(B) GENERAL SEARCH QUESTIONS.

KEY TO STORY OF THE FAITH.-P. 201.

(1) Eccles. iv. 10; (2) Luke x. 4; (3) 2 Kings iv. 29; (4) Matt. x. 10; (5) 1 Cor. ix. 14; (6) Matt. x. 16; (7) 2 Tim. ii. 24; (8) John xix. 36; (9) vi. 15; (10) Luke ix. 47; (11) Matt. v. 17; (12) v. 20.

PAGE 270.

(1) Matt. xvi. 16; (2) 17; (3) 18; (4) x. 5, 6; (5) Mark vii. 27; (6) Acts x. 45; (7) Col. iii. 11; (8) Luke ix. 5; (9) Mark vi. 11; (10) Matt. xvi. 25-28; xxiii. 11, 12; (11) Luke x. 20; (12) 1 Cor. xiii. 1.

SCENES BY A RIVERSIDE.-p. 201.
THE RIVER JORDAN.

(1) Gideon asks food of the men of Succoth and Penuel, Judges viii. 1-17; Gen. xxxii. 31; xxxiii. 17; (2) Jonathan and Ahimaaz warn David and his company, 2 Sam. xvii. 20-23; Ahithophel; (3) The sons of the prophets and Elisha, 2 Kings vi. 1--7; ii. 22; iii. 14–20; v. 14.

Sunday Afternoons in the Sick-room.

PRIZE COMPETITION FOR INVALIDS.

(A) BUNYAN SEARCH QUESTIONS.

1. Who told a later pilgrim that Christian after all his adventures was drowned in the Black River, “however, it was smothered up"?

2. What Diabolonian "will not quit " Mansoul, but "haunts, like a ghost, honest men's houses a' nights"? 3. Who was carried up Hill Difficulty?

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4. Which of the enemy was captain over a band of those that threw firebrands, arrows, and death”?

5. What enemy was said to have "as many lives as a cat"?

6. Who was said to have "had a tongue as bravely hung, as he had a head filled with judgment"?

7. Who was made the "honest subordinate preacher in Mansoul"?

8. Which of the enemy's captains when battle was joined "looked to the carriages, and waited that he should receive some prey"?

9. What pilgrim would have given his life for a penny when set upon "but that he was clad in armour of proof"?

10. Who calls the "first appearance of a tender conscience" a foolish timorousness?

11. What were the two great guns called that Diabolus made and set up in Mansoul, and who dismounted them "and laid them flat in the dust"?

12. From whom did thieves take most of his spendingmoney?

Copy out the following passages, and write, after each, one sentence from the Bible, expressing the same thought.

1. Occasions (of adversity) do not make a man frail, they but show what he is.-Thomas à Kempis.

2. Virtue, Honour, Truth, Charity, are such blessed things that we cannot even think of them without being the better for it.-F. P. Cobbe.

3. We easily come up to the standard of goodness in society. Society's praise can be cheaply secured, and almost all men are content with those easy merits; but the instant effect of conversing with God, will be to put them away.-Emerson.

4. We are not intended to live here so many years in order that we may end by wearing a crown and holding a palm in the presence of the throne, but that our character may become assimilated to the character of our Master, Christ.-Archdeacon Butcher.

5. Points have we all of us within our souls Where all stand single.-Wordsworth.

6. Through the clouded glass

Of our own bitter tears, we learn to look,
Undazzled, on the kindness of God's face.-Lowell.

Three pounds' worth of books (to be chosen by winners from the Religious Tract Society's lists) will be divided every month, at the Editor's discretion, among successful competitors in these classes. N.B.-Class B is now open to all our readers, invalids and others alike.

Rules to be carefully observed:

I.-Write very distinctly, on one side of paper only, for neatness will be considered, and in awarding prizes, where both are equal, competitors who have not, will take precedence of those who have, already won p izes in these competitions.

II. - Invalids only to compete in Class A (enclosing name and address of clergyman as reference).

III. Every Paper must be received by 20th of the month, addressed to the Editor, having "Sunday Afternoon Class A," or "B" in the corner, according to subject.

Prize-winners' names will appear in due course in NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS. Limited space forbids printing of answers. No private replies possible.

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM II.

THE graphic and interesting sketch of the German emperor which appeared some months since in the pages of the Revue de Paris from the pen of M. Jules Simon has permanent interest. M. Simon attended the Labour Congress at Berlin in the capacity of a vice-president, and was treated by the emperor with very marked courtesy and attention.

William II. made a very deep impression on M. Simon, especially as the time when he saw him was the crisis in German affairs, when the young kaiser dismissed the great chancellor, Prince Bismarck, and took the reins into his own hands. So striking is his personality, that when M. Simon left Berlin, it seemed to him that it was not Berlin, but the emperor, whom he was leaving.

The emperor's appearance is agreeable, says M. Simon, his air affable and kind; his form is slight, and his complexion pale. Yet behind this amiable aspect there. seems to be something which warns you that it would be well not to disagree with him on any serious matter. He has a wonderful faculty for details, and he is as apt to govern in small matters as in great. He keeps himself au courant with the minutiae of army organisation and of state affairs, and he never seems to rest. He has a spirit which is never in repose, which never loses a minute, and which seizes everything with astonishing rapidity. Of such a many-sided man, M. Simon is careful to say, a portrait is not possible; he only attempts a sketch.

The emperor has a weekly gathering of twenty friends, not more, officers, professors, and men of light and leading, who meet with him in the palace and discuss artistic and literary questions in an informal way. "The public," said the emperor, "think it is a kind of secret political council," but the purpose is recreation, and the company sit around the table, drinking and smoking, and talking of art and literature.

M. Simon had several friendly conversations with him, when he talked freely on social and literary topics, though when the French writer attempted to sound him on politics, the kaiser avoided and diverted the questions with consummate art. In speaking of the question of war between the two nations, however, he spoke with emphasis of the progress which the French army had made, and the good work which it had done. "No one," he said, "could now foresee the result of a struggle between France and Germany, and therefore I should regard any man who should egg on the two peoples to war as a madman and a criminal."

On social subjects the emperor was more ready to be drawn out; he expressed his wonder at the growing daring of the Socialist leaders, and spoke of their wielding an authority with their followers, which he himself did not possess with his people. He is anxious to restrict women's labour at whatever cost, and was very pleased with one of the resolutions arrived at by the Labour Congress which laid down an important rule in this connection.

The emperor expressed himself with decision on French literature, with which he showed himself well acquainted, notwithstanding his other numberless occupa

and Old.

tions and interests. Indeed, he confessed to M. Simon that he loved family life above everything, and was never happier than when he could dine quietly at home like a "bon bourgeois de Berlin," with his wife, and could read her a chapter of a novel before bedtime. He spoke very strongly about M. Zola, and would not hear the defence which M. Simon tried to make on his behalf. "I allow him great qualities," said the emperor, "but it is not to those that he owes his success; it is to his moral debasement and the filth with which he poisons his writings. This is what charms you, and which gives foreigners the right to judge your moral condition harshly."

William II. is never seen either in public or private out of uniform. When receiving on State occasions, in the throne room, his coat is covered with orders of every kind. He looks every inch an emperor, impassive, immobile, and severe.

It is interesting to learn that the emperor speaks French very easily, and almost faultlessly, without the smallest accent. M. Simon, who is an Academician and a member of the Dictionary Commission, only once detected his Majesty in an expression which the Academy could not wholly sanction, and he pronounces the Emperor a purist in his use of French.

During the critical time when Prince Bismarck was induced to resign the chancellorship, M. Simon could detect no shadow on the Emperor's brow which denoted any anxiety or excitement; indeed he was, says M. Simon, the only politician then present in Berlin who slept peacefully on the two nights when the crisis was at its height.

A COMFORTING VISIT.-God gives us comfort when none else is either willing or able to render any comfort to us. This very day I have had a remarkable instance of how good cheer is sent by my gracious God just when I most need it. I was heavy and sad at heart, and there came to my door to see me a foreign gentleman, an officer of considerable rank in the Italian army. He spoke to me in very good English, but I cannot tell you all that he said to me, though it was most cheering and kind. I asked him why he should come so far to see me. He spoke of me as though I were a great man, and I assured him that he was quite mistaken, for I was nothing of the kind. As we walked along, and talked, he said, "But you are the greatest man in all the world to me." "Why is that?" I asked; and he answered, "I was a Catholic, and a bad Catholic, too. I did not rightly know anything about the Lord Jesus Christ, and I was fast becoming an infidel; but I met with a sermon of yours in Italian, by reading it I was brought into the light and liberty of the gospel; I found the Saviour, and I felt that I must come, and tell you about it." Then he further cheered and encouraged my heart by letting me see how much he knew of our Lord Jesus, and he had learnt it all from nothing but the Bible itself, which he had read after being guided to it by a stray sermon of mine. "Well," I thought, my Master sends this man all the way from the south of Italy to come just at this particular time, when I was sorely needing just such a comforting message."C. H. Spurgeon

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The "Spiritual

THE Voluminous and melancholy biography Mother" of of Cardinal Manning recently published, recalls the interesting fact that the young Manning. Henry Manning, when an undergraduate

Cardinal

at Oxford, was first decisively led to earnest religious thought through the influence of Miss Bevan, afterwards Mrs. J. Mortimer, known to all our readers as the authoress of the "Peep of Day," and other charming books for the young. Manning was a school-fellow of Miss Bevan's brother Robert, and was wont to spend the greater part of his holidays at Trent Park, where the Bevan family resided. It was a time of great depression and disappointment, the failure of Manning's father having dashed to the ground many a fond ambition and changed the future Cardinal's whole career. "When he next came to Trent Park, Miss Bevan perceived how depressed he was; in their walks together she endeavoured to cheer him, telling him there were higher aims still that he had not thought of. 'What are they?' She replied, The Kingdom of Heaven; heavenly ambitions are not closed against you.' He listened, and said in reply, he did not know but she was right. She suggested reading the Bible together, saying that she was sure her brother Robert would join them. This they did during the whole of that vacation, every morning after breakfast. It was her conviction that this was the beginning of Henry Manning's religious life. He always used to speak of her as his spiritual mother."1

A long correspondence followed, in which Manning opened his heart freely on religious subjects. Miss After his change of Bevan "had piles of his letters.

faith, he wrote to her, asking her to return him his letters, as he said they might compromise him. With regret she sent them all back to him." It will be noted that at the beginning of his career as a clergyman, Manning was fervently Evangelical. What influences gradually wrought a change in his character, and what new and more subtle ambitions supervened upon those which in youth he had been compelled to forego, are shown in these bulky volumes, which (whatever the author's intention may have been) will probably prove the most effectual dissuasive from Romanism that the present generation has seen.

America.

2

PUBLIC opinion is at last beginning to tell Lynching in on the States of America most notorious for the frequency of lynchings. In the State of Mississippi, where there were thirteen lynchings in 1895, the Attorney-General has submitted to the Legislature a plan intended to check these.terrible acts of mob violence. His plan would make every county financially responsible for each lynching which takes place within its borders, much in the same way that a county in England is liable for damages caused by people engaged in a riot. The surviving relatives of a

Quoted from a letter to the Times, by Lord Forester, Dean of York, January 20, 1892, a few days after Cardinal Manning's death.

2 "Life of Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster," by Edmund Sheridan Purcell. 2 vols. Macmillan & Co.

man who is lynched are to have a right to sue the county in which the lynching occurs. The trial is to take place outside the county concerned, and the minimum damages are to be fixed at 20007. All property in the county will be specially taxed to pay the sum awarded. The Attorney-General also proposes to make sheriffs and county officers give large bonds for the safety of prisoners committed to their charge, and, if his scheme is carried out in its entirety, every man who is directly or indirectly concerned in a lynching will lose his citizenship. South Carolina, which had six lynchings last year, is contemplating a similar measure. All over the South there is a growing feeling that measures like that proposed in Mississippi will have to be adopted. It is admitted that as things now stand, several of the States are helpless to prevent lynchings, and that they will either have to put themselves in a much stronger position in order to prevent mob rule, or the Federal Government will have to step in and prevent these frequent outrages. How necessary it is that the States or the Government at Washington should at once move, is shown by the statistics of lynchings given below. They are for 1895, and they are taken from the Nashville Banner, a Tennessee paper, and their accuracy has not been questioned.

These make a total of 171 lynchings. To English readers the most surprising fact about this table will probably be that the lynchings are not confined to the South. Kansas, Colorado, Missouri, Dakota, Washington, Indian Territory, Oklahoma are all either Western States or Western Territories. The victims of Western lynchings are usually white border ruffians from whom the community has tolerated much before it has taken the law into its own hands. In the South the victims are always negroes who are lynched on isolated charges, often without real foundation.

disrepute and popular disfavour. The opposition to the system pushed itself so far in 1894 that rioting and loss of life ensued, and the Governor had to call out the State inilitia to keep order. It was then thought that this disorder would end in the abandonment of the dispensary system, as about the same time the system was also being attacked in the State and Federal courts. But all these obstacles were overcome; and since the end of 1894, the system has been having a fair trial. From a financial point of view it has succeeded well. All liquors are sold exclusively by State officers, and all the profits from the sales go directly into the State Treasury. At the end of 1895 the State had between 50,000l. and 60,000l. embarked in the dispensaries, and on that capital a net profit of 42,000l. had been made. The State police are vigilantly on the look-out to discover any illicit trading in liquor. Heavy penalties follow conviction of offences against the dispensary laws; but in order to make it not worth while for people to engage in this risky trade, the State sells liquor at prices with which the illicit dealers cannot possibly compete, and in this way drives them out of the business. The State can afford to sell at a comparatively small profit, because it buys in large quantities for cash; pays nothing for advertising; incurs no bad debts; has no need to maintain showy premises; breakages form no item in its trade losses, for consumption on the premises is not allowed; and its gas bills are small because the dispensaries close at sundown. In addition to these direct savings there are others which the State makes from having the trade exclusively in its hands. No police are required to preserve order in the State dispensaries, or to take care of the victims of the trade. All the profits go to the school funds of the State. At the last session of the Georgia Legislature a vigorous endeavour was made to secure the adoption in that State of the Carolina plan. It failed because a number of the members remained away when the vote was taken, and the bill did not get a sufficient majority to allow it to be sent from the Lower House to the State Senate. Georgia is the next State to South Carolina, and the strong movement there in favour of the Carolina system is proof that people who are near at hand to judge of the system are satisfied that it is succeeding.

A Standard Book of Common Prayer.

THE Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, at its triennial conference in 1892, authorised a special committee to prepare a Standard Book of Common Prayer. The work has now been completed, and at the triennial conference at Minneapolis, in the State of Minnesota, in October last, the volume was presented. It has been printed with great care on vellum of folio size. It is bound in a skin of violet, crushed Levant, dyed for it, and is mounted in silver. In the centre is an elliptically shaped glory, which encloses a vesica containing a mitre between two cups, ending in roses and thistles. Beneath this is a scroll with the inscription for the standard book upon it. Beneath this is arranged an orb surmounted by a cross, the upper part of the orb being a field of stars, and the lower part covered with stripes, emblematic of the American Church. The bosses at the corners are surrounded by symbols of the four evangelists. These run out at some length into the cover and end in roses and thistles. Three massive

silver clasps secure the book, which is lettered on the back, "The Standard Book of Common Prayer, A.D. 1892." The book is contained in a box made of ebony inlaid with steel. The two panels on the top are adorned with conventionalised Tudor roses, and the hinges and the projection over the lock of the box are extended across the top, forming three bars of steel, which end in conventionalised thistles. The box is secured by a padlock made in the shape of an old English mitre, and is unlocked by a key which ends in an ornamental rose and thistle. Inside it is lined with a cream-coloured church brocade, such as is used for ecclesiastical vestments, the central figure in the brocade being again Tudor roses, and on the side a combination of thistles. These are emblematic of the Scotch and English origin of the American episcopate. The custodian of the book is the Rev. Dr. Samuel Hart, who is the Secretary of the American House of Bishops.

of the

THE oldest organisation in the United The Church States, says the Outlook, is the First Pilgrims, Church of Plymouth, Mass. It antedates Plymouth, Mass. the landing of the Pilgrims, as the men and women who separated from the congregations of Scrooby and Austerfield in 1608, spent some time in Amsterdam and Leyden, Holland, before coming over the sea in the Mayflower. The ministry of the church has continued in an unbroken succession from the days of Robinson and Brewster until now. For nearly two centuries it was the only church in the village of Plymouth. Because of its historic associations and long life it presents a peculiar claim upon the interest of New England. The church is now to have a new building erected on the old Burial Hill. The rebuilding is assuming a national character, New Englanders throughout the Union sending contributions for it.

Federated Work.

THE Evangelical Alliance has formulated a plan in America for federated work on the part of churches of all denominations in the direction of social reform. "The great weakness of the Christian Church, particularly in small communities,” says the Outlook of New York, "is that, through denominational differences, its energy is divided and its efficiency decreased in those directions towards which a united effort could easily be made with the right basis for union. This basis the Evangelical Alliance believes it has at last found. Bishop Vincent, Dr. Francis E. Clark, President of the United Society of Christian Endeavour, Dr. John Henry Barrows, Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst, Dr. George Hodges, Dean of the Episcopal Theological School, Cambridge, Mass., Dr. Washington Gladden, and other clergymen who are notable in the work of social reform, have examined the plan and have endorsed it."

sentimentally religious the people are has been witnessed on various notable occasions of peril. But it is the religion of charm and nostrum which rules. "They are devoutly attached to St. Anna, the reputed mother of the Virgin; they have her foot, a most potent relic. Oil from the lamp before the body of St. Giacomo della Marca takes away the headache. The holy water of St. Biagio cures all throat diseases. Santa Lucia is the divinity who saves from diseases of the eye. There are cart-loads of relics, bones of the saints, pieces of their dress, bits of wood and stone, but the more densely these superstitions weigh on the people, the filthier are their homes, and more evil their lives. The brigand whets his stiletto on the steps of the altar, and wears the scapolari of the Madonna as an amulet; whilst the pictures of the Holy Mother of Jesus hang over the beds of the houses of ill-fame. Religion is a charm. Prayer an incantation. ... The brigand band of Chiavone, their beads in hand, sang the Rosary, and the chief led them on, intoning the Ave Maria. All the brigands wore around their necks the scapolari and paper pictures of the Saints in a little purse.' So says Villari. I translate a line or two from a book lying open before me, and which I note I have underlined. 6 All the profane superstitions, diffused throughout the world are gathered here in Naples, and magnified and multiplied. The evil eye, the curse of magic spell, the enchantment against man and beast, all like dark thoughts of hell are fostered by the superstition that has bowed out faith in God and Christ and Righteousness! Poor, beautiful Naples ! "

There are doubtless other aspects of Naples than those depicted here. In the priesthood, as Mr. Jones strenuously affirms, are able and learned men, and men both noble and sincere; but here, on the ancient soil, is a paganism as gross as any in the classic days.

A Corean Doctor.

THE distracted, helpless, wretched condition of the Corean nation is portrayed in a pathetic incident which occurred recently. A lady medical missionary writes that she was called to the sick child of one of the higher class of Coreans. The child had been very ill for two or three days, the result of exposure to the sun. He had been carried a long distance on his nurse's back, in Corean fashion, with his small bare head and the nape of his neck exposed to the fierce blaze of a July sun! A native doctor had been called in, but as his efforts were fruitless the distracted parents appealed to the medical missionary for help. She found him in convulsions, and after a careful examination, had to sorrowfully tell the parents that there was little or no hope of his recovery. The little one was an only child, and the fond parents bowed before the lady, begging her to "give life." She replied that only God could do that, but that she would do all that she could to help them. Medicine with full directions was left with them, and the missionary promised to return on the morrow. Towards morning, as the child seemed to be growing worse, the parents in alarm again sent for the native doctor, who arrived shortly after the medical missionary. The mother and a Corean Christian woman, who had accompanied the missionary, left the room directly the native doctor arrived, as no Corean woman may be seen by a man not belonging to her own family. After examining the little boy, the missionary told the father that the child was dying, and that she could do nothing more for

him. The native doctor was then asked to try his skill by the now frantic father, and, in spite of all the missionary's remonstrances, carried out his fearfully cruel treatment. He made a little pyramid of brown powder on each of the child's tiny breasts, and set it on fire, allowing it to burn down to the tender skin, rejecting all appeals to remove it and calmly smiling as the foreign doctor said to him, "You know that it can do no good." Then, with a needle, between the size of a darning-needle and a surgeon's probe, he pierced through the small feet, the palms of the wee hands, the thumb joints and the upper lip to the jaw! Often had the missionary seen the result of this terrible treatment in suppurating sores, and diseased feet and hands, for which the only remedy was amputation, but never before had she seen a native doctor actually practising on an unhappy patient. Her urgent entreaties, that they should cease torturing the dying child, were in vain; and her representations, of the suffering involved and recovery retarded even in cases that survived, were listened to with indifference. The poor child died, and the mother anxiously asked for visits and instruction from the missionary, probably touched by her gentleness to the little sufferer.

Toxteth.

THE Annual Health Report of Liverpool reveals a remarkable condition of things in the township of Toxteth, which contains about 60,000 people, in 200 streets, with 12,000 houses. There is not a single public house. The district has a singularly low death-rate-only from 10 to 14 deaths per 1000 of population yearly, while there are districts in Liverpool, abundantly supplied with drink-shops, which have the enormous death-rate of 40 per 1000 per annum; and the death-rate for Liverpool as a whole is 22 per 1000. Pawnshops are utterly unknown in Toxteth, and its poor-rate varies from 8d. to 11d. in the pound, while before the era of reformation it reached 2s. in the pound. The demand for houses is so great that there is never hardly an empty one, and the rents are growing rapidly. There is very little crime, and less pauperism.

Allen Immigration.

THE number of alien immigrants, principally Jewish, is evidently increasing. The Board of Trade returns state, that in the first nine months of 1895 as many as 23,664 reached our shores in addition to 36,358 who passed through England en route for the United States. In September alone, no less than 9554 arrived here, and of these 3472 stayed, the rest going to America. As compared with the previous year, the September return shows an increase of 600 who stayed. The Jewish aliens already in London are strongly opposing the imposition of any more restrictions. At a meeting held in the Great Assembly Hall, Mile End, several speakers denied that Jewish working men were displacing the English working men, and urged that on the contrary their presence in this country brought work to the English work people, especially in the tailoring and mantle-making trades. It was pleaded that most of the Jews possess all the qualities necessary to good citizenship, that their only fault was poverty. It is a remarkable commentary, that the voluntary Jewish Board of Guardians are largely extending their sphere of operations, and seeking new and enlarged premises with industrial workshops at the present time.