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." 66 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 as usual FIVE distinct spheres of observation. 53 The Romance of Missions in What and Who Does It? ...276, 283 306 ......... 318 337 Armenia...... 80 The Saviour's Bible New Testament for the Afghans... 116 Are Goths and Getoe the Gittites of the Old Testament ?......118, 215 Witness to the Word of God ... 398 Sheffield Church Congress, His- ALPHABETICAL INDEX. Beirut, Report of, 186 Affghans, New Testament for the, 116 Appeal for our Bible Nurses, 257 Assyrian Christians, Missions of the Assyrian Discoveries, 398, 399 Bermondsey, Bible-work in, 166 Bible as an Educating Power among Bible-woman, The Work of a, 8 Bible-woman's Report of Nurse-work in Biblical Archæology, Society of, 92 Black Country, Work in the, 16 Burmah, Bible Links with, 18, 50 Caledonian Road, 161 Camden Town, Bible Report from, 292 Changes through Mothers' Meetings, 326 Constantinople, Word of Cheer, 305 Council of Friends for 1878, Our, 1 Report Concerning a Bible-woman Sick Poor in their Own Homes, 110 Stepney District, Jottings from, 232, 381 Spanish Mother's Legacy to her Suicide Prevented, 227 Summary of Donations, 361 Superannuated Bible-women, An Ar- Tables of Balance Sheets, 363-72 Torn Leaf of a Testament, The, 40 Voice from a Watery Grave, A, 6 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 Work of the Bible among the Com- |