II.  If possible, allow your donation to be used for the general purposes of the Seminary, without insisting that a special pupil or teacher be assigned to you.  But if it be not possible to maintain the interest of your children and youth in a work so distant without some special object, then by all means,—­

III.  Do not demand too much from your over-taxed sisters in the foreign field in the way of letters and reports.  The labors of a teacher are arduous everywhere.  But when instruction is given in a foreign language, in a foreign climate, and to children of a foreign nation, these labors are greatly increased.  Add then to this toil correspondence with the Board of Missions, the daily study of the language, the work of visiting among the people, and receiving their visits, and you can understand how the keeping up of correspondence with twenty or thirty Sabbath Schools and Societies is a burden which no woman should be called on to bear.

IV.  Do not expect sensational letters from your friends abroad.  Do not take for granted that the child of ten years of age you are supporting, will develop into a distinguished teacher or Bible woman before the arrival of the next mail.  Do not be discouraged if you have to wait and pray for years before you hear good tidings.  Should any of the native children ever send you a letter, (and they have about as clear an idea of who you are and where you are, as they have of the satellites of Jupiter,) do not expect from their youthful productions the elegance of Addison or the eloquence of Burke.

V. Pray earnestly for the conversion of the pupils in Mission Schools.  This I regard as the great advantage of the system of having pupils supported by Christians in the home churches, and known to them by name.  They are made the subjects of special prayer.  This is the precious golden bond which brings the home field near to us, and the foreign field near to you.  Our chief hope for these multitudes of children now receiving instruction, is, that they will be prayed for by Christians at home.

THE SIDON FEMALE SEMINARY.

The Annual Report above mentioned, speaks thus of the Sidon Seminary:  “It is conducted by Miss Jacombs and Miss Stainton, and has numbered about twenty boarders and six day scholars.  The boarders are exclusively from Protestant families, selected from the common schools in all parts of the field, and are in training for the Mission service, as teachers and Bible readers.  Four of the graduates of last year are already so employed.  One difficulty in the way of reaching with the truth the minds of the women in the numerous villages of the land, will be obviated in part, as the results of this work are farther developed.

“There has been considerable seriousness and some hopeful conversions, in both these seminaries during the past year.

“The work is worthy of the interest taken in it by the Women’s Boards of Missions, and by societies and individuals in the church who have co-operated in it.”