assistance as pupil teachers. The two races are learning to live together in a Christian way. "It was a very great joy two weeks A CONFERENCE. ago to see one of my native girls publicly confessing her faith in Christ the first, I trust, of a large number of King's Daughters.'" Western Turkey Mission. DR. FARNSWORTH, of Cesarea, reports that, on account of the condition of the country, no conference of the preachers connected with that station has been held for the past six years. The ninth annual conference was held in April, 1892. In May last the conference was reorganized and a notable and encouraging meeting was held. With a single exception, all the preachers were present, numbering twenty-five, but there were ten less than six years ago. A number of papers were presented by the pastors, followed by discussions. Dr. Farnsworth says: "The paper presented by the Moonjosoon pastor, on the duties of a pastor, was excellent. I did not suppose that he could prepare so able a paper. The evidence that we saw both of the growth of the men in Christian character and manliness, and the evidence which their reports showed of healthy growth of the work in nearly every outstation were very gratifying. Never have we enjoyed more thoroughly a meeting of this kind, and I doubt whether we ever had one that was more helpful to us all." except the new interest among the women. The people are able to raise some ninety dollars a year for a preacher, but this is less than half the sum necessary for such a man as they ought to have. We are urging them and the people of Nev Schehir to unite in the support of a man who may serve both congregations. "On Monday, in company with several of our friends, we visited that wonderful rock-hewn city, Grarémé. As we stood before the seats and the tables where the priests and theological students took their meals five hundred or a thousand years ago, and looked at the sacred pictures, still fresh and perfect except so far as they have been defaced by iconoclasts, we almost expected some of the old denizens to walk in and reprove us for intruding on their solitude. But times have changed. It is no longer necessary to live in the caves of the earth, and our friends spread an enjoyable picnic for us in front of one of the indestructible monuments of an age of terror." At Nev Schehir the most encouraging feature is an opening work among the Greeks. The teacher, supported by the people, is doing as well as he can. Much time was spent in efforts to settle a quarrel among the church members. At this place the Greek community has large schools, one for three hundred girls and one for eight hundred boys, supported at an expense of some $2,500. large manufacturing establishment, quite new and as yet but partially furnished with looms and other machinery, where we saw a large number of girls at work on rugs, towels, etc., showed a most encouraging spirit of progress. Α At Ak Serai the work was found to be in a healthful state under the care of an able preacher. It is hoped that a church will soon be organized here. At Nigde also there is a good school, and the preacher is worthy of all commendation. ORDOO, A SUMMER HOME. DR. PARMELEE, of Trebizond, under date of August 12, reports some incidents connected with a tour to Ordoo and the mountains south of it: In the summer our Greek congregation at Ordoo goes en masse to Chambashi, thirty-six miles away and six thousand feet above sea-level. The Armenians of Ordoo are also largely scattered, a good many going to Chambashi also. So Ordoo is largely deserted in the summer, and I remained there only long enough to make arrangements for the interior journey. "My first visit was to the mountain village of Bey Alan. Here are some sixty houses of Greeks, built in a picturesque, wild, forest region, where the scenery is delightful, but the conditions of existence are very trying. The people live in log houses, and these they must leave in the summer in order to find pasturage for their animals, necessitating the building of two sets of houses. I found the people in their summer village, though the weather seemed little like summer. The preacher received me as a guest into the parsonage of two rooms, one of which I shared with him and his family, while other guests occupied the second room. The summer chapel is built of stone, and is the third attempt to provide a place large enough for the growing congregation. At the winter village, also, the schoolhouse has been once or twice enlarged, and plans for another enlargement are now being made. This need is explained when one considers that the Protestant adherents have increased in two years from fifty-three to ninetyfive, or have nearly doubled. "But the most interesting sign of progress was found in the manifest spiritual life of the people. On the Sabbath there were four services. The first, at about eight, A.M., was an experience meeting for men, old and young. all of whom gave a brief review of the week, and many prayers were offered. The next service was a sermon, at which, using the Turkish language, I helped them all I could on their way. Last year eleven from this village had been received into church fellowship, and as others had expressed a desire to come to the Lord's table, after the sermon all having this desire were requested to remain. Fifteen remained, and arrangements were made for their examination and the reception of as many as were found prepared for church fellowship. These "The next service was an experience meeting of the women and girls. meetings of the men and women had been patterned after the consecration meetings of the Christian Endeavorers, of which the preacher had learned from the Christian Endeavor World, though it is impossible to conduct them in the same way in such a place. The sisters were frank to confess the shortcomings of the week, and all were encouraged with prayers and exhortations to start the new week with fresh hope and zeal.” A PREACHER'S NEEDS. "At last came the Bible lesson, which followed the International Course, and showed a careful study of God's Word, the children taking their part, exhortations and applications being added. Then, while they were all together, the opportunity was seized to urge them to increase their contributions for the coming year. The people are abundantly willing, and when it is only a question of digging foundations, or bringing stones from the quarry, or logs from the forest, the problem is easily solved. But when money is needed the problem becomes involved. They see very little money, and what little they can get is picked away from them by the taxcollector or is frugally spent for a few of the necessities of life. But there must be money to support an educated preacher. He must have books, and having grown accustomed to a standard of civilization above that of the villagers around him, he must have many things of which they do not feel the need, and these require money. For some years the attempt was made, as a matter of economy, to carry on the work in this village with an uneducated man. But it did not work, and we were forced to face the alternative of giving up the work or providing a suitable man for it. The present preacher, Kirios Antrea, is such a man. He is teacher of girls, as well as boys, through the week, and is holding services all day Sunday, and for all these services, and the aid of his wife in the work among the women, his salary for the year is $132. I wish the people might raise this sum. I wish they might raise even half of it, and I went there with the intention of inducing them to do so, but I did not succeed. They did, indeed, increase their contributions by about twenty per cent, leaving, however, more than half the burden on us, while the preacher asks us to consider how he can support a family of five on $132. You see how this question of self-support grinds us between the upper and the nether millstone. Happily some assistance from the Bible Lands Missions Aid Society enables us to keep this work along. It is still an unsolved problem how the preachers and teachers are to be educated at all, and not carried so far beyond the level of the people as to make self-support impossible." rests on them to finish their church at Ordoo, they had decided to defer the project. On my way to Semen I spent a few hours in the village of Yundalan, where a new work is starting up. Four families, numbering about thirty souls, have led off by building a small log schoolhouse in their summer village and providing a house for a school in their winter village, and now they ask for a teacher. When asked how much they could pay towards the support of a teacher they said five liras, $22. This seemed a very generous sum for them to assume, people who must grind their living out of those rough mountain summits, or gather it in by wandering in distant lands,- and I felt constrained to assume one-half the support of a teacher, in the faith that the Lord will provide for the work which, it seems clear, he has opened before us. It was pleasant to meet people in that new stage of inquiry which makes them eager to hear God's Word explained and enforced. And they had already suffered for their faith, for enemies opposing their building a schoolhouse succeeded in getting one of their number into prison, from which he was released only on paying a fine of one lira. May the Lord prosper this new work, and may the means be forthcoming to give it all needed encouragement. "At Semen I found the work moving on in about the usual way. The parsonage was a little nearer completion than it was three years ago, and I was told that the small room which was given me for occupation had been fitted up chiefly with money given by Miss Riggs, who was there last year. Plans are also on foot to provide a more suitable place for a preacher's residence in the winter village. A house has been bought and it is to be made warmer and provided with windows, a thing unknown to the ordinary house of that village. There seems little hope that this congregation will ever be anything but poor, as the better to-do are steadily leaving for other places. But the work cannot be abandoned, as it is the feeder for the coast towns. 66 From Semen I made my way to the coast at Kerasoon. Nearly thirty-two years ago, when I made my first visit to Kerasoon, I found one Evangelical there. He died a few years ago, leaving one successor. Now there are two, one an Armenian and the other a Greek. Both of these are earnest Christian men, holding their position as best they can amidst the opposition and ridicule of a very worldly city. They have hope, too, that some day a congregation of heart worshipers of Jesus Christ will be formed in that place. During the Sunday I spent there I did what I could to encourage them in the good way. They said that many of the people of the town are seeking for something different from the unsatisfying forms of their old churches, and would welcome a preaching service. I do not doubt it, but what can be done when funds are so low?" NOTES FROM THE WIDE FIELD. AFRICA. UGANDA. Reports from this kingdom since the revolt and the death of Mr. Pilkington have been very meagre, but we are glad to find in the Church Missionary Gleaner for August quotations from a letter written at Mengo on April 18, in which it is said: “ Buganda is fairly quiet now. Looking back on the revolts — both Nubjan and native- as a whole, I think the work has gone on well; not progressed, perhaps, but still not gone back, and that is saying a good deal. It is wonderful how quiet the whole country has been, with the exception of Budu and North Singo. I have not the slightest doubt that a vast majority of the people dislike us exceedingly, and would only be too glad to drive us all out if they could, but they fully realize now that the government is too strong." Owing to the disturbed state of the country European missionaries cannot visit the outlying stations, but the following report is sent of the work of a native minister, Rev. Nua Kibwabanga: "He has just returned, after six weeks' absence, and reports that the work is going on well in all parts of the province. He baptized 149 candidates in Singo, excluding the Kasaka District, and found congregations in different places of 300, 250, 190, and so on. These large congregations, in the present disturbed state of the country, were no doubt due to the number of candidates for baptism and their friends, but still his report has rejoiced our hearts very much. God is taking care of his work, and we can praise him, for it is all of him.” POLYNESIA. · British New SIR WILLIAM MACGREGOR ON MISSIONS IN NEW GUINEA. Guinea is a region somewhat larger than New England, over which the sovereignty of Queen Victoria was proclaimed about ten years ago. The present administrator is Sir William Macgregor. The whole district has been prosperous, the native tribes having been reduced to order, and many thousands of natives have adopted peaceful habits. At a recent meeting of the Australian Wesleyan Board of Missions, Sir William Macgregor gave an address, the outlines of which are given by Rev. Mr. Nettleton in the July number of the magazine of the English Wesleyan Missionary Society, Work and Workers. In his address he stated that his standpoint of observation differed from that taken by the members of the Board. Missions, from his point of view, in a country like New Guinea, were a necessary adjunct to the work of the government. Savages were made into law-abiding citizens better by Christian missions than by any other process. If any disturbance arose in any tribe or district he might go with a force of native police and inflict punishment upon the wrongdoers, but the effect of such a lesson soon passed away. On the other hand, if a mission were established in the district he found the work of maintaining law and order a comparatively easy matter. He could judge of the value of missions by looking before and after.' He had gone to New Guinea before the Wesleyan Mission was inaugurated. He had watched its growth, and was now able to testify to the changes which had been effected in the character and life of the natives. So far as his personal experience and knowledge went, the people were the fiercest and most intractable in New Guinea. The contrast was most marked. Life and property throughout the district of Dobu were now as safe as in George Street, Sydney, and, Sir William added, 'probably more so.' He then gave interesting details of his periodical examinations of the mission schools. It was a diversion from his ordinary duties which gave him great pleasure, because of the wonderful improvement in the young people. He was more than satisfied with the progress made, and he believed there was not a better conducted mission in the world. He spoke in high praise of all the workers, and attributed their success to earnest, self-sacrificing, and patient toil. Their enthusiasm was not temporary. They worked as well today and much more hopefully than when they first landed. The spirit of loyalty to the queen was instilled into the natives, and much success was evident from any point of view. Sir William referred to the work of other missionary societies. There is an honorable understanding between the Anglicans, London Missionaries, and the Wesleyans, whereby each society operates within the bounds of its own allotted district, and therefore wastes no force in mutual rivalry, nor yet puzzles the native heathen with differences." It is stated that it is only seven years since Rev. Mr. Bromilow commenced work in British New Guinea, and that already nearly the whole New Testament has been translated into the native language. At a recent meeting in Sydney, Mr. Bromilow introduced two native preachers from New Guinea, one of them heir to the great warrior chief of Dobu, and Mr. Bromilow said: "It is daybreak at Dobu. Cannibalism and infanticide are passing away, and five hundred names appear on our class books. We are ringing out the darkness of the past and ringing in the light the Christ that is to be.'" FROM NEW BRITAIN. In the article above alluded to in Work and Workers Mr. Nettleton reports the outlook in New Britain, which is in the German section of New Guinea. The Wesleyan Mission, after careful examination by the agent of the imperial government, has been so heartily approved that it has been ordered that no other society shall intrude upon its work. A German missionary, who is connected with the Wesleyan Society, gives a most cheering report of the situation. In 1875 the people were wild, naked savages, without written language or a current coin. The converts seem stable, and their growth in intelligence and all that relates to civilization affords the German traders a new field for commercial enterprise. The natives themselves raised this last year $2,250 toward the support of the mission. FIJI. A few weeks since we reported good news of a revival on Fiji. Further tidings have come, showing that the work is spreading and deepening, Heathenism is said to be extinct, as a custom. Ninety-five per cent of the people attend public worship in cburches, and 44,000 are fully accredited church members. There are said to be over 1,200 schools, and the revision of the Bible is now passing through the press of the British and Foreign Bible Society. |