good man's work, in addition to what he saw in his own day in this Eastern Hemisphere.

O, what a glorious field is here. Patient toilers have gone before in all these lands. They have opened the way. May we not enter into their labors with more of their zeal, that we may reap where they have sown, that by-and-bye, in the blessed harvest-home, the sowers and the reapers may rejoice together.

The first newspaper I got hold of had an article and a letter complaining of the increase of crime. I asked Mr. Scott if the increased use of intoxicants among the natives had anything to do with it, and his reply was that which we hear these times everywhere, viz., Alcohol is the direct cause of more than half the crime known among us." This evil must be fought

Of all the means the devil

with greater earnestness. has ever invented for destroying the bodies and the souls of men, this is the most effective. These enemies and slaughterers of mankind-the makers and vendors of intoxicating beverages-must have no quarter. This is a holy war, and must be fought in the name of God.

There are many things more I wished to write about Ceylon, but must defer them. The sea to-day is as smooth as a floor. We have now come very

nearly six thousand miles, and all the way we have had most delightful weather. I have written, all told, nearly two hundred pages of ordinary sized scribbling book.

INDIAN OCEAN, January 18th, 1888.

FOURTH LETTER.

HOUGH our ship is ploughing through the waves of the Arabian Sea, my thoughts go back to that island of spices which good Bishop Heber has set so many people singing about. I feel that there is very much more to be said about it than I have time to write now, or you have space to print. I said in my last letter that Ceylon may be regarded as the central point from which Buddhism has spread so largely over Asia. I believe it may be made the central point for the wider spread of Christianity.

Mr. Moscrop tells me that they are able to secure Christian teachers for all the children in their schools, which cannot be done in India. This is a most important feature, the percentage of conversion to Christianity of the better class of the people being much larger in Ceylon than on the continent of Asia.

The percentage of Christians to the whole population of the island is quite ten times that of India. Ceylon being the classic land of Buddhism, its downfall here would influence a vast proportion of the

human race in Burmah, Siam and China. Arnold, in his "Light of Asia," gives us these lines :

"We are the voices of the wandering wind,
Which moan for rest, and rest can never find.
Lo! as the wind is, so is mortal life,

A moan, a sigh, a sob, a storm, a strife.

'O Maya's son! because we roam the earth,
Moan we upon these strings, we make no mirth;
So many woes we see in many lands,

So many streaming eyes and wringing hands.

"But Thou that art to save, Thine hour is nigh!
The sad world waileth in its misery,

The blind world stumbleth on its round of pain.
Rise, Maya's child! wake! slumber not again."

These lands must be filled with light. So far there are but faint rays. The sun is not yet fully risen, much less reached the meridian. We who know the truth may do much more than we are doing to roll this our poor earth with increasing speed towards the Sun of the soul.

Much might be done to spread the light by the formation of Christian bands for evangelistic tours round the world, for the purpose of strengthening the hands of pioneer brethren who sometimes grow weary in their heavy and responsible labors. How glad I

shall be to join a company of earnest souls for such a work as this. O! let us hasten to "preach the Gospel to every creature." The time is short.

We look for a little at those factors which are at work in the direction of bringing Ceylon to Christ. The opening of the Suez Canal has tended to place her more in the centre of the ocean route through to the greater East. The English have constructed, at much expense, a breakwater which gives at Colombo a safe and capacious harbor.

Our ship added to her cargo at Colombo about three thousand tons, consisting partly of tea and coffee of Ceylon growth, and partly of raw silk brought down from China. By means of this increased trade Ceylon is brought more into contact with the Christian world, and is becoming every year more familiar with the British language and with Christian ideas.

So great was the value attached to this island as the "key of India,” in addition to its natural wealth, that Britain at the general peace gave up, for its peaceable possession, the much larger island of Java to the Dutch. For about one hundred and fifty years the southern maritime districts of the island were occupied and controlled by the Portuguese, who were in 1656 driven out by the Dutch, who held them until the beginning of the present century,