken such an efficient worker from our little band, and at such a time. "He came to Ebon some two years in advance of me, so that when I came, in 1862, I was delighted to see what an efficient co-laborer Mr. Doane had in the work of the gospel, for Ebon and these Marshall Islands. As an enthusiastic and successful teacher, I suspect there has not been his equal among all the Hawaiians in Micronesia. I miss him the more, as we worked so long and so pleasantly together here on Ebon. But the Master knows our wants, and feels them more than we can; and he knows, too, how they are to be supplied. To him is our prayer, and in him is our trust. NATIVE HELPERS CALLED FOR. "We are not unmindful of the fact that these providences point significantly to the importance of trying to man our field with our own native forces. And we have already three efficient men, with their wives, in the harness and at their work; one of them on Jaluij and two on Mejuro. But they all greatly need the special training of our theological school, as soon as it shall be established. And we are having urgent calls from other islands for teachers and laborers; especially from the island of Arno, which has just had a rough survey by Capt. Meade. The chief there is very desirous that I should visit him, and says he thinks I do not love him, as I do not send him a missionary. He said to one of our church-members not long since, with much feeling, 'It is not money or property that I want so much as a missionary.' It is difficult to say what may be the motives prompting him to such an earnest call; but the fact is interesting, as he is the highest chief on one of our most populous islands; an island, too, on which a boat's crew of six men has been murdered since I have been living on Ebon. I received, men. recently, a large needle used for making mats, made from a bone of one of those They report the boat as having touched there for water, and as soon as the crew were scattered a little, they fell upon them and murdered them all. I wish very much that I had a good Hawaiian to go there at once. And what are we to do for Mejuro, now that Aea is gone? "I am so disappointed to learn that there are no new missionaries on the Morning Star-not even dear Mrs. Sturges, returning to her lone husband and her loved work on Ponape! Perhaps the arrival of the vessel will throw some light upon this darkness. We have been looking for her almost hourly, since last Thurs day, when we heard that she had been seen the Sabbath before, at Butaritari. But the winds have been light part of the time. "Replies to letters - official and others - must be written after those letters reach us, if they ever do. We shall get accustomed to delays in our mail department one of these days, or years, perhaps, so that we shall be more patient. But those dear children the parental heart cannot well restrain its yearning for some word to break the long silence, that we may at least know whether they yet live. We are trying to learn more of that, 'Like as a father,' and of the blessing those receive, who,. not having seen, yet have believed." PROGRESS IN MADAGASCAR. MISCELLANY. THE "Chronicle" of the London Missionary Society, for November last, contains an article illustrating the progress of the gospel in Vonizongo, a large district about forty miles to the northwest of the capital of Madagascar. Some churches and schools were gathered there as early as 1827, but "scarcely had the gospel taken root, when some of its professors were called to seal their testimony with their blood." Cases are mentioned illustrating their faith and decision. "Ramitraha, a noble, a descendant of one of the most distinguished chiefs of the country, when asked to take the oath as invoking the idols, replied, 'God has given none to be worshipped on earth, nor under heaven, except the name of Jesus Christ.' 'Fellow!' exclaimed the officer, will you not worship the departed kings, and the idols which raised them up?' To which the steadfast confessor replied, I cannot 'worship any of them, for they were kings given to be served, but not to be worshipped. God alone is to be worshipped forever and ever, and to him alone I pray.' This faithful Christian sealed his testimony to Jesus Christ with his blood, in the flames." "When the judge urged the people to take the oath which recognized the idols, and to implore the prescribed curses on themselves if they violated it, Rabodomanga stood forth, and said, 'I do not pray to wood and stones, nor to the mountains. Unto God alone do I pray; for he is great. He cannot have associates.' One of the officers said, 'You wretch! Will you not pray to the spirits of the ancestors, and to the idols?' The heroic Christian woman answered, “I do not pray to these; it is God alone that I serve."" After the renewal of missionary labors on the island, visits were made to Vonizongo, and in July 1871 an English missionary settled there. In January, 1872, he wrote: "All that I have been brought in contact with has been of the most cheering and encouraging character, quite beyond all my most sanguine expectations. Of course there is still, and will be for a long time to come, an awful amount of ignorance; but who in their senses could look for, or expect, anything else? And, in fact, if their opportunities for receiving instruction are taken into account and they most certainly ought to be- I question very much if they ought not to rank very high indeed as a most advanced and intelligent people. Why, if one thinks but for a moment of what those very people were only a few years ago, and what they are now, it seems sometimes almost too difficult to believe that all is real, and not a dream. They have been from the first a most earnest people, and most anxious to learn all they can. They have a most marvelous knowledge of their Bibles and the New Testament; they do read them, whatever else they may or may not do. I used to think that in Scotland the people read their Bibles well, and I think so stil; but Vonizongo (if not Madagascar as a whole) leaves Scotland far behind. Of course many read the Bible and the New Testament because they have no other book to read; but I even think that of itself is good. But then it must be told, on the other side, that many, very many, read them because they love them." "In 1863, when Mr. Cousins made his first visit to Vonizongo, he found three churches namely, Fihaonana, Farenana, and Ankozolu, with a membership among the three of 122; now there is a membership of 1,991. Then there were but 615 adherents; now there are 25,596. Then there were but three churches really, and now there are 126. He did not, because perhaps he could not, tell how many were able to read; but I think that, if we put them down at eighty, we do them more than justice. But now there are upwards of 2,000 able to read the Word of God, if they are not able to possess it. There is no word of what money they had raised then, but it could not be much. But this year they have raised, as you will see from the figures, between school fees and collections, 696 dollars." were made. There are among the native converts at Yokohama some five or six young men desirous of entering the ministry. They are part of a number of young men who have been partly edu cated at the expense of the government, but have recently been thrown upon their own resources. The native church at Yokohama is mainly composed of this class of young men. The native preachers, it is said, will need an education sufficiently thorough to enable them to meet the objections of scientific atheists. There is now a strong tendency to infidelity. Idolatry is at a discount; but atheism, not Christianity, is taking its place. This is largely due to the influence of German physicians, employed as medical instructors... .... "It will be a long time yet, before the translation of the Bible can be completed, and even when done it will not be equal to the English translation; for the Japanese language is much inferior to the English to express spiritual ideas. A Japanese convert, who could read both Chinese and English, was once asked which version of the Scriptures he preferred, the Chinese or the English. He answered, "The English, by all means; for it is so SPIRITUAL." A knowledge of the English would, it was claimed, give them a better understanding of the spiritual truths of the Gospel. "The present state and prospects of the Japanese missions reminds me of the negro's illustration of faith: "S'pose de Lord tell me to jump t'rough a stone wall. I can jump at de wall; dat am my part. De goin' t'rough belongs to de Lord." Sending missionaries to Japan looked like sending them to jump through a stone wall. But they did their part, and the Lord is doing his. FEARS HE MAY BE TOO LATE FOR JAPAN. THE "Spirit of Missions" gives some account of a Japanese young man in California, whose "moral and religious history has been very interesting." He is now in school under the auspices of the Evangelical Education Society, and it is hoped that in due time he will go as a |