"Mission

WE cannot but be gratified at the reception given to the new volume, Stories of Many Lands," published by the Board. The commendations given by the press have been uniformly and warmly commendatory. We are happy to say that the sale is progressing rapidly, and we expect both from the character of the book and its exceedingly low price that it will soon be found in thousands of our homes and Sunday-schools.

REMARKABLE statements are made in the London Chronicle concerning the contributions for missionary work by the native churches in the Society Islands. Raiatea, with 1,500 inhabitants, has contributed $1,224; Tahaa, with 900 inhabitants, $563; Pora Pora, with 1,000 inhabitants, $1,153. And yet among these churches contributing so nobly there has been no resident missionary during the past year. The people are accustomed, it seems, at the missionary meetings to commemorate their departed friends in their offerings. At Raiatea, a young widow on the day of contribution brought an offering of seven dollars in the name of a daughter who died about three months after her husband had been taken from her, and for this husband also she presented a gift. The thorough hold which the gospel has taken upon these islanders is clearly evinced by the generosity they display in their gifts for the prosecution of the missionary work.

As a

REFERENCE has heretofore been made to the arrival in Peking of the young men from the English Universities who went out under the China Inland Mission. The same spiritual blessing which attended these men in Great Britain, and while on their way, was manifested at Peking; and our missionaries at that city report that there has been a deeper spiritual life awakened in all the missions. result of this awakening, the Peking missionaries have issued a call to prayer on the part of all who are laboring in China naming as a time every day at noon. A proposal has also been made to begin a series of revival services with the native churches. Altogether our brethren are hopeful of good results.

OUR letters from Bulgaria give little information beyond that contained in the daily newspapers. The missionaries have no anxiety for their personal safety. Of course, the regular work of the mission is much interrupted, but at our latest date from Philippopolis (November 2) everything was moving in an orderly manner. The self-control manifested by the people is spoken of as worthy of all admiration. A French lady, who was in Paris during the siege of that city, affirmed to one of our missionaries that the good order in Philippopolis was in striking contrast to the conduct of the French under similar circumstances. Of course, there is great anxiety felt throughout the principalities as to the outcome of the conflict.

Nor all Christians are ready to observe the law of love, and seek, at the cost of their comfort, to worship in such ways as to reach others. We learn that the First Church of Kioto, which had a pleasant edifice near the homes of its members where they were well accommodated, have just gone off three quarters of a mile and hired a building in a densely populated section, where they can better reach others with the gospel. Would that all churches and Christians were as faithful followers of Him who pleased not himself!

We have been much interested in examining the "Gordon Pocket Medical Chest," prepared by Burroughs, Wellcome & Co., of Snow Hill Building, London, and designed for the use of physicians and families, especially in cases of emergency. The little chest contains a sufficient variety of medicines, with a supply of such instruments as are needed by missionaries and others, in a compact yet secure form so that it can be easily carried. Several of these cases have been kindly presented by Mr. Burroughs to medical missionaries of the American Board, and will undoubtedly prove useful. A medical authority has said that if Dr. Livingstone had had one of these cases strapped to his shoulder while he was in the swamps of Africa his valuable life might have been saved.

MR. JONES, of Madura, reports that on a recent Sunday evening, when his helpers and others were gathered together, a large and earnest consecration meeting was held, and 600 people rose at once in testimony of their purpose to consecrate themselves anew to the service of God. Among the letters from the Madura Mission in this issue, accounts will be found of large accessions to the number of Christian adherents.

THE Connection between missions and commerce is not often more apparent than in the story of the establishment of a mission station on Ruk, Micronesia. The natives in the islands of this archipelago were regarded as extremely savage, and no trade was ever attempted with them. At the beginning of 1880 a Ponape Christian teacher was left on one of the islands, and a year ago last November Mr. Logan and his wife established themselves on one of the islets. And now, after one year of Christian teaching by an American, and four years by a native Micronesian, the way is opened for the trading-vessel, and last autumn a schooner spent a week in the archipelago commencing traffic with the natives. Through the improved character of the people this vessel secured, what could never have been secured before—a cargo of cobra; and it sold, what never could have been sold on these islands before -a quantity of cloth. Certainly if the introduction of commerce and civilization gives to any nation a prior claim to those Pacific islands, it is neither Spain nor Germany, but the United States.

THE SECRET OF SOME MISSIONARY CONSECRATION. It is to be hoped that the regular readers of the Herald often lift up a special prayer, as they read, for the beloved missionaries whose story of labor and self-denial they are perusing. Let it always be done with thanksgiving that God hath counted them faithful, putting them into the blessed ministry of his Word in heathen lands. Let us sometimes remember also those who have been compelled to remain at home, to whom it is the sorest disappointment of their lives that, on account of special hindrances, they are obliged to relinquish foreign service. We are in continuous correspondence at the Missionary Rooms with many such persons, and their letters are sometimes exceedingly touching. When the decision is made that, on account of impaired health, or want of educational training, or the claims of dependent friends at home, or for other sufficient reason, they cannot be wisely accepted as missionaries to the heathen world, it is with no feeling of relief from the pressure of a heavy obligation that they receive the message. Far otherwise! Their language is oftener that of one who has just written as follows: "While I

bow humbly and submissively to your decision, may I say it was the greatest sorrow I have ever known? I had not realized how fully my heart and soul had been given to it until it was lost. For hours my soul went through such an anguish of suffering as I had never known before. I pray God I may never be called to pass through such suffering again." Out of such an experience as this God often brings his chosen servants into a more thorough missionary consecration than they otherwise would ever know. This explains the intense devotion to the foreign missionary cause on the part of some who preach and of some who give, and of many who pray and labor among the churches at home.

NEVER was the fallacy of the utterance that Providence is always on the side of the heaviest battalions more clearly demonstrated than in the recent war in Bulgaria. The forces of Servia were, to all appearances, vastly superior to those of Prince Alexander. The political and military authorities in all parts of the world had no doubt that King Milan would speedily capture Sofia. But there is a God in the heavens, before whom armies cannot stand, and who would not suffer this flagitious attack to prosper. Bulgaria may not be able to secure what she desires, but she has won the respect of mankind by her bravery, and it would hardly seem possible for the European Powers, after such a vigorous defence of her rights, to restore the position of affairs as they were before the war.

NOTHING has yet been made public concerning the settlement of the Caroline Islands dispute between Spain and Germany, although the telegraph reiterates the statement that a treaty has been signed. As we write, there has been no confirmation of the telegram that a German corvette has formally annexed the Marshall Islands to Germany. This report is not improbable, inasmuch as there are two German houses trading in the group, and there is no power that can resist such a claim. We have no apprehension that German sovereignty will interfere with the missionary work in which the American Board is so much interested.

THE Chinese are not much above the Africans in their superstitious ideas concerning the occult power of foreigners. It is very difficult to eradicate from their minds the notion that at some moment the foreigner may spring some deadly trap upon them. This notion is diligently fostered by those who are specially opposed to the coming of missionaries, and they tell to their children, as well as to adults, terrible stories of what the foreigner will do. Mr. Gilmour, of the London Missionary Society, reports that visitors frequently decline to take tea at his house because they have heard that this tea is drugged with "the medicine of bewilderment." One woman who sat down in a spring-bottomed chair suddenly sprang up as if all the evils of which she had heard had come upon her. On one occasion Mr. Gilmour, in leaving the chapel, laid his hand on the shoulder of a Chinaman, asking him to follow him. The greater part of the congregation immediately left the house in terror, thinking that by the laying. on of "a medicated hand " this man had been bewitched. The story was that a foreigner could so overcome a native by his touch that he would follow him, unable to turn to the right or the left, and thus go helplessly on and have his eyes dug out. These superstitions are among the obstacles that our brethren meet. They will yield slowly but surely as the gospel is preached.

TABULAR VIEW OF THE MISSIONS OF THE A. B. C. F. M. FOR THE YEAR 1884-85.

Western Mexico

1872

49

16

No. Pacific Institute.

1872

14

URGENT NEED OF MEN.

THE situation is fast becoming critical. There are not men enough in the field to hold the ground now occupied, to say nothing of new and widening fields white for the harvest. Rare opportunities are passing, unimproved. We lay the facts on the hearts of young pastors and young men in our theological seminaries and colleges, and we call on all who love the cause of foreign missions to pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest.

Some of the facts are these: Mr. Gulick left alone in care of the mission to Spain; Mr. Clark left alone in the mission to Austria; the following stations, where not less than three men are needed for efficient prosecution of the work in hand, left with a single man in each: Mr. Bartlett in Smyrna; Mr. Cole in Bitlis; Dr. Raynolds at Van, and now Mr. Christie alone in Marash, in charge of half of the Central Turkey Mission, where four men were engaged but a year ago; no new men for Japan the past year; Mr. Pierson alone at Pao-ting-fu, Mr. Perkins at Tientsin; Mr. Logan at Ruk; while not one man can be spared for a new station ready to be opened in Shantung.

What constitutes a call to the foreign field but qualifications and opportunities of the largest service for God and one's fellow-men? Read the following, just received from Mr. Christie at Marash :

"I had the honor of being one of the artillerymen who helped to hold 'the Hornet's Nest' at the battle of Shiloh, for hours, against the repeated charges of the best troops in the Southern army. We held on' till nearly all our officers, men, and horses were piled, dead or wounded, around our two guns, — till, in fact, we had not men enough left to load and fire. Yet even then the few survivors of us did not leave our posts beside the bullet-bespattered cannon until our own infantry, rising to their feet behind us, began to pour their withering fire into the very faces of the advancing foe. Pardon me for saying that I am reminded again of that situation as I look around upon the field of the Lord's battle here. You may be sure of one thing: Marash will not be abandoned, Adana will not be abandoned, Hadjin will not be abandoned. With the Lord's help, we (the few survivors of us) shall stand at our posts here until we hear the tramp and the cheer of reinforcements coming up behind us, or until we fall beside our guns. I leave you commanding generals to say which it shall be."

"IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST."

WE regret to see that the British Evangelical Alliance, in the list of topics it has put forth for the approaching Week of Prayer, has again ignored the one object had in view by those who originally proposed this observance. As a matter of history it is unquestionable that those who at the first invited the Christian world to set apart the week had no thought of asking their fellowbelievers to unite in general supplications for all sorts and conditions of men. They had before their minds one specific need, a need felt by Christ's devoted servants in all parts of the world, that the power of the Holy Ghost should be given to accompany the preached Word. Recalling the command given