provided by the Shanghai Temperance Society took place on Saturday evening. In spite of the attractions to be found elsewhere, the Hall was well filled, nearly every seat being occupied. The room had been very tastefully decorated with evergreens, which gave it quite a festive appearance; the effect of which was still farther enhanced by the very handsome banners of the two Lodges of Good Tem: plats that meet in that place being dis-Stuithead, Vice-President of the Shanghai layed on the platform. The Rev. Win.
Temperance Society, who was received with applause, took the chair at half-past lit, and commenced the exercises of the evening by calling upon the Rev. E. Reeves Paluer to offer prayer.
No. 8 was then sung by the meet the Rev. Chairman then made a fow remarks expressive of his satisfaction at seeing such a lange attendance under the circumstances, obser that the object which the Sueiety had in view was evidently considered by those present a superior attraction to anything else that mi: g other places. Although there night be lose show in the operations of the Society, yet the sympathy of the audience in the cause was sufficient to encourage them to go on with the work they hand, and he hoped the evening would p both pleasant and profitable to all. called on Mr. Ramsay, who sung a Scotel song, "Afton Water the applause at the end of which was certainly more a compliment to the singer for his efforts than ence of satisfaction with his 7 i ridgway had most unsti able selection fur " Recitation "Phe Pawn-broker's shop," and although the elocution was very far from perfect, it was much hotier than the character of the piece deserved; compositions of that des: cription are, in our opinion, decidedly out of place at these meetings. The uextitem inthe programme was, however, very satisfactory.
the gentleman amateur who was to have followed Mr. Ridgway having been prevented from attending the meeting, Miss Lena Laisun, who was greeted with considerable applause, came forward and sung "Phy bright smile haunts me still." Miss Nelson played the accompaniment on the piano in an artistic manner, as she did also for the other pieces sung by Miss Laisun later in the evening. ~The song was swig very well indeed and with great expression and feeling. The audience at its close encored it with much enthusiasm, but the Chairman told them that they would have the pleasure of hearing the young Indy Inter in the evening, and called on. Mr. A. B. Rex for a reading. He read a humorous piece from Max Adeler's "Out of the Hurly Barly," detailing the experiences of Mr. Magrider, whose wife, being a physician, on one occasion put him under the influ: ence of chloroform when asleep, and then made him a subject for experiments at the hands of a class of lady students from a neighboring medical college. The selection was a very good one in itself, and Mr. Rex certainly did it full justice, creating much laughter, and eliciting well-deserved applause at its close.—Mr. E. W. Wells then sang "The Wind that blows" in capital lo, Br. Fentum rendering valuable assistance, as also subsequently, at the piano the house loudly expressed its appreciation at the end.
The Rev. T. Taxtor, who was loudly cheered when he went to the platform, then said that the first thing he felt he must say on seeing so many happy faces was, that he hoped that all present had enjoyed a Merry Christmas, and_he hoped they would all have a Happy New Year (applause.) Since he had stood on that platform before, a new organ had come into existence, and it beloved him to be very careful what he said, else that paper would \be apt to comment on any deficiencies that may appear in his remarks, He referred to the Temperance Union, and earnestly hoped that when enlarged' it would meet "with the support of all present. He then referred to a letter he had read in the W.-C. Daily News, signed Ab Extra," in which the writer had taken the ground that the Greek word oinos" always meant wine with intoxicating properties, and while he did not think that to be the case, thought there were other principles laid down in the letter deserving of the careful attention of Temperance men. One of these was to the effect that there were many things which to pronounce wrong in themselves was something much resembling He held that nothing material itself, and went on to say that while opium, for instance, was undoubtedly the cause of much suffering and misery in this country, yet, it was a most valuable in itself, and frequently used as such, The evil lay in the abuse of it, and he thought that the same remark would apply to aleohl; but there could be no doubt, as a matter of fact, that both were terrible lustraments of rain, Gunpowder was doubtless, also, " good thing in itself, and so was alight, but let a Guy Fawkes place the first" under the Parliament House, and take steps to put the two together, and his effigy is buent in Engl for hundreds of years after. Many perts which resemble that we do nothing which will be likely to perform part of a light to those dispositions, He believed that moh trouble arose from the fact that people often formed mistaken notions about their ac~ quaintance when they were in need of proofs of friendship, and that under these they' often gave them a f one suited to the case.
He illustrated this by detailing in a way an experience of his in early life in which his brother, on one occasion, supposing that he had the croup, led him'to the kitchen for the purpose of having a mustard plaster applied to his chest, (a remedy which had previously been found efficacious for that complaint) when in point of fact, the difficulty in the speaker's throat arose from quite another cause. These circumstances were narrated so as to cause great amusement. Speaking of victims of intemperance, he said he thoroughly believed that one of the best and most unselfish, things on earth was a mother's love, bit he had heard a story tuid once of a mother, whose child died. She had previously sold everything she had for drink, and had not even a sheet to put over the corpse; a neighbour lent her one, and she pawned even that for drink! ' How essential it was that mothers should not be carried away into intemperate courses! Great complaints were now made about the drunkenness of the laboring classes, but he had been glad to see that there were many persons who had been found willing to deny themselves for the sake of helping them, and had given up the use of liquors with that end in view and moreover, the efforts of these people had been successful and had been the means of saving thousands. This principle also had extended to richer people, and also to the pulpit, and even to the missionaries' families, out here in the East. A short time since, he had heard the Dean read 2 paper on the subject of Sympathy. The life of Christ had been a grand illustration of Sympathy, for He, our great High Priest, had been' "touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and had been made
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.