ITEMS. SIR JOHN MACDONALD, the present Premier of Canada, began life as a bootblack. He persuaded a wealthy Canadian girl to elope with him when he was only eighteen, and the influence of her forgiving father ushered him into his career. ELIZABETH WORDSWORTH.-Our readers will remember that not a little of the merit attaching to the poetry of Wordsworth must, according to the newer researches, be conceded to his sister. The little volume now in hand shows that a grand-niece of the poet and of his sister may also claim for herself the divine afflatus. Miss Wordsworth has a double interest for our girl friends, in so far that she is the Lady Principal of one of the halls for girls at Oxford. Lady Margaret Hall is at the far end of the "Parks," in a retired corner, and offers a cozy home to fair students. It is not strange that a daughter of the orthodox Bishop of Lincoln, Christopher Wordsworth, should base her Hall on the principles of the Episcopal Church of England; but she receives gladly and treats kindly girls from other churches. Before we leave the Hall, we may add that the Lady Principal, like Mrs. Browning, is a famous Greek scholar.-Independent. PROFESSOR LEPSIUS -This eminent Professor, probably the greatest authority in the world on ancient Egyptology, has just died at his residence in Berlin. His great work, "Monuments of Egypt and Ethiopia," illustrated with 900 large plates, was published by the German Government. His loss will be greatly felt in all scientific circles as well as in the University of Berlin, of which he was so distinguished an ornament. THE following letter, from Dr. Howard Crosby, explains itself: To the Editor of the Independent :—I was delighted to read your editorial this week indicating your determination to support St. John. I had come to that conclusion as soon as I found that Cleveland's reputation was so stained. Although I differ with you on the prohibition question, and consider the doctrine both a blunder and a farce, yet I cannot but respect the character of Governor St. John; and it is character which we should look to in our public men. Pure, honest, conscientious and resolute men are what we want to guide the State, and execute the laws. St. John cannot legislate, if elected President. He can only execute. The prohibition sentiments of St. John are, therefore, no hindrance to my voting for him. But his sterling character can and will show itself if he be elected. The nation can trust him, as neither a self-seeker nor a sensualist. But why throw away votes on St. John, when you know he cannot possibly be elected? This is the knock-down argument of many, who are going to swallow a very bitter pill when they vote for Cleveland or Blaine. But the question is readily answered. We know St. John cannot be elected; but we also know that a nucleus will be made for a party of honesty and virtue, around which pure elements will gather, and in due time, by God's blessing, this party of honesty and virtue will control affairs. St. John will stand out at this election not as the prohibitionist, but as the true man, and the vote for St. John will both express and encourage the conscience of the nation. Let no one fear that voting for St. John is throwing a vote away. It is casting a vote for the future integrity and righteousness of the country. Yours truly, HOWARD CROSBY. New York City, Sept. 19th, 1884. THE fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, THE CHRISTIAN'S FATHERLAND. BY ARTHUR PENRHYN STANLEY. Where is the Christian's Fatherland? Where pilgrim hosts have rushed to lave Where is the Christian's Fatherland? Earth's shadows with the light divine? Or is the Christian's Fatherland' Where, with crowned head and croziered hand, The Ghost of Empire proudly flits, And on the grave of Cæsar sits? O by those world-embracing walls, O in those vast and pictured halls, O underneath that soaring dome, Shall this not be the Christian's home? Where is the Christian's Fatherland ?-He still looks on from land to landIs it where German conscience woke, When Luther's lips of thunder spoke? . Or where by Zurich's shore was heard The calm Helvetian's earnest word? Or where, beside the rushing Rhone, Stern Calvin reared his unseen throne? Or where from Sweden's snows came forth The stainless hero of the North? Or is there yet a closer band, Our own, our native Fatherland? No, Christian, no, not even here, Nor e'en where shone sweet Bethlehem's star; Thy native home is wheresoe'er THE REJOICING OF THE REDEEMED.—I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.Habakuk iii. 18. THE Tenth Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Woman's Christian Temperance Union will be held in Harrisburg, October 15th, 16th and 17th. Mrs. Mary H. Hunt, of Boston; Mrs. J. Ellen Foster, of Iowa; and Mrs. Mary Lowe Dickson, of New York, and other well-known speakers will be present. The special line of work of this organization, for the coming year, is to secure a law requiring the "Effect of Stimulants and Narcotics Upon the Human System," to be taught in all schools under State control. SUMMARY OF NEWS. FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.—Advices from Europe are to the 7th inst. GREAT BRITAIN.-It is said that through the mediation of the Queen and the Prince of Wales, W. E. Gladstone and the Marquis of Salisbury, the Conservative leader in the House of Lords, endeavored to arrange a compromise upon the Franchise and Redistribution bills. It was proposed that the Government submit the Redistribution bill to Parliament at the autumn session, the Marquis of Salisbury agreeing to have the Franchise bill passed by the House of Lords if the redistribution scheme should prove acceptable; the House of Lords to have no control of the Redistribution bill until after the Franchise bill should have become a law. The latest reports, however, are that the negotiations terminated in a rupture, Gladstone refusing to introduce the Redistribution bill before the passage of the Franchise bill. Meetings for and against the Franchise bill were held at various places throughout the kingdom on the 4th. The Committee of the United Kingdom Alliance, a Temperance organization, has adopted a resolution congratulating Neal Dow and the State of Maine on having in the recent election secured such a majority for a measure incorporating a prohibition amendment into the State Constitution. They anticipate great results to the rest of the world from this vote. Two of the telegraph cables connecting Europe and America, those known as the Gould or American cables, are broken. The break is reported to the Western Union Telegraph Co., the lessee of these cables, as being about 700 miles from Canso, Nova Scotia. The steamer Faraday is said to have been in that vicinity grappling for the Bennett-Mackay cable, and it is supposed that the other cables may have been accidentally caught and broken. The BennettMackay cable is also broken. There are several other cables still in operation. FRANCE.-A Cabinet Council held on the 2d discussed the subject of the distress among the working classes in Lyons, and sanctioned a credit of 2,000,000 francs for the purpose of rebuilding the Lyons fortifi cations, thus to provide work for the unemployed. The demolition of the old fortifications will be commenced immediately. The Minister of Public Works has signed a concession for an underground railway. The Gaulois asserts that Prince Bismarck has made a proposition to the Governments of France and England to hold a conference for the purpose of fixing the limits of their respective territories on the coast of Africa. Advices from China on the 5th, announced that Admiral Courbet commenced operations on the 1st against Kelung, on the island of Formosa, by occu pying one of the heights. After an engagement the Chinese evacuated some of their works, which he occupied, and on the 4th he completed the occupation without further resistance. Before proceeding to the coal mines it will be necessary, he says, to fortify the principal positions so that a small force may hold them. The British Ambassador to Paris has been instructed to protest to Prime Minister Ferry against the searching by the French fleet of English trading ships in the Formosa channel. GERMANY. It is asserted that the English Government has proposed that an International Commission be formed to decide upon the rights of British traders in the districts of the Cameroons, Batanga and Angra Pequena, on the west coast of Africa, of which Germany has recently taken possession. DENMARK-The royal palace at Copenhagen was burned on the night of the 3d. The archives of the Rigsdag, and a number of valuable works of art were destroyed. Ten soldiers lost their lives in endeavoring to save some of the effects. ICELAND.-Intelligence has been received of a terrible and destructive hurricane in Iceland on the 11th ult. It is stated that 19 trading vessels and 60 fishing boats were lost and 32 disabled. The loss of life was very great, but the exact number has not been ascer tained. EGYPT.-Sir Evelyn Baring on the 3rd, sent a dis patch to the British Government that Gen. Gordon had attacked Berber, and after bombarding it for some time had entered and captured it. This, it was thought, would enable a messenger to reach Gen. Gordon from Dongola and ascertain his wishes respecting the relief expedition now organizing on the Nile. The Mudir of Dongola sent word that he had information that Gen. Gordon, with four steamers towing several boats, had arrived at Shendy, and finding it deserted, nailed to the trees a proclamation offering pardon to the people. Later it was reported that he had returned to Khartoum, The French, Austrian and Italian members of the Public Debt Commission have commenced a lawsuit against the Egyptian Government and the Provincial Governors, on account of the suspension of the sinking fund. The English member declined to take part in the suit. DOMESTIC -The President, under the provisions of law to that effect, deputed C. E. Coon to act as Secretary of the Treasury in place of the late Secretary Folger, for ten days. On the 24 ult. he appointed W. Q. Gresham, then Postmaster General, to the posi tion, and deputed First Assistant Postmaster Hatton as Acting Postmaster General temporarily, Postmaster Gresham resigning. It is believed that the appointment of Secretary Gresham is intended to be only temporary, but no other person has yet been chosen, or at least announced. The Indian Bureau has completed arrangements for the removal of 100 Tonkawa_Indians from Fort Griffith, Texas, to the Kiowa Reservation, Indian Territory. THE Friends' Review. A RELIGIOUS, LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS JOURNAL. From The Gospel In All Lands. Science Notes... POETRY.-The Patience of Hope-She Had Never Seen a Tree- and the mother, at least, a devoted Christian of HANNAH KILHAM, MISSIONARY OF THE unusually excellent character. They were able to SOCIETY OF FRIENDS TO AFRICA. The life and labors of Mrs. Hannah Kilham afford illustration of two somewhat unusual phases of foreign missionary work: taking up the work after mature years have been reached; and occasional returns home as a natural and anticipated part of duty. The general custom has been for missionaries to go to the foreign field as soon as the studies of early years are finished; and until recently it has not been expected that those who go will return more than once or twice, if at all. Both ideas are purely arbitrary and have done no little harm to foreign missions. The experience of years and religious work at home is a valuable preparation for effective work abroad; and the knowledge that a return home was possible at any time, practicable at comparatively short intervals, and expected as a necessary recuperation, would send into the field many who dread perpetual and hopeless separation from all that is dear. The cause of missions in these days need not ordinarily require any such absolute and final abandonment; and the anticipation of a return or furlough would add to the service an element of cheer now sometimes sadly needed for effective work. Miss Hannah Spurr was born Aug. 12, 1774, in Sheffield, England. Her family were trades-people, give her educational advantages, and she improved them well. As a child she was said to be seriously inclined, but apparently not morbid. Attendance at boarding school and subsequent society at home tended somewhat to gaiety, and she therefore gave up all gay companionship as useless and detrimental. Just when her distinctly religious experience began does not appear. She became a member of the Methodist Church when she was twenty-two years old; but for years she had maintained religious habits. Her union with the Methodists was a result of listening, from childhood, to John Wesley and his fellow preachers. Two years after her public profession of faithin 1798-she was married to Rev. Alexander Kilham, a traveling Methodist minister, who was active and prominent in the separation of the Old and New Connexion Methodists. They were married in April, and in December of the same year Mr. Kilham died after a short and sudden illness, leaving Mrs. Kilham with the care of a young child by a former wife. A child was born to Mrs. Kilham about three months after Mr. Kilham's death, but it soon died, and the widow was left to give her whole strength and care to religious work. In the year 1803 she became a member of the Society of Friends. Mr. Kilham had, before his death, purposed to remove his own relation to that body, and Mrs. Kilham knew his views and sympathized with them. About 1805 she opened a boarding school for girls, in Sheffield, and continued in that work until 1821. As a teacher she was successful, having been well taught herself, and possessing skill and taste in literary and educational work. Outside the school her activities were numerous and varied. Besides a large personal work which was altogether private, she was connected with a number of societies for charitable and Christian work. But her mind was constantly dwelling upon the claims of the great world field, and the needs of the African peoples especially. Missions had then been prosecuted for some years in Sierra Leone, and her thoughts turned to that field. In 1819, her stepdaughter, who had grown to womanhood and completed her education, went to St. Petersburg as a teacher in a girls' school. That left Mrs. Kilham alone, and free to go anywhere. She desired to go out to Africa as school missionary, but at length decided to spend a little time first, in studying the language of Sierra Leone, as there had come, just then, two young natives, one of whom spoke two languages which were in constant use the Jaloof and the Mandingo. Mrs. Kilham, therefore, spent several months in London studying these languages and also Arabic. Soon she gave up school, and after a short visit to Ireland, in 1823, the committee of Friends appointed her to go out to Sierra Leone in school work. She had already prepared some grammatical treatises and a few translations in the Jaloof language. With her went out another woman and two men, besides the two natives who had taught her the languages. They left England, Oct. 26, 1823, and in due time reached the Gambia river. They found that ample and convenient accommodations had been provided for them, and very soon schools of various grades were opened for boys, girls, slaves, etc., and Mrs. Kilham began a systematic visitation of the schools then in operation. After having thus set in order the work, Mrs. Kilham, with two of the others who went out with her, returned to England to report what they had done. The other member of the party remained in Africa, but soon died, and the mission was for a time suspended. For a while after her return to England, Mrs. Kilham was engaged in city mission work at St. Giles, London, and then she was sent out again to Sierra Leone, in October, 1827. This time she was to make special study of the various dialects spoken by the mixed company of natives gathered in Sierra Leone, and report as to their reduction to writing. This done, she again returned to England the next year, 1828, and remained for two years. In 1830 she made her third and last voyage. She was now to undertake the establishment of girls' schools. Premises were secured, clothes made for the twenty-seven girls who were brought together, arrangements perfected for the subsistence of the schools, and then the work of teaching began. The difficulties of the work were great, and the hardships and the climate together were more than Mrs. Kilham could endure. Her health failed, but she kept on with the work. Early in 1832 she went to Liberia to visit the schools there, and after being delayed by storms on the return, and driven back to Liberia, she was attacked by fever, and died after only a brief illness. OUR LONDON LETTER. A largely attended meeting was held at Devonshire House on the 23rd inst. to take leave of four Friends who are about to go forth to labor in distant mission fields. One of these, Henrietta, daughter of Joshua Green, of Stanstead, Essex, started the day following in company with several members of the well-known "China Inland Mission," intending to sail up the great Yang-tse-Kiang into the heart of the Chinese empire. William and Lucy Johnson, of London (the latter a daughter of our Friend Joseph S. Sewell,) with John Sims, of Bethnal Green, London, are about to start in a few days for Madagascar, where the two former have already labored for several years. May they be favored to arrive there in safety, and to cheer the hearts of the little band of workers, who have had special difficulties to contend with lately. The medical department of this mission has been in full activity, as is shown by the following lines from the Friend having the charge thereof. Writing from Antananarivo under date Sixth month 16th, he says: "For weeks over forty, the full number, have been in [the Hospital]. Every bedstead and private ward occupied, and several lying on the floor. Twice we have had to make a private ward out of one of the out-patients' rooms to accommodate a Vazaha [European]. Some of these new adventurers down with fever, poor fellows." Owing to ill-health our friend, Walter Morris, was obliged to leave Denmark for complete rest and change. He therefore spent from five to six weeks with his wife in the Black Forest, Germany, whence he has returned, a fortnight ago, to Denmark. His fostering care and counsel are indeed greatly needed by the little companies of those who profess with us there. He also finds in some of the towns that the people are very willing to have the distinguishing principles of Friends explained to them; they are much misunderstood, and sometimes purposely misrepresented. May the little seed thus sown here and there, in weakness, it may be, and discouragement, yet not without faith in the Divine Husbandman, be favored, in His own time, to bring forth fruit to His praise. London, Ninth mo. 27th, 1884. THE recompense of simple trustfulness-The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.--Ruth ii, 12. RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE TWENTY-TWO MEMBERS, at last accounts, belonged to the Monthly Meeting of Friends in Constantinople, Turkey, and their number was being constantly increased. So far, the space at their place of worship being small, women were not included; but this is likely to be remedied before long. A MISSIONARY of the London Society in South India, F. A. Russell, calls attention to a curious contradiction in the attitude of intelligent young Hindus toward Christianity. He says that, while bitterly antagonistic toward the existing form of missionary enterprise, they feel and express a deep sympathy with the spirit of Christianity. He ascribes the contradiction to the different methods pursued in the educational and the evangelistic work. In college the teaching is not dogmatic, and Christianity, as they read of it in the Bible and hear it explained, aims, as they cannot help acknowledging, at the expansion of the individual. Preaching is largely to the lower castes, and deals much in denunciation of Hinduism. It is this that cultivated young Hindus shrink from. To remedy this state of things Mr. Russell thinks there is needed "a class of men who will sympathetically help the Hindu to formulate his problem; men who, without sacrificing what is distinctive of Christianity, will yet seek points of unity rather than points of difference with Hinduism, and who will teach how the Christian doctrine of the Universal Divine Fatherhood and its allied doctrine of the universal Divine-human Sonship constitute a call to all men to gather up that which is best in every faith and let the new development crystalize round Christ, who is at once the Goal of History and the Son of Man.” THE DAILY PAPERS announced lately the death of Jerry McAuley. He had been for some time in failing health, but died at last suddenly, of hemorrhage. Jerry McAuley, a jail-bird, twice, we believe, in the State prison, has for some years past been doing more faithful Christian work in this city than many a famous minister. We want no better evidence of Christianity than would be afforded to any unprejudiced witness who should attend one of his prayer meetings as formerly held in Water street, and more recently in the Cremorne Mission, and see the drunkards and thieves and harlots who had been reclaimed from their evil courses by the power of a living Christianity, and hear the testimony of men and women living in poverty, in crowded tenements, surrounded by an atmosphere as pestilential and noisome in its moral as in its physical influence, and yet rejoicing, not merely in the hope of a future glory, but in the possession of a present, living Christ, converting their one room into a home, and their life from one of despair to one of contentment, love, and joy. We do not know that there are any statistics of Mr. McAuley's work, nor is it a kind which can be told by statistics; but it was thoroughly Christian in its purpose, divine in its power, and blessed in its results, and the story of his life, if it could be told, would show how great simple, faithful, courageous heart and manifested is the power of a living Christianity enshrined in a in a single conscientious, consistent life, to turn darkness into light, sorrow into joy, and despair into hope.-Christian Union. THE PORTLAND VASE. This is a celebrated work of art in the British Museum, where it is preserved with extreme care. It is not large, being only about ten inches high, but it is considered the most precious thing of the kind ever fashioned by man. Before its value was understood, the Duchten times that sum would not buy it now. ess of Portland gave a thousand guineas for it, but It is one of those urns which the ancient Etruscans, the people who inhabited Italy before the Romans came there, used to make in order to hold the ashes of their dead. From one of these old cemeteries it came into the hands of Alexander Severus, emperor of Rome, who used it for the ashes of one of his family. Sealed up in a magnificent, sarcophagus, it reposed in the Monte del Grano, near Rome, from the third to the sixteenth century, when it was brought to light fresh as when first made between two and three thousand years ago. The material of the vase is a sort of dark blue glass, white enamel, which has been cut away like a camover which has been laid a coating of transparent riage of Peleus and Thetis. eo, leaving an exquisite representation of the mar be in the Museum, seized a rock specimen near by, In the year 1845, a drunken man happening to thousand fragments. Some of our older readers and aiming at the Portland Vase shivered it into a may remember the cry of execration which arose from the lovers of art all over the civilized world. at the news. What could be done? They hustled the drunkard off to prison, and then with reverential care they gathered up all the splinters and cemented them together in the old shape, doing what they could to conceal the fractures. We were thinking over the circumstance the other day; when it occurred to us: "Why that was a representative act. What that drunkard did forty years ago, in the British Museum, is being done all around us continually. Strange to say, the Portland Vase was shaped very much like a heart. Ah! take a human heart, inside filled with the ashes of departed joys, and outside a network of cameos cut in deep by sorrowful experience, what more exquisitely tender? what less fit for rough handling? We have seen a drunken boy reel into the presence of his widowed mother. That look of agony!-it meant that a stone had crashed into a heart worth ten thousand Portland Vases! Perhaps the most. sensitive and charming thing God ever fashioned on the earth is a young wife's sweet affection; yet stones prepared in our saloons and hurled by a drunken husband's hand, are shivering them on every side.-The Amendment Herald. |