before saw such misery I a human face. inquired the cause. It was the same old story, an opium-smoking husband who abused his wife." posed. Considering the universal | never Abstract of statistics:-Churches, We often hear it said that opiumsmoking leads to no such domestic misery as whiskey-drinking does. Let such writers consider the following statements:-A lady missionary writes her own observations. She says: "We have listened to a sad story in regard to one of our church members. Her husband is an opium-smoker, and he has beaten her a number of times. Lately he has beaten her shamefully, and he has made several attempts to take her life. She fled to a friend's house for protection, and when I saw her I hardly knew her, for her features were so distorted by fear. He had attacked her with an immense knife, and it is wonderful how she escaped his violence. All her clothes and trinkets he had pawned as well as every thing belonging to their little daughter." "I was returning lately from one of my day-schools, when I saw a crowd of people gathered around a poor woman who lay on the side-walk in the deepest grief imaginable. I NANKING. The work of the Ameri on can Presbyterian Mission here is native tribes. Mr. Jeremiassen had numerous applicants for medical treatment. Books were readily bought, and hospitality was everywhere cordially extended to the travellers. We hope to receive from Mr. Henry some account of his observations of the island and its inhabitants. The need of such a man has long been felt, but heretofore it had been impossible to find a man speaking the Southern mandarin who also possessed a good theological education. There are at present in Nanking about nine or ten native Christians, and it is hoped that within the coming year a Church may be organized. The new missionaries are hard at work on the language, hoping, in the future, noted from an itenerating trip up the On the 13th December Rev. Messrs. Noyes and Simmons return only to preach in Nanking, but to west river into Kwangsi province. itinerate to the north and if possi- All the way up to the border of ble establish a line of stations which Kwangsi they had a good opporshall meet those already estab- tunity of selling books and preachlished by Dr. Nevius. A report ing at the towns and market places is current that within a few months on both sides of the river. But at the Southern Presbyterian Mission Wu-chan, in Kwangsi, they had a will occupy Nanking, and that the bad stoning, both on shore and Methodist Board also intends to when in their boats. The stoning send men to this great city. on the boats occurred when a mandarin CHEFOO.-Rev.Hunter Corbett, writ- official business. came on board' on ing on the 2nd of December, says: that the gentry were displeased It would appear "I have just returned from Presbytery and Mission-meeting at Tang-tercourse with missionaries. They any official should have any inchow. 352 were added to our Churchmembership during the year, and ten from America were added to our Mission." Rev. J. Rev. J. L. Nevius, D.D., started on a tour among the stations under his care, about the 22nd of November. He expects to return in time to attend the Quintennial Meeting of Synod at Shanghai in May, 1883. Rev. Gilbert Reid joined the American Presbyterian Mission at this place on November 26th. CANTON.-On December 7th, Rev. B. C. Henry returned from a trip through the Island of Hainan in company with Mr. C. C. Jeremiassen. They were everywhere received with great kindness by the inhabitants-both the Hainanese and the that commenced stoning his chair beforehe reached the boats, and continued to throw at him when going on board and at the boat after he got inside until they got out into the river. After the official left they went still further up the river some fifty miles. At the first district city they were met at the landing by an official who requested them not to go ashore as he could not protect them from the mob, and there was danger if they went ashore the mob would attack his yamen. They, under these circumstances, did not go ashore. At the next city they landed and had a very good opportunity of preaching and selling tracts. At the third place, they also were very successful But the time they had fixed for their trip having expired, they turned their boat down the stream and had a pleasant experience all the way back to Canton On the ninth of November last Rev. W. J. White and Rev. J. C. Thomson, M.D., of the Presbyterian Mission, left for Lien-chow, to open a station at that city which is by water some 300 miles N.W. of Canton city. The Presbyterian Mission has had a station their for some three with a native assistant years in charge of a chapel. Different members of the mission have visited the city and preached in the chapel. But the mandarin has hithirto prevented the native assistant from renting any more suitable building either for a chapel or for the missionaries to live in. These brethren have arrived safely. They are living temporarily in the present chapel. Dr. Thomson is dispensing medicines. As there is much sickness among the people he has more patients than he can attend to. It is hoped that by living there for a time the present prejudice will be removed, and they may be able to rent suitable premises for mission uses and residences. JAPAN.-We regret to learn that the Rev. Frank S. Dobbins, of the American Baptist Mission, Tokio, has been ordered home by the physicians on account of very serious illHe left with his family on the 7th November in the steamer City of Tokio. Home address: 1420 Chestnut street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. ness, "The Tokio Christian Association" says the Methodist "makes the remarkable statement that 'a large proportion of the Japanese who went to America for education became Christians; but that not a single instance was known to them of one who had gone to Germany, France or England becoming a Christian.'” UNITED STATES.-The Chinese per Mission Sunday-school in New York city, Rev. James Jackson pastor, has been for some time organized as a missionary society. Payment of two cents week constitutes membership in the society. The money is collected every week, and in this way more than thirty dollars has already been paid into the missionary treasury. The school is increasing in interest, quite a number of new teachers having come in, which shows more attention to the work on the part of the churches. The Cazenovia Church and W. F. M. S. connected with it have a new interest in foreign missions in the sending out to Tokio, Japan, of Miss A. P. Atkinson. On the evening of Sept. 25 many friends gathered in the church parlors for an informal tea-meeting and sociable and to say "Good bye." She sailed about the 9th of October from San Francisco. Miss Benton, who is sent out by the New England branch, and ultimately destined for Yokohama, was companion on voyage. At the General Missionary Committee Meeting of the American Methodist Church, held on November 6th, 1882, Bishop Wiley announced that the Rev. J. F. Goucher would continue the gift of $5,000 to the West China Mission for another year. Notices of Recent Publications. The Chrysanthemum: A Monthly Magazine for Japan and the Far East. Vol. II., Nos. 10, 11, 12. THE November number of The Chrysanthemum, is one of the best. The opening article by M. L. Gordon, M.D., on "Is 'Jigoku,' Hell ?" is one of interest to Chinese, no less than Japanese, missionaries. It is a discussion of the question whether are a proper rendering of the Greek gehenna. The above terms are stated to be "the equivalent of the Sanskrit Naraka, the Buddhist designation of the place of torment for the wicked." A description is then given of eight large hot hells, and eight large cold hells, and eight dark hells, which last are called "vivifying hells, because if a being dies there in the first hell, it is immediately reborn in the second and so forth, life lasting 500 years in each hell;" and outside of these are smaller hells both hot and cold, whose number is practically infinite. The author remarks that the Buddhists do not think with Dr. Eitel regarding the details of the torments that they are "too fanciful to be worth repeating," for they are fully explained in books printed in the language of the common people. Dr. Gordon, while sustaining the present version of the New Testament in Japanese as very creditably representing the best missionary scholarship in Japan, decidedly prefers a transfer of the Greek word gehenna. In reply to the fact that translators in China have used the terms to which he objects, he In a short article on "A Dutch Japanese Dictionary" Dr. Verbeck calls up the past relations between Holland and Japan. A spicy article on "Canons of Criticism for books of travel," decides that on the whole it is not necessary for a good book of travels that the author be long resident in the land of which he writes, nor, in regard to these Eastern Lands, at any rate, that he be acquainted with the language, that he be an etomologist, a botanist, a geologist, or even a good shot. "It is the work of a decade to become a correct and fluent speaker in Japanese, or to understand the language well. Meanwhile the freshness of impression is gone, the strange complexities of eastern civilization have commenced to puzzle the mind, and it is next to impossible to write a book that would please the reading public at home." And the shrewd conclusion is, that "there is nothing for it but | China." If space allowed, we would to let the pundits move along in be glad to reproduce it entire; but their groove, and have sparkling we must restrict ourselves to the folGeorge Augustus Salas, and Miss lowing sentences: "The chief objecBirds purvey palatable dishes for tion we have to the article is that the home palate." the negatives seem to have gone strangely astray. Sentences where truth requires a negative, contain none; while many negatives that would have done good service where needed, turn sentences into untruths. The whole effect is that produced by a pyramid stood on its apex; exceptional cases are taken. tics, while the true features of and spread abroad as characterismission work as a whole are consigned to the oblivion, of excep By far the most valuable article in this number to missionaries in Japan is Dr. J. C. Berry's on "Etiquette." It is safe to predict that its various paragraphs and even phrases will be carefully studied by many of those who are anxious to avail themselves of the guidance of one so eminent himself for his suc cessful practice in the department he so lucidly expounds. Might not a similar theme be of occasional use to young missionaries in China. Are not a sufficient number of our younger men coming into contact with the more polished circles of China to render it well that we be more frequently instructed in the amenities of Chinese speech? The most vigorously written piece is perhaps a short one under the head of "Notes and Queries" in reply to the recent article in the Times on "Missionaries in India and China. By Robt A. Douglass, London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 1882. For sale by Messrs. Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai. THIS adds another to the many general works on China in the English language. There is no attempt at original research, and the first thought regarding the volume is a wonder why it should have been deemed necessary to issue still another work of this nature. But an examination of the volume itself produces a sense of satisfaction that so scholarly and symmetrical a production has been given to the home public. The author is himself an authority on China, and he has availed himself of the information furnished by many other writers, as he freely acknowledges. His comparatively short residence in China is somewhat of a drawback, but, on the other hand, it no doubt enables him to give a better perspective to the whole subject than a nearer view might permit. The chapters on the History of the Empire, the |