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Correspondence.

Congratulations to Dr. Happer.

The completion of forty years of missionary service for China is an event worth noting, as a number of friends of Dr. Happer, the late editor of the Chinese Recorder and Missionary Journal, have rightly thought. We give below two of the more numerously signed of the many letters addressed to him on the event, together with Dr. Happer's response to one of them, copies of which we solicited for The Recorder, as the proper place for their publication.

DEAR BROTHER.

On the 22nd, of October 1884, as we are informed, forty years will have elapsed since your arrival in China.

We the undersigned, your brethren in the faith, and colleagues in the service of our Lord, residing in Peking, avail ourselves of this occasion to express our high regard for you personally, and at the same time our gratitude to God for sparing you so long to labor in this needy field.

Your missionary life marks an epoch. It began with the opening of the five ports: It has continued until you see Protestant missions in active operation in nearly all the provinces of this great Empire. It began when the native converts were but a handful of corn on the top of the mountain; you have lived to see their fruit shake like Lebanon; and we pray the Lord of the harvest to spare you to see still greater things than these.

Rejoicing in the abundance and success of your labors, we beg to offer you our united congratulations in commemoration of the Fortieth Anniversary of your life in China-a life so well fitted to encourage the churches and to stimulate the efforts of those who follow in your footsteps.

(Signed) W. A. P. Martin-John Wherry-J. L. WhitingJ. W. Lowrie-D. C. McCoy.

PEKING, October 22th, 1884.

DEAR BROTHER,

You have been permitted to labor for the Master in one place for the space of forty years, which is a privilege seldom enjoyed by one of our number, and we feel we cannot let such an epoch in the history of our work pass unoticed. We therefore beg you to accept our hearty congratulations, that the Lord has conferred upon you such an honor, and permitted you to occupy so many positions of great influence and usefulness, and to accomplish so much good.

May the Lord's richest blessings rest upon you in all the coming years he may grant you to labor for his glory, and if it be his holy will, grant that you may return to be still among us the Nestor of Presbyterianism.

(Signed)-J. M. W. Farnham, G. F. Fitch-Chas. Leaman, L. H. Judson-H. C. Dubose-J. N. B. Smith, J. N. HayesR. E. Abbey-W. R. Lambuth-A. P. Parker-J. L. Stuart-F. V. Mills-Jno. Butler W. W. Royall-Geo. R. Loehr-Matthew Yates-Elliot H. Thomson-Geo. W. Painter-Joseph StonehouseW. J. McKee,-J. W. Lambuth-Young J. Allen-W. A. WillsLuther H. Gulick.

SHANGHAI, January, 1885.

To the Rev. Messrs. Farnham, D.D., and others;

Dear Brethren in the Lord, and Colleagues in the Missionary service;

Your letter, of December 23rd, 1884, congratulating me on the occurrence of the fortieth anniversary of my arrival in China caused me great gratification, because it manifests the Christian esteem and regard of those whom I esteem highly. It is very gratifying that so many brethren in so many places and of so many different societies, with some of whom my acquaintance and christian intercourse extends over twenty years, and with all of whom my intercourse has been so pleasant, should remember the anniversary referred to and join with me in giving thanks to the God of all grace, for his great goodness to me in giving the great privilege to me of serving him so long in the Gospel of his dear Son in this heathen land. He has permitted me to see the great things which he has done, from the opening of the five ports, for his people in this land, whereof we are glad, and give thanks and praise to his name. He has permitted me to see the preparatory work for yet greater things in the future, in the accomplishment of which I trust you all may be permitted to have an important part. I hope and pray that many of you may live to see results in the way of the extension of the Christian church, and the enlightenment of this numerous people, vastly beyond anything which has been seen in the past.

The good wishes which you have so kindly expressed are most warmly reciprocated for each and every one of you. May long life and health be granted to you all. May the abundant blessing of God rest upon all your labors; and may you be permitted to see the work of your hands greatly prospered. And when life's toils and labors are completed, may an abundant entrance be given unto each one of you, through the riches of his grace, into the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

I remain, dear Brethren,

Yours in Christian love.

CANTON, CHINA, Feb. 2th, 1885.

ANDREW P. HAPPER.

SIR:

New Version of an Ancient Ode.

TO EDITOR OF THE CHINESE RECORDER,

A few weeks ago, there appeared in the N. C. Daily News an article signed "K" accompanied by a new translation of one of the odes of the Shi King. The perusal of that article and of the beautiful translation by which it was accompanied started in my mind a train of thought like this:-Whether there might not be hidden away among the neglected rubbish of our own English literature, and especially that portion of it most despised by men of culture, some gems that would pay for the labour of unearthing them. Despised by the cultured, and relegated to the Mary Anns of the nursery, it has seldom been brought under the microscope of scientific and literary men. That nothing had hitherto been done, gave me the more hope of finding something; and so with this end in view, I began on an ancient and familiar classic, which was the delight of my childhood. I trust no critic will drop this article with a sneer of scorn at the mention of the name of "Mother Goose." Let him recollect that in past days there have doubtless been Legges to obscure the beauties as well of English, German, Sanskrit and Latin odes, as of Chinese. And the cold and colourless pictures conjured up by what he has read are not the same, doubtless, as those once painted by the glowing fancy of the bard.

It occurred to me at the outset, to throw aside all prejudices as to the origin of this ode; and to seek in the writers of contemporary ages for the real meaning of the piece, which, as in all really fine poetry is highly figurative and allusive. It seemed to lie on the very surface, that Goose was merely a translation of the German Gans, Persian Kaz and Latin Anser. The derivation of Mother from the German Mutter, Greek untηp and Latin Mater was quite as easy. The next thing of course was to seek for such a name Anser Mater in history. The clue being so nearly perfect already and I having, as I may say, an intuitional turn of mind, my thoughts at once leaped the chasm of centuries; and I found myself infancy perusing an old nursery hexameter, long lost, beginning:

"Anseres surgunt nocte et vocibus maximis clamant."

My fancy depicted the weary sentinel overcome by sleep, the wily foe creeping forward on hands and feet, the silent and defenceless ramparts, the sudden clamour of the geese, the attack, the repulse. But why need I dwell upon this scene? Will not every lover of antiquity hold himself my debtor for having rescued this beautiful ode, so full of thrilling allusions and heroic meaning, from the

dust and cobwebs of time? Can any one doubt that the title "Ode to a Young Prince," is correct? The slightest attention to the form of the word "Banbury" shows that Banoburium must have been the original spelling. That bury or borough, is merely the English way of spelling the German burg or berg, Greek. яʊруò̟5, all meaning a fort or walled city, Latin murum? But argument seems superfluous, useless. I submit my version to a candid public, and am, Sir,

Yours,

ANSERUM UNUS.

ODE TO A YOUNG PRINCE.

Hist. Mat. Anser. I. IV. 21.

I.

Haste, haste, thou merry laughing sprite,

Thy mother's pride and joy,

Quick, mount thy steed ere darksome night

Shall cloud thy way, fair boy :

Spur on thy gallant grey,

And speed thy joyous way,

Till Banborough's hoary turrets rise

To greet thy longing eyes.

II.

There shalt thou see the lady fine,
Whose steed is snowy white,

And softly tinkling bells shalt hear,
And mark the jewels bright,
That make her lily fingers shine,
As do the stars of night.

III.

Where'er she speeds her happy way
Shall dulcet tones and trappings gay
Bewitch thine ears and sight,

And thou shalt learn of gallant deeds
When Roman men and Roman steeds
Pursued the foe by night.

The following is the miserable travesty of the moderns :

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Our Book Table.

important difficulties troubling the minds of many thinking men of our day; yet we cannot suppress the wish that the question of Inspiration had received a fuller treatment.

The battle between the

sceptical and believing schools of thought will, if we mistake not, more and more concentrate itself on this point as the one involving the solution of the deep questions as to existence of the Super-natural, and what are the possible modes of its revelation to man.

As many of our notices of Books | short series of short sermons, and we must necessarily be but brief para- cannot but recognize the fact that graphs, we throw them together the Archdeacon has successfully below in a less formal way than touched upon a number of the more usual, trusting they will be none the less valuable or readable. We are glad to welcome a volume from Archdeacon Moule on the Evidences of Christianity. In keeping with the tendency of theological thought in our day, he bases his argument for Christianity on the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Having proved the fact of the Resurrection, in the most masterful sermon of the series, he next discusses what may be known of God outside of Revelation. The author's wide acquaintance with the literature of the day appears in happy quotations and allusions on every page; friends and foes are made to contribute their facts to the solution of the question; and we are agreeably surprised to find a passage from a striking essay by our former pastor the Rev. J. P. Thompson of New York, now numbered among those who know as they are known. The Bible is then taken up; its difficulties, scientific and moral, are discussed, in a spirit that one would think must be very helpful to any honest doubter; and then the positive testimony to the authenticity upon work among the women of of the Bible as a Revelation from the East as now the great question God is given, the weight of the of the church;" and she concludes argument being made to rest on her preface with the new version of Christ's endorsement of it. Two Psalm lxviii, 11-" The Lord giveth sermons follow on the probable, the word, and the women that and positive, evidence of a Future bring glad tidings are a great host." Life. The series closes with a ser- Having recently travelled over some mon on Heaven, in which the pious of the same regions, we can testify and poetic tendencies of the author to the general accuracy of her find their happiest expression. We descriptions, though the impression well know the difficulty of covering her reports leave on our minds the whole field of thought in one is that she happily saw the rosy

Old Highways in Chinat is a very readable addition to the missionary literature of these lands. It is a record of three journeys in Shantung, and one through Shantung and Chihli. It is not, we are told, in the preface, a missionary journal, but a record of everyday life during journeys. The authoress emphasizes the natural endowments of the women, who are the compeers, she says, of the men in activity and intelligence. She urges the necessity of reaching the women of China if this country is to be converted to Christianity. "I look," says she,

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Reasons for the Hope that is in us. Nine Sermons preached in the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Shanghai, by the Ven. Archdeacon Moule, B.D., Shanghai. Kelly & Walsh, 1884; pp. 122. [Price 75 cents to $1.00].

+ Old Highways in China, by Isabelle Williamson, of Chefoo, North-China. The Religious Tract Society, 1884. [Sold by Kelly & Walsh. Price $2.00].

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