Charles Dickens, that "Some people cannot read; some will not; especially the Bible in verse-form. Set forth," says he, "its stories for them in narrative. Sunday-preachers! Do not address ideal paupers and infidels, any longer. What are they to wretched me peeping in out of the mud of the streets and of my life? Have you not the widow's son to tell me about? The ruler's daughter? The other figure at the door when the brother of the two sisters was dead, and one of the two ran to the other saying, the Master is come and calleth for thee.' Let the speaker who will thoroughly forget himself and remember no individuality but one, stand up before 4,000 men and women at the Britannia Theatre any Sunday night, and tell those narratives to them as fellow-creatures, and he shall see a sight." Well! the churches of God in England do seem afresh awakening to their work. Oh! that it may be more and more BIBLE-WORK, and that He "who is able," may cast out of our national character all that is inconsistent with our being the messengers of His Word to other nations! We have been kept in peace, while abroad there has been "distress of nations with perplexity; " famine and pestilence in India and China; the eyes of all Europe turned to Turkey and its fields of blood; we have heard of those woes in words, but some have gone forth from us to see them, and missionaries witness to "the ravaged lands, the crushed and smitten families, the men destroyed, the women lost in a whirlpool of cruelty and violence, the tramp of hostile armies, the rush of fierce men like wild beasts over numberless homes of earth's fairest regions; all business rendered impossible, and now poverty piled mountains high." . How must the angels have looked down on this "vintage of wrath" this year, saying, “Oh Lord, how long, ere thou shalt take to Thyself Thy great power and reign?" But till that hour strikes, we must still appeal to the same Lord to send forth fresh labourers into His harvest and to maintain those already in the field. He knows our need, and perceives our shortened funds, and will guide us in going forward, or retrenching accordingly. IN HIS HANDS WE LEAVE IT IN FAITH AND PRAYER. The following classification will show that the Editor continues to keep in view I. THE LANDS STILL, OR TILL LATELY, HEATHEN. A Letter from Mrs. Ingalls ...20, 113 Mr. Stanley at the Cape ..... ...... II. THE Lands where THE PEOPLE BELIEVE IN A FALSE Book. Report of Abou Selim, Blind Col- The Teacher of the Book at Tyre 188 305 III.-THE COUNTRIES WHERE THE BIBLE HAS BEEN HIDDEN. Help to Help Themselves...... Sickness and Want IV.-ARTICLES RELATING TO THE ANCIENT CHURCHES. ...... ............... 90 113 150 ... 92 New Testament for the Afghans... 116 Are Goths and Getoe the Gittites of the Old Testament ?......118, 215 V. THE FIELD OF PROTESTANT EFFORT TO DISSEMINATE THE SCRIPTURES. Our Council of Friends for 1878... ........ ... PAGE ... A Bible-woman's Report of Nurse How can we help to Educate cur Financial Report..... 97, 129, 161, 193 The Prayers of Days Gone By 102 The Way into a Closed Court...... 105 Gems for His Crown from Old St. The Comfort of Mothers' Meetings 137 Good Temperance Missionaries 138 Work women at Stratford.............................. 162 166 Progress at Haverstock Hill...171, 198 Mothers' Witness to Answered 167 168 ........ Jottings from Hackney Wick 193 No Bonus on the Clothing Club... 201 ......... Our Nurse Mission at Kingston ... 271 Red-Letter Day in Epping Forest 289 Bible Report from Camden Town 292 Kennington District............ 299 Long Standing Nurse Cases......... 299 Bible-Nurse in a Country Village 301 The Past and the Coming Year 321 The Good of a Kind Word ....................... The Widow's Mite-" Only Three- Changes through Mothers' Meetings 326 "" *****.... 331 334 336 353 A Faithful Wife-a Good Daughter 330 The Twenty-one Years' Story of Highest Numbers of Bibles Sold... 363 Tables of Balance-Sheets ......363, 372 Foreign and Specific Funds......... 373 Report Concerning a Bible-woman "" Spanish Mother's Legacy to her Suicide Prevented, 227 Summary of Donations, 361 peal on Behalf of, 33, 65 Tables of Balance Sheets, 363-72 Torn Leaf of a Testament, The, 40 Twenty-one Years' Story, &c., 353 Wanderer brought back, The, 175 Way into a Closed Court, The, 105 What? and Who Does It? 276, 283 Where the Sun Never Shines, 328 Why Allow the 1000 Years? 405 |