Then He drew near and pointed with His

hand

That glorious hand-towards a place where stood

Bright angel forms, each with a golden crown. Held in his hand for some brave soul below And whilst I looked I heard from earth beneath

A cry, an echo faint, borne on the breeze'Lord! forty wrestlers came to fight for Thee, Give forty wrestlers crowns of victory.'

He turned and looked on me, a look of love.
No words fell from His lips, yet I could tell
The meaning of that gaze-'The cry comes
up to me

For forty crowns of glory. Shall there be
One of the forty missing?' Then I woke.
I rose from off the couch where I had slept
Another man. I left the heated room,
And quickly passed into the bitter night.
I joined the 'Thundering Legion' on the ice,
And learnt while waiting there what bravery
is-

Not shoutings loud, not clash of war's alarm,
Not rushing on to death in maddening haste;
But power to put aside our best-—our all,
To be bereaved and stripped of all our
joys-

The dearest and most precious-for His sake
Who bore the shame and agony for us.

I still am waiting here, and all the rest Have gained their crowns of glory. See, they lie

Calmly, with upturned faces to the sky: Faces that smile upon me in the gloomSmiles of encouragement, and peace, and

love.

The morning dawns, and in the twilight grey Only one mouth now frames the glorious prayer

That many lips prayed earnestly before— "LORD! forty wrestlers came to fight for Thee,

Give forty wrestlers crowns of victory.' RUTH WILSON.

Our Work Abroad.

'Desire of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.'-Psalm ii. 8.

AST year we narrated some interesting facts relating to the Rio Pongo Mission in Western Africa, and our readers cannot fail to have been interested in the marvellous work done by the missionaries there, by preaching the faith and bringing men into CHRIST'S fold,

The annual report for the year 1881, which has been just received, tells of steady progress. The missionaries are indeed striving to fulfil CHRIST'S command to make disciples of all nations, and to preach the Gospel to every creature, though they do so in weariness and painfulness, in a trying climate, and with much, no doubt, at times to discourage.

We at home are bound to recognise thankfully the singleness of heart and free selfsurrender with which they labour, and the least we can do is to help them by our sympathy, prayers, or alms.

All the missionaries of the Pongos are Africans by descent, and were educated at Codrington's College, Barbadoes.

It is interesting to note the gradual advance made of late years in this portion of the globe.

Last century, English ships took slaves from the west coast of Africa to our colonies in the West Indies and America.

In 1834, the emancipated population of the West Indies had been educated and Christianised.

In 1855, the West Indians, having themselves freely received the Gospel, sent this Mission to West Africa, as an act of restitution for the wrongs formerly inflicted on the Africans.

We quote from the Rev. P. H. Douglin's last report:

The Roman Catholics out here are a strong

body. They are rich, and able to push the interests of their Church. They can take up every place that is offered to them, and receive every child to board and teach. We, on the other hand, have often to turn a deaf ear to the calls of the heathen-ay, and of the Christians also -when they beg us to go and help them to know and serve GOD. We have to refuse to take children because there is no fund for their support.

I have now seven boys and two girls; all of them, except two, are clothed, fed, and educated by me, and it is with great difficulty that I keep my head above water.

It is true I am not obliged to show this charity, but I cannot turn my face against a boy or girl who is anxious to learn, and to be trained up properly.

I should be very glad of help in this matter. 41. each year would keep them.

Is there anyone who will answer this appeal, and make himself responsible for one of the children out of the 'seven'?

Mr. Douglin goes on to say :

I live at Domingia, and pay stated visits to Farringia and Fallangia. These stations are at present in the charge of catechists.

Our Christmas services were very successful. At Fallangia the attendance was greater than had ever been known before; at Domingia there was a crowded congregation at each of the five services.

At the midnight service there was this pleasing occurrence-that the Sierra Leone people almost all came. I hope this is the beginning of better days.

The children sang some carols very nicely, and besides the usual decorations, I had adorned the walls with pictures-the Church Extension Association and some friends in Clifton having enabled me to do this very desirable thing. The Mahomedans crowd around the windows during service, and point out and explain these pictures to each other.

In conclusion, I beg to tender my sincere thanks to the kind friends who have strengthened my hands and cheered my heart by their letters, their prayers, and their help. I would specially mention the Ladies' Association at Clifton, and the Church Extension Society, also the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge for the payment of the outstanding grant of 50%. towards Domingia Church, for Arabic books, and for a

readiness to help me in my work whenever I call upon them.'

We have promised a further grant of church work in the course of the year, and should be pleased to be the medium of communication between Mr. Douglin and anyone offering help.

The Rev. T. Richey has received the grant we sent the beginning of the year, and writes in acknowledgment :

'I am happy to inform you of the safe arrival of the box you sent me, and feel most deeply obliged to you and the kind lady, Miss Trench, who so generously contributed to its contents. All the articles are most useful, and will suit admirably for my church at Summerside.

'I also thank you very much for the tracts and other publications so kindly sent, which I trust may minister to the edification of pastor and people.

'I notice among the books you sent a volume of Sermons on the Epistles and Gospels for Sundays and chief Holydays. I should very much like to obtain the entire series, as they are suggestive, and would be useful for weeknight lectures, &c.

'With many thanks, and my blessing on your godly work and charitable efforts,

'I am, &c.' From a Mission station in New Brunswick we have the following :—

I most thankfully acknowledge the due and safe receipt of your highly valued box, the contents of which will prove such a help to us. The box came to hand during the week preceding the Festival of S. Barnabas, and I used the altar frontal and linen for the first time on that day.

It will afford me very great pleasure to remember your Association at the Throne of Grace in future on this festival. I sincerely trust that God will abundantly bless your benevolent endeavours for the good of His Church, and fulfil all your desires.

I hope to send you a small donation at no distant time.

The Church in these parts certainly owes a debt of gratitude to your Association for many valuable gifts, and I trust the recipients will everywhere be suitably thankful and appreciative.

I have been thinking since I received your handsome altar cloths, that if our ladies here

were supplied with proper materials, very much might be done by themselves in working such furnishings as we need.

I would like to have a white and also a green frontal; and I think that now we have yours for a pattern, our ladies might do something to supply this need. I shall therefore be very thankful if you could inform me whether you could obtain for me at any reduction in the catalogue-prices of Church furnishers, materials, monograms, and trimmings for the cloths I require. If there are any suggestions you can supply in order to enable me to accomplish most satisfactorily the end in view I shall be very thankful.

With a deep sense of my obligations to your Association for highly valued favours, I am, &c.

The following letter will surely call forth. some sympathy and tangible help from many who read it. The writer of it, Mr. Philpot, is now in England for a short time, after fifteen years of uninterrupted work, and is much desirous to raise the sum of 500%. in order to enable him to build small churches at seven of his twenty-five stations. He says:

I was very thankful to receive your kind letter of the 20th ult., and to know that you still take an interest in our work. Nassau has only a monthly mail at this season of the year, and the branch boat that brought letters and papers to Abaco left the next day; and not being able to write to all my correspondents in time, I am afraid it will be a month or six weeks before this letter reaches its destination.

If it is a comfort for our patrons at home to know that we missionaries pray for them, it is no small encouragement for us to feel that we have the sympathy of so many good people in our native land. This is the first year (in thirteen) that I have felt sick or weak, but since Christmas I have been declining visibly. I suppose the climate is telling upon me at last, though at my time of life I must expect aches and pains wherever I may be living.

The Cross does, indeed, seem to be the portion of the Bishops of the Bahamas. The first Bishop, Dr. Caulfield, lost his children of yellow fever, and was carried off himself by that dreadful disease. Dr. Venables lost three children by fever, and died himself, worn out

with toil, vexation, and disease. And now Dr. Roberts has lost his wife and child, and may prepare himself for many more troubles which are coming thick upon him.

The mail brought a letter announcing that the S.P.G. had been obliged to reduce their block grant by 1ool, so that the Bishop writes he almost despairs of the Church's work in these islands :—

The people here, both black and white, are so poor that a threepenny-bit seems wealth to them; the offertories in our out-island churches consist of a few of these and a handful of copper money. You would be surprised to know what shifts we are put to in order to carry on Divine service. We try to sell a few shells, sticks, and sponges to the American visitors in the spring of the year, and we have lately started a begging society, to solicit alms for the Church from the guests at the hotel in Nassau. And, as a last resource, we are planting cocoanuts as a source of endowment for the Church. But as cocoa-nut trees are large and slow of growth, we cannot reckon on them for any present help.

Some of the out-island clergy have to endure great privations, not only because they cannot afford to buy suitable provisions, but because food is not to be had in some of the out-of-theway stations that we visit.

But it is not so much bodily needs as mental anxiety that breaks us down.

Constant care respecting the finances of the Church, our Catechumens and Communicants, whom we see so seldom-in some distant stations only once a year-the dread of their falling into sin, or in many cases relapsing into schism, is a constant haunting fear.

with new zeal and energy. However, all have not deserted us, for last mail brought me 10%. from a generous lady, to be expended in seating S. Barnabas Church, in the island of Grand Bahama. I am especially grateful for this help, as the station was a favourite restingplace of dear good Bishop Venables when making his visitations.

The Catechist here is a negro farmer, but such a superior man! with really the feelings of a gentleman, though, like all the rest, very poor. He is a magistrate, with a stipend of 30%. per annum ; but although his means are so small, he assists his aged parents and his married sisters, in addition to maintaining his own wife and children. Everything in his thatched house is as clean as in a London drawing-room, and the fare, though of the simplest, served upon spotless linen. His little son 'Bertie,' a boy of twelve years, reads the lessons in church. His father hopes he will tread in his steps and become a faithful Catechist in the Church, perhaps (like two of his uncles) a clergyman. He has two dear little sisters, Amy and Coobie-the sweetest little children-they read and write nicely. I always send them some of the Christmas cards I receive from England, or some of the large pictures from the Illustrated. Mr. Cooper himself is quite a reading man, and is glad of interesting books on any subject. Bishop Venables would always spend a day or two at Cooper's if possible, and we had been visiting there the day before we met with that dreadful weather between Grand Bahama and the Berry Island.

The natives at Chesokee Sound, a station on the mainland of Abaco, are asking for a Church, but I dread undertaking the task of building one, lest it should be said of me, 'This man began to build,' &c. I believe they have begun to make lime-kilns for mortar, but that is very little towards building a Church in a place where money is hardly to be got at all.

I have several works to do in the old Churches. Our bell-turret at S. Peter's was blown down in a late hurricane, and the Church of S. John at Hope Town needs fencing in. Besides this, the Church of S. Saviour's, Blackwood, in the main, is only half built, although it is used for service. The Clergy here have to build Churches as well as to preach in them.

The men are all away from here now, cutting pineapples for the American market, and, as

this is our harvest, some of the young women have gone with them, not to glean ears of wheat, but to eat as many ripe pineapples as they can find. Pineapples are shipped green; all the ripe, yellow ones are left behind, as they would rot on the voyage. These used to be given to the hogs! I am afraid I shall have a scanty congregation in Church to-morrow (S. Peter's Day). However, we shall have an early celebration, at which I shall remember my old College at Canterbury, and the benefactors of this Mission.

The banquet is finished, the sacks are well filled; in the light of the early morning the brethren leave with joy and thankfulness, Benjamin goes back, Judah is relieved from care, Simeon is released. They start on their journey with happy hearts; in a few hours all is changed. Joseph's cup is found in Benjamin's sack. The cup of joy is changed into the cup of sorrow. Surprise and indignation at being accused, dismay and misery at finding the accusation true, agony at the thought of their father's sorrow-all these feelings arise in the hearts of the brethren; their sufferings are bitter, they are terribly punished for the sin of old; and yet this suffering is to draw them still nearer to their brother.

APPLICATION.

Have I not found the cup of suffering in my sack of corn? Have I not wondered why my earthly and spiritual joys are not more complete? Perhaps I have banqueted with the Great King, I have received great gifts, I am hastening home with joy; suddenly something strange, mysterious, occurs; I am falsely accused, wrong motives are imputed to me, I am bitterly reproached. What is the reason? It is to bring me back to the place where I have banqueted. Perhaps I have been in too great a hurry to go away. Perhaps I have thought of the gifts more than of the Giver. Perhaps I cannot find out the reason, or anything like the reason. There is one thing for me to do, to get closer to GOD; in this I cannot make a mistake. This, somehow or other, will solve all the mystery.

years ago Judah little cared for his father's sorrow. He had saved Joseph's life, but he had sold him into bondage. He had willingly entered into the plot to persuade his father that Joseph was slain by a wild beast. Mature age, sorrow, discipline had wrought a change in him; he who had sold his brother into bondage now offers to be a bondman for Benjamin and in his stead; he who had seen his father mourn, when a word from him would have stopped his tears, now offers his own life to save his father from anxiety ; and thereby Judah becomes a type of the glorious Lion of Judah who (though innocent of all offence) took upon himself the form of a servant and gave his life for his brethren.

APPLICATION.

I have

I blame Judah's wickedness in selling his brother; have I ever tried to imitate Judah in the nobleness of his offer? Those who have sinned deeply sometimes after repentance show a wonderful self-sacrifice. been petty and mean in many things. I may have sold my brother by taking advantage of him, by trying to get him out of the way when he has been an obstacle to my schemes, by keeping him in the background, by getting into his place in work, in affection, in reputation. When I have come to a sense of my sin, has my reparation been complete and generous, like that of Judah? Whole-hearted in trying to get everything for myself, I should be whole-hearted in my self-sacrifice. May I bid farewell to all selfishness, and give myself up entirely to the good of others.

AFFECTION.

O LION of Judah! who hast given Thyself for me, infuse into my heart Thy spirit of sacrifice; grant me such love for Thee that I may be content to be a servant of the brethren for Thy dear sake.

RESOLUTION.

To make reparation with all my heart whenever I have the opportunity.

THOUGHT.

Restore Thou them that are penitent.