at now, for the first time, a Mussulman may change his faith without
incurring punishment. Several societies labour in Algiers, Egypt,
Palestine, Asia Minor, Greece, and Constantinople. The Euphrates is
being dried up. The Mohammedan power is tottering, and ready to fall!
When it dies and is buried, who will wear mourning at its funeral?

And how strange is the meeting between the distant East and West,
the distant past and near present, visible in the fact, that it is
missionaries from America who now unveil to the dwellers in the land
of the Chaldees, and to the wanderers among the mountains which shadow
the birth-place of the human race, that blessed faith and hope which
dwelt in Abram, as he journeyed at the dawn of history from that old
land, and which has returned thither again in Christian men embued
with Abram's faith, after having accompanied civilisation around the
globe? God's blessing has signally attended the American mission among
the Nestorians. The revival of religion in their schools and churches
has been great and glorious.

May we not exclaim, What hath God wrought! Yet how can any statistics
carry to our hearts a sense of what has been done for immortal souls
by the gospel during this eventful period? What homes have been made
happy by it; what families united in the bonds of love; what sick-beds
soothed; what dying beds cheered; what minds illumined, and what
hearts filled with joy unspeakable, and full of glory!

* * * * *

In close connexion with mission work, we may state the progress made
during the present century in leavening the world with the Word of
God. Previous to the formation of the British and Foreign Bible
Society in 1804, there was not one society in existence whose sole
object was the distribution of the Bible in all lands. There are now
upwards of 50 principal, and 9000 auxiliary Bible societies. In 1804,
the Bible was accessible to only 200 millions of men. Now it exists in
tongues spoken by 600 millions. The London Bible Society alone sends
forth annually upwards of 1,787,000 copies. During the last sixty
years it has issued 39,315,226 Bibles, in 163 different languages, and
in 143 translations never before printed. Its receipts for 1862 amount
to L168,443.[A]

[Footnote A: The American Bible Society circulates upwards of 600,000
copies of the Word of God annually, at home and abroad. Besides
assisting in publishing translations issued by other