Morning Calm v.2 no.8(1891 Feb.)

The Bishop's Letter. No. XIX. Chemulpho, Korea, October 1890. DEAR FRIENDS, On September 30th, the day following my arrival in Chemulpho, I started for Seoul, having left Dr. Landis in the hospitable care of Mr. Scott, our Consul. You have so often imagined what the country between the port and the capital is like--so often, with the help of Carles and Griffis, pictured the journey to yourselves, that I feel sure you will be looking for me to tell you how it appeared to me when, without book or travelling companion, I made my first trip to Seoul. Through the kindness of my good host and hostess I was despatched with every comfort in a travelling chair, of a kind well known to all Europeans who have visited China, with four bearers, and four more to act as a relief. These eight men were Koreans, all big men who did their work well and with great good humour. The road from Chemulpho to Seoul passes first through the native town more properly called Jinsen, and a few straggling hamlets which might be dignified with the name of suburbs, but which, with the town itself, do not amount in size to a large English village. The filth of the inhabitants and the squalor of the huts it is impossible to describe. If I were to give you a description you would lay the letter aside without reading any further. It is not the squalor of poverty that one sees. There were no beggars to be seen and no signs of distress or suffering. Everywhere was apparent a contented acquiescence in the state of things which had existed for centuries. The houses made of mud, with mud floors and thatched roofs, were absolutely comfortless. In the country their wretched condition is often concealed by a wattle fence, but in the streets there is nothing to vary the monotony of external misery in which, however, men, women, and children thrive, and out of which the children, at any rate, manage to get a good deal of happiness. As we cleared the town many of the houses became picturesque in spite of themselves, owing to the general custom of trelissing the melon plant up the walls

and on to the roof, where the fruit rests and ripens. The country was soon reached and proved to be undulating and pretty, generally under cultivation, with but few trees about, and those chiefly stunted pines. The corn fields were ripening to harvest, the rice crop was being cut, and the hemp-of which enormous quantities are grown-made a beautiful green embroidery on either side of the road. Where the hills were too high for cultivation (and this was no great height, for, unlike the Chinese and Japanese, Koreans do not climb for their daily bread) the red earth harmonised well with the patches of pine stumps and grass. This redness of the soil, indeed, gives to the whole journey a peculiar charm. I had started at 8.30 A.M., and at 10 o'clock the main road was left for a short time and a path taken to the right, broad and well defined, evidently a short cut. The features of the country remained the same, and soon a range of mountains is reached-hills let them rather be called, for they cannot be more than 500 feet. The range is crossed by a somewhat steep path leading to a gap at a low elevation. The road is as steep in its descent as in its ascent, and from the top of the pass a well-cultivated plain, some four or five miles in extent, can be seen. Although the river itself is not visible, this is evidently the valley of the Han, which flows within three miles of Seoul, and falls into the sea near Chemulpho. There is apparently no difficulty in finding your way to Seoul. With the exception of the one I mentioned there are no competing paths to tempt the traveller to take short cuts. No cross roads to suggest the question, “Ought I to turn to the right or to the left? or ought I to keep straight on?" For a considerable distance the telegraph posts are the only guide posts. They take short cuts occasionally, and for a long time disappeared, but in the main the line of the posts is the line of march. As to the road it is nowhere good, nowhere rising to the dignity of an English road. In the summer rains and winter snows I can well believe it is scarcely navigable, whilst in the spring and autumn many a shoe is lost on the road. But there are no carts to make ruts with their wheels. The road exists for the foot passenger, the pack horses, and the oxen who grind slowly along, carrying immense loads on their patient backs. And so when a bridge becomes necessary over some ditch or drain of paddy field it is perhaps natural that the road should be narrowed to the dimensions of a path. Why make the bridge wider than is absolutely necessary ? But, in truth, bridges, as we understand the word, there are none, a few stout planks covered with earth serving all the needful purpose. As the end of the plain is reached, the red soil of the gently  

sloping hills is very beautiful, throwing out into rich relief the scanty brushwood. Just here we pass a solitary vendor of chestnuts, who has placed his wares on a mat before him in tempting piles of six or seven. One of my coolies yields to the temptation, falls out and, without stopping, lays down a cash and picks up a pile. Think of it! Seven chestnuts for a cash, which is 1/340 of a dollar, which is anything you like between 2/4 and 4/2. Butin truth there is no English coin small enough to represent the value of a cash--the thin small piece of metal (with a hole in the middle) which the man threw down. The mite which one of my children gave me last year (and which is still in my pocket) would have bought two or three such piles. Evidently living in Korea is cheap! A gentle slope now shows me that the future of the road for some miles is to wind amongst hillocks and hills, with vegetables growing in great abundance. Sweet potatoes, turnips, lettuces, and chilies ; these last, with the peppers hanging in rich profusion, contrasting beautifully in their deep red with the slender green leaves of the plant. When these chilies are picked they are placed on the roofs of the houses to dry in the sun. Ahead of us there are two mules who are having a difference of opinion, to the evident discomfort of their riders, Chinese merchants, whose legs appear at an angle of 90 deg., astride of their wares, which are packed in a solid mass on the animals' backs. She-e-e!' exclaims, in a deep voice, the coolie who acts as the choragus of my team. The bearers shift the pole of the chair from one shoulder to the other. And now for a race! The kicking mules are soon passed, and we are once more going at our usual pace, which, by the way, on the level road is between four and five miles an hour. A few yards more and we were at the halfway house, an inn kept by a Japanese, and consisting of a courtyard, round the insides of which were ranged shelter for man and beast, the guest house, a more solid and pretentious building, occupying the fourth side, opposite the gateway. The coolies and men who attend the pack horses were soon hard at work at small tables, before which they squatted as they partook of the good things provided them. The good things consisted of an ample bowl of rice mixed with copious supplies of warm water, which they devoured with a spoon in enormous mouthfuls, and certain delicacies in little saucers which acted as satellites to the central bowl. They applied themselves to these with chop-sticks when the rice spoon seemed to require rest. The delicacies consisted of garlic, radishes chopped fine, french beans mixed with chilies and soy. The appetite of these men was prodigious and not easily satis-   fied. Dinner finished, my coolies proceeded “to toss” who should pay the score. This they did by drawing lots with thin strips of bamboo, on which were written certain characters which I could not read. Nor were the horses forgotten. They were tethered in front of some rude troughs which were filled with a mixture of warm water and beans. A plentiful supply of hay followed by way of dessert. Having been supplied with food by my kind friends in Chemulpho I did not penetrate the mysteries of the guest house, where, I am told, the Japanese cook gives you a fairly good omelette. In half an hour we were off again on our way, through the same kind of country, the road level and winding amongst hills covered with dwarf pines growing out of the red soil. The trees increase in number and variety, and the wild flowers on all sides are delightful in their colour and fra-grance. We pass someone who is being carried by two bearers in a native chair. He or she is invisible by reason of a water-proof covering which encloses the four sides. The waterproof, however, is interesting because it is made of sheets of copybooks sewn together and steeped in oil. This must be an edifying sight too for the occupant, and calculated to teach him many a lesson how to do it or how not to do it. Soon the hills are passed and we come out upon a plain which shows in the distance the hills-high hills these-behind the capital. The sight of these mountains is familiar to me as it is to those who read the first eleven of these letters, which, you remember, had an engraving of them on the front page. A string of bullocks now passes us, led by men wearing hats of portentous size and shape. They are made of matting and resemble baskets. A coal-heaver's hat is a small affair compared with them. Nor are they rounded off at the crown, but proceed to a point. They thus look like an extinguisher fit to put out a candle three feet in diameter. Of the same shape, though of smaller dimensions, is the neat waterproof cover which in rain is put over the hat of fine wicker work generally worn by men in this country. These hat covers are secured by means of four strings under the chin-"chin stays” as we call them in the navy. All this time nothing has been seen of the river Han since we left Chemulpho. The distance to the capital by road is 27 miles, but, by the circuitous route of the river, 60. At about three in the afternoon a shallow tributary of the river was crossed, the men wading. The river bed is very wide-over half a mile-- and composed of fine sand. In the rain of summer months one must cross by a ferry, just now the shallow channel is scarcely 200 yards wide. On the other side were large fields of millet, a common article of food in these parts, whilst the road was   fringed on either hand by the faithful hemp which has accom-panied us all along. The fields, however, soon give place to an uncultivated plain in which grass, after a valiant struggle, has to give way to sand. This sandy plain must be two miles wide and about four miles long. Its chief value to an observer lies in the fact that it offers no obstruction to the view of the hills which, covered with verdure, surround it. The plain crossed, the Han appears again, this time, however, in its main stream, which here is flowing strong and deep, with a width of about a quarter of a mile. We cross it by a ferry, which takes us all, chair and coolies. On the other side is Mapu, which may be called the port of Seoul, the terminus of the steam launch which runs occasionally to and from Chemulpho. Mapu is the first town that I have seen. Not that it presents any of the ordinary characteristics of a town, being no more than a large straggling village pressing for some two miles upon the bank of the Han. There are many junks at anchor or tied up to the shore, and there is the steam launch in ques-tion, which left Chemulpho yesterday at midnight. In the large punt which was our ferry-boat, we were some twenty in all, with the addition of a horse. The punt was sculled across by a sweep worked from the end. The fare for our party was 40 cash, which, reckoning the chair as one person, was 4 cash apiece. In Mapu there is the same dirt and squalor. If the houses are larger it only means that there is more room for dirt. But the people look happy and good-humoured. All traces of the foreigner have disappeared long ago. Were a Japanese or a Chinaman to be seen, one would regard him with the same interest as a European. As we pass through the street the constant "rat-tat, rat-tat” of the wife mangling her lord's clothes is heard, though the operation is invisible, hidden by the wattles. The neighbourhood of Mapu is given up to market gardens, and the acres of green stuff looked very pretty and bright. The roofs of brown thatch, too, all of no particular shape, and with overhanging caves, look very picturesque when they are seen on the slope of a hill, and all other signs of houses, such as walls, windows, and doors, are out of sight. Here again I noticed the bright patches of chilies drying in the sun. The warm red looked well again, and the universal brown background producing the effect as of a Virginian creeper in autumn. And now my coolies are taking a rest-their last halt I hope ; and as I write, seated in my chair in the street, I find myself the centre of an admiring crowd. What they admire I know not. Indeed, for all I know it may not be admiration but contempt - contempt,   perhaps, to see me writing from left to right instead of from right to left, and from side to side instead of from top to bottom. Would that I could understand what they are saying? Would that I could say what I want to say to them? But there is one Korean word that I do know-and it must now be said -"K’a," which means "Get on.” It has had an immediate effect. We are getting on and the crowd is left behind. No trace of temple have I yet seen in villages, town or country, none of those idol shrines which meet the eye all over China and Japan. The only sign of religion--if it was one-was a wooden post placed here and there by the wayside, which I at first mistook for a direction post, until I saw that the top was carved into a grotesque human face, like the faces boys at home cut for fun out of turnips. Close though we must now be to Seoul the intervening hills conceal it from our view. Only the mountains beyond betray its whereabouts. Houses and people now become more frequent, and here is a woman of the better class who covers up one eye with her white blue fringed mantle and looks at me with the other. Amongst the poorer class of women, and especially the slaves, there is none of that reluctance to be seen which I expected to find. Perhaps by this time they have got accus-tomed to the sight of foreigners. Certainly women are rarely seen in the streets unless they are at work, and I suspect that the rest are kept at home for the same reason--namely, hard, incessant work. The market gardens still continue. Battalions of cabbages, lettuces, onions, turnips, each in its own uniform of varying shades of green, succeed one another, with every now and then a field of millet, whose tall dignified stalks remind one of a regiment of guards. The hills close at hand are covered with graves, which consist of a horseshoe excavation in the hill-side, a level space in front of it, and in the middle of this a small pudding-shaped mound. And now in the road, which has narrowed to a street, a person of importance meets me-grave, well dressed, wearing large spectacles, and mounted on horseback. He rides for dignity rather than with dignity, and has an attendant walk-ing on either side of him, another in front, and a fourth behind. But my men are hurrying on. It cannot be long before sunset, and if they do not get inside the gates before dark they will have to stay outside the city all night. At seven o'clock the big bell of the city is rung. The gates are shut, and no one may come in or go out by them until the morning. We are already in the suburbs. The walls are in sight-high and surmounted with battlements which are pierced for bows and arrows, surely, rather than for guns, so large are the apertures and so close   together. At last the west gate is reached and entered. A few minutes more shouting and threading of intricate, crowded, evil-smelling streets, and I am home and shaking hands with Dr. Wiles. My letter has grown to an inordinate length, but the Editor is a discriminating man capable of performing division-and perhaps subdivision-sums. I send you my greetings from the capital of Korea, greetings to which Dr. Wiles joins his. And I am, dear friends, always your affectionate, C. J. CORFE. February 1 Sidney Sussex College, 9 S. Matthias, Earl's Court. 1 21 Benson, Wallingford. Cambridge. | 12 Welwyn. 23 R. N. Hospital, Green2 Christ's Coll. Cambridge. 13 S. Saviour's, Leeds. wich. 3 Emanuel College, Cam- 16 Exeter Cathedral. 24 Rosewell, Chelinsford. bridge. 18 Chesterfield. 25 Holy Trinity, Twicken. 4 S. Cross, Homersfield. 19 Newbold, Chesterfield. ham. S S. Mary Abbott's, Ken. 20 Holy Trinity, Walling- 26 Fonthill, East Grinstead. sington. ford. 28 “Woburn Abbey." Notes. THE Rev. M. N. Trollope, the Rev. J. H. Pownall, and Mr. Davies sailed in ss. Arcadia from the Albert Docks for Shanghai en route for Korea, on Friday, January 9. The voyage will take them about six weeks, and the Bishop will probably meet them at Shanghai. The Mission party were present with their friends at a farewell service and a celebration at S. John the Divine, Kennington. All letters, &c., for the Bishop and members of the Mission should be addressed to the care of the British Consul-General, Seoul, Korea. Miss Day asks us to inform our readers that the reprint of the July number of Morning Calm is now sold out, and conse-quently she is unable to receive any further orders for it. hospital fund and Naval Offertories. THE contributions which have been received for the Hospital Naval Fund during the year 1890 the Executive Committee consider very liberal, taking into account the many calls upon those belonging to the Service. There is one feature which must be gratifying to all who feel an interest in Christian Mis-sions, to wit, that many of the offerings are from bodies of officers and men. This points to mutual encouragement and   common sympathy in advocating and supporting the cause on board our ships. Thus, combined subscriptions have been received from officers and men of thirteen vessels, amounting to about £45. These vessels are :-“Anson," "Calliope," "Calypso," “Dart," "Gannet," "Investigator," "Northumberland," "Osborne,' "Peacock," "Raleigh,” “Rapid,” “Reindeer," "Sphinx." To these must be added Cape branch of N.C.S., and some civilians at the Admiralty. Offertories have been sent from three Naval Establishments and fourteen ships, amounting to upwards of £50. These are as follows :-Dockyard, Simon's Bay; Dockyard and Hospital, Malta; Hospital, Plymouth; H.M.S. "Ajax,". "Active," “Bellerophon," “Boadicea," “Boscawen," "Collingwood," “Calliope," "Calypso," "Conquest," " Dreadnought," "Iron Duke," " Monarch," "Tamai," " Téméraire." The Committee desires to repeat what they said in their initial report: - "The offertory is one of the most desirable means of obtain-ing the necessary funds for such an object as that we all have at heart. It affords an opportunity for collecting the alms of men and boys, each according to his means, as well as those of officers ; and it also reminds all the givers that their offering is made to God, and is an act of worship. It is hoped that an annual offertory for Foreign Missions will become the regular custom in all Naval establishments and ships in commission ; and we desire to assist in bringing this to pass, by advocating a mission which the Navy can regard almost as its own." Those annual subscribers who have not sent a banker's order for the payment of their subscriptions are reminded that those for 1891 are now due, and will be thankfully received during the course of the year. Association of Prayer and work for Korea. MONDAY, December Ist, Colonel Coates gave an excellent lecture on “China and the Chinese" in the Parish Hall. As he spoke from personal experience, he was able to tell us a great deal about the features of the country and the manners and customs of that wonderful race in a most interesting manner. Rev. E. A. Ommanney illustrated the lecture with limelight dissolving views. Unfortunately the weather that evening was bad and prevented the audience being as large as we had hoped for; however, we are able to give £2. I3s. 6d, to the Korean Mission.   PORTSMOUTH ORPHANAGE BRANCH. THE Portsmouth Orphanage Branch commences the New Year with 68 members, many of whom have kindly helped with needlework for the Mission. We hope this part of our work will grow, and that "odd minutes" will be used for us. Articles for sale will be very gratefully received at any time during the year. Plain garments and knitted comforters are always most saleable. A little invalid member, 12 years old, has knitted cuffs for us beautifully. Will some one else? A. WOODIN, Secretary. The Spirit of Missions. THE following words of the Bishop of Durham, spoken recently in his Great Northern Diocese, ought to come home to all of us : - "Missionary work is not a voluntary, supererogatory work of a few more devoted souls. It is a charge which is given to all as Christians. . . . Let us be honest with ourselves. Add up all the sufferings of all the missionaries for the last century, and you will find them outweighed by the sufferings borne by an army in a single campaign, or even by the company of that great traveller who crossed the Darkest Continent to rescue an isolated pioneer of civilisation. What does the contrast suggest to us? Surely this: that we have not realised our obligations to the Christian Society with one-thousandth part of the force with which we recognise our obligations to our country. Can it be that it should be thought quite natural, quite reasonable that the most adventurous and enterprising among us should risk all in com-merce, in arms, in travel, and not be thought natural that the noblest and foremost should offer these for the service of Christ, in which we know that everyone who fights lawfully shall assuredly receive the victor's crown? "I know it will be said that there are at home evils which we have not yet met, still less conquered. True it is, but I see that one who has just been on a visit to some of the African stations of the C.M.S. says, 'Never talk again of home heathen in the same breath with the heathen of this Continent.' And they were exactly the words which Dr. Livingstone used to me on the only occasion when it was my privilege to speak with him. The evils at home are terrible, but those who have looked upon the evils of Africa know that there is something which our imaginations as yet cannot realise. Let us be sure of this, that the counsel of faith for the Church is the counsel of duty and

 the counsel of interest; that we should 'forget our own people and our father's house,' confident of this, that through that labour we shall win the support of new kinsmen for our own people. . . . I believe it is from the Mission field that we shall gain that assurance of the victorious power of the Gospel which we so sorely need, and I believe it is from the Mission field that God will give us that great blessing for which we all earnestly pray, of a sense of spiritual union in Christ." We shall all be only too ready to allow that our recognition of the duty of supporting Missions is more real than it has been in times past. But it is impossible not to feel that as a people, as a Church, we are still lamentably deficient. Those who do their share in the work form but a very small propor-tion of the Church at large, and it is very largely done as a work of supererogation; whereas, according to the mind of Christ, a Christian who is not also a Missionary-by prayers, by alms, by sympathies-is a contradiction in terms. There is an urgent call to us to unite in rousing the sympathies of others; it is quite a delusion to suppose that Missions are not interesting or inspiring, and only those who labour under an ignorance of their scope and work-that greatest of foes to the cause of Missions-could ever think them so. The reflection that there are large numbers of parishes which do nothing whatever for foreign Missions ought to fill us with shame. Missions never fail in rousing enthusiasm among the poor ; and it is iniquitous when they have no opportunity of doing their part in the great work. "The missionary looms up as the only ennobling and in-spiring figure in the African forests. He represents a humane and enlightened civilisation in that benighted land. . . . He does not go to the Dark Continent in search of adventure, nor does he return to write books and deliver lectures. Whether he dies of fever the first summer, or is massacred at his station, or works year after year among the natives, his heroism passes without observation. It is his mission to teach degraded races the elements of civilisation and Christianity. He suffers and grows strong. He communes with his own heart and is still. He does his work in a sublime spirit of self-sacrifice, unclouded with premonitions of notoriety and publishers' bargains. That is moral heroism of the finest fibre. The men of action of the Stanley campaign of adventure have noble and commanding traits, but they are not types of the highest qualities of heroism and self-sacrifice." The above, from the New York Tribune, seems to give a more exact picture of the events of one Mission-that of the   C.M.S. to Uganda-than the writer was probably aware. The last letter received from Bishop Tucker gave an account of the journey (early in September) through the hostile Ugogo territory. The caravan itself was too strong to be attacked, but on more than one occasion messengers sent to buy food were cruelly massacred, and, as already related, the German force under Lieutenant Siegel was their only human protection, for the missionaries were, on principle, unarmed. “Of course you know," writes Bishop Tucker, " that we (missionaries) as a party are entirely unarmed. There is no doubt at all that had the Wagogo chosen to attack us during the night, they could easily have massacred the whole lot of us, even had we been armed. I do not regret in the very least coming without arms. We should not have used them, and they would only have been a temptation to the men and boys." They must have arrived at the south end of Lake Nyanza some time in October, where there is a Mission station, at which Mackay entertained Stanley and his party in the autumn of last year, and from which he was called to rest early this year. And since then it is hoped that they have sailed to North Uganda, at the north end of the lake-a ten days' journey in an open boat, for the C.M.S. steamer is not there yet, though the money for it is all collected. But it was not God's will that the whole party should reach Uganda. On January 7 a telegram was received from Zanzibar, saying that Messrs. Dunn and Hunt, a priest and a layman, had been struck down by fever at Usambiro, at the south end of the lake, and had died; the one on December 20, the other on the 15th. It is supposed that Mr. Walker had set out in the boat to relieve Mr. Gordon, the solitary missionary then at Uganda, and that the newly arrived party were waiting for the return of the boat at the south end of the lake. Thus, since Bishop Tucker set out, four members of his party have been taken, leaving five of the original party. It is an early harvest, but we may trust that it is the forerunner of a rich harvest of souls. The House of Bishops of the American Church has just chosen the Rev. J.W.Chapman to be Missionary Bishop of the new Diocese of Alaska. Mr. Chapman was ordained priest in 1887, is 33 years of age, and is now working devotedly in Alaska with one other missionary-Mr. Cherry. As the territory is frost-bound during the winter months, no message can be received from him till next summer; so that his consecration   can hardly be held till next year. The last letter received from him was dated from St. Michael's, Alaska, on August 1, 1890. In it he says, "Among other distractions our boat went adrift in a storm, and got upon the rocks, knocking several large holes in her. We hauled her up and repaired her, however, so that she is now as tight as before." The following description is given of the Cathedral car which has been built for Bishop Walker of North Dakota :-“The car has been neatly fitted up as a church, with organ, font, lectern, Bishop's chair, and altar. A double row of chairs down the length of the car will seat about seventy people. One end of the car is partitioned off to serve as robing-room, office, and sleeping-room. The car is on wheels and runs on the railroad, and by means of it Bishop Walker intends to visit every village and hamlet along the railroads in his jurisdiction, living and holding services in the car. Few clergymen in England have had to do work such as that which has been done by the Rev. F. W. Ragg, Vicar of Marsworth, in Bucks. When he went there in 1880 he found that the whole church was in a very unsound state, and needing instant restoration to prevent total collapse. He collected a sum of money in the neighbourhood, but not nearly enough to have the work done in the usual way. So with splendid courage and ability he set to work, with the help of a mason and of farm labourers who voluntarily assisted by cutting stone, &c. Thus he restored the tracery of two of the windows, took down the dangerous buttresses and rebuilt them, made good the south wall, and with the help of a carpenter raised the roof of the nave to cover the tower arch. Then the funds were exhausted, so that he was left without skilled labour. He come pleted the walls, built a parapet along the Lady Chapel, cut and fixed string courses, refaced the tower, and cut and erected a chancel arch. Then an attack of rheumatic fever, due to exposure while at work, disabled him for a time. On his recovery he constructed a gable end to the chancel arch, finished the battlements, made good the north chancel wall, and put in several windows, and, raising the subscriptions to about £800 in all, he with the help of a mason and a bricklayer completed other work. His old friends of Trinity College, Cambridge, are trying to place a window in the church as a memorial of his devoted work, certainly it was never better deserved.   Missionary Intercessions and Thanksgivings. S. Luke ii. 32. -" A light to lighten the Gentiles." MISSIONARIES' PREACHING. Pray that God will bless them preaching to (1) the crowds, (2) the two or three, (3) the ignorant and dull, (4) the self-satisfied (5) the prejudiced, (6) the inquirers after truth, (7) those moved to repentance, (8) catechumens, (9) the faithful, (10) before civil powers, (11) in the streets and bazaars, (12) in the churches.

MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. Wisdom, zeal, a catholic spirit to those in authority in the C.M.S., S.P.G., C.A.M. Liberal support on the part of the faithful.

SPECIAL MISSIONS. Korea.-Thanksgiving for prosperous beginnings of the work. Safe arrival of the Bishop. Intercession for (a) Revs. M. N. Trollope, J. H. Pownall, and Mr. Davies in their journey, health for, blessings on their coming work; (b) Doctor Wiles and Doctor Landis in their hospital work; (c) the Koreans, grace to hear the glad tidings. Africa.-The South African Province, i.e.-dioceses of Cape-town, Grahamstown, S. John's, Maritzberg, Zululand, Bloemfon-tein, Pretoria, S. Helena. Pray for (a) the bishops, priests, deacons, lay-missionaries therein, in their efforts and isolation; (b) the English residents, that they may set a holy example; (c) the native Christians, perseverance, growth in grace; (d) the heathen, ears to hear, hearts to receive. Central Africa.- (1) The C.M.S.'s Mission on Lake Nianza ; for Bishop Tucker and the missionary priests, wisdom and grace. For the healing of divisions amongst the Christians. (2) The Universities' Mission. Thanksgiving for safe arrival of Bishop Smythies; for increased interest in the Mission. Pray that political events may tend to the Church's progress. For raising up of a native ministry.