Some representative facts gathered from recent reports.

Dr. MacKay's first convert on the island, hastily beat the drum as if to call the villagers to worship, but his object was to gather them all for the work of rescue. Some of them were sent to the ship through the heavy sea to let the crew know that there were no savages and that if they wished to come ashore there was a Christian chapel which would be placed at their disposal. The captain, his wife and child, and the entire ship's crew were safely housed in that place of refuge, and before the close of the day twenty-one Europeans and Americans met one hundred and forty-six native converts for a service of thanksgiving and worship in that house of prayer. "Note well," says Dr. MacKay in reporting this incident, "that twenty-five years ago that crew would have been murdered, the vessel plundered, and no one left to tell the tale." 1

At the recent Annual Meeting of the Rhenish Missionary Society, Herr Pilgram drew a striking contrast between the state of society thirteen years ago and at the present time in the Toba District of Sumatra. "Then everything was unsafe; no one dared to go half an hour's distance from his village. War, robbery, piracy, and slavery reigned supreme. Now there is Christian life everywhere, and churches full of attentive hearers. . . . The faith of our young Christians is seen in their deeds. They have renounced idolatrous customs; they visit the sick and pray with them; they go to their enemies and make reconciliation with them. This has often made a powerful impression on the heathen, because they saw that the Christians could do what was impossible to heathen-they could forgive injuries." 2

Two Bavarian missionaries were chatting one day with a group of converts in Central Australia, when the conversation turned upon the moral character of their lives before their conversion, and it was asked if any of them had ever committed a murder. Out of nine converts who were present only one had never killed a man. But Christianity had wrought a mighty change in each case and given the strength of a renewed nature.3

In the northeastern extremity of Australia, upon Cape York peninsula, is Mapoon, where the Moravians, in connection with the United Presbyterians of Australia, have established a mission among the Papuans, who were known as degraded cannibals sunk in immorality, and especially bloodthirsty and treacherous. The result of their labors

1 The Missions of the World, March, 1895, p. 111. 2 Quoted in The Chronicle, February, 1895, p. 48. 3 The Chronicle, June, 1895, p. 174.

has been wonderful. "Four years ago no unarmed vessel dared to put into Port Musgrave, owing to the reputation of the Batavia River blacks for savagery and cannibalism. Now they come there to make repairs. About two years ago a party of shipwrecked sailors were rescued from cannibal blacks, fed and cared for, and led through miles of jungle to Mapoon by the mission Papuans, without the knowledge of the missionaries until they arrived there." 1

Among the Kols in India has just been celebrated the jubilee anniversary of the establishment of the Gossner Mission, a report of which was given in Der Missionsfreund, the organ of the Berlin Missionary Society. The number of professing Christians connected with the mission is about forty thousand, and their jubilee commemoration was a season of Christian enthusiasm and rejoicing over the power of the Gospel. The mission was begun in 1845, when the people were given to devil-worship and led a deeply degraded life. "Surely such a Jubilee," writes the chronicler, "is a grand testimony to missionary work, to the presence and power of the Spirit, as in the apostolic days, in reclaiming the most abject, and raising them speedily to a high plane of earnest Christian faith and life, and consequently of civilization." 2

The late Rev. Dr. Tyler, a veteran missionary among the Zulus, stated that "after forty years of service the contrast between the time when I entered and left the field was very wonderful. Witchcraft had ceased, the cruelties practised by spirit-doctors were ended, superstitions had lost their stronghold, and a knowledge of Gospel truth was widely diffused. . . . The reports of an annual meeting of Zulu Christians a few years ago showed the contributions for that year to have amounted to $2573 for 1509 members, or the sum of $1.70 for each church-member." 3

"Look at our Christians," writes, in a private letter, a missionary in Assam. "What attractive Christian homes you can find in Sibsagor! what patriarchal simplicity and purity among our Christian Kols! See heathenism with its incredible vice, and then see our hundreds of Christian homes in upper Assam, with their simple, beautiful family life, and you will then know what Christianity has done for these people. Come and see our church in Sibsagor, full of clean, well-dressed attendants, all of whom are Christians. You will find among our sixteen hundred Christians no paupers, no beggars, no criminals. Go to

1 The Missionary Review of the World, July, 1896, p. 494.

2 The Mission World, November, 1896, p. 504.

3 Life and Light for Woman, August, 1895, p. 356.

the jail here, which is full, but you will find no Christian in it. Come and see, and you will be convinced that Christianity is the power to lift these heathen people out of their degradation." 1

From the scenes of recent cruel massacre at Erzingan, in Eastern Turkey, is reported the death of a convert from Mohammedanism, who was once a member of that fierce community of whose cruel outrages upon Christians we have lately heard so much. The Rev. W. N. Chambers, of the American Board, in writing of him says: "His life had been stormy, but his death was peaceful and triumphant. His wife, still a strong Moslem, used to say, 'I am thankful to the Protestants. My husband used to blaspheme and beat me. Now he treats

me with gentleness and consideration.' ” 2

In the far north of our own Continent the venerable Archdeacon Phair writes from the Diocese of Rupert's Land of the change which the Gospel has produced in the lives of Indian converts. Gambling, conjuring, dancing, and all sorts of heathenism have given way before the mighty power of the Gospel. "The men who, with painted face and plaited hair, spent their days and nights in yelling and beating the drum are now found 'clothed, and in their right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus.' Outside the Gospel there is not enough power in the world to accomplish a change like this." 3

Amid the darkest heathenism of the Pacific Islands may be gathered some of the most striking testimonies of changed lives through the influence of the Gospel. In a recent article by the Rev. Robert Mackenzie, on "A Century's Conquest in the Pacific," is a record of humanity redeemed from the vilest depths of heathen abomination and cruelty to reformed character, righteous living, and humane customs, which cannot be surpassed in the earth's history. Group after group of savage islands has been transformed and cleansed, and new men and women have sprung up out of a horrid environment of licentiousness and bestiality. If there were no other chapter of Gospel triumph in the history of missions, this alone would be sufficient to demonstrate the power of Christianity to regenerate society.4

When the Jubilee of the Wesleyan Methodist Mission in Fiji was celebrated in 1885, the Rev. James Calvert wrote concerning it that fifty years previous there was not a Christian in all Fiji, but then there was not an avowed heathen left. Cannibalism had for some years been

1 The Rev. C. E. Petrick (A. B. M. U.), Sibsagor, Assam.

2 The Missionary Herald, July, 1893, p. 283.

3 The Church Missionary Gleaner, May, 1894, p. 67.

4 The Missionary Record, December, 1894, p. 336.