the interior? I know ours is an inland mission, and that it may be argued that coast tribes do not come within our range, but surely we must not take away from them the hope of salvation! Let me raise a voice in behalf of the thousands that lie in darkness in the hundred miles of country between Palaballa and the coast. Surely, if you put it before Christians, there will be help enough forthcoming for these also; and compassion for those now in darkness and likely to remain so unless we help them. Surely the Lord will appoint some witnesses for Himself amongst these peoples! I do not think Banks could give up his present sphere. I know that any missionary would find it a noble one.

Mr. Westlind writes from Mukimbunga that the Lord has kept both himself and Brother Frederickson in good health, and that he rests on He adds: His promise that it will be so still in the future.

I am very much enjoying the school work here, and hope the Lord will bless many of the lads. The language is a fine one, and we hope soon to speak it fluently. I have found out several additional forms of the verb, and will send them inclosed. I hope next mail to let you have further information about the adjectives.

THE BILL OF HEALTH.

After we have read a Congo mail, "How are they all ?" is the first question to be answered, as it is indeed the first point as to which we

* This ring of tents, like giant beehives, is the kind of encampment which travellers in Africa put up for the night. The huts, about ten feet across at the base, and eight feet high, have a framework of tree stems fastened together at the top, and are covered with grass about twenty inches long, which forms however so insecure a thatching tha the floor of the tents is often a swamp in a rainfall. Between them thorny treebranches are piled, as seen in the sketch.

rapidly scan the letters. The last two mails have been fairly satisfactory in this respect, that is to say, satisfactory for Congo reports, though from any other mission the accounts would be deemed disastrous!

Mr. Liley had a severe bilious fever in March, which rendered him helpless for a time and made the kind brotherly help of Mr. Butcher (B. M. S.) invaluable.

Mr. Craven writes under date April 21st:

Clark had been here about a week when my dear wife was taken severely ill, and required my constant attention, so that I had to leave all the general work of the station to him. It was seven days before the disease yielded to treatment at all, and when we thought that she was on the high way to recovery it reappeared and demanded seven days more of unwearied attention. Fever in one of its worst forms then set in. This is the third day, and unless it soon yields to treatment I fear she cannot last long, as she is very weak through her previous illness. It is now eighteen days since she was first taken ill, during which time she has been fed upon soup, arrowroot, wine and milk. In fact she has had everything that a sick person needs, and has lacked neither in medicine, nursing, or in food. I know I shall have your sympathy, and you will understand how that this time my whole thoughts are given to my beloved wife, so that I cannot enter into details on general matters.

Robert and Francis are, I am glad to tell you, a great help and comfort to me, though they are still boys and require much guidance and patience. Since my return I feel more and more the importance of native agency. It is useless to try to evangelize Africa by white men; our chief aim must be to train up young men who shall be able to teach others also. My earnest desire and prayer is that this place may become a centre, from which scores of such native evangelists may go forth to preach the blessed gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sunday, April 22nd. I am happy to inform you that Mrs. Craven is very much better to-day, the fever yielding to the quinine and will I trust disappear in a day or two. I am almost worn out with watching, and my strength has been really surprising, for I almost forget what it is to have a refreshing night's sleep.

No sooner was Mrs. Craven slightly better than Miss Spearing was taken ill with bilious remittent fever. Writing on the 9th of May Mr. Craven says:

Ingham is decidedly out of health; and Mr. Clark, who has seen him lately, thinks it is more necessary for him to return home now than himself. If however we hear he is better, it is possible Mr. Clark may return by the steamer leaving Banana in July. He is still with him, and has been of great assistance during the late severe illnesses. He is a dear good fellow, and I love and admire him very much indeed, a most valuable man for the work, who may I trust be spared for many years to come, to labour for the Lord in this land.

Under date of May 9th, Mr. Craven says:

Miss Spearing was confined to her bed for more than two weeks, and you can form no conception of the change this short illness made in her appearance. She looks like a person just recovered from an illness of many months' duration. As I look at her now I cannot help recalling the passage of Scripture about a reed shaken with the wind. Mrs. Craven was in bed six weeks. This may not seem a long time to you in England,

but it is to us here. What she suffered defies description. Many times I thought she would have died. It appeared as though nothing would stop the fever. I tried many things beside quinine; but it yielded at last to large doses of this latter. She only weighs now sixty-five pounds, having lost forty pounds in six weeks. It has been a most trying time to both body and mind, and now it is over I feel as though a heavy weight had been lifted off my heart. Robert and Francis have been very good boys, and made themselves most useful; working, teaching, and attending to the children during this time of trial. They continue to show the most decided Christian spirit, and are quite an example to their fellow countrymen. May God bless and keep them, and fit them for His service. You can understand how my soul yearns over these lads. Oh how I long for the time, when God shall send them forth to preach to their own people the glorious tidings of salvation. White men never can or will evangelize Africa. It will be done by Africans. Hence it is quality rather than quantity we require at our mission stations. Each should be a good centre where natives can be trained, well built and well manned, so that if one brother falls sick. another can take his place in the school.

May 14th. Mrs. Craven has fever again this morning. Miss Spearing continues to improve. No further news from up country.

Mr. Clark says on this subject:

It has been a trying time here of late. For a long time the lives both of Mrs. Craven and Miss Spearing seemed to hang in the balance, and repeatedly we feared the worst must be looked for; but the Lord has been gracious to us and our hearts are glad. I am sure you would have rejoiced had you heard how earnestly the dear boys Francis and Robert pleaded for the sick ones in prayer. They never forgot you and many others in England, and the cry that the Lord will send forth many more missionaries goes forth frequently from their hearts. Mr. Craven prefers going to the town to having service here when he can, but to-morrow we are trying to get the people to the chapel.

We wait with no small anxiety the news of next mail as regards Mrs. Craven, whose strength seems to have been very seriously reduced by this severe illness. May the Lord long spare her to her husband and to the work!

Mr. and Mrs. Billington and Mr. Eddie expect to sail for the Congo early in August, in charge of the little steamer for the Upper Congo; and we shall be glad to correspond with any volunteers for service on the Congo, as the party ought by rights to be doubled and consist of six

rather than three.

We entreat all our friends to continue in prayer about this Mission. It is beset at the present moment with varied difficulties, and in God alone is its refuge and strength.

A VERY REMARKABLE STORY.

TOW, as ever, God's strength is often made conspicuous in and through human weakness, and feeble instrumentalities succeed by His help in accomplishing what powerful organizations attempt in vain. We have been afresh strongly impressed with this truth by the story of FREDERICK STANLEY ARNOT and his missionary journey from Natal to the Upper Zambesi, and we must present our friends with a little sketch of this dear young brother's experiences, that they may with us magnify the grace of God in him, and the providential care of God for the people to whom he is gone. We had recently the pleasure of greeting the Christian parents of this young man in Glasgow, but we were not at the time fully aware of all the reason they have to be thankful to God for their son Frederick, though we knew he had gone forth as a missionary to South Central Africa. We congratulate them now that God has granted to them the honour of giving birth to and training a Christian hero, a young David, content to go out in his simplicity and loneliness, provided only with a sling and a stone, to do battle with a worse giant than Goliath, with the hideous monster, heathenism, in one of its darkest and deadliest strongholds in the heart of the Dark Continent. We cannot but hope that the story we are about to tell will awaken in many a Christian father's heart the ambition so to train one of his sons that he may become such another faithful servant of Christ as he of whom we write; and in many a son's heart the desire to follow so noble an example.

A modest little fourpenny paper pamphlet, entitled "From Natal to the Upper Zambesi,"* contains the story of Mr. Arnot's journey into the heart of Africa. It is told in the simplest of all forms, a series of extracts from letters written to his family, arranged in chronological order. A prefatory note mentions that the desire for mission work in Africa had been strongly manifested by young Arnot even in boyhood, and grew in intensity till it became, contrary to his parents' wishes at first, the fixed purpose of his life.

He was nevertheless diligent in business, and fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, while waiting for the desire of his heart to be fulfilled, and he waited patiently on the Lord, till all obstacles were removed and his way opened to start.

He did not join any missionary society; he seems to have received his commission from the Master direct. All about him appear to have recognised his call to, and fitness for, the work, and abundant Christian

James E. Hawkins, 36, Baker St., W.