"Immediately after the removal of a sufferer, the house is locked and sealed by the municipal officers to prevent others from entering it. In a day or two the house is thoroughly washed with a disinfecting solution, all rubbish in it cleared out and burned, part of the roof removed, and windows broken into the walls, to admit sunlight and air freely. The earthen floor is next broken up and its earth turned into the street for a scouring. The walls are lime-washed with chloride of lime, and occupants are not allowed to return to the house for two months. Now, throughout the city are heaps of burning rubbish of earth from the floors, and workingmen may be seen breaking in roofs and windows.

"The city is divided into twelve wards, each with a superintendent, and under him several 'superiors' or inspectors. The latter visit every house in their ward daily, call the roll of its inmates, and report any cases of sickness to their superintendent. The latter sends for a doctor to pronounce upon the case, and arranges for its removal, if necessary. Besides this, for months past people of the city have been advised to leave. As far as possible the system of evacuation has been given a thorough trial here. Some of the people fled from fear of the disease, others through fright at the measures adopted by authorities, others from a share in the general panic. At present a scant 2,000 sleep in the city at night. Where have they gone? To villages and towns far and near; to their friends. Others have gone to their little farms, built huts in the fields and live there. Hundreds of these huts may be seen in fields all around us."

Dr. Bissell reports that while the Christian community has not entirely escaped the pestilence, they have suffered comparatively little. The schools having been closed, the Christians have been scattered, and many were in the health camp, awaiting the time when it is safe for them to return to the city. Dr. Bissell describes what these Christians will find on their return to their city : —

"One entire row of houses occupied by them has been torn down. The houses were not fit to be used as homes-small, unventilated, poorly built, old. Another row is entirely unroofed and a third will be. A fourth should be treated likewise. All these houses are highly unsanitary as dwelling-places. We have realized it for a long time, but have not felt authorized to pull down and rebuild, because of pressure from home about funds. Now, however, we have been obliged to do it to prevent the plague from spreading further, and while it will mean great difficulty in finding houses for the people to live in, I am glad these are treated as they needed."

From Bombay, Mr. Abbot reports, under date of January 28, that while the plague seems to be decreasing in other places it is rapidly increasing again in that city, although there is not the panic of last year. So far as can be learned there is a daily mortality of about 200 from the plague, and the number of those who recover from an attack is very small. Mr. Abbot thinks that by some physical law, the nature of which is not apparent, Europeans seem to be almost exempt from attacks. But the terror of the natives is extreme, and they specially resent the efforts of the government to inspect their homes in search of plague spots. They hide their sick and neglect to bury their dead. This mingled terror and resentment have led to mob violence in Bombay, reports of which are reaching us as we write. Thus the ignorance and superstition of the people add greatly to the peril of the situation.

It is wonderful that our missionaries can report that in these dark days, when everything external seems so unpropitious, the spiritual life of Christians seems to be quickened, and the Hindus, even when there is no prospect of temporal gain, are listening as never before to the truth. Are these suffering people sustained as they should be by the gifts and prayers of Christians in our favored land? Are our missionaries, in the manifold burdens and anxieties which press upon them, borne daily as they should be before the throne of grace? In closing her letter describing the situation at Ahmednagar, Dr. Bissell well says:

"We have fallen into the hands of the Lord, and his mercies are great! May we, missionaries and Christian brothers and sisters in this city and in this land, have the understanding hearts that shall find through these troublous times what is the will of God concerning us!"

THIRD CONVENTION OF THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER

MOVEMENT.

BY SECRETARY C. H. DANIELS, D.D.

WE are very glad to give brief notice of the Third Convention of the Student Volunteers, which was held in Cleveland, Ohio, February 23-27. This Student Volunteer Movement has often been noticed in the columns of the Missionary Herald. Those who have been specially familiar with the movement feel that it is a prophecy of what may be expected in the near future in the great work of foreign missions. With the colleges and professional schools of the United States and Canada thoroughly awakened on the subject of the world's evangelization, we may well believe that the matter will be brought to the attention of the churches as never before.

Great care had been taken in arranging for this convention at Cleveland; the sessions were held in Gray's Armory, having a seating capacity for about 2,600 people. The morning and evening sessions were held in the Armory in the form of a general meeting. Every afternoon was devoted to Sectional Meetings, held in the different churches. The first Sectional Meetings had reference to the different mission fields of the world, and were addressed largely by the missionaries. The second series of Sectional Meetings discussed the different forms of missionary work, such as evangelistic, educational, and medical. The third series were denominational conferences, at which the work of the several denominations was presented carefully to the students, with the particular needs of the work at the present time. At the general sessions of the convention the main features of the Student Volunteer Movement were discussed, and some of the great problems which are likely to confront the students were presented by some of the expert leaders. One of the most important papers presented was by President Charles Cuthbert Hall, D.D., of Union Theological Seminary, upon the relation of colleges and theological seminaries to the Student Volunteer Movement. Dr. Hall took very decided ground that it was coming to be a necessity that distinct courses on the subject of missions, in the most practical forms, should be established in all our seminaries, and that lectures should also be given in our colleges upon the great questions pertaining

to the foreign missionary work. The present condition of the colleges and seminaries, from Dr. Hall's point of view, shows that they not only are not leading in the great work of missions, but that their courses produce the very opposite effect. Probably no paper presented at the convention stimulated greater thought.

The present enrollment of the Student Volunteers in the United States and Canada is a little over 4,000. Since the beginning of this movement, ten years ago, over a thousand Volunteers have entered mission fields under the regular Mission Boards. At the beginning of this movement the contributions from our colleges and seminaries amounted to hardly $5,000; last year more than $40,000 was received from this source, very largely for the support of particular missionaries. One of the most interesting features of the work is the "Study Classes." According to the last statistics, over 3,000 students are gathered in these classes, making a thorough study of missions. These students are connected with over two hundred colleges and seminaries. The movement, which began at Northfield, Mass., has not only thus spread throughout the United States but has extended to the colleges in every Christian land, and of late years has spread still further to mission fields, so that to-day the Christian students in over 800 institutions of learning on the five great continents, and representing all races of men, are united in the great work of extending the Redeemer's kingdom throughout the world.

The convention from beginning to end was a great inspiration. Representatives were present from 331 colleges and universities, 61 theological seminaries, 47 medical schools, and 19 training schools, making a total of 458 institutions. The student delegates numbered 1,717. Adding to this the presidents and members of college faculties, officers of missionary boards, and leaders of young people's societies, etc., the number expanded to 2,214. It was a splendid company of young people gathered to consider the interests of God's kingdom as related to foreign missions, accepting heartily as their motto "the evangelization of the world in this generation," and soberly listening to the discussion of great themes which have for their aim the preaching of the gospel to every creature.

"THE GOSPEL OF DISCONTENT."

AN American writer now in India, who is bitterly hostile to missions, writes home concerning the missionaries laboring for women in the zenanas, that they are giving these Hindu women the gospel of discontent." This is an echo of the complaint that is often made in India by Hindus. There is an element of truth in the charge. Wherever education and religious instruction lead any people to see that there is a better way than the one which they have been living, they will undoubtedly become dissatisfied with their old life and seek for a better. The women of India greatly need to be discontented with their condition and surroundings. Sorrowful though their lot has been for centuries, they have submitted too readily to the wrongs inflicted upon them. Patiently have they endured the degradation caused by the wretched social customs of their land by which they have been kept in seclusion, married in childhood, often to old men on the verge of the grave, so that millions of them are left to an enforced

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widowhood through life, a life made wretched by all the indignities which can be heaped upon them. No words can describe the contempt put upon woman by Hinduism. The first step toward a better condition is dissatisfaction with the old. It is not well that a woman in India should be contented to be one of a number of wives, to be shut up as in a prison, to know nothing and do nothing but to minister to the lusts and whims of her lord. No doubt when the gospel comes to a poor soul thus immured it will awaken longings for a better life. The discontent she feels at her condition is righteous, and it shows that she is something more than an animal. It gives hope for the future of her class.

It cannot be thought strange that the men of India who have such degrading conceptions of woman, and who find it very inconvenient to change their notions and practices, should inveigh against the Christian laborers in the zenana for disturbing their homes and making their women discontented. But for a man who has lived in this Western world and who must know what women can be, and are, in the homes where the gospel has been received, to denounce those who carry this gospel to the zenanas of India as instigators of discontent, reveals moral qualities of a very low order. Perhaps he would claim that the dissatisfaction inevitably engendered by the introduction of the gospel will be ineffective and fruitless, and that there is no possibility of breaking the chains of custom and superstition in which the women are held. Then so much the worse for the system which has forged these chains. But it is not useless. The history of Christianity shows in innumerable instances how dissatisfaction with moral and social and religious environment has led to aspirations after better things, and how these aspirations have brought in a new era, often slowly, yet sometimes by sudden movements, as in revolutions. Discontent has proved the fruitful mother of beneficent changes. May it be so in India. Nay, it is so already. The light is breaking in at many points and reformations are taking place, and Christian women in the zenanas of India are helping forward, quietly but surely, a reformation which will change the cruel customs of India and relieve them from the indignities under which they now suffer. The old charge-as old as apostolic times that Christians seek to turn the world upside down is in a sense most true; they will do this always and everywhere until the world is right side up.

A MODEL CHURCH IN TURKEY.

BY REV. JOSEPH K. GREENE, D.D., OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

INVITED recently to visit the city of Adabazar, ninety miles east from Constantinople, I found, amid the encircling gloom of the present time, so much to cheer the heart that I wish to pass on the cheer to the friends of missions in the homeland.

An article in the Missionary Herald of December, 1891, demonstrates that, in the case of Adabazar, missions pay, and pay handsomely. Organized in 1846, and self-supporting from 1862, the evangelical church of Adabazar has ever been a self-taught, self-governed, self-propagating, and growing body. A great crisis in the history of any mission church is reached when the second and the third generation of native Protestants comes upon the stage. Then it becomes appar

ent whether the church has character enough to maintain its purity and stability, and whether its members have religion enough to convert their own children. Thus judged, the Adabazar church shows itself worthy of high commendation. Here, as in many other places in Turkey, the leaven of the gospel has exerted so wide an influence, and the uselessness of persecuting men of evangelical sentiments is now so well understood by the Gregorian Armenians, that very few Gregorians are moved to join the Protestant civil community or the evangelical church. They read our translation of the Bible and our religious books, and many of them love to hear the preaching in our chapels and churches, but they do not contribute to the support of the evangelical services. Hence the growth and the support of the church must come mostly from within.

With the exception of one venerable and beloved brother, there are now no survivors of the original church members in Adabazar, while from forty to fifty members of the Protestant community are away, mostly in America. Hence all the burden-bearers in church and community belong to the second generation of Protestants, and the third generation even is coming rapidly forward. Happy am I to be able to testify that the community has not degenerated or diminished; on the contrary, it has progressed in knowledge, in character, and in numbers. Since 1891 the church has suffered the grievous loss of its pastor, who, for thirtyone years, by reason of his wisdom, fidelity, and piety, was God's chief instrument in developing the evangelical cause. Happily, the father is now succeeded by a very worthy son, Mr. Hovsep Jejizian, who was graduated at Robert College and pursued a theological course in Edinburgh, Scotland.

During the past few years, also, the Christian population of Adabazar, though spared the dreadful massacre and plundering which so many other places in Turkey have experienced, has suffered severely from the general alarm and insecurity and the stagnation of business. In spite of all untoward experiences, however, the church of Adabazar has not only held its own, but has quietly and steadily prospered. The Protestant community numbers over 400 souls, and the church has more than 130 members. During the past year it lost four members by death, but it received eight new ones. The Maternal Society has held regular meetings in seven different quarters of the city, and has designated two sisters to visit families in each quarter. The Women's Society has purchased a shop in the market for some $800, most of which amount it has paid, and it rents the shop for the advantage of the community.

A young ladies' society of thirty members, a girls' society of fifteen members, and a Young Men's Christian Association of twenty-eight members, have held profitable meetings monthly. The latter association has a capital of $132, and has already gathered a library of 400 volumes, which are freely loaned to any member of the community. The association has also inaugurated a course of lectures, and secures a small admittance fee, for the benefit of the orphanage at Bardezag. Much effort is made to improve the singing of the public services on the Sabbath. The church sustains a lady city missionary, and pays her by the day, according to the number of hours she gives to the work. The past year she made 480 visits.

The community has maintained three schools: a Boys' School of sixty-three pupils, a Girls' School of fifty pupils, and a kindergarten of some eighty pupils.