Increasing Use of the English Language.
THE Missionary Review of December, 1885, publishes the following extract from the report of Mr. John T. Gulick, a missionary to Japan:— "The most remarkable feature in the present literary history of Japan is the strenuous effort that is being made to introduce the study of English into all the schools of the people. Owing to the lack of teachers, it is impossible to bring it into the curriculum of the common schools this year; but notice has been given that next year the teachers of these schools will be required to pass an examination proving their ability to teach the rudiments of the English language. This has given an immense impulse to the study of English, resulting, I am told, in the sale of many tens of thousands of spelling-books and readers during the past few months. What results will be gained in the knowledge of English, it is impossible definitely to predict; but it seems probable that, by the end of eight or ten years, hundreds of thousands of the people will be able to read English with more or less ease, and that the score of English books now published in Japan will have been increased to hundreds. We shall all watch with the deepest interest the remoter results of this most remarkable experiment." This report is of interest; for it shows how the providence of God is preparing the way for the last gospel message, which is to go to "many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."