The Month .
AUG., 1880.
512
the C.M.S. at Constantinople. His offer was accepted by the Committee,
and he started vi& Brindisi on July 2nd, to catch Mr. Feltm and the chiefs
up at Aden.
A Christian soldier, Mr. A. J. Biddlecombe, has also been accepted for the
Nyanza Mission, and is just sailing for Zanzibar with Mr. W. E. Taylor,
the medical missionary above mentioned. They are to join Mr. Copplestone
at Uyui.
The Ceylon localized edition of the Church Missionary Gleaner publishes the following reply of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Memorial sent to him last year by the C.M.S. Native Christians in Ceylon :-- Lambeth Palace , S.E., 22nd March , 1880. My Christian Brethren, -- I have received, and acknowledged through the Church Misssionary Society, your memorandum enclosing " Resolutions of the ProYvoiunciaalre Copurnocbialblyof tahwearCeeyltohnat NattheiveBisChhroipstioafnsCo"lodmatbeod 2is9that Octthoibserm,om1e8n79t. in England. His Lordship has been in communication with myself, the Archbishop of York, and the Bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester. I have, in conjunction with the other four prelates named, embodied in a document, signed by all of us, such advice as we were able to tender to the Bishop and to the Church Missionary Society on the subject of the unhappy disputes in Ceylon, and we have every reason to hope that arrangements will be arrived at iwnhetrheebysecpornedsenotf tdhieffitcwuoltireessomlauytionbse rmeemnotvieodnedwitahboouvte. any such step as is advocated I have no doubt that the Bishop of Colombo will avoid and discourage any ritual which is contrary to the law of tne Church of England, and that he will allow to all Christians under his care that liberty, as to doctrine and worship, which is enjoyed by members of the Church of England at home. At the same time, I have to point out to you that there seems every prospect of harmony being restored between the Diocesan and the Church Missionary Society, and that the missionaries supported by that Society will find themselves able to dceov-ootpeedratteheicrorldiivaelsl.y in the work to which the Bishop and the missionaries have Yours very faithfully, (Signed) A. C. Cantuab.
We hear with much regret of the death, on June 30th, of the Rev. John Bilderbeck, the Society's veteran missionary at Madras. He was a native of India, but of European descent, and was ordained by Bishop Spencer of Madras in 1843. Colonel G-abb has kindly favoured us with Hie following account of him :-be Tphaisssemdonotvhe'rs inobsiitlueancrey. contains the name of a missionary whose death may not The Rev. John Bilderbeck, of Madras, was not an ordinary man. Born in India, an East Indian, of a Roman Catholic family, and trained for the priesthood of that Church, he early saw her errors, embraced Protestantism, and entered the ranks of the Church Missionary Society as one of its ordained missionaries. He was one of the oldest of the Society's servants, for 1 knew him in his work some thirty-five years ago, and he was not then a young missionary. His efforts were mainly confined to Madras and its neighbourhood. The circumstances of his birth gave him a thorough knowledge of the Tamulians, and of their language, and ms labours among them were ever zealous and effective. Many a seal will he have to his faithful ministrations from among a people over whom his bowels yearned, and who looked up to him as a father with great love and respect His ardour of spirit was so great that it was not easy for others always to keep abreast of him in his work, and the Madras Corresponding Committee showed both
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