Some of the numerous papers read, and of the addresses delivered, were of marked value; and the forth-coming volume which is to embody the proceedings, will form an important addition to the stock of missionary literature, more valuable indeed than that which gives the results of the Liverpool Conference in 1860.

Among the more enjoyable features of the occasion were the devotional exercises, and the reigning spirit of Christian unity, which was all the more evident because no time was found for eulogizing brotherly concord, or for making professions of mutual affection and admiration.

It was a useful lesson, impressed upon all in attendance, that no one evangelistic society and no one religious denomination enjoy a monopoly of zeal, wisdom, or success; that each in its own way is doing a work for the Master, and is entitled to the confidence and good wishes of all. Such a convocation makes it evident that among the officials, agents, and friends of such societies, there is a needless amount of ignorance, not to say of narrow and harmful indifference. The more frequent and more truly œcumenical these missionary conferences become, the more of reciprocal respect will be felt, the more of Christian comity will be maintained in all cases where good neighborhood is liable to infringement, and a wiser economy will be observed in the distribution and working of the great field which is now seen, more clearly than ever before, to extend "from the river to the ends of the earth."

The thanks of the missionary world are due to the London committee for having called the late Conference, for the hospitality and manifold courtesies shown to foreign delegates; while universal and most earnest praise should be rendered to the God of missions for the broadening scale on which he is inspiring his people to engage in this work, and for the increasing success which attends their labors.

BRITISH CHRISTIANS AND ASIA MINOR.

In view of the new relations into which Asia Minor has been brought to Great Britain, it has seemed both wise and proper to make an appeal to British Christians to supplement the work in progress under the direction of the American Board. This was one object of the delegation in visiting London to attend the General Missionary Conference. Though the financial condition was by no means favorable, and the public mind was distracted by the impending war with Afghanistan, yet the hearty indorsement of the effort by some of the most eminent names in the country, as the Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord Lawrence, the Bishop of Durham, Dr. Allon, Dr. Fraser, Sir William Muir, and others, led to the issue of the appeal near the close of November. Messrs. Baring Bros. & Co., for many years the honored bankers of the Board, kindly consented to receive and put to the credit of the Board, without charge, any funds that might be contributed. Whatever else may come of the effort, which the exigency of the case seemed to call for, in justice to all interests involved,

something will have been done to acquaint leading English minds more fully with the work of American Christians, in introducing those moral forces necessary to the success of any political reforms, to say nothing of the moral renovation of the Empire.

The Board will continue its purely evangelical efforts as heretofore, and enlarge them, if possible, to meet the urgent calls from many quarters; but the evangelical communities suffering from the exactions of the government and general prostration of business, and from other miseries attendant upon the recent war, while making most commendable efforts to help themselves, are quite unable to provide suitable places of worship, or such institutions as they need for the proper education of their youth. Many communities have become so impoverished as to be quite unable at present to provide adequately for their teachers and preachers. Pecuniary assistance is needed in the directions thus indicated, to help them tide over the present distress. In no way can British Christians more fitly express their interest in these struggling evangelical communities, scattered throughout the entire field from the Bosphorus to the Tigris, than by thus helping them in their time of need. As the various agencies for carrying forward the work of a Christian civilization in that portion of the Empire are complete, and never in better working order than now, there is no occasion for any other missionary society to enter the field, but only to supplement wisely the work begun, and carried forward thus far so successfully, by American Christians.

CENTRAL AFRICA.

Ar the recent meeting of the American Board at Milwaukee, the Committee to whom was referred that portion of the Annual Report relating to the Zulu mission, presented a report in which they referred to the recent providential movements in the exploration, and, to some extent, the opening of Central Africa; to the new missions undertaken by several English Societies in the interior of that continent; to the suggestions, and even requests, which have come to the Board in several forms from England, to coöperate in such efforts for Africa's redemption, by establishing a mission or missions in some portion of its interior; especially to the generous offer of Mr. Arthington, of Leeds, to give £1,000 towards such an enterprise, and recommending the adoption of the following resolution, which was passed by the Board:

"That they (the Prudential Committee) consider the expediency of issuing an appeal to the American public, to create a special fund to enable the Committee to respond to the proposal of Mr. Arthington, and to the coördinate invitation of Missionary Societies of Great Britain; to the end that the American people may bear their part with their British brethren in the spiritual redemption of Africa." Preceding the report on the Zulu mission, Dr. M. McG. Dana, of St. Paul, Minnesota, made an able and earnest address, arguing that, for many reasons, and specially in view of the fearful wrongs heretofore inflicted upon the people of Africa, American societies and

American Christians should unite with those of Great Britain in prompt and vigorous efforts to plant the institutions of the gospel in the heart of the continent.

The Prudential Committee at its meeting, October 15, appointed a subcommittee to take this matter into careful consideration, and report. The substance of that report is herewith presented for the thoughtful perusal of all interested in our missionary work. It presents some of the difficulties of attempting a bold advance into new fields when the whitening harvest upon the fields already occupied, is perishing for lack both of laborers and of the funds necessary for their support.

THE APPEAL OF MAJOR MALAN.

On the 29th of January last, Major Malan, formerly of the English Army, but who has acted for some years past with much efficiency and success, as an evangelist in Southern Africa, came before the Prudential Committee (having, as he stated, come from England with that special purpose in view), and read carefully prepared statements, urging the Committee to take steps for the establishment of a mission in Central Africa. His paper was referred to a sub-committee, who, at the next regular meeting of the Prudential Committee (February 5), presented a report on the subject, containing a review of what had been done by the Board in Africa, showing that for many years the Board had looked with great interest upon that continent and the claims of its people upon the Christian Church; that a mission was commenced in Western Africa in 1833, with a view to the interior, upon which mission more than $165,000 had been expended before it was transferred to the Presbyterian Board in 1870; that upon the Zulu mission, in Southern Africa, more than $600,000 have been expended; and that, several years ago, the attention of that mission was specially called by the Prudential Committee to the importance of organizing for a movement inland, with a band of native helpers, a proposal which had not been lost sight of, either by the Prudential Committee or the mission.

That sub-committee recommended that further information be sought in relation to this whole subject, and that the paper of Major Malan be printed, for use by the Secretaries of the Board, with such other statements as the Secretaries might deem desirable. "Beyond that," their report states, "it seems to us we must await further indications of Divine Providence. The undertaking is one that will involve great hardship and great pecuniary cost. With our present average annual income, we should not feel authorized to enter upon such an expensive and untried field." But their report goes on to suggest the possibility, and perhaps to intimate the hope, that some liberal Christians may soon appear in the United States who will follow the example of Mr. Arthington in England, and provide means, outside the regular income of the Board, which would warrant such an undertaking.

The "Appeal" by Major Malan, with a map of Equatorial and Southern Africa, and this report of the sub-committee, were published in the "Missionary Herald" for April last, and were also printed as a pamphlet, for special use. In the May "Herald," additional statements by Major Malan were also published; in July the "Herald" contained an article on "The

Proposed Mission to Central Africa," and a special place was given to the acknowledgment of donations for this object. In September the letter of Mr. Arthington, offering to give the Board £1,000 ($5,000) for such work in Africa, if the Board would undertake to occupy a specified section of the interior, was also published, with some words of appeal for responsive contributions from "large-hearted men of wealth in America."

RESULTS THUS FAR.

The place for acknowledging such donations has been kept ready in the "Herald." Up to this time, however, the whole amount received for this object has been only $308.72!! One individual in Massachusetts, connected not with our own denomination but with the Episcopal Church, has also offered to give $500 toward such a mission if the Board will enter upon the work. But the whole amount thus far given or offered in this country for this proposed mission in Central Africa, is less than $1,000. Yet to enter upon the work with any suitable efficiency, would probably involve an expense within the first year of not less than 20,000 or 25,000 dollars, and the continued expense for many years, of a sum not much smaller annually. The Prudential Committee have just been called to consider the estimates of needed appropriations for the year 1879 from their existing missions. They have also considered carefully the probabilities as to the income of the Board, and how much they may properly venture to appropriate, and the very painful result has been that they will feel constrained to strike off in they do not yet see how from the estimates forwarded by the not far from one fourth of the whole amount aside from the salaries of their missionaries!

some way

missions, about $50,000,

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IMPORTANCE OF THE WORK.

Respecting the importance of Central Africa as a field for Christian missions, and the special call of Providence to the Christian church to occupy that field, there can be no doubt or difference of opinion, while the peculiar relations of that continent to our own, and the position of the Zulu mission of the American Board, at a point so especially favorable for an advance toward the center of the continent, seem to emphasize that call as addressed to our own churches. Nothing but men and money would seem to be wanting to justify the Prudential Committee in taking immediate steps to improve the long delayed opportunity of carrying the gospel through the length and breadth of that benighted land. But men, and especially money, are precisely what the Committee have not at their command. Whether the impoverishment of the churches, or the lack of interest in the missionary work, or both combined, have caused the falling off in the receipts of the Board, it is certain not only that no such increase of these receipts has taken place, as the progress of the work and the needs of our missions imperatively require, but there is actually a deficiency of contributions as compared with those available for our less extended operations in previous years. At the same time it has been imperatively enjoined upon us by our constituents that we should on no account incur the responsibility, or, so far as practicable, even the risk of a debt. Under these circumstances we have had

no alternative but to enforce the most painful economy and curtailment on all our missions during the past year, and so far as we can now judge, there is no encouragement whatever to hope for any abatement in this course of proceeding during the coming year. Should we be agreeably disappointed in this respect, it would be only too easy to appropriate large additional sums for those missions already in successful progress but hampered, burdened, and distressed by the want of adequate means for following up the openings of Divine Providence, and whose usefulness could be incalculably increased by a full supply of men and money which we are now so reluctantly compelled to withhold. As was stated, and not overstated at the annual meeting, an increase of $100,000 in our annual contributions would not do more than enable us to occupy the enlarged field which has been opened before us in missions already established.

Every dollar, and far more, than every dollar which we can hope to receive during the coming year from the American churches, will be needed to save existing missions from actual distress, and to carry on the work already in progress, not, indeed, as it should be carried on, but at least so as not to shut up doors now open before us, or to discourage workers now in the field, by failing to meet their most necessary requirements.

Your Committee would therefore recommend that every effort be made to place the Zulu mission on the most efficient footing, so that it may serve as a point of departure and support for those missions to Central Africa which we hope to see undertaken so soon as the pecuniary prospects of the Board, and the prior claims of its existing missions, may permit.

REV. ANDREW ABRAHAM.

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THIS faithful missionary, who entered the service of the Board in 1849, died at his station, Mapumulo, Natal Colony, on the 13th of September last. His death was wholly unexpected, having been caused by disease of the heart. One of the first missionaries among the Zulus, Mr. Abraham had experienced all the trials of a pioneer, patiently and hopefully waiting many years for the fruits which, at last, he was permitted to see. One of his associates from the beginning, Mr. Tyler, writes thus of him: "I cannot adequately express what our departed brother was to his family, our mission, the native church he had gathered from heathenism, and a multitude of ignorant heathen who saw in him an example of the Christianity he taught. I am quite sure he never had an enemy, among whites or blacks. As we were entering the native chapel last Sabbath, a Zulu chief, by whose urgent invitation he was induced to go originally to that outpost of heathenism, remarked, 'Our father never spoke to us an unkind word.' This was saying a great deal for one whose patience and faith had been tried twenty-nine years by Zulu heathen. For unvarying kindness of heart, conscientiousness in the discharge of duty, evenness of temper, patience, and faith unshaken amid many trials, he was a man of whom no missionary society need be ashamed. He was a most valuable helper to the mission cause, on account of his patient, methodical, and diligent way of working.