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GO, AND DO THOU LIKEWISE.

presenting themselves under new and interesting forms which he had never met with either in Mauritius or Polynesia. He describes one specimen of pandanus as "having a number of leaves in the centre of the crown, apparently glued or stuck together at their extremities, giving to the centre or crown a singular form."

But amongst the many novelties of the forests, that splendid production of Madagascar, the travellers' tree, stands conspicuous. It has a thick succulent stem, like that of the plantain. From the centre of this it sends out long broad leaves, rising in two lines on opposite sides. There may be from twenty to twenty-four of these on a single tree, the stalk of each leaf being six or eight feet long, and the broad leaf itself six or eight feet more. The whole of the twenty-four bright green leaves are spread out like a fan at the top of a trunk thirty feet high.

Let us now understand why it is called the travellers' tree. Even in the driest season it never fails to contain a large quantity of pure fresh water, and thus supplies to the traveller the place of wells in the desert. At the base of the stalk of each of the leaves, above the union with the stem, there is a natural cavity or cistern. The broad and ribbed surface of the leaf collects the water, which flows down a groove or spout on the upper side of the stalk into this reservoir, which thus supplies nourishment to the tree and refreshment to the traveller. Mr. Ellis proved its capability in the latter respect. One of his bearers stuck a spear four or five inches deep into the thick firm end of the stalk of the leaf, about six inches from its junction with the trunk. So soon as the spear was drawn out, a stream of pure clear water gushed out, about a quart of which was caught in a pitcher.

"Trees of righteousness of the Lord's planting." Such the Lord intends his people to be. Let them spread forth their prayers as the travellers' tree spreads forth its leaves. These will catch the blessing which will not fail to be bestowed, the dew and rain as they fall from heaven. Their own spirits would be refreshed; they will be kept moist and pure in the most arid season. They will have to spare for others. Many a poor sinner travels along the pathway of life, weary and heavy-laden, faint with thirst, and finding no water. As the tree sends forth its waters to the travellers, let Christians impart to all such poor wanderers the "good news from a far country, which is as cold water to a thirsty soul."

GO, AND DO THOU LIKEWISE.

A FEW days back the Secretaries of the Church Missionary Society received a note from an anonymous correspondent, enclosing two Bank of England notes, (50l. and 107.) The note was as follows:

"Sixty pounds enclosed to cover

:

"29th June, 1866. "11 years' annual subscription at one guinea,

"23 years'

ditto

at two guineas,

"which might have been saved and subscribed with the commonest selfdenial.

"To the Secretary, Church Missionary Society."

"H. O.

The commonest self-denial! Yes, if this were only brought into requisition, what enlarged means of usefulness would accrue to various Christian and Benevolent Institutions like our own, which are now sadly let and hindered by the stinted measure of support which is yielded to them. The fancies of the moment, how often are they indulged, and pence, and shillings, and pounds wasted, which, had the commonest selfdenial been exercised, might have been saved, bestowed on a Missionarybox, until, at the termination of the year, they would have accumulated into a comparatively large sum! How many a subscription has been regularly paid in year by year, but which is just the same now that it was at the beginning, although the work of the Society has greatly increased, and very probably the means of the giver likewise, but the annual subscription has not increased. It is still the same stereotyped guinea, although, had the commonest self-denial been exercised, it would have been otherwise.

Is it well-is it right-that annual subscriptions should ever remain the same? The work is increasing year by year: would it not be well that each subscription should increase likewise? Would it not do so, if the heart was becoming more and more enlarged in the happy experience and enjoyment of the love of God?

Let us all stir ourselves up to a more lively sense of this great duty. Let us freely give, as we have freely received; and lo, what we give shall come back to us; for he "that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord; and look, what he layeth out it shall be repaid him again."

PALESTINE.

THE land where Jesus suffered is a land on which sorrow rests heavily. The people which rendered Him evil for good and hatred for love-which cried, "His blood be on us and on our children”are a people which have been long burthened with sorrow; and the land which was once their own, but from which, as a punishment for their sins, they have been expelled, is, as it were, a widowed land in mourning. Its present inhabitants are but few. They are a troubled people. The Government is strong enough to oppress, but too weak to protect them. What the authorities leave the Bedouins take, unless the locusts come first and clear the land of its produce. It is this which is going forward now. One of our Missionaries, who was travelling last May through the country in the vicinity of Bethlehem, describes the beauty of the vineyards, they were so carefully cultivated, and promising so rich a vintage. But the locusts were already preparing for the work of destruction. In the valleys, as they descended towards the open country, they roused swarms of locusts, which filled the air like the large flakes of a snow"Those creeping came on in regular march-line from the west, and I could now understand such passages of Scripture as Judges vi. 5 and vii. 12; Psalm cv. 34, 35; Jeremiah xlvi. 23 and li. 14;

storm.

Joel i. 6; Nahum iii. 15; and what is said concerning their regular march; wherefore the Arabs also call them the great host of the Lord." Although the crops of barley and a few other grains (lentils and camel-food) are already cut, or almost ripe for cutting, they can still cause great damage both to vines and orchards, vegetables and the summer crops, especially durah, a kind of millet. At one place we saw many olive, fig, and other trees already thoroughly stripped of their foliage and the incipient fruit, and looking like brooms, and numbers of poor Fellahin (the cultivators) have lost all that they relied upon for a year's subsistence. One poor fellow came in great distress, indeed quite broken-hearted. He had borrowed money, hoping to be able to pay back the capital and interest from the produce of this year, but the locusts have destroyed his olive crop, his fig-trees, his vineyards, his only means of support. "Is not the last day near at hand?" he said to our Missionary, the Rev. F. A. Klein, his voice being choked with grief and emotion. "I understand that such scourges, hunger, and wars between the various nations, are signs of the last day?" "I read to him," says Mr. Klein, "the first and second chapters of Joel, and every now and then he said, 'Oh, how true!' I then spoke to him about repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, as the only means of escaping these severe visitations, and deriving a benefit from them for our souls. He said he would get these chapters read to all his friends on his return to the village. I could not help shedding a tear at the sorrowful account this man gave me with so much grief, and yet at the same time with so much resignation to the Lord's will."

Yes! "He does not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of Man's heart is hard; and as the hard ground must be ploughed up, in order that it may receive the seed and yield a harvest, so afflictions must needs come to break up the fallowground of the human heart. We are thankful that, in the midst of so much affliction, our Missionaries are on the spot, some at Jerusalem, others at Nazareth, to make known to the people the glad tidings of mercy in Christ to sinners, and rest to the labouring and heavy-laden; for, the Gospel message, truly believed and brought home to the heart, can sustain and comfort under the heaviest troubles.

That Gospel, we rejoice to say, is faithfully and affectionately taught to these poor people. Nor is this done without results. Let the following instance be accepted in proof that it is so:

A Moslem woman, under instruction for baptism, I had the pleasure of baptizing on the 12th of April, with the satisfaction of her being well prepared for the sacred rite. For more than a year I had begun with her a course of religious instruction, which was, however, from time to time, interrupted; but, I am happy to say, never by her unwillingness to come,

or by indifference. On the contrary, she was all along most anxious to improve every opportunity to be more fully instructed in the doctrines of Christianity, and she did not mind coming in the hottest part of the day to my house for instruction, carrying her baby on her arm, and often her little boy by the hand. Not being able to read, she requested her neighbour in the house she lives in, and our native catechist, whenever he was here, to repeat to her the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the ten commandments, till at last she knew them perfectly well. Her case is a very singular one, and affords an instance of the love of the Good Shepherd, who follows his sheep through a variety of crooked ways, till he succeeds at last to bring it home to his fold. This woman, Saada, was born in some village of Mount Lebanon: her parents died when she was quite young, and the poor orphan was received into a Greek-Catholic family. When she was scarcely twelve years old, the son of the house where she had been brought up being very fond of her, and knowing that his father would not allow him to marry her, carried her away to the Hauran, where he lived with her in a Moslem village, making the people believe that she was a Moslem also. After some years they removed to Salt, where her husband died. Her present husband, then a Greek Catholic, became acquainted with her, and believing her a Christian, since they had at Salt joined the Greek community, married her according to the rites of the Greek church. Some time after, he heard of her being a Moslem woman, and the Moslems of Salt threatened to kill him for having dared to marry her. Not able to live any longer at Salt, and being in imminent danger, he fled with his wife, leaving behind a nice sum of money and most of what he possessed besides, and came here. Here he joined our church, and the Lord opened his heart, and his wife's too, through the preaching of the Gospel. It was long before he could bring himself to tell me the history of his wife; but he had no rest, and felt very unhappy, as he expressed himself, to live with a Moslem woman, and look at his two children born of an unbaptized mother. I forgot to mention that they were still in doubt about the matter, till the foster-father, on his death-bed, called her to his side, and told her, with dying lips, "I have a duty to discharge to you before I die and a secret to reveal to you. You are not baptized!" Owing to her having hitherto been considered by most of our people as a baptized person, she was at first averse to being baptized publicly; but when I told her that this would look as if she was ashamed of confessing her Saviour before men, she declared that she was quite willing to be baptized in the midst of the congregation. I ultimately, however, baptized her on a week-day in our chapel, in the presence of but a few friends. Our native catechist, and Mrs. Gobat, and Mrs. Klein stood sponsors, and we all prayed that the new name she had received may become the true expression of her character, and that she may be a true Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus.

OUR SOUTH-INDIA MISSION.

In the demesnes and shrubberies of our nobility and gentry, we find some trees planted, which are much prized, and watched with great care. They are not indigenous, but transplants from foreign lands. When they are found to send forth their yearly shoots, these are regarded as being in a healthy state, and it is concluded that they are taking kindly to the soil.

Christianity, in the midst of a heathen land, where it has gathered to itself some converts, and has manifested itself in a native church, may be regarded also as a transplant; and when we find that the native church is growing, and sending forth its yearly shoots, we are encouraged to regard it hopefully as having taken root in the new soil.

Our South-Indian churches are thus growing. They have contributed, for various church purposes, during the year 1865, 20,107 rupees, being an increase of 2309 rupees over the sums raised during the past year. The following are the objects amongst which these moneys are divided

That they do prize their Christian privileges is also shown by their attendance on the means of grace, and the heavy cross they have to bear in professing Christ before their countrymen. To this our Missionaries bear testimony. Let us hear what the Rev. E. Sargent says on this subject—

God has given us to rejoice, not only in continued health and strength, but has also cheered us with manifold blessings in our work, and with evident tokens of his presence among us. Not but that we have had our times of anxiety also, as now and then some promising inquirer presents himself, and, after a while, withdraws, unable to stem the current of worldly influence that is brought to bear upon him. Has the Gospel lost its power? we are sometimes tempted to ask on such occasions, forgetful that God acts in sovereign grace, and that his people are made willing in the day of his power. But in God's sanctuary here, such doubts are put to silence. Here the sight, Sunday after Sunday, of the multitude of devout and intelligent worshippers from all classes of the Hindu community around us, many of whom had to contend with the strongest prejudices, the bitterest opposition, and the severest family separations, at once testifies that the Gospel is now, as in earlier times,