sanguine, the work, even in point of numbers, cannot be pronounced a failure. A membership of 250 in Rome is not a bad result of twenty-one years' labour. And even that number is less than half of those who have been gathered into the church during that time. Mr. Wall reports more than six hundred baptisms since he commenced his labours there. Most of the converts are poor; so that, in addition to those who have been removed by death, many have been lost through emigration to different parts of the world, caused by their straitened circumstances. But, after allowance is made for these losses, the result is by no means small as compared with other fields, whether at home or abroad. In Genoa, where the work was commenced only twelve years ago, the Sala in which the meetings are held has been crowded ever since the station was opened; and though only one agent, a native evangelist, has been employed during two-thirds of the time, we have now a church numbering seventy-five members. And the rate of success is increasing year by year, rather than diminishing. Mr. Wall reports forty baptisms in Rome during last year, a larger number than the average of previous years; and, if that large number is partly to be traced to the greater number of agents employed, the same remark does not apply to other stations, where single labourers report from twelve to fifteen baptisms-an encouragement to open stations in cities where we are now doing nothing.

HOPEFUL ENCOURAGEMENTS.

Notwithstanding the disappointment felt by some, it may fairly be affirmed that few Missions after so short a time have been attended

with equal success. In addition to the churches in large towns, containing an aggregate of some five hundred members, the truth has penetrated into villages and remote country districts, and the Word of God, in whole or in part, and suitable Gospel tracts have been circulated throughout the length and breadth of the land. And not the least encouraging feature is that a band of evangelists has been raised up in connection with the various churches, such as few, if any, Missions of the same age have been able to produce, and who are likely to be of immense service in preaching the Gospel to their countrymen. Then, too, the feeling of the people towards the Evangelicals has greatly changed. The authorities, who formerly winked at the riotous proceedings of those who assailed them, now afford them protection. "Two years ago a law was passed specially providing to protect them against molestation in their public services.

Any man now disturbing their worship is liable to a fine and a term of imprisonment varying from one to twelve months. When the King visited Turin on the occasion of his brother's death, he gave a sum of money to be distributed among the poor. This was divided among the parish priests of the city, according to the number of the poor in their district, and a portion of it was placed in the hands of our missionary for distribution among the poor of his congregation. Perhaps the most striking evidence is that supplied by Mount Orfano, a village in the Alps, reported in the Scottish Baptist Magazine for January, 1892, where the people, becoming dissatisfied with their parish priest, absented themselves from church and sent for a Protestant preacher; and in a court of law it was decreed that they had a right to the place of worship in which they had been accustomed to assemble-the only one in the village-so that a Methodist minister now preaches the Gospel regularly in the edifice in which confession used to be practised and mass performed.

Such signs of progress ought to encourage the friends of the Mission, as they are cheering to the missionaries in the field. "What," writes the missionary previously quoted, "is to be the future of that country no one can tell; but the thought sometimes presents itself that, in the providence of God, Italy may again raise herself to as proud a position as she has ever occupied. Long centuries of misrule have had their baneful effect on the people, rendering impossible the exercise of those qualities which go to build up and hold up a strong nation; but still we have every reason to believe that in the Italian of to-day is the same stuff that made his forefathers the conquerors of the world, and the same keen intellect that made Rome the centre of the Catholic hierarchy. The dream of my life is this that the Italian people shall again become a great power in the world; no more a military, civilising, and all-conquering power as at first; no longer a repressive, error-propagating, and debasing power as in the middle ages; but rather as a Christian people living and labouring for that Saviour whose name they have falsely borne, but whom, alas! they have not known."

We, too, have our dream, which we confidently believe will ultimately become a reality, that, under the quickening influence of the Gospel, Italy will produce men of mental power not inferior to those who in former ages constituted her glory: Galileos whose discoveries in the

"A Plea for Italy as a Mission-field," p. 11.

spiritua world will eclipse those of the great astronomer in the physical; Dantes by whom these discoveries shall be embodied in the music of imperishable words; enlightened Leonardos and regenerated Raphaels, who shall produce Last Suppers and Transfigurations more true, but not less beautiful, than those which have made these names famous throughout the world; evangelised M. Angelos, who shall embody the Christian faith in cathedrals still grander than that of St. Peter's at Rome; Savonarolas, not less sanctified, but more evangelical than the martyred monk; converted Cavours, who shall help to realise the idea with which that name is inseparably associated-the grand idea of "a free Church in a free State"; sanctified Cæsars, and gracious Garibaldis, who shall direct the forces of the Church against the hoary wrongs which still shed their accursed influences over that fair and beautiful land. In short, we have dreamed that in our churches men might be raised up not unworthy to represent, in every department of effort, the great men who have rendered her annals illustrious. We have called this a dream; but it is more than a dream. Already it is becoming a reality. We have heard men in our little churches whom we could only compare to some of our greatest preachers at home, some of them students in the university who, returning to their own districts to pursue their secular avocations, but bearing with them the truths they have imbibed, may yet be expected to make their voices heard and their influence felt in the future history of their country. We have seen goodly numbers of men, such as could not be gathered together at such a time and for such a purpose, in many of the largest churches in this highly favoured land, met on a week-night to read and study the Word of God with a degree of interest which we have never seen surpassed, thus laying the foundation of strong and stable churches. From these and many other things we have hope for Italy. We trust that when the different societies shall carry on their work with the wisdom derived from experience, presenting the Gospel in its purity and simplicity, and without material inducements, leaving it to produce its own impression, the Word of God may have free course and be glorified among the Italian people, until Italy, as one of the evangelising powers of the world, shall take her place by the side of our own country, of which we are accustomed to speak, and with good reason, because of what Christianity has made her, as

"Great, glorious, and free,

First gem of the ocean, first isle of the sea,”