TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHINESE RECORDER.

DEAR SIR,

Circumstances have made me for a time, the companion of an agent in the employment of the British and Foreign Bible Society.. Day by day I have preached and he has sold Scriptures to crowds at markets and theatres, and day by day both he and I have been annoyed by one and all of the Chinese remarking on the smell the books have. I have had to stop the declaring of spiritual things, to explain that the smell arises from the composition of the ink, which the metal type employed in the printing renders necessary. When made, the explanation seems right enough, and is sometimes well enough received, but this is only sometimes. Many seriously suppose that the books are drugged and sold cheaply to injure peoples eyes, and over a large extent of country the impression prevails that reading the "smelling books" causes headache. This suspicion is unfortunate and I am of opinion that double or three times the number of sales could be secured by using books printed in the ordinary Chinese style with wooden blocks and ordinary Chinese ink.

If the home society does not know this, surely its agents in China do, and whatever possesses them to go on printing books which defeat the purpose of both the Bible and Missionary Societies by raising suspicion in the minds of the natives? Better far to sell a less neatly printed book, with no smell, than the metal type editions which are very neat but very suspicious in the eyes and noses of the Chinese. If I am right in supposing that Mr. John's version is printed on wood and does not smell, I shall try to secure the use of his edition in my district till I can get Kwan Hua gospels printed on wood.

Yours truly,

Missionary.

BUFFINGTON SEMINARY, SOOCHOW.

Buffington Seminary is a Boys' Boarding School, conducted on the same plan with many similar institutions in other missions in China. Pupils not younger than ten years of age, as a rule, are received into the school, and are required to give a written agreement with approved security to remain in the school till the course of study is completed, or until the principal of the school may see fit to send them away. Board and tuition are, as above stated given free while the pupil provides his own clothing and bedding. Formerly when it was difficult to get boys to come to a school under the charge of a foreign missionary clothing and bedding were also provided from mission funds. But now, in most places, the confidence of the people as to our motives, has been, or is being

established, and they are beginning to appreciate to some extent the value of the education we give and hence there are generally more applicants for admission to our schools than we can receive. This state of affairs is now making it possible to go a step further, and require pupils to contribute something, though small in amount towards paying for their board. The rule in Buffington Seminary

now is that pupils entering hereafter shall pay fifty cents a month towards their board. The actual expense of boarding a boy in the school is $1.50 per month, teacher's salaries and incidental expenses being extra. Several boys are now in the school under this rule and others have promised to come shortly.

The advantages of this system are, first that boys are kept constantly under Christian influence, and away from the demoralizing influence of heathen homes, during the greater part of their school days, and the period of the formation of character. They are therefore much more likely to become true and intelligent Christians than mere day pupils. Second, they can be retained in the school longer, and thus make further advancement in education, and become more thoroughly indoctrinated in the truths of the Christian religion, than day pupils. Of course we have to guard against a mercenary spirit, but this is a factor that has to be taken into the account in all Christian work in every land.

Such a school as Buffington Seminary proposes to be is a necessity in our work not only to give western education to the people in general but principally to educate native agents for mission work-preachers, teachers, medical assistants, &c. An effective native agency cannot be secured without a school like this. The very best native helpers in all the missions in this field, are those who have been educated and trained from boyhood in mission schools.

But while the most important work of the school is, and ought to be, the training of native helpers, it is very desirable, and also a legitimate object of missionary endeavor to offer the benefits of Western education to the people in general, without regard to whether or not they will be active workers in the evangelization of the country. Hence this object has been kept in view for several years, and I have during that time been constantly working to attain it, as intimated above. Of course, as in purely evangelistic work, so in educational work, the foundations have to be first laid, and our work is now, and will be for some time, mostly elementary in its nature. But evidences of China's awakening appear on every hand, and the time is sure to come when our mission schools will be powerful factors in the enlightenment and salvation of this country. A. P. PARKER.

Our Book Table.

Mr. Dyer Ball, of Her Majesty's Civil Service Hongkong, has given to beginners in Cantonese Colloquial, a small book of twentyseven pages, entitled The Cantonese made-easy Vocabulary,* as a companion volume to his Cantonese Made Easy," which was published two or three years ago. While not free from errors, and there are a number of repititions which the author will no doubt omit in future editions, this book will prove useful to persons desirous of learning the Cantonese dialect.

The use of the mark "I" instead of repeating a character does not add to the beauty or utility of the work. The author goes a little out of his way to disparage the work of his predecessors in dictionary making. He warns the student against believing that Ei ko' means this;" he says, "it is nothing of the kind although all the dictionaries say so." After giving his opinion as to how the mistake arose he adds ;" and all subsequent dictionary makers have followed, like sheep, their leader." At least one dictionary maker,-S. W. Williams, must be excepted from that "all," as he says that i ko' "this one," Williams' syllabic Dictionary page 630," and "Tonic Dictionary of the Canton Dialect" pages 167, 329. See also,

means

"A Chinese Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect" by Rev. E. J. Eitel, page 268 for another exception.

The Rev. A. Foster B. A. of the London Missionary Society, Hankow, has prepared a CHINESE PRIMER.t The design of which according to the prospectus "is to provide a course of easy progressive reading lessons in Chinese for the use of adults who have never learned to read, and especially for the use of Christians of this class, that by means of it they may be helped to acquire sufficient knowledge of the written character to enable them to read their Bible.

The plan adopted is as follows,Each exercise or lesson gives ten new characters which are placed at the head of the page and in the sentences below, examples are given of the use of these characters. No character is introduced in any sentence which does not either occur in the exercise to which the sentence belongs or in some previous exercise. The characters employed are all of them of common occurrence in native books, and nearly all of them are continually to be met with both in colloquial mandarin and also in the book style. At first only such characters are given as are simple in form and can be easily remembered, but gradually more complicated ones are introduced." The

The Cantonese-made-easy Vocabulary: A small dictionary in English and Cantonese, containing only word and phrases used in the spoken language, with the classifiers indicated for each noun, and definitions of the different uses of some of the words when ambiguity might otherwise arise. By J. Dyer Ball, M.R.A.S. Etc. of Her Majesty's Civil Service Hongkong. Hongkong Printed at the China Mail Office, 1886. Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh.

Published at the Hankow Depot of the Religious Tract Society.

hope that his readers will "rise convinced of the leading fact, that the blessed Holy Religion of the Bible is THE ONLY ANCIENT RELIGION, and has claims which ingenious imitations and perverse misrepresentations can never possess." The style is rambling, but not uninterest

plan is, as will be seen, admirable and has been well carried out, and the result is a book useful not only for the class intended, but also for beginners of all ages. It strikes us as being a book that would help young missionaries in acquiring a knowledge of the language. As the characters are in the square writing. The author succeeds in bringing style, the book would serve as a good "copy book" for those who wish to learn to write Chinese. The first lesson might be more interesting if some of the numerals had been allowed to hold over for one or two lessons their place being supplied with nouns and verbs,

ing forth a great number of parallels between the lives of Christ and Krishna; in all of which the greater purity and holiness of Christ are manifest. Although in many cases the parallelism is rather far fetched, still the similarity is sufficient to justify the inference of a common origin. In his anxiety to draw parallels the author neglects to properly establish his statements concerning the comparatively recent origin of Hindooism, and thus greatly weakens his position. There are very few opponents of Christianity who will not gladly admit the similarity of the religions in question. They will not, however, be as ready to admit the later origin of Hindooism.

* CHRIST VERSUS KRISHNA; A brief comparison between the chief events, characteristics and Mission of the Babe of Bethlehem, Judaea, and the Babe of Brindabun Mathurapuri: with a concise review of Hindooism proving its derivation from Christianity, by L.A. Sakes, M.D., B.M.S., Jubbulpore. Printed and published by F.T. Atkings, at the "Railway Service Press," Allahabad. For sale at the Presbyterian Mission Press, Shanghai.

Editorial Notes and Missionary News.

The Annual Meeting of the Ningpo Mission of the American Presbyterian Church, North, was held in Shanghai during last month. All the members of the mission, on the field, were present with one exception. The stations of this mission, in the order of their occupation are as follows:-Ningpo, Shanghai, Hangchow, Soochow and Nanking. The Foreign force consists of ten men, ordained ministers, and their wives and two single ladies; one family has been in America several months. During the meeting of the Mission, Mr. Lyon, formerly of Hangchow, now assigned to Soochow and Mrs. Judson of Hangchow, returned from the United States; Mr. Lyon leaves his wife and family in the home land.

The following statistics of the work of the past year may be interesting to our readers. Boys' Boarding Schools, 3 with 82 pupils; Girls' Boarding Schools, 3 with 75 pupils; and 25 Day Schools, with a total of 725 pupils, 515 being boys and 210 girls. There is one training school for women with 30 pupils. Total No. of pupils in all schools 912. There have been 60 additions to the various Churches, but deaths, and removals and other causes, reduce the net increase considerably. The present number of communiants is 870. Upwards of $750.00 have been contributed by the native Christians to self-support and missionary work.

WHEREAS, There has come before the General Assembly a memorial from our missionaries in Canton, China, indorsed and urged in overtures from the Presbyteries of Cincinnati and Washington, respecting, the inhuman and unchristian treatment of Chinamen by mobs in various parts of the land, which treatment most plainly is a violation of the first principles of justice and morality, as well as repugnant to From the statistical view of the the gospel of Christ, and is also calChurch Missionary Society's Mis-culated to endanger the property sion's 87th year we gather the following. Foreign Missionaries; Clergy, 230, lay 38, and ladies 20. The total force of laborers native

and lives of missionaries and other Americans in China, and to retard the growth of Christ's Church there; therefore,