faces shine with joy as they did that day." Proceeding one day seven miles to hold a meeting at a chief's kraal, Mr. Meek says that he left the old chief and his followers quite different people to what he found them. On some of the days three meetings were held, and on one occasion they had a visit from a gentleman from England, who, having crossed the sea with Mr. Meek, came now to visit him, after having spent some time amongst the tribes of Zululand. This visitor said he had not seen such earnest Christians anywhere since he had left England. Many of the Zulus stood up and praised God for this blessed opportunity of prayer. Referring to the death of the wife of one of the chiefs, who had been suffering for some time, Mr. Meek says: "At midnight she rose up on her bed and said she wanted to tell all around, including her children, that she was on the point of leaving them. I have reached my longing station. I have no more pain, and my time has now come to pass over to my God. I am going to my Lord, Who has saved me, and is now ready to receive me.' Mr. Meek adds that there are many hopeful cases amongst the Zulu headmen, and he hopes to be able to report more fully on another occasion. "We have had an addition of six to our infant church. We now number about sixty baptized, and about two hundred profess and call themselves followers of Christ, while the Word of God is heard by thousands who come to the meetings. I am, God willing, about to start another branch station, and I have a Zulu who has been with me since the blessed Light shone into my own heart, and who will be the leader after I have put matters in order. The work is crippled very much for want of money, but, funds or no funds, the work must go on. This interesting letter is signed by Mr. Meek and his Zulu wife, Princess Jejes. BRAZIL-Rio de Janeiro.-Our correspondent, Mr. Santos, Pastor of the Evangelical Church, writes: "I thank you for the papers regarding the Week of Universal Prayer. Every year I send copies of it to Evangelical papers in Brazil, and it is published in the Portuguese language. We had our Week of Prayer from January 7th to 14th, and we followed the programme of the Alliance. There was not a large attendance at the meetings, for the revolution has brought fear to everyone. Canon balls are pouring into the city: some of them actually fell in our church. Persons are wounded and killed in the streets and homes, and thus it is no wonder that large numbers were not present at our meetings. Still those who attended were greatly cheered and encouraged." Our correspondent, referring to the civil war, adds: “Great evil has been done, and we do not know when the end will come. We look at these things, and others transpiring in various countries, as voices telling us that the end of this dispensation is near, and that our Lord will soon come. Our lamps must be prepared and ready to meet Him. We much need the prayers of all Christians for Brazil." CANADA.-Portsmouth.-Our correspondent writes: "I have to thank you for the usual supply of circulars for the Week of Prayer, and I gave them to all the ministers in Kingston, and this year they had a united and successful meeting in the Association Hall of the Y.M.C.A., which is, I think, better than having a change each evening to the different churches! I also held the meeting each evening in the Orange Hall at Portsmouth, and all were well attended, and many united with us in prayer and praise. We believe the Lord will bless these efforts of United Prayer." 66 NEW SOUTH WALES.-The Rev. T. S. Forsaith, secretary and treasurer of the New South Wales Branch, writes a very full and interesting letter with reference to the Observance of the Week of Prayer. He says: The Week of Prayer, January 7 to 14, has been more generally observed in this Colony this year than on former occasions. Very successful meetings were held in various parts of the city of Sydney, in the suburbs, and some of the country districts. I have not yet received reports from all the places where meetings have been held, but as many as have reached me are highly encouraging. They speak of a gracious influence pervading the assemblages, much unction characterising the prayers, and earnestness, the addresses. We are hopeful of permanently beneficial results. On the evening of Friday, January 12, the meeting in the city was of a two-fold character, as the committee took advantage of the occasion to present the annual report of this Branch of the Alliance. This annual meeting of the Sydney Branch was, of course, mingled with prayer and praise, in which the subjects for the day were especially remembered." In another part of our issue will be found an account of this meeting. TIBETAN CHRISTIANS OBSERVING THE WEEK OF PRAYER.-The Moravian Missionary at Leh, Ladak, North India, writes: "You may be interested to learn that the Week of Universal Prayer was kept by the Protestant community here this year. As far as I am aware, this has hitherto not been the case. The station here is new, and the Christians very few in number, but we decided to make the attempt. In view of the low intellectual standing of Tibetan Christians, it was found advisable to carefully explain the subjects for every day to the adults. We then met at sunset, and had daily a nice little prayer-meeting, with reading of the Scriptures, and hymns. All the adult males came forward gladly to lead in prayer, and we were pleased to observe how they stuck to the subject, and how in many cases their petitions were very definite and to the point. Also the idea of their being in real union with brethren all over the world seems to have taken hold of them. We are sure that they assembled joyfully, and had a blessing from the Master, who heard their petitions." NEW ZEALAND.-The Rev. A. B. Todd writes from Oamaru: "I have to inform you that in this remote region of the world, the Week of Prayer was observed with interest, as it has been for several years. The meetings were held in different places of worship in Oamaru, and were fairly well attended. As usual, short, pertinent addresses were delivered, conjoined with sacred song and prayer. By means of the meetings Christians were drawn to each other, and brotherly love increased. The services concluded with a united Communion Service of a solemn nature. 'Lo I am with you alway' was fulfilled in the blessed experience of not a few." RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN ARMENIA. OUR correspondent at Constantinople writes: Anatolia College, at Marsovan, for some months was deemed by the Ottoman Government to be a centre of seditious movements among the Armenians. So mistaken a view of a valuable institution is sure to be corrected in time. Friends of the college must not imagine that because Anatolia College has no agent in Great Britain to keep its needs before their minds, it therefore has ceased to exist or pursue its beneficent work. A consistently frank, straightforward, and honest course by its Faculty in dealing with Ottoman officials; the fact that its native corps of instructors as well as its students comprise both Greeks and Armenians; and last, but not least, the capture by the Government of the Russian leaders of the Revolutionary Committee at Marsovan, with all of their papers, including a plan to assassinate certain members of the College Faculty, have convinced the local officials and some, at least, of their superiors, that the suspicion directed against the College lacks sufficient foundation. It is true that the Imperial Firman permanently endowing the College with the land upon which its buildings stand, has not yet been issued. But there is good reason to believe that with the removal of baseless suspicions, difficulties in the way of this token of Imperial favour may also be removed. The College now contains about ninety students, and its classes are continuing in all quietness with the regular studies of the course. The self-help department, by which poor students are enabled to earn their living during their college course, is becoming more and more efficient. The woodworkers' section seems to be the most successful in the matter of profitable returns. Recent exciting events in Marsovan and neighbouring districts of Asia Minor have perhaps militated against spiritual growth among the students. But, on the other hand, these very events have seemed in many cases to draw the young men to serious pondering upon their own weakness and to lead them to a sense of need of help from Him who numbers every hair of the head of His people. The members of the College Faculty are quite over-worked. No opportunity has yet offered for filling the places vacated by Messrs. Thoumaïan and Kayaïan, who were imprisoned in January 1893 on suspicion of connexion with the Armenian Revolutionary Committee. The work of these gentlemen, when added to the regular duties of the remaining members of the Faculty, forms quite a heavy burden. It is hoped that suitable professors may soon be found, to relieve this pressure of overwork. A word may not be out of place here explanatory of the position of Messrs. Thoumaïan and Kayaïan. The circumstances of their exile from Turkey stirred the sympathies of all. It should be borne in mind that neither of these gentlemen are now missionaries of the American Board of Missions. The trustees of the College were compelled to discontinue their salaries from Sept. 1, 1893. The laws of Turkey prohibit the employment by educational institutions of persons who are not authorised to teach by the Department of Public Instruction. This fact, with the exile of Messrs. Thoumaïan and Kayaïan from the Empire, of course prevents any participation by either of these gentlemen in the instruction or the management of Anatolia College. Indeed no school in Turkey can give them employment until the Turkish Government has recovered confidence in them sufficiently to authorise, not only their return to Turkey, but their engaging in the responsible work of moulding the minds of the young subjects of the Sultan. 66 The Rev. Dr. Farnsworth, Missionary of the American Board, writing to the The New York Independent on the situation in Asia Minor-when speaking of a place called Gemerek-says: "The cause has suffered severely from the political plottings of the last three or four years." And, again, we had very large congregations on Sunday, but feel that the virus of sedition has seriously injured, if it has not destroyed, the spirituality of this people." Many other similar quotations might be given from the American Press to show that the agitation for reforms in Armenia has assumed a seditious and revolutionary character. There are parties, not only in this country, but in the United States, and other parts of the world, who are supporting the crusade against Turkey with reference to Armenian reforms: and while we do not deny their right thus to act, we do protest against a wholesale charge of "religious persecution." The Rev. Dr. Wm. Hayes Ward, writing on the Armenian Propaganda in the New York Independent, says : : "I desire to utter a word of warning to the American public in reference to the present Armenian agitation. There is in this country a small and active Armenian propaganda, connected with a similar propaganda in England and Greece, which needs to be understood and guarded against, that we may not be misled as to our policy toward the Turkish Government and the agitation for Armenian autonomy. * * * * * "The great body of Greek Christians in Turkey have no difficulty with the Government, and make no unusual complaint that they suffer worse than the Moslems. The only complaint is from the Armenians; and that comes from the fact that there actually is a seditious movement among the Armenians attempting to overthrow the Turkish rule. It has its headquarters and its leaders in Russia, England, and America, where they are safe, but it has its agents in Turkey; and the action taken by the Turks in suppressing it is often misdirected, but is perfectly justified from the Turkish point of view. There is absolutely no hope of success in rebellion; and all the revolutionists hope for is to stir up their ignorant tools to a revolt, in which enough will be killed to induce the European powers to step in and assume the rule of the country. But that would give Armenia to Russia, and so it is that it is Russian Armenian emissaries who are making most of the trouble. Our American missionaries are all loyal to the Government, recognising the folly of any uprising and the real injury it does to their work. The late Armenian disturbances have made it well-nigh impossible, for the present, to secure any relief for their people or their schools. "The missionaries have felt it wise to keep silence. They have not been free to denounce the Armenian agitators as they would, because it would seem like condoning the real oppression and injustice of the Turks. They cannot denounce the Turkish misrule, because it is under that rule that they live. In many cases they have spoken in terms of cordial praise for the action of Turkish Governors in doing all in their power to protect life and property. But it is time that our American people should know that the methods of the Russian Nihilists must not be excused when introduced by Russian Armenian agitators into Turkey. "The pastor of a large Protestant church in Marsovan is now in this country, lecturing in our churches on the condition of his country, and making extraordinary statements about the speedy overthrow of the Turkish Government. A few weeks ago he made an address at an Armenian demonstration in New York in which the pictures were displayed of three "martyrs," eulogised by him and others as having been murdered for their religion. They were in no sense the victims of religious persecution. They were robbers and dastardly assassins, who were killed in a fight with the Turkish police. "Let it be understood that our American missionaries have a great deal of sympathy for the oppressed Armenians, the stories of whose oppression, especially on the Moosh plain, are almost too horrible to tell; but they have no word or thought of approval for the foolish conduct of the agitators who are trying to provoke the Turks to acts of assassination, just to help the cause. They do not believe that good government is to come in that way, but that it might be secured by legal methods and by the slower processes of education and pressure to which even the Turkish Government is amenable. In Marsovan, the centre of the trouble last year, the Protestants have been obliged to withdraw themselves formally from association with these agitators. It is desirable that our people should not imagine that the Armenians who are here the propagandists of this revolutionary project have the sympathy of those who best know the Armenian situation, or of the better class of the Armenians themselves." CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED FROM FEB. 17 TO MARCH 17, 1894. Mrs. Clapham Mrs. S. How Colonel Basevi Miss and Miss C. G. Morison o Mrs. H. Hinde... I 1 ... I I o Liverpool Subs., per U.P. Meetings- SPECIAL FUND FOR PERSECUTED J. T. Woolley, Esq.... I o Mrs. Bolton Mrs. Orr Paterson O 10 o Miss Raines E. Crewdson, Esq. 1 I O S. Hawkes, Esq.... 4 Alliance House, 7 Adam Street, Strand, London, W.C. 1 I I I O O IO 6 A. W. Wareham 070 O 10 6 I I 1 5 Ο 10 6 ... ... I I 3 1000 I WE would remind our readers that the Annual Conversazione of the Evangelical Alliance is (D.v.) to be held at Regent's Park College, by the kind permission of Principal and Mrs. Roberts, in the afternoon of Thursday May 17, when it is hoped as many friends of the Alliance as can conveniently attend will be present. The meeting will be addressed by the Rev. Thomas Bryson, a missionary from Tientsin, in North China; also by Dr. F. W. Baedeker, who has lately returned from a long journey through Russia and Siberia, of which he will speak; and also by the Rev. J. D. Kilburn, of Hamburg. We hope that there may be a good attendance both to welcome the speakers and to enjoy the opportunity of Christian intercourse, which has always been an interesting feature of this Annual Conversazione. Communications have been received from the Constantinople Committee of the Evangelical Alliance, calling attention to certain cases of oppression under which Christians are suffering in Turkey, which call for redress; but they, on this very account, deprecate the political agitation which is being kept up in England and America on behalf of Armenia, as being most injurious to the interests of Christians in the Sultan's dominions. They emphatically point out the extreme difficulty of appealing for justice to the Turkish Government so long as tidings continually reach them of such a nature as to excite their anxiety and alarm as to the revolutionary movement which is being encouraged by many professing Christians in our country. We can only repeat that such political agitation is most detrimental to the best interests of Christians in Turkey. K |