IN an opening article we give the first part of a brief biographical sketch of that noted missionary, the Rev. John Macdonald, Calcutta, whose addresses to young people under the title of the “Suffering Saviour” have been appearing for some time in our pages. It may be of interest to some of our readers to quote what Dr Kennedy says about him in his “Apostle of the North.” “Dr Macdonald, Ferintosh,” he says, “had ten children, of whom three were by his first marriage, and six are still alive [i.e., in 1866]. Of them all, John, his first born, was his best beloved—John the correct, lively, precocious boy, the ardent scholar, the distinguished student, the approved convert, the ripe Christian, the able preacher, the successful pastor, and the devoted missionary. The course of such a son was one which such a father could watch with fond and delighted interest. Pleased with his rapid progress as a boy in school, he was still more gratified by his eminence in college; but the joy of joys to him was his son’s conversion to God; a change too marked in his case to be doubted even by the most anxious heart. And when he was about to enter on the service of the Gospel, with what hopeful interest did his father look to the prospect before him; and how often, thereafter, did he sit with ravished feelings listening to his clear, spiritual, powerful preaching. To such a son he could let out his heart as to no other.”