The Rev. R. Nelson, D.D., left Shanghai on the 13th inst., for the United States, by the M.B. Co.'s steamer Takasago Maru, which left the Company's Wharf at 9.5 a.m. Shortly after half-past eight, between thirty and forty of Dr. Nelsou's friends assembled in the saloon of the steamer. Among them were several ladies, and we also noticed the Rev. Win. Muirhead, Rev. Dr. Yates, Rev. W. J. Boone, Rev. Elliot H. Thomson, Rev. James Bates of Ningpo, Rey. W. R. Lambuth, M.D, and several of the more prominent residents of Shang.
About twenty of the girls belonging to the school lately under Miss Nelson charge were also present, as well as mom-bers of the native churches of which Dr. Nelson has had charge. At a quarter to nine, Mr. R. W. Little, Chairman of the Moricipal Counci for the Settlements north of the Yang-king-pang, came forward and said that ho had much pleasure in reading to the Doctor the following address Shanghai, 12th January, 1881, To the Reverend Rosr. Nzzsox, D.D.
ReveReNp axp Dear Sm,—It is with unfeigned regret that we, the undersigned, your fellow-residents, earn that it is your determination to sever your connection with the Mission with which you have been so long associated in Shanghai, and to leave immediately for Home; we wish therefore to offer in a few words ere you take your departure, our tribute of respect and affection.
All of us have known you and your family for years—not a fow of us for Very many years—and from personal knowledge can bear testimony to your courageous fidelity to the cause to which your Jife has i f-sacrificing labours by pressed the faith that 3 and the devotedness with of whatever nation or creed, who hav been in not waiting until called upon, but seeking them out wherever they were to be found, irrespective of any circumstance save that they required help and comfort: and in the manner of doing 80 exemplified in the fullest degree the apostolic definition of true charity.
Tt, perhaps, is not for us to offer an opinion upon your strictly missionary labours; particulars of the work you have accomplished during so many, years are doubtless fully recorded in the journals of the Society to which you belong, but we cannot refrain from saying that there are lasting monuments,—such as the nati shes at Kongwan and Woosung, the native schools, the Hongkew Hospital &o., &c., which bear witness to the results of a life's work which will ever redound to your honour, and the recollection of which munt give you heart-felt satisfaction, Your labours have necessarily boon mainly directed to the Chinese to whom you were sent, and we are but expressing what is well-known to many of us, and could be to all had they the opportunity of learning from the natives themselves, when we say that not only among those living in your immediate vicinity, but throughout the country your name is s synonym for Christian philanthropy, and is regarded with deepest affection by' hundreds who have been the recipients of kindness and ministration from you and those of your household. The grief of those more immediately connected with you will be intense at losing you, and wa doubt not they in their own way' will sook to make you fully conscious of it.
But while it is true that those to whom you came to lead and instruct in our Teligion have been the principal objects of your caro; and this to many a one might seem a fully sufficient charge on his time and energies, you did not Hresitate to add to all this the further much-ne od and most desirable work' of the ministry of Divine Services to a foreign congregation, and that too for a large portion of the tim with no other recompense for the arduous task than that derived from the sense of a duty performed.
furthermore, the Sunday School connected with that Church has received your interest and supervision; indeed owed its origin to your forethought, beginning as it did with the assembling of a few children, in years gone by, at your own house, it has grown to be a school of between forty and fifty children,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.