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hold a union class-meeting, composed of all the members, once in six weeks. This, it is believed, will be one means, by God's blessing, of uniting all in purpose and affection. I am thankful to say, our financial rules have been cheer. fally observed; and the leaders have further expressed a wish to make all our Connexional collections. Our place of worship is an "upper room," belonging to one of the leaders. It has been filled from the commencement, and for several Sundays past has been crammed, morning and evening. In fact, want of room hinders our extension. We have already held several meetings to consider the question of building a chapel, and have commenced a subscription-list. I am

sorry to say that at the present time most of our members are crippled in their resources by the total failure in the herring-fishing last season. But for this, I believe we should be able now to ask permission to build. In the meantime the spiritual state of the Society is very encouraging. The members continue to walk worthy of their profession; and it has been to me a source of great joy to listen to the clear and scriptural account of their conversion to God and subsequent experience. Not the least evidence of the genuineness of the work is their love for the class-meeting, and the testimony which almost every one has borne to the benefit derived from this means of grace.

GENERAL RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

WEEK OF SPECIAL PRAYER THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.-January 1-8, 1865.The time has again arrived to invite Christians of all countries to make ar rangements for observing a Week of Special and United Prayer at the beginning of the year.

Few movements of the church of Christ have been more owned and honoured of the Lord than these annual seasons of united supplication. The Evangelical Alliance, therefore, feel imperatively urged to renew their invitation, in the hope of meeting a yet larger response than in former years, and of obtaining still more abundant spiritual and temporal blessings.

The calls for prayer are loud and argent. The claims of a perishing world increasing, as they must, with the readiness everywhere apparent to receive the truth; the assaults made against the common faith by a revived Romanism, and by modern forms of infidelity; the war spirit excited among nations professedly Christian; these, and other considerations, urge upon true believers, while persevering in zealous, active effort, to draw near to the throne of grace, and by united, continuous, and faithful prayer, to "prove God" according to His own word,—“If I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." (Mal. iii. 10.)

"I will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting." (1 Tim. ii. 8.)

The following topics, amongst others,

are suggested as suitable for exhortation and intercession on the successive days of meeting :

Sunday, January 1st.-Sermons on the Agency of the Holy Spirit in the Present Dispensation.

Monday, 2d. Thanksgiving for Blessings upon Individuals, Nations, and Churches; together with Confession of Sins.

Tuesday, 3d. - Pastors, Teachers, Evangelists, and Missionaries. Wednesday, 4th.-The Children of Christian Parents, Congregations, and Schools.

Thursday, 5th.-Sunday-schools, and all actively engaged in Christian Work. Friday, 6th.-The Abolition of Slavery and Cessation of War.

Saturday, 7th.-The Christian Church: For increased holiness, activity, and harmony among its several sections.

Sunday, 8th.-Sermons: The Visible Unity of the Church. "That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me." (John xvii. 21.) JAMES DAVIS,

HERMANN SCHMETTAU, Secretaries of the British Branch of the Evangelical Alliance.

THE CHURCH IN THE NAVY-PRAYERMEETINGS ON SHIPBOARD.- We ourselves corresponded in 1860-61, with sixteen ships of war where volunteer religious gatherings were recognised, prompted by the petty officers and seamen of the fleet, and generally con

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ducted by officers or leading men. of these voluntary assemblies was conducted by a lieutenant in one of the worst-manned ships of a notoriously immoral squadron, who had the satisfaction of bringing upwards of thirty men to the first communion. A lieutenant of another ship in the same squadron, who conducted a similar gathering, writes, "I know well how thankful a poor fellow from the lower deck is to have a place of retirement to bend the knee in company with those who understand him. He looks forward with pleasure to the time of gathering together after the bustle and tumult of the day's duties are over. We do want a place publicly acknowledged for those who wish it to meet in when the day's work is over. If public opinion could be constrained to afford us this place, it would be a sort of foothold in the enemy's country; and when we consider the increased length of ships now-a-days, it seems quite practicable. Believe me, I speak as one who has thus felt and suffered myself, and can therefore feel for others similarly situated,-that it is regarded on our lower decks as a sad and a bitter deprivation when a praying seaman, sailing and fighting under the flag of Christian England, is bereft, for months, and even years, of all the helps and props of our church-going land; is denied the posture of private prayer, and has not within his reach a place where prayer is wont to be made.""-British Army and Navy Review.

BRITISH SUBJECTS AND THE SCRIP TURES IN ITALY.-The Rev. J. Davis, Secretary of the Evangelical Alliance, writes the following letter:

Having recently visited some of the principal cities in Italy, a few facts relative to Christian work and Christian life may not be unacceptable to your readers.

As an official member of the Evangelical Alliance, I was gratified to find much readiness on the part of ministers and their people to take steps for a more real and visible union among the Christians in Italy than has yet existed, and to form branches of this Alliance in several places. The effect, it is thought, will be both the drawing into affectionate intercourse and co-operation those who are already one by their union with Christ, and the lifting up of an important testimony to the fundamental doctrines of Divine truth held by the different Evangelical sections of the Italian Church

The sale and distribution of the word of God is carried on extensively, with many proofs that "the entering in of Thy word giveth light." There are twelve depôts for the Bible in Italy, and about seventy colporteurs, or Gospel light-bearers, to the town and country populations. In Naples alone, so long the stronghold of superstition, igno rance, and vice, there have been sold within the last two years, between one and two thousand copies of the Bible and New Testament, besides some eighteen thousand tracts and religious publications, and many thousand copies of the "Amico di Casa."

Education on sound Scripture principles is extending: many schools, conducted by teachers of Evangelical principles, commenced daily with prayer, have been established. My inspection of some of these schools in Milan, Florence, Naples, and other places, convinced me of the special importance of this branch of Christian work for the future of Italy. The people are willing to place their children under Evangelical instruction, and in some cases children have been brought by the priest to be educated in these schools. New schools could be opened, and teachers obtained, well qualified by their Christian character and intelligence to take the management, if means of support were supplied.

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The places of worship I attended were generally well filled, and the truth preached with much fidelity and fervour. Godly men have been raised up in many places to preach Christ, and are labouring with signal proofs of the Divine blessing; but their number is small. 'Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest." At Florence I had the plea sure of meeting in the New Waldensian College a godly young man from Sicily, now training for the Christian ministry. He had sought for truth necessary to salvation, and found it in the word of God, but was staggered by the imposing uniformity of the Roman Church. He attended the united prayer-meetings in Naples in January last, and was taught what real unity is-unity in one spirit. He then decided for Christ as his only and all-sufficient Saviour, and consecrated his days to preaching the glorious Gospel of the grace of God.

I visited also in Florence the Stamperia Claudiana,-the printing-office called after the honoured Claude of Turin, where it was first established. It is under the excellent direction of the

Italian Evangelical Publication Society, and is in constant employment in printing Bibles and a great variety of books spreading over every department of religious literature. It is impossible to oferrate the importance of this establistment, as supplying pure evangelical knowledge to all Italy.

My visit has deepened my interest in the progress of the Gospel in Italy. The times and circumstances are favourable to evangelical effort. There is religious liberty to a very large extent; and the tendency of political events, by widening the breach between the Italian Government and Rome, and the manifest alienation of the people from the Papacy and the priesthood, are favourable to the spread of sound religious opinions and Christian operations. Prayer is Earnestly asked by Christians in Italy, that the Gospel day which has dawned may not be darkened by clouds of error or rade tempests of strife, but advance in the brightness of truth and love, that Its'y may again be the fountain of ht to many nations.

On leaving the territory of the Italian Government, and entering the Papal States, I was made to feel the intolerable yoke of priestly power. The following translation of a letter, addressed to Cardinal Antonelli, will explain the circumstance :

"Monsignore,-On Saturday, October 1st, coming from Naples by railway, where I crossed into the Roman States, my luggage was searched, and the official took from me an Italian New Testament, Diodati's translation, and without notes,) which I had purchased at Saples. I had written the date and piwe of purchase on the first page; of course, therefore, it was for my own private use. I was told to apply to the police-office at Rome. On doing so the second day after my arrival, and sending in my card, inquiry was made, but I was unsuccessful; my book remains still in the possession of the police.

"Protesting, as I must be allowed to do, against this violation of my right to read God's word in Italian, or any other language I choose, at Rome, or in any other part of the world,-protesting more strongly still, against the insult offered to Almighty God in committing to the custody of the police, as obnoxious and criminal, that blessed book which His Holy Spirit inspired, for the instruction, consolation, and guidance of mankind,-I must respectfully demand its restoration: nor will this act appear, in the eyes of many, less guilty

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I add a copy of a letter since received from the British Consul, showing that modification of Papal opposition, and the above protest has obtained some that in future an Englishman's Bible will be held sacred in Rome:

"British Consulate, Rome, "Nov. 12th, 1864. "Sir,-Cardinal Antonelli has requested me to convey to you the Italian New Testament, which arrived in Rome after you had left, and which I send today to the Foreign-office, at your disposal, to be called for.

"I have also to communicate the new order which I have been so fortunate as to obtain from the Pontifical Government,that for the future no Englishman's Bible is to be touched on his arrival or during his sojourn in Rome.' Of course this extends to the Italian translation and editions.-I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

"JOSEPH SEVERN, "British Consul at Rome." JAMES DAVIS.

THE MISSION-SCHOOLS AND PRESS OF NESTORIA.-Early in the year 1836, about two months after our settlement among the Nestorians at Oroomiah, we commenced our first Missionary school, which gradually grew into our flourishing male seminary. We began with seven small boys, in a basement-room of my hired house, or, indeed, a cellar, which was the most comfortable location we could command at that time, it being winter; and it was certainly a not inappropriate emblem of the deep darkness which surrounded us. The pupils commenced with their alphabet, (that of the venerable ancient Syriac,) and as their vernacular language, the modern Syriac, was until then unwritten, I was obliged to provide for them, as reading matter, manuscript cards, which were hung upon the walls of the school-room, around each of which a class of eight or ten boys (for the school soon increased to fifty pupils) took a standing position in a semicircle, and thus spelled out their lessons. There may be witnessed

sublime scenes in very humble places and occupations. Dr. Chalmers pronounced the Indian boy in the woods, first learning his letters, the sublimest scene in the world; and I could appreciate the force of that estimate as I gazed on those delighted Nestorian children, in the first Missionary school opened in modern times in this ancient kingdom, among a people whose ancestral seminaries at Edena, in Mesopotamia, and elsewhere, in bygone centuries, sent forth hosts of devoted Missionaries even to India and China.

The progress of our pupils was rapid, and their improvement in every respect highly encouraging. No brighter children are to be found the world over, than among the Nestorians. The arrival of our printer and press in 1840, soon provided books for the learners, both in this central school, and in numerous others, which in the meantime had been opened in villages, all being supplied, up to that period, with reading matter furnished by the pens of several native copyists.

I cannot speak unqualifiedly of the morals of either native teachers or pupils, in our male seminary, at that early period. Poor human nature is about the same in all ages and climes. It has maladies always and everywhere, which the Spirit of the Lord alone can reach and remedy.

As early as the year 1840, considerable religious interest was manifested among the pupils of this seminary, which seemed to result in a few cases of conversion, but no general revival occurred in it till the winter of 1846. It was then under the superintendence of that seraphic man, the Rev. David T. Stoddard, who joined our Mission in 1843, and who died here seven years ago, whose zeal and devotion in the cause of Christ have seldom been surpassed since the days of the apostles. That revival was a work of marvellous power and interest, especially as being the first extensive visitation of the Holy Spirit that has blessed this dark land in recent centuries-a land in which Christianity has never triumphed. It presented many scenes of novelty here, of overwhelming and thrilling pathos, such as I have never seen equalled in any other land. About thirty of the pupils of our male seminary were hopefully, and, we believe, really converted, during that season of refreshing, and the work spread forth with pervading power into several villages. With so luminous a model of Christian excellence as Mr.

Stoddard before their eyes, it was not easy for those pious young men, in the ardour of their first love, to be satisfied with a low standard of consecration ; and a great advantage was secured in having the type of devotion to Christ so clear, decided, and elevated at the outset. They became, from the commencement of their Christian race, eminently burning and shining lights among their people.

In 1847, our male seminary was removed from the city of Oroomiah to our health retreat on Mount Seir, ("Mount Recreation,") as a far more healthy location, and secure from the temptations to young men incident to a large town. The situation itself is one of the grandest and most attractive in the world, embracing a magnificent panorama, ranging to the distance of a hundred miles, combining the varied scenery of the city-the plain dotted over with almost countless verdant villages-of the shining lake on the eastern border, and lofty snow-capped mountains far beyond; the whole standing out in fine relief under a sky which is one of the clearest on the face of the globe. The location itself is one that possesses an elevating and educating power.

During the sixteen years of our seminary's location on Mount Seir it has been visited with twelve distinct revivals; several of them of surpassing power and interest. Every pupil has thus been blessed with repeated seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, which, in the great majority of cases, have been to them a savour of life unto life. Our Mount Seir has thus become a hallowed place to us and to them, a kind of Mount Zion, in this ancient land of the Maji. As the fruits of these many precious revivals in our male seminary, as many as seventy young Nestorian preachers are already at work in our field, faithfully and zealously sowing the good seed, and gathering in the harvest, scattered over the vast plain of Oroomiah, and through the wilds of the rough Koordish mountains, some as station preachers, and others as travelling evangelists.

The Nestorians having known little of books (they had never seen printed volumes) before the commencement of our Mission, except fragmentary portions of the Bible in manuscript, in their ancient tongue, and cherishing a deep reverence for the Holy Scriptures, so characteristic of their ancestors, we naturally, as well as from choice, employed our press in printing the Scrip

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tures for them, in the first instance; and though we have since prepared and published a goodly number of schoolbooks and scientific text-books, and the range of study and acquisition has become considerable, and we have furnished a good general selection of religious reading, still, the Bible, in the ancient and modern Syriac,-and previously in the Hebrew and the Persian, --has continued to be the great classic in our seminary. And it is my prayer and hope that it may never cease to be such. The Bible has been most appropriately styled a library rather than a volume; and it is a library with which young men, in any land, and with whatever worthy purposes for life, may far better be made familiar, than with any and all other libraries.

We have not in general deemed it desirable that our pupils should spend a great deal of time in the study of the English language; and but a small number of them attempt its acquisition. We are rapidly augmenting a literature in their native tongue, taken from the rich treasure-house of the English. A long period would be needed for them even tolerably to master our language; and there is little scope for their use of it in their native land, where we wish them to live and labour, none indeed beyond our Missionary circle.

Since the death of Mr. Stoddard, which occurred seven years ago, our seminary has been under the able and faithful superintendence of the Rev. J. G. Cochran, who was previously, for many years, associated with that sainted man in the charge of it. Indeed, Mr. Cochran's connexion with the institution has been coeval with his Missionary life, a period of nearly seventeen years. The present number of pupils is fifty. The period of connexion with the seminary is from five to seven years, according to the acquisitions of the pupil when he enters it, and his intentions for future occupation. It embraces a general literary and scientific course, and a theological course is superadded, for those who intend to preach the Gospel.

I hardly need say that this favoured school of the prophets has been an instrument of vast power, and of rich blessings, in carrying forward the work of reformation in the fallen Nestorian Church; and we believe it will be more and more so, till not this people alone, but the millions of other nationalities, among whom this peeled remnant of a once great Missionary church has been so long and remarkably preserved, we

trust for such a purpose, shall also be evangelized. Already the light is penetrating the deep darkness in all directions.

I will only add that, at present, a precious shower of mercy is distilling upon our male seminary, and bringing youthful hearts to submit to the sceptre of Christ. The same blessing is also descending upon many Nestorian villages on the Plain of Oroomiah. The Lord has thus not forgotten to be gracious to this suffering people. In this year of sore famine and distress, in wrath He still remembers mercy. Many are hungering and thirsting for the bread and the water of eternal life, of which there is no lack, and cheering songs betoken that this year of affliction may be a year of the right hand of the Most High, in this dark remote land. The general observance of the week of prayer here seems to promise signal blessings.

It is in place in connexion with our educational work, that I refer also somewhat particularly to the department of our press, which is really a correlative branch to that of our schools. Without readers, our books would be useless; and without books, readers could not be raised up, nor be supplied with intellectfood after they have learned to read.

When I reached the Nestorians thirty years ago, their spoken language had not been reduced to writing. They had never seen printed books, the very few copies of the Scriptures possessed by them in the ancient Syriac being in manuscript. I soon commenced reducing the vernacular tongue to a written form, using for that purpose the characters of the ancient Syriac, known as the Nestorian, (of a broader stroke and a more angular form than the Syriac letters best known in Europe,) with a slight modification of two or three of them, to express sounds for which the ancient language has no representatives.

I naturally began with the Lord's Prayer. Priest Abraham, a very staid, sedate ecclesiastic, who could write the ancient language imperfectly, acted as my amanuensis. When the translation of the Prayer was completed, I directed him to read what he had written. He commenced reading it, but was instantly thrown into boisterous laughter, so novel, alien, and even comical did it appear to him, to read the language which he and his people were every day speaking; and he found it necessary to stop, and yield to the power of his risibles, several times before he suc

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