SOUTH AFRICAN WAR VS. MISSIONS.
PERHAPS we ought not to be surprised, but, nevertheless, the fact is sufficiently distressing, that the demands made upon the public for the war, and the famine, and other things, have had this year a very adverse influence on the funds of many of the missionary societies. Even the greatest of them all—the Church Missionary Society—has, to meet current expenses, been obliged to draw largely on the extraordinary resources provided at its centenary. The Bible Society is £20,000 behind. The Irish Church Mission has been called on to meet an expenditure of £21,000, with an income of £12,000. And the London Missionary Society has been almost equally unfortunate. Its account at the 31st of March showed a deficit of £17,000.—Free Church Monthly.