Cylchgronau Cymru

A RECORD OF CHRISTIAN WORK AMONG THE Calvinistic Methodists or Presbyterians of Wales. Vol. III. No. 2.] FEBRUARY, 1887. [Price One Penny. azotes cw& ©omments. The week of prayer at the beginning of each year has now become a national in¬ stitution in our midst, and we are glad to learn that, in spite of the inclemency of the weather, the meetings were, in most cases, well attended, and that many hearts were refreshed therein through the felt presence of the Master. But having commenced the year with prayer, shall we not continue therein ? This is the apostolic injunction, and it is surely in force to-day, " Continue instant in prayer." Let the stream of supplication, both in church and closet, flow on, deep¬ ening and -widening until, if spared to meet another year, we may not have time to tell of all the great things God has wrought in answer to the cries of His children. We have been deeply impressed and in¬ terested by the reports which we have read of a ministerial Conference of a de¬ votional character, which was recently held at Hastings, and which was atten¬ ded by a hundred or more Congregational ministers from different parts of the country. We are told by one and another of those who were present, that the days of the Conference were days of heaven upon earth. "Never," writes one, "were there so many ministers around me in tears; they were, however, tears of won¬ drous joy." "From whom," says another, " but from the blessed Spirit of Pentecost, could the grace come that rested upon us all ? How but through Him could there be in hearts like ours such a love as flowed through us ; such a simultaneous desire, apparently filling every heart, to be wholly devoted to Him ?" While this is the testimony of another :—" We felt that it would have been easy for us to go anywhere, do anything, bear anything, for Christ." In writing about this Con¬ ference to the Christian, of January 13th, one of its chief promoters says,—"If the iufluence of that gracious visitation had been evanescent, I would have continued silent about it; but it is not so : at this moment I have on my table fifty letters from ministers, most of whom within the last few weeks write of its effect on their ministry. ' I returned home to lay my¬ self on the altar of sacrifice for the Master's glory,' is the utterance of one, but the sentiment of many. ' New life has come among my people,' says another. ' Since I returned from Hastings,' writes a third, ' I have had about thirty can¬ didates for church fellowship.' ' Just now,' says another, ' my people are, as I believe, on the verge of a great spiritual blessing.'" These and such like tes¬ timonies are most encouraging and in¬ spiriting, and in view of the abundant blessings which have already followed this Conference, we are tempted, to ask, is it impossible or impracticable for ministers of our own Connexion to hold a similar gathering, even though it were but for a day ? Such a Conference, conceived and planned and carried out in the right spirit, could not but result in a pente- costal shower of blessing upon those en¬ gaged therein, and would undoubtedly react upon churches and congregations. In our Foreign Mission News, to be found in our present number, there are two or three items of great interest and strong encouragement. One is that the Executive Committee have resolved to restart operations in Sylhet. When this portion of our foreign field was abandoned troublous times had befallen us, and as no other society had taken up the work, there was every reason to fear that the seed which had been sown had been alto¬ gether lost. But God has been better to us than our fears. He has watched over the seed sown, and we have now good grounds for expecting that it will bring forth abundant fruit in the immediate future, if we will but go forth again with faith and earnestness and zeal. With the resumption of work in this field the Directors are prepared to make a new departure in the direction of female missionaries, and they are now appealing to our young women to offer themselves for this work, and we sincerely hope that there are some among our cultured, earnest-minded, Christian young women who will obey this call, prepared to serve their divine Master among the benighted women of far-off Sylhet. Another item of interest is the contribution which the native Christians of Khasia have made towards Williams Pantycelyn Memorial Chapel. This contribution is a strong evidence to the reality of their religion. They are a poor people,and a people in whom the love of money is naturally very strong, and yet they have collected nearly l&l, not for their own home purposes, bat for us in this country; and that as a tribute of gratitude to the memory of that Christian poet whose hymns have been translated into their language, and by whose aid they praise their God. We hope and believe that this contribution on the part of the Khasi Christians will stimulate our own people at home not only with the col¬ lection towards this Memorial Chapel, but with the Foreign Mission collections, and every other good work. Nothing but complete success could have saved Mr. Gee's (of Denbigh) Religious Census Scheme for Wales from hostile criticism; now, however, that it has turned out a failure and a farce, it is only natural that it should meet with unsparing condemnation. It might have been possible to successfully carry out a surprise census over a limited district by a sufficient number of trustworthy outsiders told off for the occasion, and which we believe was previously done in some parts of North Wales ; but inasmuch as Mr. Gee resolved upon doing the work openly, it was absolutely necessary in order to do it fairly and efficiently, to obtain the hearty and honest co-operation of all parties. This being the case, one might have thought that Mr. Gee himself, on the slightest reflection, would have felt that