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him the loss of most of his personal goods.

During his residence in Chungking he devoted his energies to the study of the language, and made, according to all accounts, very rapid progress, but he also threw himself, heart and soul, into the arduous labours of a true evangelist among people of a strange tongue. In all such mission work he was in his element.

One who knew him well writes: "One great thing I always rejoiced to see in him was that he wished to get among the people and shew his oneness with them. Whether going to the bedside of patients in the ward, or crossing the river by

ferry-boat instead of engaging a separate boat for himself, he shewed that love which constrained him to come out to the Chinese. This naturally endeared him to the people about us."

There are many at Chung-king who feel that by his death, following so sadly upon his marriage, they have been deprived of a loving, Christ-like, devoted fellow labourer, one whose life seemed full of hope and of rich promise. We are sure, however, that for him it is indeed true that "he being dead yet speaketh."

I am, Yours faithfully,

S. LAVINGTON HART.

Our Book Table.

St. John's Gospel in the Ningpo dialect. Rev. H. Jenkins.

Colloquial versions of Holy Scripture undoubtedly have their uses. Nowhere has this fact been more fully recognised than at Ningpo, where for many years two colloquial versions of the New Testament and sundry portions of the Old Testament, in the Roman character, have been largely used, both by the missionaries and by the native Christians. Hitherto, however, though the advisability of the step has been not infrequently discussed, no portions of the Bible in the local dialect have been published in Chinese character. Mr. Jenkins has now taken the matter in hand and has published an edition of St. John's Gospel in this form. On taking up the book we expected to find that he had transferred one of the existing versions from the Roman into the Chinese character but on examination this proved not to be

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the case. We have a new translation before us, and we regret to say that we consider that the old is better. Whilst the translation has not succeeded in giving a representation of the sense of the sacred text than his predecessors have done, his version is marred by what appears to be a close adherence to the idiom of the English Bible, the result of which is to render the translation unpleasant to the Chinese ear, and we fear in many places unintelligible. It may well be considered doubtful whether in a district where the idiom is so near to that of the mandarin dialect it is desirable to print a local version in the character, but if it be desirable it would certainly seem to be expedient to take one of the existing local versions for the purpose rather than add to the perplexity of the native Christians by giving them yet another independent trausla

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Hanlin Papers. Second Series. Pp. 427. By W. A. P. Martin, D.D., LL.D., Peking. For sale at the Mission Press. Price $1.00 to missionaries.

Dr. Martin is so well known for his ability and thoroughness that we need only mention the name of the book and its contents to ensure its purchase by a large number of readers. Its contents are :—

I. Chinese History, a study. II. History of China viewed from the Great Wall.

III. Tartar Tribes in Ancient China.

IV. A Hero of the Three Kingdoms.

V. International Law in Ancient China.

VI. Diplomacy in Ancient China. VII. Notes on the Confucian Apocrypha.

VIII. Plato and Confucius, a coincidence.

IX. The Cartesian Philosophy before Descartes.

X. Chinese Ideas on the Inspiration of their Sacred Books.

XI. Stages of Religious Thought in China.

XII. Buddhism a preparation for Christianity.

XIII. Native Tract Literature of China.

XIV. The Worship of Ancestors. XV. The Emperor at the Altar of Heaven.

XVI. A Pilgrimage to the Tomb of Confucius.

XVII. The Lusiad or Opening

of the East.

XVIII. Three Famous Inscriptions.

The subjects discussed are the result of careful research into the vast store-houses of Chinese literature. On most of the subjects discussed we have no higher authority living. Students will therefore find the book of very great service. sides, as the chapters were the result of leisure studies extending over many years they will be of greater value than anything hastily written to complete a volume.

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By Rev. Samuel B. Drake, English Baptist Mission, Shantung.

The leading idea of this book is to set forth the conditions in which our Lord carried on His ministry by giving a summary of "the origin and growth of institutions, laws, parties customs, etc, mentioned in the four Gospels."

"The information contained in each chapter is given in connection with some particular incident in the life of Jesus, and the passage or passages of Scripture, in which the incident is recorded, is mentioned underneath the heading of each chapter.

By adopting this plan the book serves the purpose of a Bible dictionary as regards the subjects treated as well as a commentary on the selected passages of Scripture."

CONTENTS.

1. The Temple, what it was to the Jews. 2. The High Priesthood. 3. Teaching of Jesus and the Jews on the Kingdom of Heaven. Entering the Kingdom of Heaven. 5.

4.

Feast of Passover; Jesus cleanses the Temple. 6. Differences between Jews and Samaritans. 7. Jesus heals Nobleman's Son; Signs from Heaven. 8. Synagogues. 9. The Acceptable Year of the Lord. 10. Christ contrasted with the Scribes. 11. Casting out Devils; Jesus and Jews contrasted. 12.

Healing Lepers, Law of Leprosy.

13. The Sect of the Pharisees. 14. Rules of Membership. 15. Pharisaical Washings. 16. Pharisees, their treatment of Publicans. 17. Pharisees and Fasting. 18. Pharisees and Prayers. 19, 20 and 21. Moses, Pharisees and Jesus on the Sabbath. 22. Herodians. 23. Sect of the Sadducees. 24 Sadducees and the Resurrection. The Levirate Law. 25. Sadducees and Pharisees demand signs from Hea26. The Sanhedrin. 27. The four Judges of Jesus. 28. The

ven.

Trial and Condemnation of Jesus, questions raised and different accounts harmonized."

This book contains in small compass much valuable material for assisting native pastors, evangelists and the more intelligent Christians to better understand the Gospel history and especially the growing and ceaseless antogonism to Christ and His work.

Every book that aids in a clearer understanding of the religious belief and practice of the Jews at the time Christ lived on earth is a valuable contribution to the literature of China. The man who understands his Bible thoroughly and yields his heart and life to its teachings is the highest style of

man.

This book contains 98 double pages. It is printed in excellent style and can be obtained at the Presbyterian Mission Press at cost price, viz, 14 cents per copy.

HUNTER CORBETT.

EDUCATION IN HONGKONG.

The Educational Report for 1893. E. J. Eitel, Ph.D. (Tub.), Inspector of Schools and Head of the Education Department (Hongkong).

The island colony of Hongkong is doubly fortunate in having for the superintendent of its educational interests so eminent and energetic a man as Dr. Eitel. Its residents, whether of occidental or oriental origin, are much to be congratulated, both on the past progress of the schools under his direction and upon the highly satisfactory condition to which his labors have brought them up to the present.

The existence in the East of so thorough a system of public education is a luminous fact that should be of great interest and encouragement to educationists everywhere; while to the community of Shanghai, which in many other respects is the leading foreign settlement in these

"ends of the earth," it may well constitute a pattern and a stimulus.

Dr. Eitel's report should be studied in its entirety if the full advantage of its facts and figures is to be grasped. Though dealing largely-one may say chiefly-with statistics it is none the less interesting and all the more valuable ; since in any school system figures which "do not lie" form the best exponents of results.

We cannot enter into all the details of this exhaustive document. Let a brief synopsis of the contents suffice.

The schools under the Education Department of Hongkong are of two kinds-Government schools and Grant-in-Aid schools. Besides these there are Kai-fong, or Chinese schools, which are not under direct foreign supervision, and sundry unclassed schools, public and private, that are under European manage

ment.

A special "school attendance officer" having been appointed to assist the inspector, the latter is able to keep a complete and accurate record of all the schools. From the labors of that officer, who is daily occupied in visiting the towns and villages of the colony, applying moral suasion to vagrant children and their parents and keeping a register of attendance, a certain amount of increase in the school population has resulted. The greater part of the notable increase, however, is due to improved me. thods of registration.

For 1893 the net increase in the number of pupils was 329; the normal increase of 595 in the Grantin-Aid schools being offset by an abnormal decrease of 356 pupils, due to the closing of a number of government schools.

Of the total number of children (12,123) attending schools during the year, one-half were in the 102 Grant-in-Aid schools, nearly onefifth in the twenty-four government

schools, more than one-fifth in the 144 Kai-fong schools, and the remainder in the unclassed schools.

Children attending the Grant-inAid schools, which are under the control of various missionary societies, European and American, receive a Christian education; those in the government schools in which, with the exception of Victoria College and Girls' Central School, free tuition is given, get merely secular instruction.

Besides the lessons in English which are given in some of the schools, an absolutely free education in this language is offered by seven missionary schools and five of those supported wholly by the government. Free tuition in Chinese is furnished by nearly one hundred schools.

In the matter of expense the amount paid by the government in 1893 was $79,413.84, less school fees received, $12,683.00, making a net expenditure of $66,730.84. If it were not that "comparisons are odious a pertinent question just at this point would be, "How much does the Municipality of Shanghai expend for the education of its children, native and foreign ?"

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Rigorous efforts toward retrenchment were made by the inspector at the request of the government, and these resulted in a saving (?) of about seven thousand dollars, but, as Dr. Eitel very wisely says, increase of expenditure is unavoidable in the long run, as schools must multiply and expand in proportion to the natural increase of the population.

At the risk of making this review too lengthy and perhaps tedious, we venture to give the following extracts, as they bear upon a very important branch of the general subject of education :

:

"In former times the most abnormal feature of the educational condition of the colony was the general neglect of female education. But since [for] the last

ten years a steady improvement has taken place in this respect in those schools which are under the supervision of the Educational Department. The steady increase in the proportion of girls is a most cheering fact, as it holds out a definite prospect of our attaining soon to a normal condition in this respect."

After giving comparative statistics on this point, the report goes on to say: "The foregoing figures prove conclusively that the gradual expansion of female education in the colony is principally due to the Grant-in-Aid scheme and to the agency of local missions (italics by reviewer), and that the only class of schools which still exhibit shame

ful apathy in relation to the

interests of female education are the native Kai-fong schools, which are inaccessible to stimulation on the part of the Education Department."

A powerful argument this in favor both of missions and of state education.

Noting that, in future, Victoria College and Girls' Central School are to be known respectively as Queen's College and Belilios' Public School, we close this review by commending a careful perusal of the able inspector's report to all who take any interest in educational affairs, and especially to those whose prospective life and welfare are bound up with the future destiny of Shanghai.

W. B. BONNELL.

The Story of James Gilmour and the Mongol Mission, by Mrs. Bryson, of Tientsin. London: The Sunday School Union, 57 and 59 Ludgate Hill, E. C.

Some of our readers as they open this little book will see the face of a dearly loved friend and realize from their own personal experience the truth Mrs. Bryson utters in the preface that "Gilmour was a man most loved and honored by those

who knew him best. To fellowworkers his life was ever an inspiration." We do not wonder that the Mongols on hearing of his death were bowed down as with a great personal sorrow, or that grown up Christian men among them "burst into tears and sobbed like children." For few indeed of even "missionary heroes can show such a record of suffering, trial and solitude bravely and joyfully borne for Jesus' sake as this life of James Gilmour brings before us.

The work in Mongolia, to which he devoted his life, was begun by the London Missionary Society in 1817. Messrs. Stallybrass and Swan were permitted to translate the Bible into the language of the people and to rejoice over a few faithful converts to the Truth before they received the Imperial sentence of banishment from the country, and twenty-five years later this young man, who felt "he had been saved to save," by the fireside of Mrs. Swan (who was the only survivor of these early workers in Mongolia), received his Master's his Master's call and gladly answered: "Here am I; send me."

A month after he reached North China there occurred the terrible massacre of Tientsin, and fearing war might break out and delay his departure for Mongolia he started. immediately, and with but

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two Mongol sentences he bravely faced the desert solitudes in company with some Russian merchants.

Now began this life of "day and night marches across the vast desolate desert;" nights in Mongol tents or wretched Chinese inus, cooking his own porridge and tea "if the fire was good and the wind not too high," until in Sept., 1870, be settled down in Kiachta to the study of the language. He wrote of this as a time of great loneliness and suffering, but intense yearning for souls filled his heart through all these lonely months, and a colleague writing of him years after

says: "Idoubt if even Paul endured more for Christ than did James Gilmour. I doubt too if Christ ever received from human hands or hearts more loving service." His attack upon the language was very characteristic of the man, and we feel a real admiration for that "conscientious old soul who was both his host and teacher. Little wonder was it that when he found the four graves" and the "few converts of those early days of mission work his soul was fired afresh with love for the Mongols.

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In Chap. VI Mrs. Bryson gives an amusing incident illustrating his manner of overcoming difficulties. He was a stranger to the saddle, but deliberately arranged for a horseback journey of two hundred miles across the dangerous desert, and "at the end found of course that this difficulty had vanished forever."

In the chapter-"A Missionary Romance -we see him waiting for his bride in his "rusty overcoat" and "large woollen comforter," but together they go forth to endure hardness, and for a few years he is not alone. A true helpmeet proved this woman, who went in loving ministry to Mongol tents Chinese homes, braving danger and loneliness, privation and exposure that she might carry to them the message of Good Tidings.

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and

After a few years she fell asleep in Jesus," and again this worker was left solitary. He ministered to both the bodies and souls of the people, and around his "medicine stand" gathered day after day hundreds, who soon learned to love and trust him. At this time many trials pressed heavily upon him, and he writes: "If amenities about mission mattters were the only things that troubled me I could not stand it. But I am like the horse coupers in Scotland who, when a horse falls lame of one foot, insert a pea under the shoe of the other, so that both feet are set to

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