power as a Christian educator among the two and a quarter millions of this district. Though the Christian students are largely in the majority, yet quite a number of non-Christian scholars are on the rolls; and Dr. Washburn has recently built, with his own means, a dormitory for the accommodation of a number of these non-Christian students, that they may thus be brought more thoroughly under the Christian influence of the school.

One of the new functions of the institution and one that is full of hope and encouragement as a sign of the times, is that of being an asylum to young men who have just broken with their ancestral faith. There are a number of such young men here now. They lost all confidence in Hinduism and sought refuge in Christianity, only to find themselves ostracized from their caste and people and home. As a class they are most earnest and hopeful, and are now busily at work in studying the truths of our faith to prepare themselves to return to their villages. that they may preach Christ to their bigoted and heathenish friends and families. While the institution has been branching out in various directions and taking up new departments, the Theological Seminary has been maintained uninterruptedly from the beginning. At the opening of this year a missionary was devoted by the mission to this department alone. Assisted by a staff of native instructors, he is devoting himself to the task of increasing its thoroughness, usefulness and popularity; and we trust that the time is not far hence when, with all the facilities now afforded by Pasumalai, we may train many men of ability, intelligence, character and piety, who may take the burdens of the work upon their own shoulders and release the foreign missionaries for other work and fields.

By the liberality of the Prudential Committee and the generous self-denial of the present principal, the buildings and apparatus of the institution are fairly adequate, though the sum spent since its founding for this purpose has been less than $30,000.

One of the principal features of the day we celebrated was that of the enthusiasm manifested and plans devised toward securing a suitable and adequate endowment for the institution. For some time it has been felt that the Jubilee year could in no other way be so appropriately celebrated as by a grand effort to secure funds to endow the school. A Jubilee Fund was opened in India by an offering of a month's salary on the part of all our missionaries and mission agents. This, by means of appeals to our Hindu and Anglo-Indian friends, has been already supplemented by Rs. 3,0co subscriptions, making a present total here of some Rs. 11,000, which we hope nearly to double in three years. By a unanimous and enthusiastic resolution on the Jubilee day, it was decided that this work is to be vigorously pushed and every mission agent in the district is to seek from friends and neighbors all he can; and every Christian in our growing community is to give toward this object which is so dear to the hearts of all of them. The campaign has opened vigorously and auspiciously.

But of course the mites of this people, who are constantly vibrating between very moderate supplies and absolute want, cannot, even with the utmost selfdenial on their part, bring more than a small portion of the required endowment. Yet the funds are greatly needed, and the Prudential Committee has cordially signified its wish that they might be raised. Of course it will not do to take from contributions which are required for the regular work of the Board. But

are there not friends of Madura and Pasumalai, who have aided us in the past, who will now over and above their usual contributions make special and extraordinary gifts for this object? Such funds may be transmitted through the Treasurer of the Board at the Mission House, Boston, and they will be an abiding blessing to the kingdom of our Lord in this centre of heathenism.

THE FINANCIAL PROBLEM. A STATEMENT

AND SOME PROPOSALS.

In reference to the outlook on the financial side for the year 1892-93, the Prudential Committee made statements in its annual report of the Home Department which have not been presented in the Missionary Herald, but which our readers ought to consider. We therefore give here an extract from that report, and also certain excellent suggestions made by the Committee of the Board to which this report was referred, suggestions designed to meet directly, and in a practical way, the questions raised by the Prudential Committee. Are not the plans proposed worthy of earnest consideration? Shall they not be put into immediate execution?

OUTLOOK FOR THE YEAR.

(From the Report of the Prudential Committee.)

Upon what basis shall the appropriations for another year be made? This is the urgent question which immediately confronts us. Another way of putting the same inquiry is this: What can the Board reasonably depend upon as the prospective receipts, especially from donations regular and special, during the new fiscal year upon which we have entered?

As a help to the consideration of this question, showing also its urgency, the following facts should be emphasized :

1. Such was the value of the energetic movement spontaneously started by a few business men at the last Annual Meeting to raise a special extra $100,000, that the Prudential Committee felt warranted in appropriating this entire sum as a part of the regular appropriations at the beginning of the year, to the great comfort throughout the entire year of the Committee and of the missions. The thanks of the Board are due to these large-hearted and generous men for this important service.

2. Of this proposed $100,000 the sum of $50,000 was definitely pledged by this special committee and largely subscribed by their own number at the last Annual Meeting, and during the year it was paid (with an additional $120) into the treasury, and is so acknowledged as part of the donations of the year. We have no assurance that a similar extra sum can be relied upon for another year. 3. The amount received by legacies last year was about $100,000 more than the $150,000 which was reasonably anticipated and appropriated at the beginning of the year. For this we render thanks to God who moved the givers to bequeath this sum for the advancement of the Kingdom of God after they had themselves ceased from his service on earth. But so unprecedented a sum for the next year nothing warrants us to expect; so that our income from legacies cannot safely be estimated above $150,000.

4. In order, therefore, to meet the imperative necessities of the missions, as already presented in their estimates for the next year, the Committee needs reliable assurance in some form, before they make their regular annual appropriations a few weeks hence, that they will receive from freewill offerings during the coming fiscal year, additional to what may be reasonably expected from the regular donations and legacies, not less than $150,000. Should the Committee be obliged to enter upon the severe task of making out their annual appropriations without this assurance, they will be called upon to reduce by that amount the work upon the missionary field; and what this means we dare not allow ourselves as yet to picture. This sum, $150,000, is mentioned as the minimum needed in order to retain our work upon its present basis, without providing for enlargement so earnestly called for, and without entering into the new fields to which God is summoning us in every one of our missions. To meet the full need would call for more than double this amount. But the urgent question now is, how may the Committee be assured of at least an extra $150,000? When the Board last met at Chicago seventeen years ago in 1875, the total receipts reported for the year then under review were, in round numbers, $476,000. We now, giving thanks to God, report, for the past year, in round numbers, $841,000. We are encouraged therefore to repeat the question: By what method may the friends of the Board be enabled to continue this advance during the coming year by at least $150,000? This inquiry the Committee leaves with the Board for its earnest consideration and for its wise decision. How the voices of our more than five hundred missionaries, each with a fresh testimony from the front, could they but be heard, would emphasize the urgency of the call! Shall not the response be prompt from the constituency of the Board at the present Annual Meeting, and from their larger constituency, old and young, throughout the land -so prompt that it will be recognized without question as the voice of the Lord himself, summoning us, in accordance with the inspiring motto of a century ago, to "Expect great things from God," and to "Attempt great things for God," through the freewill offerings he will permit us to bestow during the coming year? And to him shall be the glory!

THREE SUGGESTIONS.

(From the Report of the Committee of the Board on the Home Department,
Rev. Dr. F. A. Noble, Chairman.)

On the basis of what expectation and by what method may we hope to leap the chasm of the $150,000 which the Prudential Committee tells us yawns before us, and which we must somehow cross in order to reach the high standard of last year? We venture to make three suggestions looking toward securing the extra amount which seems to be required.

1. Ask the Sunday-schools connected with our Congregational churches to increase their offerings over last year to the extent of $25,000. One hundred schools pledging $100 extra would yield us $10,000. One hundred schools pledging $50 extra would yield us $5,000. Four hundred schools pledging $25 extra would yield us $10,000. Here we have our total of $25,000. Is it not possible to form plans and to set agencies in motion which will certainly and even easily accomplish this end?

2. Ask the Societies of Christian Endeavor connected with our Congregational churches to increase their offerings over last year to the extent of $25,000. One of the most potent factors in the churches of our order to-day, and one of the most hopeful signs of the times, greets us in these Societies of Christian Endeavor. Into no form of work do they enter with more enthusiasm than sending the gospel to foreign lands. Nothing would suit these young people better than to be led to buckle down to some task which would tax their energies to the utmost, and at the same time give them the joyous feeling of being in fellowship with Christ and with all who love and serve Christ in bringing the entire race into subjection to the truth. An organization which can send 30,000 and more of its members from all parts of the land to New York city, to sit in convention day after day and night after night in the heat of midsummer, at their own expense for railroad tickets and hotel fare, may be counted upon to respond with alacrity to any reasonable appeal presented to its constituency, and to make sacrifices, and large sacrifices if necessary, to meet an emergency. Last year we turned to the men of wealth to aid in increasing our contributions. This year let us turn to the young, and make our campaign one of instruction and development as well as of appeal. These societies can be classified after a plan similar to the one suggested for the Sunday-schools, and amounts apportioned sufficient to yield the $25,000 extra.

3. Ask the churches of our Congregational body, and such other churches as may elect to do their foreign missionary work through this Board, to increase their subscriptions and contributions by a round $100,000. God helps brave men. God helps hopeful men. Not yet have we sufficiently learned the sublime lesson that God loves to open Red Seas to men when men are ready to walk through them. Last year a couple of large-minded and large-hearted constituents of the Board conceived the idea of raising an extra $100,000 from the business men. They themselves gave munificent sums to this end. Only a little more than half the amount aimed at was secured in this way. But God honored this effort by opening unexpected channels of beneficence, and the $100,000 and more was forthcoming. If we plan large things, if we go forward in the expectation of large things, God will not fail us. Maybe that some of the very men who gave extra amounts last year to help swell the total of the receipts of the Board found so much joy in it and so much blessing for their souls that, without any plans or concert, they will do the same this year. New friends will be raised up. The churches can be made to see that as yet they are only "playing with missions." When they once see this, how small would seem the task of giving the extra $100,000 here urged upon them!

In the carrying out of these suggestions there will need to be hearty cooperation between the pastors and the officers of the Board, but there will need to be especially hearty coöperation between the pastors and the leading members of their churches. With faith and enthusiasm all along the line the record for this year can be made to outshine the record for any previous year in the history of the American Board.

PROGRESS OF MISSIONS IN SOUTH CHINA.

BY REV. C. R. HAGER.

It is unquestionably true that South China has been one of the hardest mission fields of the world. The Cantonese have often been designated as "the Yankees of the Orient," and their capacity for business, shrewdness in trade, perseverance in emigrating and in opposition to foreigners have justified the term. The ideal Cantonese holds his own against all the other Chinese, and for this reason he is so often despised by the Chinese of other provinces. To do missionary work among them is no easy task, and requires the best talent and the most effective missionary methods to accomplish anything. The shrewd native is ever suspicious that the foreign missionary will spring some trap upon him, though he may exercise none but the kindliest feelings toward him.

Again, the Cantonese is a natural born disturber of the peace; he is ever ready for something new, even if that should convulse the country in a revolu tion. Such is the opposition to the hated barbarian that it has sometimes been said that the Cantonese need a little foreign chastising every few years to hold their unwarranted pride in its place and make them a little more susceptible to foreign innovations. The province itself ought to stand at the head of missionary conquests, but were it not for the success achieved among the Hakkas it would hold a very inferior rank. Probably not more than 4,000 Cantonese have accepted the doctrines of the gospel, though the efforts to reach them have been varied and unceasing. Formerly the missionaries scattered Christian literature everywhere free of cost. After a while it was thought best to ask a few cents for the publications, to ensure their being read.

In the earlier stages of missionary operations, when the Chinese mind was little understood, the books published were often misunderstood, so that the literati threw them aside with some contemptuous fling at the religion of Jesus. As time went on, however, Chinese character became better known, and newer and better books were published which were a pattern of Chinese thought and style; these met with a more cordial reception, so that even men having passed the examinations said to the missionaries: "Your books are much more readable now than formerly." And yet with all the daily preaching, opening of Christian schools, publishing of books, distributing of Bibles, and the dispensing of medicines, the work has made comparatively slow progress. Some of the Christian Chinese, recognizing this fact, thought that perhaps a greater impression could be made if the medical and evangelistic work were united; and so a society was formed that sent out a party of men composed of physician, colporter, and preacher, who have traveled widely, healing the sick and preaching the gospel. It must be admitted that this was a step in the right direction and that, whereas the doctrine sof Jesus were formerly tabooed, the people feel a little more friendly toward this "foreign religion," as they term it.

This method of missionary operations largely originated in the Chinese mind when they saw the good results achieved through the practice of medicine according to foreign principles. They adopted it as their own, and so the English