vertence, along with the others, as Dr Alexander's, whereas it was by Professor Atwater of Princeton. It says little for his critical powers, that he should have taken the writing of Professor Atwater for that of Dr Alexander; but the reader will pardon the editor's want of discrimination, for the essay is the best in the book, and admirably supplies what otherwise would have been a want. Dr Atwater is scarcely known even by name on this side of the Atlantic; but the essay on "The Matter of Preaching," as well as his contributions in recent years to the "Princeton Review," shew him to be no ordinary man. His vigorous English, his correct, as well as comprehensive views of truth, and the interest he throws over every subject he discusses, rank him high among living theological writers.

News of the Church.

PAISLEY-CONGREGATIONAL MISSION.

A SOIREE in connection with this mission was held in their new hall, Well Street, on the evening of Tuesday, 28th June,-Rev. G. Clazy in the chair. After a plentiful supply of tea, &c., appropriate addresses were delivered by several gentlemen connected with the church. In the course of the evening, S. M. Symington, Esq., presented Mr Archd. Trotter, missionary to the congregation, with a beautiful edition of " Henry's Commentary," in nine volumes. The presentation was from the poor people in the mission, and is their third testimonial to Mr Trotter during the five years he has laboured amongst them. The meeting was enlivened with vocal music, accompanied on the harmonium. On retiring, all admitted that they had spent a very happy evening. The hall was completely filled with the mission people.

Missionary Intelligence.

To the Rev. John Kay, Sec. R. P. Synod's F. Mission.

ANEITYUM, NEW HEBRIDES, December 29, 1863. MY DEAR SIR,-In a lady's letter, it is said, the most important matter is put into the postscript. I shall not, I trust, be accused of any want of respect for those elegant letter writers when I reverse this order, and place the most important part of mine in the beginning. The most notable event that has occurred in this mission since I last wrote you, is Mr Copeland's marriage. On September 21st he was married to Mrs Johnston, widow of Rev. S. Johnston, the missionary who died on Tanna. Our excellent sister took a deep interest in the Tannese. Since her return to this island, after the death of her husband, she has resided with Mr and Mrs Geddie, and has commended herself very much to their esteem. She has taught the orphan school at their station, and made herself generally useful in the mission. She is a lady of earnest missionary spirit, sedate and prudent, and those who have read her letters in the Nova Scotia Missionary Register will be able to form some estimate of her literary powers. From all that we have seen and heard of her, we trust she will make a valuable helpmate to our worthy brother.

As I formerly mentioned, Mr Copeland has carried on the work of this station with great efficiency and success. He has acquired an extensive and minute knowledge of the language, both in its words and idioms; he speaks it with great fluency and effect; he is highly respected and much esteemed by the natives. We found both churches and schools better attended, in proportion to the population, than we had ever seen them. had all the mission premises and schoolhouses on this side of the island in excellent condition. So far as mission buildings are concerned, the effects

A a

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of the hurricanes have almost disappeared. The most distinct traces that remain are some rows of strong props in the church and in the teachers' institution, standing like sentinels, or rather, leaning forward with a fixed determination to await another hurricane. Before we arrived I had serious thoughts of removing the mission premises to another locality, but we found everything so much as we had left them, that we resolved to make no change for the present. However, as an experiment for health, I am about to erect two rooms on an eminence, about ten minutes' walk from our present house. We intend to sleep there, and if any mission family should be residing here for any length of time, each family might, if it were thought desirable, have a house of their own.

Mr and Mrs Geddie, with two of their children, and a native chief and his wife, are about to leave this island on a visit to Nova Scotia. They have lived and laboured upwards of fifteen years on Aneityum; the health of both of them has suffered considerably, and they stand much in need of a change. They intend to sail from Melbourne to Liverpool, and thence to Nova Scotia; it is highly probable, however, that they may visit Scotland before sailing from Liverpool. They leave this island in a state remarkably different from that in which they found it in 1848. Their station is one of the most beautiful for its situation in these seas. The church, which was burnt down during the time of the measles, has risen like the phoenix from its ashes, and will bear a favourable comparison with any church I have seen in the South Seas; it does great credit both to the missionary and the people. Mr and Mrs Copeland will occupy their station till the

arrival of the new mission vessel.

On

This

The ravages of the hurricanes and the fire have disappeared. In these tropical regions nature soon casts off her torn and tattered vestments, and arrays herself again in robes of the richest green; and the industry of man soon repairs the injuries done to his workmanship, but the ravages of disease and death are more abiding. The effects of the measles and the dysentery that followed, and the sequelae, the "dregs" of both, will be visible on this island for many a long day. When we left the island, four years ago, the population was about 3500, now it is scarcely 2200. this side of the island the population was nearly 1900, now it is scarcely 1100. About 1000 people were laid in their graves in six months, and since that time the deaths have been twice the number of the births. side of the island has suffered much more severely than the other. The hurricanes spent their force on this side, and hence the destruction of food was much greater, and the partial famine that followed has told more on the physical strength of the people. It is those foreign epidemics that tell so fearfully upon the population of those islands. On Rarotonga, although the measles were much less fatal than they were here, yet it was, I think, ten years before the births equalled the deaths. On this side of the island this year, the births have amounted only to 30, while the deaths have amounted to 75. According to the rate of mortality in London, the deaths here should have amounted only to 25; the mortality of three years has been crowded into one. We are, however, directing special attention to the sanitary condition of the people. There is no doubt that a great amount of this mortality is preventible. If Miss Nightingale and Mr Chadwick, with their coadjutors, have reduced the ordinary mortality in the British army to the extent of a regiment in the year, we are in hopes that, under the blessing of God, and by paying special attention to the laws of health and disease, we may be able to bring the island to something like the normal condition of life. Want of sufficient food, malaria, and exposure to cold, seem to be three of the principal causes of disease and mortality on this island. The natives are naturally improvident in their habits-they live from hand to mouth. This does well enough in ordinary

cases; but when anything occurs to disturb their ordinary mode of living, and destroy the ordinary supply of food, they have nothing to fall back upon. They have, therefore, at those times, to eat all sorts of rubbish ; their strength sinks, and disease follows. We are urging them strongly to cultivate much more extensively than they have hitherto done. When the island was more populous, a large proportion of the people lived inland, but since they became fewer, they incline to live near the shore. They always like to build their houses in low, sheltered spots, under trees. We find the people who live in the high inland districts to be far the most healthy, and we are doing all we can to get the shore people to leave those low flat districts where the malaria hovers, and build their houses in higher and more healthy localities. Cold is something relative, rather than real. Otherwise it might seem strange that any one could ever suffer from cold where the thermometer never falls below 58°, and very seldom below 62°. But, strange to say, our mild winters here are as trying on the natives as the frosty winters are to those who live in the hyperborean regions of John o' Groats. We are, therefore, endeavouring to get them to construct their houses of more substantial materials, and with more regard to heat and domestic comfort, than they are in the habit of doing. We supply them with medicines when they are sick, but we have far more faith in general sanitary measures than in any medicines we can administer. They are, moreover, in a transition state from barbarism to civilization. change has been great and rapid. They are obtaining clothing, but often they do not know how to use it to advantage, and it becomes a bane, and not a blessing. They get themselves wet, and sit down, or even lie down, in their damp clothes, and rise next morning in a high fever. But they are a docile people, and we trust that they will survive all these acclimating processes, and rise up and continue à Christianised and civilised community.

The

In August last, the dead of winter, the coldest month in the year, influenza prevailed over the whole island; almost every person was affected by it; all labour was at a stand still; a great number died, either during its prevalence, or from its effects. Mr Geddie said he had never seen influenza so fatal during all the years he has been on the island. The weather during the past year has been exceedingly changeable; the elements have been often in commotion, and the extremes of heat and cold have frequently alternated. In the middle of August we had two rather heavy earthquakes; the first on the evening of the 15th, at about half-past seven o'clock, the other on the 17th, much about the same time of night. The first was considerably heavier than the second here, but the second must have been heavier in the distance; for about a quarter of an hour after the earthquake, as we were all sitting reading, we heard a loud rushing sound, as if a strong gust of wind had been coming along among the trees. We expected every moment that it would be sweeping over the house; but the sound continued, and seemed coming nearer, but the wind never came. Immediately the natives came in to say, that the sea was coming rushing in. Mr Copeland and I went out with a light, and there was the sea-it was just about high tide-boiling and foaming, and rushing up as far as our garden gate. In a short time we had the satisfaction of seeing the sea go out, which it continued to do till it might be about half tide. In about twenty minutes it came in again, but not so far as before. It went on in this way, coming in and going out, for more than two hours, when it recovered its equilibrium. The tidal wave seemed to come from the north-east, at least there is an opening in the reef in that direction from the mission station, and the centre of the wave, which came in through that opening, struck the mouth of the small stream which runs past the west side of our premises. On the following day Mr Copeland and I measured the height

of the rise, at different points, for about two miles. In the centre of the wave we found it had risen four feet and a half higher than the top of high tide, but gradually diminished till it was not more than one foot above high tide mark. On some parts of the other side of the island the sea rose still higher than it did here. Very providentially, no serious injury was done anywhere. We have not yet learned the particulars, but it would appear as if the earthquake had been felt severely on Erromanga. At least there has been a decided reaction in favour of Christianity on that island within the last few months. We have two teachers there from this island, and they write us earnestly requesting us to send other four. The chiefs are putting a stop to war, and urging the people to become Christian. Rangi, the Malay from Singapore, who instigated the murder of Mr and Mrs Gordon, has been banished by the Christian party from their district. Our teachers have obtained the axe with which Mr Gordon was killed. This reaction, it is said by some, has been occasioned by the terror arising from the earthquake.

In the beginning of September the "Mary Miller" arrived here on her way from Sydney to China, having on board fifteen cases of Testaments, and all the goods shipped for us from Liverpool, consisting of mission boxes for Mr Paton, Mr Copeland, and myself, and my own personal supplies, amounting to upwards of a hundred packages in all. They were all landed safe on Aneityum; but it is after goods are landed that our labour and risk begin. My share of these, by far the heaviest, had all to be brought round from the harbour to this station, a distance of 12 or 14 miles, in open boats, over a fickle and treacherous sea. Very providentially, both Mr Copeland and I have an excellent whale-boat each, and we can manage very well with moderately sized packages; but it is difficult to make people at home comprehend our circumstances, and some of them will persist in making up packages nearly as big and as heavy as the iron bedstead of Og king of Bashan, which was preserved in the museum at Rabbath. These do very well at home, where carts, drays, and railway trucks, cranes, pulleys, and every form and combination of the six mechanical powers, can be so laid under contribution to lessen and lighten labour, that in many cases men have little to do but sit and look at the elements working for them. It is quite different here, however, where the mechanical powers and the mechanical arts are still in their feeblest infancy; where the heaviest loads must be lifted and carried by human hands, and where slightly constructed whale-boats are the only vehicles employed for the transit of heavy goods. However, by borrowing a large cargo boat from one of the trading establishments on the island, we got all safely round, except one large boatful which we were taking in tow, and which was upset; two packages of my own were lost, and seven boxes, partly my own and partly the mission's, were all more or less damaged by the sea. On the occasion referred to it was a beautiful calm morning. I set off to the harbour with two boats well manned. The sea and the wind promised equally to be in my favour. Before we got round the wind began to rise a little, but nothing to cause any anxiety. We stayed two hours at the other side, and came off with the one boat filled for being rowed, and the other for being towed. We proceeded well enough for about three miles. I was in the boat that was to be rowed. The other boat was under the charge of Simeona, a native teacher from Aitutaki, who had gone home with us as a sailor in the "John Williams," an excellent boatman. Both boats were under sail, and were scudding along rapidly under a fair, but now rather strong wind, when all at once, Neptune and Notus-the sea and the south wind-conspired against us; the one seized the boat, the other laid hold of the sail, and in less than no time they had everything capsized. We heard a cry, and on looking round-for we were only a short distance before them

we saw the catastrophe. We instantly lowered our sail, and pulled back to their assistance. Nothing was to be seen but the gunwale of the boat, the heads of men, and the corners of boxes.

Some of the men were holding on by the boat, others by the boxes. I naturally inferred that they were holding on to save their lives, and hastened to their rescue, to take them up into our boat; but no, it was not to save their lives, but to save the boat and the boxes, that they were holding on so firmly. One man was holding on by two boxes, and when we came near him, one of our crew, unbidden, leaped out of the boat, and seized hold of one of them. They called out to us to go ashore and get our boat unloaded, and then come and assist them. This we did. We were about half a mile from the shore, and opposite a native settlement with a very indifferent boat harbour. After about two hours' very hard work we got all the boxes that floated, and the two boats, high, if not dry, on the beach. All the natives, both those in the boats and those belonging to the settlement, behaved remarkably well on the occasion. They saved everything that could be saved; but they could not save all, for the greedy deep seized upon a crate of crockery, the contents of which my wife had carefully selected with her own hands in Glasgow, and upon a large case containing, as I suppose, a mangle, an iron bedstead, a letter copying press, and I know not what besides, and, holding them with a miser's grasp, hurried them down full fifty fathoms, and stowed them away in his dark coral caves, deaf to everything like prayers or tears, and refusing to restore them for any ransom. The nereids danced for joy in their silver slippers, and hailed with a shout of delight this unexpected trophy. Mangle and bed, how useful! china and crystal, how elegant! how beautiful for decorating their sea-green grottoes! Such a windfall had not come their way in these parts within the memory of living man. My wife particularly regretted the mangle. We could get along without the crockery, but the mangle above all things-it was to be such a saving of female labour. She had scarcely given full utterance to her disappointment, when we opened a case, sent by friendly ladies in Edinburgh, and which was found to contain a washing machine, and, what was still better, although a part of the machine itself, a mangle! and one greatly superior in some respects to the one that had been lost. Before I had practically felt the loss of my copying press, I received a letter informing me, that owing to the kindness of a well-known friend, there was a copying machine that had arrived for me in Sydney. This one, I had reason to believe, was much better than the one in the custody of Neptune. It is in this, as in other ways, that a kind Providence

sometimes rebukes a weak faith.

We lost no time in letting the natives have access to the Testament. Upwards of a thousand copies of it are now in their hands, and they are reading them with great interest. As they are being paid for, not by individuals, each one for himself, but by contribution from the community as a whole, we have done with the Testaments as we did with all our other books: we have distributed them by merit, giving them to the best readers first, and only to those who can read tolerably well. We make them prizes to be contended for, but prizes which every one may obtain. The remaining thousand are suspended, not in terrorem over their heads, but as a glittering prize before them, to stimulate their industry and awaken their activity. It is a fine volume, of 381 pages, small 8vo, pica type. The paper is good, and the type remarkably clear; the printing is beautiful and correct. There are about a quarter of a million of words in the volume, and you might count nearly all the typographical errors on the tops of your fingers. The binding is firm and elegant; they are all strongly bound in calf. The