NATIVE AGENCY.-One of the most encouraging facts connected with missions, is the great increase of the native ministry as compared with that of missionaries sent from Christian lands. While the number of ordained missionaries of the Presbyterian Board has in ten years increased only 19, the number of native preachers and helpers has risen from 41 to 300. The May number of the Missionary Herald (Boston) states that while the number of ordained missionaries employed by the American Board has since 1840 increased only 18 per cent., the native agency has during the same period increased about 1400 per cent., or from 122 to 1717. As pointing toward a day when the Christian Church in lands now heathen must be entirely a self-propagating institution, these facts are very significant and cheering.

A SELF-TAUGHT PREACHER.-The London Missionary Society Mission on Lake Ngami, in South Africa, reports an interesting case of a self-taught preacher, Bokaba, who had learned the truth from portions of scriptural translation made by Dr Moffat and Rev. Wm. Ashton in 1857. He had found the 53d chapter of Isaiah, and had been led to behold there 'the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.' Very humble in spirit, he has nevertheless proclaimed the truth to all about him. It is all babblement,' he says. 'We are all like infants; but the mother understands her infant, and God understands His children better still.'

THE MASSACRE OF SAINT BARTHOLOMEW. -The sixty-first part of the Encyclopedie des Sciences Religieuses (Paris, G. Fischbacher), just issued, contains a short paper by M. W. Martin, in which he summarises recent discoveries regarding the premeditated character of the Massacre of St Bartholomew. M. H. Bordier in 'La Saint-Barthélemy et la Critique Moderne,' published in 1879, shows by numerous and well-arranged quotations that from 1565 Catherine de Médicis had resolved upon in her own mind, if not a general massacre of all the Protestants, at least the death of five or six of the principal leaders of the party. The publication that M. Combes has just made of some letters taken from the archives of Simanca, brings a decisive confirmation to the thesis of M. Bordier-L'entrevue de Bayonne en 1565' (Fischbacher, Paris, 1882). It was at this celebrated interview that the project of striking-marzillar-the heretics was adopted. Their friends, the moderate men or politicians, were to be seized as they were named at a later period. This was decided between Catherine, accompanied by Montine, Montpensier, and Cardinal Bourbon, and her daughter Queen Elizabeth, wife of Philip II., attended by the Duke of Alva, a man much in the favour and confidence of his master, and a few other fanatics, also somewhat eager

for the blood of their fellow-creatures. Charles IX. was yet too young to be let into the secret. He must wait till the occasion, and the plan would be unfolded to the king when the time for execution drew nigh. M. Martin says that the plan to strike the heretics was thus formed from 1565 has been established in the completest manner by the documents lately published.

INCREASING LIBERALITY OF THE AMERICAN CHURCHES.-They who suppose, says the Ner York Observer, that there is a decline in the interest of the American Churches in foreign missions would do well to see the receipts of various foreign missionary societies for the years 1877 and 1881.

1877. American Board £88,240

1881. £138,249

Glas

The TelephoNE.—The Greenock Advertiser for June 27th gives an account of the telephone in connection with the church of Rev. J. M. Jarvie, a valued contributor to the Christian Treasury. It is contained in a letter of Mr John M. Hutcheson, Thorndean, Greenock. Mr Hutcheson first gives a letter he received from the secretary in Glasgow of the National Telephone Company: gow, 26th June. Dear Sir, I was much pleased to hear that the telephonic communication which we have established for you through our Exchange in Greenock between your house, Thorndean, and George Square Congregational Church, gave you such satisfactory results yesterday. It may interest you to know my experience of it here. During the forenoon service I went to our Hillhead Branch Exchange, which is over two miles from the centre of Glasgow, and got connected with the church in Greenock-a distance of about twenty-five miles as the wire runs. I then distinctly heard the sermon, the text being from the sixth chapter of Hebrews, and the words "Heirs of promise." Occasionally, I lost a sentence, but, on the whole, it was very perfect: the hymns given out, the organist playing them over, the rustle made by the people rising, the volume of sound by the large congregation singing, every note coming out quite clearly and distinctly, and the whole effect very fine. The benediction (followed by a few moments of quiet) and the rustle made by the people leaving were distinctly heard. The whole thing seems almost incredible; and if I had been told three or four years ago that it would be pos

sible for any one in Glasgow to hear a sermon being preached in Greenock, I am sure I would not have believed it. Greenock in this new development of the telephone has led the way in this part of the country. I trust Glasgow will not be long in having such connection too, and then we may have the pleasure of letting you hear a sermon preached from a Glasgow pulpit.-Yours truly, D. JOHNSTONE SMITH, district secretary.' I only add that the Rev. Mr Jarvie's sermons were heard and appreciated through this marvellous agency, not only by Mr Johnstone Smith, but by other listeners at Queen Street (Glasgow), Partickhill (near Glasgow), and several in Greenock besides myself. Such an experience makes one wonder what new surprise science may have still in store for us. The more immediate effect is to make those who value and are prevented from attending public worship very thankful indeed for having placed within their reach, without fatigue or effort, such a boon. I appear to have been the first in the West of Scotland to take advantage of it, but I hope, and am sure, people all the world over similarly situated will soon follow the example.-Yours, &c., JOHN M. HUTCHESON.

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, PENNSYLVANIA.The American papers give an account of what they call Commencement Day' on the 6th of June last, in this university for the education of coloured young men. Thomas H. Roberts, a native of Africa, delivered the Latin salutatory. S. S. Sevier, a native of Africa, sketched the career of David Livingstone. James W. Wilson, from the Congo District of Africa, gave an essay on the needs of his native district. Nine coloured students received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and seven that of Master of Arts. The students

number this year 202. The annual cost of the university is £4000, in addition to what the students pay each, about £30. Of last years students, 81 are candidates for the Christian ministry, 130 were professors of religion, and 33 have been added to this number by hopeful conversion during the year. Altogether, the Lincoln University seems to be accomplishing a great work in furnishing the means for the higher education of the coloured population.

DRUNKENNESS A THING TO CRY OVER.— Dr John Hall of New York, in a recent article, speaks of the common habit of laughing at drunken men. Dr Hall stood on a boat in New York harbour. Not far off was a welldressed but tipsy young man. Beside the Doctor was a plainly dressed man. When Dr Hall saw the people laughing at the drunkard, he saw in his neighbour's eyes such a sad pitying look that he said to him, "They should hardly laugh at him.' This neighbour said, 'It is a thing to cry over,' and told Dr Hall of his own wife, who took to drink in Scotland, and who promised to reform if he would come to this country, but did not, and died of drunkenness; and when the Doctor hoped that he had comfort in the children he said, One, the second, is; she is a good child. The oldest is not steady, I can do nothing with her; and the youngest, a boy, can't be kept from drink. I've sold my place, and am going to a town in Ohio-where, I am told, no liquor can be had-to try to save him.' Dr Hall closes as follows: 'Who would not wish for abstinence societies, tracts, books, minister's sermons, young people's pledges, humane laws? One almost cries out for anything that will stop this slow, cruel murder of home, love, of men, of women, of little children, of hope, of peace, of immortal souls.'

'La France Protestante,'* in this sixth part, has now reached the close of the third volume. The fulness of detail, the research, and the interest of the matter so manifest in the first volume are equally characteristic of the third. The editor, M. Bordier, and his associates are evidently sparing no pains to make it a complete record of all who have suffered for their attachment to Protestantism, or who have even been connected with it, in France, from the Reformation down to the Revolution in the close of last century. What a number of illustrious names these three volumes contain, of whom not only French Protestants but Evangelical Protestants throughout the world are proud! And what a blunder, not to speak of crime, Rome committed when she did

* La France Protestante. Deuxieme Edition.Protestant France. Second Edition, Third Volume, Second Part. Caladon-Chapuy. Large Svo, pp. 348. Paris: G. Fischbacher. 1882.

her utmost to compel these illustrious men. and, indeed, myriads of the best citizens of France to renounce the religion which had made them what they were. But the blunder for Rome proved a great blessing for this country, for her greatness dates its origin from the day she welcomed the French refugees to her shores.

Among the names in this last part that have become especially famous we notice CASTELLIN, the publisher and principal author of the celebrated collection of engravings illustrating the history of French Protestantism from 1559 to 1570; CALAS, the rehabilitation of whose name, after he had been put to death in a frightful manner by the Romanist fanatics of Toulouse, is so honourable to Voltaire; JOHN CAMERON, at one time principal of the University of Glasgow, and when he died, in 1625, professor in Montauban, and associated in the history of theology with the

doctrine of universal grace; CANDOLLE, a family who fled in the middle of the sixteenth century from Provence to Geneva, and at once obtained an honourable place among its citizens, and has had the rare fortune of adding lustre to their name in the Candolles that, in this century, have revolutionised the science of botany; CAPITO, the Reformer of Strasburg; LOUIS CAPPELL, the pupil of John Cameron, and by his recommendation sent at the expense of the church at Bourdeaux to study at Oxford, and afterwards famous for his treatise on the Hebrew points, which he demonstrated, in answer to Buxtorf, to be the invertion of the Masorétes in the fifth or sixth century of the Christian era; CAUSAUBON, whose eventful life has recently been so well told by Dr Pattison; CHAMIER, the learned and valiant antagonist of Rome.

As might be expected, CALVIN occupies a large place in 'La France Protestante,' but certainly not larger than his formative influence upon French Protestantism demanded-indeed, the article upon him might have been more minute in its biographical section, and yet not have transgressed the limits such a work requires. Its treatment is a specimen of how La France Protestante' has grown under the hand of M. Bordier. In the first edition of M. M. Heiag, more than thirty years ago, Calvin occupies 53 columns, but in the second edition it has 132. The chief additions are in the bibliographical part of the article. Indeed, the account of Calvin's writings occupies three-fourths of the whole paper, and is by far the fullest, and at the same time most interesting account of the Reformer's writings yet given to the world.

M. Bordier speaks with high admiration of the magnificent edition of Calvin's works in the Corpus Reformatorum' now issuing from the Brunswick press. He says:This "Corpus Reformatorum," the gigantic enterprise of Protestant Germany, was intended to be the continuation of the great edition of the works of Luther, published at Halle, in twentyfour quarto volumes, from 1737 to 1753, by G. Walch. According to a prospectus printed at Gotha in September 1827, it was to embrace the works of Melanchthon, Zwinglius, Ulrich von Hutten, Calvin, Ecolampadius, and all the great labourers in the work of Reformation, the successors of Luther, who wrote in the first part of the sixteenth century. A commencement was made with Melanchthon -"Philippi Melanchtonis Opera quae supersunt"-extending to twenty-eight volumes, the first of which appeared at Halle in 1834, under the care of K. G. Bretschneider, and the twenty-eighth at Brunswick in 1860. With the twenty-ninth volume began the collection of the works of Calvin prepared at Strasburg and printed at Brunswick. The editors begin each work of their author by a literary and critical notice, setting forth the history and bibliography of the work, especially in the time when Calvin lived, and this with such a luxury of exactness, and by searching every

public or private library in Europe for copies, sometimes unique, that they note even the paging, and state that a volume paged to 946 by a blunder of the printer contains only 938 pages. The best text recognised and selected as the result of the previous discussion is given by the editors with the various readings, notes, and subsidia of every needful kind; the commentaries upon the French pieces are in French, some German are in German, and Latin in Latin, whilst all the prefaces and preliminary notices are in an elegant and easily understood Latin, which seems to be a reflection of that which Calvin himself employed. The twenty-second volume was reached in 1880, and closes the first division of the collection. It contains Calvin's French Catechism of 1537, which had disappeared, and was only discovered in 1878, a Confession of Faith also of 1537, and a catechism of doubtful origin, dated 1542, and upwards of 500 pages of indices to the preceding twenty volumes. The twenty-third volume, containing the commentary of Calvin on Genesis and ten sermons on the history of Abraham, begins the commentaries upon scripture, and has just been published.'

M. Bordier speaks in equally high terms of the correspondence that forms so large a part of this new edition of the Reformer's Works. He says 'It is an edition of the correspondence of Calvin incomparably superior to all that have preceded it, and is, in short, worthy of a historic monument of this importance.' 'It is edited by the learned Professors Edward Reuss and Edward Cunitz of Strasburgh,' and 'extends to eleven volumes.' 'This immense and precious collection, preceded by a literary preface (xliv pages), and accompanied by a very full running commentary, contains 4271 letters, from more than 600 persons, or corporations, some having written only one letter, and others a great number. These letters extend over a period from May 1, 1528, to October 1565.'

M. Bordier gives an alphabetic index of the writers of these letters, and of the number written by them-Beza has 160; Bucer, 44; Bullinger, 215; Calvin, 1345; Cranmer, 3; Farel, 221; Knox, 1; Luther, 2; Peter Martyr, 44; Melanchthon, 10; Servetus, 9. M. Bordier speaks in a condemnatory manner of the edition of Calvin's Letters, the two first volumes of which were published in Edinburgh in 1855-57, and the third and fourth in Philadelphia. These publications are very faulty,' and he gives a few specimens of their shortcomings.

In a note, M. Bordier unconsciously illustrates the high place that the Reformers have attained even in the esteem of autograph collectors. A letter signed by Calvin, he says, sells in Paris for about 300 francs-i.e., £12; a simple signature, 100 francs; a letter by Luther, 200 to 400 francs; Beza, 100 francs; Melanchthon, 50 to 60 francs; Bucer and Bullinger, about 100 francs.

In reading the pages of 'La France Pro

testante' we are irresistibly reminded of the stormy times through which French Protestantism has passed. Calvin's life was one of constant trouble; Cameron received a mortal wound, while striving to quell a disturbance that had arisen in the streets of Montauban; and Chamier was killed by a cannon ball in the defence of Montauban; while flight, hardship, and suffering, imprisonment, and often cruel death, appear every now and then in the accounts given of less celebrated names. The closing page contains a second list of subscribers, bringing it up to 453. The list contains only one or two English or American Our public libraries, with the exception of the British Museum, do not appear. It ought to be otherwise. A work so noble in design, so admirable in execution, and issued at a rate that will barely pay the expenses of printing, ought to find a place in all public libraries wherever Protestantism has taken up its abode. It really tells of the sufferings and trials of multitudes of men and women who, in fleeing to this country, or other Protestant countries on the Continent, brought a blessing with them wherever they

names.

came.

mis

The Friend of Missions is a penny * sionary monthly magazine. It obviously is conducted by a member of the Society of Friends, for it gives special prominence to an account of the labours of their missionaries in the foreign field, but it aims also at recording the progress and present position of Protestant missionary societies. Judging from the three numbers before us, it is a welcome addition to our mission literature, and merits a wide circulation among the friends of Christian missions.

narratives illustrating the work of the Jesuits "The Family Protestant' is a series of in this country. Some of the stories are very startling, and show how that the most unlikely people may yet come under strong delusion to believe a lie. Mrs Peddie's book is of no great size, for its cost is only a shilling, but there is a great deal of instructive matter in its closely-printed pages.

*The Friend of Missions. 4to, pp. 16. Orphans' Printing Press, Leominster.

The Family Protestant. Edited by Mrs M. D. Peddie. 8vo, pp. 88. Edinburgh: Religious Tract Society. 1882.

says,

AUGUST 22. 'WHETHER WE BE BESIDE OURSELVES, IT IS TO GOD: OR WHETHER WE BE SOBER, IT IS FOR YOUR CAUSE.'-2 Cor. v. 13. The Apostle denied that he lived for himself. He asserts that he lived for God and His people. For, he adds, I died in Christ. This is precisely the argument which he uses in Romans vi. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Far from it, he How shall they who have died on account of sin live any longer therein? If united to Christ in His death, we must be united to Him in His life. Death on account of sin is death to sin. Dying with Christ involves death to self and sin; and of course includes the obligation so to die. The death of Christ reconciles us to God; and reconciliation to God secures a life of devotion to His service. This is the doctrine set forth in the Epistle to the Romans, chapter vii.-C. Hodge.

AUGUST 23.

'TO ME TO LIVE IS CHRIST.'-Phil. i. 21. That is, Christ is the end of my life; I live not to myself but to Christ. To me to live is Christ; all my living is to do service to Christ. When we lay out ourselves wholly for Christ; as the factor trades for the merchant, so we trade for Christ's interest, we propagate His gospel; the design of our life is to exalt Christ, and make the crown upon His head flourish. Now it may be said, To us to live is Christ, our whole life is a living to Christ. -T. Watson.

AUGUST 24.

'SHOULD NOT LIVE UNTO THEMSELVES, BUT UNTO HIM WHICH DIED FOR THEM.'-2 Cor. v. 15.

This presents both the object and the ground of the Christian's devotion. He lives for Him who died for him, and because He died for him. He is not a Christian who is simply unselfish-i.e., who lives for some object out of himself. He only is a Christian who lives for Christ. Many persons think they can be Christians on easier terms than these. They think it is enough to trust in Christ, while But the Bible they do not live for Him. teaches us that if we are partakers of Christ's death, we are also partakers of His life; if we have any such appreciation of His love in dying for us as to lead us to confide in the merit of His death, we shall be constrained to consecrate our lives to His service. And this is the only evidence of the genuineness of our faith.-C. Hodge.

AUGUST 25.

'REJOICE IN THE LORD ALWAY: AND AGAIN I SAY, REJOICE.'-Phil. iv. 4.

Christ is the joy of my life. God my exceeding joy, or the cream of my joy. A Christian rejoiceth in Christ's righteousness; he can rejoice in Christ when worldly joys are gone. When the tulip in a garden withers, a man rejoiceth in his jewels; when relations die, a saint can rejoice in Christ the pearl of price. In this sense, To me to live is Christ, He is the joy of my life; if Christ were gone, my life would be a death to me.--T. Watson.