Sir Herbert (then Major) Edwardes described a remarkable interposition of Divine Providence in the preservation, and then the discovery, of a copy of the New Testament in Pushtoo :

:

"When last we met, the great desideratum of the Mission was to get the Bible in the Afghan tongue. It was supposed never to have been translated into Pushtoo, and two or three officers at Peshawur had undertaken to translate some of the Gospels. I at once remembered that in the year 1948, while acting for the Government of Maharajah Duleep Singh, I had seen a Pushtoo Testament in the hands of a fine old Pathan chief, who, in his youth, at the Hurdwar fair, where he had gone to sell horses, had received it from an English missionary, who told him, if he took care of it, and preserved it from fire and water, it would certainly be of use to him some day when the English should come to his country. 'That day,' said the old chief, ' has now come, and here is the Book uninjured by fire and water;' so saying, he unrolled it for me from many wrappers, and I found that it had been printed at the Serampore Mission, in 1818. I read a few lines of it, and saw that it was Pushtoo in the Persian character. I asked him if he had read it. He said, 'Our Mullah has read it, and says it is a very good book, and quite correct, for father Abraham and father Moses are mentioned in it.' I returned the book to the old man ; and though I fear it was for the noble qualities of himself and his son, and not for the sake of the Bible, yet, certain it is, that Ali Khan Kilachu never had cause to regret that the English came into his country.

"Well, the incident flashed through my mind at once when I heard everybody wondering what was to be done to translate the Scriptures into Pushtoo, and I mentioned it to Major Martin. Application was, I believe, made to the Missionary Library at Serampore; but, strange to say, not a copy could then be found. I then wrote to my old friend, Ali Khan, and recovered the precious volume, and I think it is impossible to consider this incident without being struck with the fact that an Afghan chief was made to preserve one copy of the message from God to his countrymen for thirty years, when all others had been lost or forgotten, and I was thrown where that copy was hid, because five years after I was to fill this chair, and I hope to be the means of promoting its multiplication.”

"The Pushtoo Testament thus found was placed by Major Martin in the hands of the Agra Branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and they at once undertook to reprint 3,000 copies of the Gospels of Luke and John, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistle to the Ephesians."

The beloved recorder of this most interesting fact is also departed to his rest, and still there is no Bible for Afghanistan. A fresh translation was made by the Rev. Isidor Lowenthal, a devoted American missionary, and great Pushtoo scholar, but he was assassinated just as he was commencing the translation of the Old Testament in 1865. Seven more years have passed by, and we find nothing fresh in the Bible Society Reports about a whole Bible for Afghanistan. The cotton fabrics of Manchester find

their way up those dark passages on the mountains; the brave Lohanis, the handsome Tajiks, and the dark Cabulis are the carriers of merchandise from Persia to India by that route. The Persian Bible would only be to the Afghans, what the French Bible is to an educated Englishman. They must have the Bible in their vernacular, which is spoken by five millions of men. The small edition hitherto printed has, it seems, been silently absorbed; and A FEW WEEKS ago there came an inquiry from Lahore to our Bible-house in London, "if there were any remaining stock?" Probably, some Afghans have received their New Testaments when out of their own country, and serving in our army. May we make special prayer, as we did for Rome, that the Bible may find full entrance into Afghanistan, and thence into all Central Asia.

FORM OF A BEQUEST.

I give and bequeath to "The London Bible and Domestic Female Missions," instituted in London, in the year 1857, the sum of

Pounds Sterling, to be paid to their Treasurer for the time being, whose Receipt shall be a sufficient discharge for the same. And I direct the said Legacy to be paid out of my pure personal Estate, applicable by Law to the payment of Charitable Bequests. And I further direct, that, if necessary, my assets shall be marshalled, so as to leave such pure personal Estate, or a sufficient part thereof, applicable to the payment of the said Legacy, and any other Charitable Bequests I may give. And I hereby charge all my personal Estate not applicable to Charitable Bequests, and in aid thereof, my real Estate, with the payment of my Funeral and Testamentary Expenses and Debts, and all Legacies and Payments given or directed by this my Will, or consequent thereon (except Charitable Legacies), in express exoneration of my aforesaid pure personal Estate, so far as may be necessary for securing the payment in full of the said Legacy to the London Bible and Domestic Female Missions, and of any other Charitable Bequest, but not further or otherwise.

FOR LONDON BIBLE AND DOMESTIC FEMALE MISSIONS. Money received between March 16th and April 15th, 1872,

GENERAL FUND.

An Offering from the Parish of

Friends in Dalkeith

Fletcher, Mrs...

£ s. d.

Eva

E. A. S.

Ersham House, Canterbury..

E. M. B...

F. H.

British and Foreign Bible Society..132 12 0

Contributions from Keighley

Cramp, Miss, by

Crowdy, the late Miss Lucy..

Dent, W., Esq...

Earl, Mrs.

Mrs. Watson, by ditto

Evans, Mrs.

Fox, J. H., Esq.
Fairbairn, Rev. J.
Friend, a
Fitzwalter, Lord
Friends at Alton
Friend near Bath
Goad, Mrs.

Griffith, the Misses
G. M. E..

Holroyd, Miss, Sen.
Hutchinson, Miss

Collected by ditto
Hankey, Miss Alers
Horsley, Miss
J. I.

Carried forward

Examined and certified by me, as duly entered in the books of the Mission, JAMES WADDELL (of J. WADDELL & CO.),

Fellow of the Institute of Accountants in London,

New Poultry Chambers, 7, Poultry, E.C.

Received for the Missions and Bible-women Nurses with thanks :-Parcels of clothing, old linen, paper pillows, &c., from Mrs. Neale; the Baroness Berners; Mrs. Blackden; Anonymous; Mrs. Oates; Dorcas Society, by Miss Dawson; B. N. J.; Miss Stringer; M. N.; F. M. K.; Mrs. H. Kemble; the late Miss E. B. B., Ripon; Mrs. Matheson; Mrs. Orchard; Home and Colonial Institution; Hospital tickets from Mrs. Walton; Mrs. Hibberdine; Mrs. Viney; Mrs. Wright, and a parcel of the "Mothers' Friends," from Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton; and of the "British Workwoman," from Messrs. Spalding and Hodge; a Book for the Blind, from Mrs. Bewsher; and a parcel of clothing from Mrs. Brooke, for Cromer street.

ERRATUM.-In last month's list of subscriptions for Mile End New Town District, J. M. Pipe, Esq., should have been J. M. Jupe, Esq.

Contributions to the LONDON BIBLE AND DOMESTIC FEMALE MISSIONS can be received by the Honorary Secretary, Mrs. Ranyard, 13, Hunter-street, Brunswick-square, London, W.C.; by the Hon. A. Kinnaird, M.P., addressed to the Bank of Messrs. Ransom and Co., No. 1, Pall-mall East; also by Messrs. Barclay, Bevan, and Co., 54, Lombard-street; and by Messrs. Nisbet and Co., Berners-street. Money Orders should be made payable at the Post-office in Burton-crescent, W.C.

OUR BIBLE-WOMEN NURSES.

ALTHOUGH We have not added another to the long and interesting list of Societies who hold their public festivals in May, we would yet appeal to those who read the "MISSING LINK," to do what is in their power, and according to their estimate of HOME claims, to lengthen our monthly list of subscriptions. It is shorter than it used to be, and yet London's wants of the MESSAGE from GOD to lift the poor into self-help, and health of body and soul, is never less, and our universally valued Biblewomen Nurses call for more aid instead of less, if their self-denying and itinerating services are to be extended as they might be. We need 2507. a-month for this branch of the agency in London alone. We are approaching the number of fifty nurses, either at work or in training. If our readers could follow them in their walks of mercy, and see them cheerfully and faithfully, for the love of Christ, fulfil the most trying and distasteful offices for the sick poor-such as have been rarely rendered them in their own homes before-there would be no lack of the means to extend this needful work.

We are thankful to have received from the MERCERS' COMPANY a donation of fifty guineas for our general work in the City. They last year sent us several times for the sick poor the valuable remains of their dinners, and the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table were in this case carefully bestowed and most thankfully received. Some striking notes concerning two cases visited by our nurses may be found in this number.

"Mrs. F, Lambeth.-This poor old creature hurt her back more than four years ago, and from that time has been unable to do any work. I have visited her at times for two or three years. She used formerly to work in a dust heap, and was as dirty and degraded as her occupation would indicate. She was brought, however, with dirty face and apron, by another drunken woman, to our Mothers' Meeting some time ago. As they left work, the other said, 'Come, you have got a penny, let's go in and have a drop of gin' (as they were passing a public-house), but ashamed to go in so near where they were known, they went a little higher, where they thought no one could see them, forgetting that there was the eye of God constantly following them. As they went along, they passed a VOL. VIII.-NO. 6.

M