Department for Members in Professions and Business. Head of Central Department for 1885: MRS. TOWNSEND, Honington Hall, Shipston-on-Stour. Correspondent for Central Department for 1885: THE HON. ALBERTINE GROSVENOR, Moor Park, Rickmansworth. BRANCH. Carnarvon Criccieth Pwllheli.. LIST OF DIOCESAN HEADS AND BRANCH REPRESENTATIVES FOR 1885. ... DIOCESE OF LONDON. Diocesan Head: Mrs. Hugh Seymour, 30 Upper Brook Street, w. Correspondent: Miss H. Gull, 94 St. Bartholomew's Close, E.C. Chelsea (Upper) Mrs. Wilfrid Allen, 56 Sloane Street. Hampstead Miss Husband, Manor House, Frognal. Hanover Sq. (St. George's) Miss Marryatt, 6 Dean St., Park Lane, w. Holborn (St. Andrew's) Miss Flower, 26 Stanhope Gardens, S.W. Holborn (St. John's) Miss Mackintosh, 35 Gt. Russell St. Bloomsbury,w.c. Hornsey (St. Mary's) Mrs. Summers, 19 Lightfoot Road. Kensington (St. Mary Abbott's)... Miss J. B. Hensley, 9Sheffield Terr., Kensington, w. Kensington Park, (All Saints) Mrs. Steel, 35 Maxilla Gardens, Notting Hill, w. Norlands (St. James') Miss Swire. Pentonville (St. Silas & St. Stephen's), Miss Baker, 18 Barnsbury Road, N. Pimlico (St.George's) Miss C. Deedes, 129 Ebury Street. Regent's Park (St. Mark's) Miss Ayrton, 52 Regent's Park Road, N. W. Hanover Church Miss M. J. Spratt, 13 Colosseum Terrace, Regent's (Regent Street) Park. List of Diocesan Heads and Branch Representatives for 1885. Mark's) ... Lambeth, South (St. Stephen's) Lewisham Nine Elms Tooting, s.w. Miss Frances E. Whitcombe. Mrs. Macdowall, 23 Brunswick Square. Mrs. A. Wright, 3 De Crespigny Park, Camberwell. Miss Boyson, Grove House, Larkhall Rise, s.w. Mrs. Tilden Smith, 17 Harleyford Street, Kennington Park. Mrs. MacMaster, 2 Albert Square. Mrs. Pratt, St. Stephen's Vicarage. Miss L. Brown Brown, 2 College Park Villas, The Hon. Mrs. A. Legge, The Vicarage, Lewisham. Miss Topham, Sidbury, Croydon Road, Penge. Putney Mrs. Blair, 5 St. John's Road, Putney. Red Hill (St. Matt.) Miss Roberts, The Dome, Red Hill. Surbiton ... Miss M. Bruce, 5 Oak Hill Road, Surbiton. Miss Barry, Heathfield, Jews' Walk, Sydenham, S. E. Sydenham Bournemouth Cowes (West) Diocesan Head: Miss Gore Currie, Bewsey House, Bournemouth. Alverstoke (R.D.)... Miss Langley, Osborn Road, Fareham, Hants. Mrs. F. Newman, West-end Terrace, Fareham. Miss Warner, The Limes, Fareham. Miss Gore Currie, Bewsey House, Bournemouth. Mrs. Bailey, Holy Trinity Vicarage, West Cowes. Farnham (R. D.)... Miss K. Sloman, 27 West Street, Farnham. Guildford (R. D.)... Miss Napper, 2 Chichester Place, Guildford Petersfield (R. D.)... Miss Agnes Money, Stodham Pk., East Liss, Hants. Portsea Island (R.D.) Miss Ellsdale, Donnington Villa, Clarendon Road, Southsea. FRIENDLY CORK. APRIL, 1885. PRICE ONE ΡΕΝΝΥ. [PRIC Post Free 1d. No. 28.] The Girls' Friendly Society. PATRON HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN. Motto: 'Bear ye one another's burdens.' 1. To bind together in one Society ladies as Associates and working girls and young women as Members, for mutual help (religious and secular), for sympathy, and prayer. 2. To encourage purity of life, dutifulness to parents, faithfulness to employers, and thrift. 3. To provide the privileges of the Society for its Members wherever they may be, by giving them an introduction from one Branch to another. CENTRAL RULES. I. ASSOCIATES to be of the Church of England (no such restriction being made as to Members), and the organization of the Society to follow as much as possible that of the Church, being diocesan, ruridecanal, and parochial. II. Associates (Working and Honorary), and Members, to contribute annually to the funds; the former not less than 2s. 6d. a-year, the latter not less than 6d. a-year. Members' payments to go to the Central Fund.* III. No girl who has not borne a virtuous character to be admitted as a Member; such character being lost, the Member to forfeit her Card. Every Member of a Branch pays is. a-year, of which 6d. is paid to the Central Fund, and the other 6d. is retained for the expenses of the Branch. By LADY LAURA E. HAMPTON, Author of 'Musings in Verse on the Collects." ROM storied fane, from old cathedral pile, Or where primeval forests proudly rise, And 'fore the great white Throne unite For kneeling there the gate of heaven seems ope, From crowded hospital, from fevered camp, The wail of sick and dying rends the air! No broken Bread and Wine their hands receive, A Your cup of pain is held within His Hands, THE BURDEN OF EGYPT. T this time, when the name of Egypt is on every lip, and the thought of Egypt is in every heart, it is wonderfully interesting to turn to those parts of the Bible which speak, not only of Egypt itself, but even of that very country south of Egypt, which must henceforth always have for England and England's people a deep and mournful interest. The Soudan, or the 'Country of the Blacks,' as it is sometimes called, includes the country known to us in Holy Scripture as Ethiopia. The Soudan is the general name given to that vast tract of the Continent of Africa which stretches from Egypt on the north to the Nyanza Lakes on the south, and from the Red Sea on the east to the western boundary of Darfoor on the west. Syene (or Assouan), mentioned in Ezek. xxix. 10, marks the division between Ethiopia and Egypt to the north. The southern point is marked by the junction of the Blue and White Nile, and at this junction lies Khartoum the grave of Gordon. We must remember, too, that the inhabitants of this country are the descendants of Ham. The sons of Ham, we read, were Cush (Ethiopia), Mizraim (Egypt), Phut, and Canaan (Gen. x. 6). They are spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah as 'men of stature,' and by Jeremiah as mighty men that handle the shield.' The merchandise of the Ethiopians and Sabeans is also constantly mentioned in the Old Testament, and Job speaks especially of the topaz of Ethiopia.' Indeed, Egypt and Ethiopia seem to be always intimately connected in the records of Holy Scripture, as, in fact, their history has ever been closely interwoven, the two countries having been often united under the rule of the same sovereign. We find Ethiopians forming a part of Shishak's army (2 Chron. xii. 3), and his successor, apparently described as Zerah 'the Ethiopian,' in 2 Chron. xiv. 9. Two other kings, mentioned in the Old Testament, So and Tirhakah, are also supposed to have been Ethiopians, and to have ruled over Egypt. We would commend to our young readers, for their special study at this time, the 18th and 19th. chapters of Isaiah, comparing with these the 29th and 30th of Ezekiel and the 45th of Jeremiah. Then, turning to the 68th Psalm, and comparing the words. of the 31st verse with Zeph. iii. 10, they will scarcely fail to be impressed with the idea that in God's own time these remarkable prophecies await a far more complete fulfilment than they have had as yet; that these far-off lands, where the deep shadows of slavery and of sin now rest, will be brought to the knowledge of God. If 'the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,' then surely the blood of our martyr-hero will not have been shed in vain. The love that was in Gordon's heart for those poor dark people will surely not be lost; that noble life, 'Measured by loss instead of gain,' that life apparently lost and wasted in failure and disappointment, will yet bring forth fruit-as God wills. Truly it was well said by the preacher at the great Memorial Service at St. Paul's, 'As Gordon died in life, so now he lives in death. He died to himself once, and ever after strove to live to God; and he lives on now in English hearts, and influences greatly, lives far beyond the shores of England. Simple, sympathetic, noble-his patent of nobility traced by a mightier than mortal hand-to say that he feared no danger was but to say that he loved eagerly, intensely, for deep love ever bridges death. His own words had been, "I would give my life for those poor people of the Soudan. How can I help feeling for them? All the time I was there, every night I used to pray that God would lay upon me * The Bishop of Newcastle. the burden of their sins, and crush me with it instead of those poor sheep. I really wished and longed for it," Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' The yielded life bears fruit. That life, those lives, would most infallibly produce a harvest, whether we live to see it or not. Should we not pray that, in His own good time, and possibly by ways concealed from us at present, God will use those deaths to crown with greater fruit the blessed Gospel of His Son? 'In January, 1884, Gordon wrote: "Thus for Egypt God is working out His wonderful embroidery of events; those events are nothing: but the actions in men's hearts are everything." Of old, one bowed himself, and in his death prevailed more mightily over his surrounding foes than had ever been his lot in the glorious noontide of his strength; so might that death, those deaths, now colour all that 'long embroidery,' till it shall cover all the land of Egypt. 'In that land of deepest mystery, where still the moving sands refuse to unveil the secrets of the longburied Past, that land whose earlier Christianity was once engulfed beneath the dark advancing flood of fierce fanaticism, there might God give an abundant harvest to that glorious crop whose seed had come from English homes and English hearts. In His own time and way might He ordain that one result shall be a fuller, truer life for the dwellers in that country where those precious lives were yielded; that the blight and curse which slavery entails may one day be removed; that peace and freedom may flourish in all those borders; and that the love of Jesus and the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit may water and enrich the regions that are thirsting for a God but imperfectly known as yet.' Yes! It may be that the time is not far distant when Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands, no longer 'chained,' unto God, and when 'the Lord of Hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt, My people.' Що By the HON. AM going to tell you something about my voyage across the Atlantic, for the season for going to Canada is just beginning again; and I found that some of the girls who went with me in the Parisian had very mistaken notions about life on board ship, and also about life in the Colony. I shall have to repeat some things that I have written before, for I find either girls don't read carefully, or they forget even some very important things when they have read them. The voyage from Liverpool to Quebec in the Parisian was full of interest. We sailed on Saturday, August 16th, and reached Quebec on Monday, 25th. The congregation on Sunday morning in the saloon was, perhaps, one of the most strikingly representative ever seen. The President of the British Association was surrounded by men of the highest scientific ability of every profession, and probably representing every school of thought. Next in order were young men going out to learn farming in the great NorthWest to make fortunes, as they hope, and get ready berths for those younger brothers for whom there is nothing to do at home. Close beside these were some middle-aged men, who had been in Canada for years, who had come to the old country for a holiday, and who were returning with sons and daughters, and nephews and nieces, to strengthen MRS. JOYCE. M. E. T. their hands and share their prosperity. Beyond them stood young fellows, adventurous and enterprising, up and ready, 'with a heart for any fate ;' and close to the door, in a quiet corner, sat our group of girls and their Matron; and notwithstanding the novelty of the scene, and the rattling of the rudderchains, the responses were regular and hearty. By the afternoon the wind had risen, and a sheltered nook on deck was chosen for a short service. Our young Chaplain was so fortunate as to secure the help of the Rev. Harry Jones, who, in tones that rose above the winds, preached to us on 'true religion' being shown in the exercise of Christian duties to each other-good advice on the beginning of a voyage, where mutual comfort can only be ensured by a mutual give and take. The services each evening in the steerage were just those calculated to stir the deeper and softer thoughts, which leaving the old friends and the mother country, prepares for the sowing of good seed. Our saloon passengers, when they had recovered from the common mal-de-mer, came and helped our choir party. The Matron's book-box (partly filled by kind contributions from Associates) produced a good supply of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Nobody knows how thrilling 'O God, our help in ages past,' 'Eternal Father, strong to save,' can be until thus sung, down between decks, with every heart vibrating |