THE engraving here given is of the building which above all others may be called the centre of evangelical work in the Turkish Empire. In this Bible House, both the American and the British and Foreign Bible Societies have their offices; here the missionaries meet; here the Scriptures have been translated into the many tongues of the empire; here a prayer-meeting is held each day at noon; here people of all nationalities, American, English, Scotch, Greek, Armenian, Bulgarian, Turkish, are engaged in preparing a Christian literature, including four weekly newspapers in as many languages, to be scattered throughout every portion of Turkey. May the glory of the Lord fill this house!

SIX MONTHS' RECEIPTS.

ONE half of our financial year closed February 28. Our total receipts for this period amount only to $146,056.67, nearly $32,000 less than what was received from the same sources during the same period the preceding year. Of this deficiency $26,570.86 is to be attributed to the falling off of legacies, and $5,292.78 to a decline in regular donations. As it was stated one year ago that "the regular donations to the treasury were less than those of the same period during the preceding year by the sum of about $13,000," it can be readily seen that another decline of over $5,000 is a matter of serious import. Read in this connection the following extract from the animating annual report of the Madura mission, just received: "The estimates we send home, expressing only our actual necessities, are cut down every year, and this year, when so many new congregations have been received, and there are new openings in every direction, we are likely to be still more embarrassed." The trouble is, God has answered the prayers of his people, and is giving them large missionary success, involving, of course, new calls for grateful thank-offerings, and just at this interesting and critical hour the thank-offerings are lessening rather than increasing in amount. Since writing the last sentence a noble giver, whose heart had been touched by the recent tidings of God's blessing upon the mission in Madura during the past year, has sent in a special gift of $1,000. The blessing of our three hundred and fifty missionaries and of their Lord will rest upon him and upon others like him. May many, according to their ability, follow the good example!

SUCCESSFUL MISSIONARY CONCERTS.

A HOPEFUL sign, just at present, is the renewed interest felt in many quarters in the Missionary Concert. Frequent inquiries are made as to the best method of conducting this service. Several pastors, in writing to the Missionary Rooms, have incidentally mentioned plans which they have recently put in operation with marked success.

A pastor in Massachusetts writes of the monthly concert in his church: "We sometimes adjourn over and fill a second evening, my only trouble arising from an embarras du richesse. I have twenty persons, male and female, on whom I could depend for excellent reports from different parts of the great field, at home and abroad, if I could only find time and room to bring them in. As compared with the wearisome toil by which alone the monthly concert can be sustained in many places, I feel that this is something to rejoice in and be very thankful for."

A pastor in Central New York tells of his method of procedure: "I engaged some of our young people to make maps to be used in monthly concert. We confined our thoughts and prayers to one country, and in December I was able to suspend before my people a beautiful and accurate map of India, made for the occasion by one of our young ladies. I selected one of the young men to prepare himself and give us information of the country, and of our 'missionaries where are they?' Another was to tell

us 'what they are doing.' We had also an address, on the history of the people and their religion. In addition to this, I gathered all I could obtain in the way of specimens, — curiosities and the like, some of which were brought from Pasumalai by a daughter of our church. Last Sabbath evening we held a union monthly concert, and, with the aid of a map of Japan, prepared by another of our young ladies, we learned what the Methodists, and the Baptists, and our own grand old Board are doing in that profoundly interesting country of the Rising Sun. The consequence of all these influences is a large increase in our offerings to the Board."

A pastor just commencing service in the Northwest writes of his first missionary concert as a fine success. "The church was crowded. Next month we expect to have it jammed. I have long indulged the theory that missionary concerts could be popularized, and I hope-indeed expect that the theory will be realized here." The ministry of one who starts with such efforts to broaden the views of his people cannot fail of success.

Another voice comes from the Northwest to say that, in their church, they must have a concert oftener than once a month. "We have organized a Missionary Inquiry Society, and hold a meeting once a week. Fields are assigned to different individuals, and each one is expected to study the geography of the country, its physical features, etc., the history of the mission. and missionaries, past and present, and the character of the people before and after the gospel reached them. The results of such researches are to be given in the form of a lecture, without notes, for the entertainment and instruction of the society from week to week. We hope in this way to make the monthly concert interesting and profitable."

The method pursued by a pastor in a long established church in central Massachusetts he thus describes: "I have reorganized our monthly concert on a plan which will, I hope, increase its worth to missions and to my people. One half hour is devoted to reports from the different fields, home and foreign, each four or five minutes in length, and one half hour to bringing before the meeting some single mission. This is done chiefly through papers read upon divisions of the field, made by myself. In this way I enlist the ladies of the church and congregation, who thus far have cordially' and intelligently responded. On the first Sabbath of this year we took up Africa, with one paper on the physical features of the continent, chief discoveries, etc., another on missionary operations. I have also brought several of the younger brethren into this work. As a result, we had the largest meeting this month that we have had for years."

Another pastor writes of a greatly quickened interest in his missionary concert, where twelve reports were given from as many clippings, made by himself from the Missionary Herald, and assigned to different individuals. Such a plan involves labor, but this pastor rightly says that one reason for the complaint about missionary concerts is that "the pastors have not put work enough into them."

In some churches the Sabbath-school concert is occasionally turned into a missionary meeting. For such meetings we have seen nothing better than a suggestion made by a correspondent of the Sunday-School Times. The suggestion is of "a missionary newspaper, and to prepare it successfully you must begin its preparation three months beforehand. Say to chil

dren and to teachers that all the papers, religious and secular, contain items of missionary news, if they will only keep their eyes open for them, and ask them to aid you in preparing a missionary newspaper for the next concert. Place in a conspicuous location near the door, if possible - in your school-room, a box marked 'Missionary News,' and call frequent attention to it, asking teachers and scholars to drop into it any items, or articles, or poems they may find which touch in any way upon this subject. Appoint a competent editor, or else edit it yourself, choosing the most effective things, and adding what you can from your own stores, weaving the items together. Poems and anecdotes can be interspersed, and the paper be read as two issues, with singing or recitations between. While the preparation needs careful and intelligent oversight, the reading may well be committed to any good reader in the older classes."

Let every pastor who would be faithful to his trust consider what he can do to keep both himself and his people alive to the work intrusted to the church by its Master. Let it be remembered that while all effort should be made to present missionary tidings in an attractive form, yet the great end of the concert is not the presentation of news, but the offering of prayer. Keep the name of the meeting before the people. It is the missionary concert of prayer, not of news, or of anything else. Nothing in the meeting is valuable save as it incites, immediately or subsequently, to prayer.

CHALLENGING FAITH.

Ar the last Annual Meeting of the Board one of the speakers dwelt earnestly on the duty of challenging the faith of our young men and women in calling them to go abroad at their own charges; and the faith of the churches in asking them to enlarge the field of missionary operations. He was not aware that a young lady in the audience before him had just been invited to study medicine and to go out to China as a medical missionary, defraying her own expenses; that a young minister in New England, who had been left ample means by the recent death of his father, was also earnestly pondering a similar proposition. One devoted Christian woman had just returned for a season of rest after ten years of happy and eminently successful labor in the darkest portion of the Turkish Empire, and another was completing a second year in North China, neither of whom had drawn a dollar from the treasury of the Board. A young man, who gave up uncommonly fine business prospects in New England, is now doing royal work for Christ in Japan, deriving one half of his salary from the income of funds earned by himself, and deposited with the treasurer of the Board. To these examples might have been added many missionary families who, rather than ask all they need for their support, are using the income of their own private funds, or securing aid from friends at home.

The largest legacy now due the Board is from the estate of one who was for years engaged in missionary work among the North American Indians; and the largest donation to its treasury the past year, from any single individual, was from a missionary still in active service, who has for years paid his own salary.

At the time of this writing, a young physician is considering the privilege of giving himself to the work in North China, and an honored teacher from the Western States is looking hopefully towards the opportunity of larger service for Christ in connection with a college in Turkey, to be under the care, but not at the expense, of the Board. A young lady in the Northwest who once offered herself as a missionary to Turkey, but was not able to go, has within a few weeks asked the privilege of maintaining a native pastor or teacher in that empire, that through him she may yet work in the foreign field.

We commend these examples to others, who may thus be able to give of their wealth as well as themselves to this cause. The command to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature is as binding on those possessed of wealth as on those who can give only their lives.

The faith of the churches represented by the American Board is continually challenged by the three hundred and seventy missionaries who have given up all the opportunities of livelihood and of wealth at home, and now depend upon the contributions of Christian friends for their support, and the means of a vigorous prosecution of the work abroad. The Prudential Committee challenge the faith of the churches, when in November, without a cent in the treasury, they appropriate four or five hundred thousand dollars, the expenses of the missions the coming year. The whole missionary enterprise is a work of faith as truly as is that of Müller at Bristol. The faith of good men and women in our churches is challenged to sustain it. Do they realize the full significance of the challenge, and the privilege of a generous response?

EAST INDIAN LANGUAGES.

A WORK1 of much value, the fourth in Trübner's Oriental Series, has lately appeared in England. The author's object is not so much to furnish a strictly philological treatise, as an introduction to a study of the numerous languages on that broad field comprehended under the term East Indies. The region covered by his survey extends from the confines of Afghanistan to Batavia, and, for linguistic reasons, includes also Madagascar and Formosa. By a classification which is original with him, Mr. Cust groups the East Indian languages into eight families, the Aryan, Dravidian, Kolarian, Tibeto-Burman, Khasi, Tai, Mon-anam, and Malayan. To these families there belong, in their several branches, from one to twenty-four distinct languages, numbering two hundred and forty-three in all; while the branches have dialects, ranging from one to one hundred and twenty-five each, aggregating two hundred and ninety-six; thus giving a grand total for languages and dialects of five hundred and thirty-nine. Such a multiplicity bewilders, and well-nigh confounds. It suggests the magnitude of the work of evangelizing that part of the world.

The literature in volumes, pamphlets, and periodicals, relating to this broad department of study, has come to be enormous. To sift such a mass

1 A Sketch of the Modern Languages of the East Indies. BY ROBERT N. CUST. London, 1878, pp. 198.