We cannot leave the group without asking ourselves, “What has all our boasted civilisation done?” Are we any happier than these rude natives? We shall see by and by that they are not exempt from hardship and injury. Their valleys and mountains witness many a sorrowful scene. But after we have placed a policeman in every corner, hardship and injury are still in our midst. Does it not seem as if there were some bankruptcy about human nature? For a hundred generations we have tried all manner of experiments with Governments and Institutions. We have moved them backwards and forwards like pieces on a draught board. In all this have we not been proving our bankruptcy? We have been diligently trying the most improved methods of book-keeping, but the result has only been to chase the deficit out of one column into another. The deficit is still there! Yes. But above the clouds and storms we have the blue vault of heaven. The pale factory girl, the over wrought mechanic, the anxious student may all have a peace that passeth understanding. As the missionary is surrounded by the heathen, he feels that his message to them has not so much to do with civilisation. They are not disposed to trouble about mechanical improvements in their unsettled land; but in their unsettled land they are arrested by an expression like “Fear not them that kill the body, and after that have nothing that they can do”. Startling words to those that pass their days in fear of them that kill the body! These are surely whispers from some other world! Those dark figures have often gazed upon “the heavens above and the earth beneath” without making much of the vast mystery. They are likely to make more of the Scripture message. One of the oldest will turn on his mat and quietly remark, “Father, if you are speaking the truth, we are all living in darkness”. I.—THE LEARNED PROFESSIONS. What corresponds among the Africans to the clergymen, doctors, and lawyers of modern England? It will be found that in Africa these professions are not distinct, just as in Mediæval England the monks did all the teaching, healing, and advising. With reference to worship we shall find that the chief of the country and the chief of a village take prominent places. _The Physician._