“It is with pain and regret that the Committee have to report that, notwithstanding many and sustained efforts, they have not succeeded in obtaining an ordained minister to the Mission. The staff at Blantyre were sent out to prepare the way for a minister, and, indeed, it was plain some time would elapse before the services peculiarly called for at a minister’s hands would be needed. But it is felt the Mission is the nucleus of a Church, with the minister as the proper head—the instrument and director of the Christian agency among the people. It was scarcely dreamed of, that a year would elapse, and yet, notwithstanding many calls, see the Mission without its spiritual leader. The want, indeed, is temporally supplied by the charity of the sister Mission (_i.e._, of the Free Church) but is it not matter of humiliation that no one has come forth from the ordained ranks of the Church to go to Blantyre in the spirit of their Master’s love, and to gather into His gentle fold the thousands of poor and crushed, but docile and willing natives, who are day and night crying inarticulately for the day of their redemption?” Even the above touching appeal although most widely circulated had no effect. On this matter (which we venture to allude to, as bearing greatly on Mission work), it may be remarked that the difficulty in finding Missionaries arises chiefly from the position that these men occupy. Notwithstanding that the Church of Scotland throughout her history has said much about Presbyterian parity, her Missionaries are placed on a very inferior footing as compared with her regular Clergy. In using the word inferior, I do not apply it to the Missionaries themselves (who have the same training as other clergymen) but only to their position, although, unfortunately, most young men feel that the footing on which the Church appoints such Agents gives a key to the value that she sets upon their work. The Minister of a Parish in Scotland cannot be deprived of his charge till an accusation is formulated against him, and found proven by a regular legal process, but the Missionary must put himself under a Committee of Managers who may dispense with his services at their pleasure. Hence we rarely hear of any Minister of the Church of Scotland leaving a home charge for the sake of Mission work, however urgent, and indeed it is not often that the Church goes in quest of Ordained Ministers, her Missionary posts being usually filled from the ranks of students, and students too whose education has been aided by the Foreign Mission Funds. Another difficulty that meets the Missionary arises from the want of interest in his work. The Ministers at home are fully occupied with the affairs of their own charges, and they cannot be expected to attend to the comparatively insignificant efforts made abroad, and when they have to think of Foreign Work at all, they lay hold of the views that lie nearest the surface. It has frequently been the