I'S FRIGHTENED TO DIE.

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"Come through my ward when you have seen Mary," I said to my sister; "I shall see by your face how it is with her as you pass.' It seemed best for one to see her alone, as she was so weak, and yet I hardly knew how to wait for the news which I longed to hear. So I began to read to my old women whilst my sister went to Number 6 ward. I had not read long when the door opened, and I saw my sister's face was radiant. Passing down the ward she just stopped to say: "It is more than peace! it is unspeakable joy!"

As soon as I had finished reading I hastened to Mary's room, and heard the glad story from her own lips. Mary was sitting up in bed, her face shining with joy.

"Tell me, dear Mary, how the joy came," I said, as I sat down . by her bedside.

"Well, ma'am, you know you didn't come and I was sair frightened. I thought perhaps you would help me to get saved, and I watched, and I watched, but you didna come. Ay, and I knew I was lost, and there was nabody to help me. I was going straight doon till hell. You had tellt me He wad save me, and so I just cried oot till Him, and I tellt Him nabody wad help me; wad He? And He took and saved me just as I was, sa bad, sa awfu' bad; and astead of being frightened, I's sa, sa glad!"

As she told me this the Roman Catholic nurse listened with awe, and never had I felt more conscious of the presence of the Lord as "Jehovah-Rophi." He loved her freely, and had healed her, and now she was "ministering to Him" in the simple telling of the story of her healing.

Mary was permitted to live some time longer to testify to the wonderful joy of salvation, and to receive the full forgiveness of her father, who never expected to see his long-lost daughter again.

A few days afterwards, on going into her room, we found Mary pleading with her father and uncle, beseeching them to come to Jesus, who had forgiven her so "much."

So complete was the change that those around her looked on her with reverent love, and she fell asleep in Jesus, surrounded by tenderness seldom shown in a workhouse ward.

As my sister and I left the room from which Mary's ransomed spirit had fled to Jesus, the nurse, wiping away her tears, said hurriedly in a whisper :

"Oh! ma'am, if ever I leave this place I'll come to your church and be of your religion, for never did I see sich a change in aye body afore."

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A PIONEER MISSIONARY.

A PIONEER MISSIONARY.

SKETCH OF WILLIAM ELMSLIE.

"MEDICAL MISSION " has become a familiar term to us in this country, for of late years these missions have been started in a great many of our larger towns, and have been the means of benefiting the bodies of thousands of the very poorest of our population, as well as of leading souls to the Saviour, which is the chief object for which this work is carried on. The combination of healing with preaching the gospel, is given marked prominence in the New Testament. It was, indeed, the conclusive proof our Lord used to convince John the Baptist that He was indeed the Sent One (Matt. xi. 3-5); and the Disciples practised it in the home and foreign Mission Field during their Master's lifetime and after His ascension to glory.

One of the first of our Medical Missionaries whose burning love for souls led him to give up home and country, in search of those for whom Christ died in foreign lands, was Dr. Elmslie, whose most interesting memoir has just been republished in a cheap form.* The difficulties which this honoured servant of God had to combat in his childhood may well inspire those who have the fewest apparent advantages, to go forward in God's strength conquering and to conquer.

William Jackson Elmslie was the son of poor parents, born in Aberdeenshire, in June 1832. Although working hard from childhood at his father's trade, bootmaking, his thirst for knowledge, aided by his mother's wise counsel and constant sympathy, resulted in his being able to take his place with other boys at the grammar school, and afterwards to enter Aberdeen university, where he gained many prizes, and a bursary early in his studies.

In November 1858 he entered the Free Church Divinity College, for since his early conversion his desires had been directed to the Ministry. "During the session his attention was drawn to the Mission Field, and as he searched his Bible it became clear to him that when the Divine Spirit gave marked prominence in the New Testament to the combination of healing with preaching in the planting of Christianity, it was intended to instruct and guide those in after days who might devote themselves to the extension of the kingdom of Christ." Thus his thoughts gradually turned from a pastorate at home, to service as a Medical Missionary abroad.

*"Memoir of William Jackson Elmslie, Medical Missionary." Published by Messrs. Nisbet & Co., Berners street, to whom we are indebted for this engraving of Dr. Elmslie's assistant. We trust that many of our readers will be stirred to know more of this noble life and work, and that they will procure the book for themselves.

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He took his final degree in August 1864, having passed his examinations with great credit amid immense difficulties. He was appointed to the Kashmir Mission by the Church Missionary Society as a lay agent for five years. He immediately left for India, and arrived at the scene of his future labours in seven months time.

Qadir Bakhoh, of whom we have this picture, was his first and chief helper. He was already a trained Christian teacher.

Dr. Elmslie says of him: "He is a Kashmir by birth, and on that very account suitable for the work in which we are engaged. He is able to speak the language fluently, and is intimately acquainted with the habits and character of the people."

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A PIONEER MISSIONARY.

Dr. Elmslie and he began their work by going from village to village gathering the sick together and reading God's Word to them, and then addressing them in a plain and easy style. The little groups would listen with great interest and attention, and the service closed with prayer. Then the sick people were examined one by one, and given medicine and advice.

Throughout all the earnest work, Qadir Bakhoh is constantly Dr. Elmslie's right hand, addressing the people in the villages, and so whole-hearted that he can speak of nothing but Jesus and His love. He was necessarily the spokesman at first, and greatly were his words. owned and blessed by the Master.

Numerous most interesting accounts are given of the reception of the Gospel by all grades of the people, from Mussulman priests to blind beggars. At one time he writes: "I am alone among 127,000, and the utmost I can do is but like a drop in the ocean." "Not only was Dr. Elmslie largely instrumental in opening the door to the beautiful country of Kashmir, but he also provided a key to it in the shape of a valuable vocabulary in the Kashmir language."

After seven years of unremitting labour he returned for a short visit to his own country in 1871-72. He then returned with his wife (Margaret, daughter of the late Rev. W. Wallace Duncan, of Peebles, whom he married Feb. 28, 1872), to his labours in Kashmir, which he reached the end of May. Kashmir was then only open to Europeans for six months in each year, so that he seemed bent on doing double work. In those months he treated over 3,000 patients, suffering from all manner of diseases. For part of the time the cholera raged furiously, making the strain on mind and body to be unusually great. He longed to get permission to remain, and petitioned the Governor-General to give him leave. But the answer was, "Dr. Elmslie is not allowed to remain this winter in Srinagar." So there was nothing for it but to leave.

He was weak and over-done when they started; he became rapidly worse. The history of the awful journey over the mountains and past precipices where one false step would have been death, is enough to send a shiver through one. They used a "dandy" for Mrs. Elmslie, carried by bearers, but his illness and agony increased so much that

she gave it up to him; and she had to walk-or, rather, run—the whole

way over the pass. At length, when thirty miles from Goojerat, their destination, he got a dhoolie, and she had the dandy. She says, "My bearers would not keep me alongside of his dhoolie, and I used to leap from the dandy and fly to his side just to see him, and then-shocked, terrified go back again, feeling like Hagar in the wilderness." A very short time after this fearful journey was ended, his call came, and he was taken home in November, 1872, to receive the Master's Well done." Who will follow in his train?

OUR BIBLE CLASS.

OUR BIBLE CLASS.

BY A. ST. G. C. NUGENT.

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E commemorate during this month both the Ascension of Christ and also the day of Pentecost, the day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

What a triumph day that was for our Lord Jesus when He ascended home into the bosom of His Father, having passed through all the agony of Gethsemene and the Cross. He has fufilled the law for us, and "finished" all the work of redemption. Now He enters Heaven as our High Priest, bearing our names for ever graven on His Heart (Heb. ix. 24; Ex. xxviii. 29). He went home from the Mount of Olives while in the very act of blessing His Church, and that blessing remains unfinished; it is still continued (Luke xxiv. 50-53). This is "the day of the gladness of His Heart," the day of His crowning (Sol. iii. 11), the day of His glory. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in" (Psa. xxiv. 7). See His Father's greeting (Heb. i. 8). Notice also the four definite blessings we receive by His Ascension. (1) "Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins" (Acts v. 31; Isa. xxx. 18). (2) He was exalted "that He might fill all things." (3) He ascended that we might have His perpetual presence (John xx. 17; Matt. xxviii. 20); and (4) to receive gifts for men (Psa. lxviii, 18).

The greatest and fullest of all His gifts was given on the day of Pentecost: "Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear (Acts ii. 3). We should find it full of profit before and during this Whitsuntide, to trace throughout the Old Testament all that God revealed to one after another of His servants about His Holy Spirit, until He came in all His fulness at Pentecost (Gen. vi. 3; Jud. vi. 34; Isa. lxiii. 10, etc.). The Lord Jesus was "full of the Holy Ghost," and was "led by the Spirit" (Luke iv. 1). His last words to His disciples before He died were full of the promise of the Holy Ghost, and of all that He should be to His Church (Jo. xiv. to xvi.).

In the Acts, the nature and office of the Holy Ghost is very clearly revealed. St. Peter calls Him God (Ch. v. 3, 4.); and He