opening of new fields, and in the general trend of the missionary work of the world? The members of the Assembly's committee were fully aware of all that has been said and written in regard to the avoidance of indebtedness; but evidently not only the committee but the General Assembly, which unanimously adopted its report, were under the strong conviction that this work cannot suffer any serious arrest without bringing injury upon the cause of Christianity and great culpability upon the church. The only note of sadness in Dr. Haydn's admirable report and speech was caused by the painful reflection that in clearing the treasury of its indebtedness a retrenchment of nearly $25,000 had been made in the work of the Board; that in this respect there had been nothing more or less than a retreat in the face of the enemy, and that amid all the wonderful signs of progress which characterize our times. If we believed that a great and enlarged work abroad would detract from important interests at home, we should hesitate; but we are sure that the reverse would be true. It would not only strengthen the Christian manhood of our people: it would enrich our faith; it would multiply our churches over the whole area of our country; it would vitalize our city mission work; it would fill the coffers of every home charity; and it would vindicate our theology more than a thousand tomes of polemics. This is God's method. When a tide wave sweeps a whole coast line, every little inlet is filled of course, and filled as it could never be by any mere local pumping process. Our Lord disposed of this whole subject of proportions when he said, Ye shall be witnesses for me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, and also unto the uttermost part of the earth. The whole world was his then, and his are the generations of to-day. The Church Missionary Society has closed its year free from debt. The Intelligencer says: Last year a heavy deficit was hinted at; but before the meeting took place almost the whole deficit had been wiped out by special contribu tions. This year there is no deficit, and the income is again the largest ever received. There is abundant cause for thanksgiving. "The students' movement for missions," of which the venerable Dr. McCosh wrote so eloquently in a recent article in the New York Evangelist, was also referred to with solemn emphasis in the opening sermon at the General Assembly by the Rev. Dr. Marquis. This grand impulse among the young men of our colleges and seminaries is perhaps all the more significant from the fact that it has been entirely spontaneous, so far as the missionary boards and societies were concerned. It has come from no suggestion of theirs. Not that they are wanting in sympathy with it or fail to appreciate its importance. It would, perhaps, be impossible, even if it were necessary, to trace its springs with any definiteness. The movement is too extensive to have been the result merely of the meetings which were held last summer at Mount Hermon. Something is due, doubtless, to the spirit enkindled by the annual inter-seminary conventions; but in a far broader sense is it the result of a general wave of missionary spirit enkindled in Christian households and churches during the last few years. Possibly it has in some degree been stimulated by reports which have reached us from the churches of Great Britain, where a great missionary work sprang up in the institutions of learning two or three years ago. The "Simultaneous Meetings" which have been held in the last two years in the Anglican churches of Great Britain have afforded still another indication of a broad and sweeping impulse of missionary zeal that has come over the church in all Protestant lands. There can be no question that this movement lays a tremendous responsibility upon missionary boards not merely-for they can only act as they are empowered by the churches-but the churches themselves upon and upon every member of the churches. Dr. McCosh asks, "Has any such offer of living young men and women been presented in our age or in our country, in any age or in any country, since the days of Pentecost?" Of course, it is scarcely probable that these 1500 young men will all find themselves in circumstances to apply for appointment; but the at the places of public resort during the summer, meetings of this kind could be called, the effect would be stimulating. An impression seems to be abroad, possibly through misapprehension of a remark dropped by one of our missionaries at the Assembly, that the retrenchment of $23,000 reported by this Board to the General Assembly was accomplished largely through curtailment of the salaries of the missionaries. This is a mistake. The Board of sionaries' salaries to meet its deficit. The retrenchment, doubtless, did affect the salaries of some missionaries through their voluntary sacrifices for the sake of the work; and this was the import of the remark made in the Assembly. When the Board found it impossible to carry on all the work that was in hand in the respective fields, and so notified the several missions, some of the brethren, instead of closing schools and dis with whatever abatement in numbers, fact cannot be ignored without great and culpable delinquency on the part of the Foreign Missions has not cut down the mischurch, that here is literally an army of men, a regiment and a half we may say, who are at least contemplating the great work of foreign missions. They stand over against the multitudes of those to whom God has given wealth, with something of the nature of a challenge. They cannot be sent with the mites of the poor, although these, it is to be hoped, will more and more increase. Clearly the wealth of the church must be drawn upon in this great enlargement of the work. Those who are at loss for profitable investments, those who tell us sometimes with a mixture of pride and pathos that it is "harder to take care of a fortune than it is to acquire it," may well ask if this summons of Providence is not made to them. Two zealous young men have visited the colleges and seminaries book in hand for volunteers who will now visit the banks and warehouses of the Christian church and take corresponding pledges for missionary support? In view of the considerations named above it is not strange that the laymen of the late General Assembly set apart two of their meetings to the consideration of foreign missions. On two different mornings when they met for conference and prayer, it was agreed that the great question which should occupy their thoughts and their petitions should be that of sending the gospel to the heathen. Would that elders' meetings might be held all over the church with this very purpose in view! We make this as a practical and a practicable suggestion. If in our cities, or missing native workers, appealed to their personal friends and drew upon their own private income to meet the crisis, but without the slightest constraint on the part of the Board. In this way they nobly responded to the general effort to meet the exigencies of the Board, just as multitudes of brethren did at home, some of them from very slender incomes. Put it with emphasis that we must train the young of the household and of the Sabbath-school in the love and the support of missions. Very largely the opinion holds that whatever the church may do for the support of this cause, it is quite a different thing with the Sunday-schools. They may take up any fancy object that shall please the children. The simple logic of all this is that to-day is important, but to-morrow is of little account; that while we are placing our men upon the front in ever-increasing numbers, and are laying foundations and assuming vast responsibilities in the presence of the heathen world, it is not of the slightest consequence whether we are preparing to maintain our position there. One thing is certain: our children will scarcely feel interest enough to remain in the Presbyterian Church unless they become interested in the work of the Presbyterian Church. Dr. Mitchell's article on "Teaching the Indians English," which will be found in the Monthly Concert department, will well repay perusal. It puts the question of Anglicising the adult savage of America in its true light. The article is the outcome of a recent visit to the Omaha mission, but it is corroborative of the impressions which have been made by frequent visits to our Indian missions within the last three years. More than once the Rev. John P. Williamson, of the Dakota mission, has urged the fact that whatever is done for the adult In dian populations of this country in spiritual instruction must be in their own tongue, and that this will continue to be a demand for perhaps two generations. We are in favor of the general provisions of the Dawes bill, which contemplates the allotment of land in severalty to such Indian tribes as are prepared to receive it; but we are impressed with the fact that in the present drift of sentiment and the present eagerness to civilize the Indian by enactment,to press upon him the English language, and forbid in schools and elsewhere the use of his own tongue, we are venturing upon a fatal extreme. Side by side with the effort to teach the younger Indians the English language, and to impart to them useful. knowledge through that medium, there should be an earnest effort made to reach the adult Indian populations in their own tongue. The most urgent missionary work for the Indians is that which shall make known to this adult class the saving truths of the gospel while it is called to-day, ere their night cometh in which, with whatever civilizing appliances for others, they will be beyond our help. The Assembly, at the suggestion of its Standing Committee on Foreign Missions, again recommended a special contribution from the churches for the work of the Board in papal countries. The Board itself, in presenting its annual report, had been somewhat in doubt as to the policy which should be pursued in regard to this subject, owing to the meagreness of the responses made to a similar recommendation of the Assembly last year. It would be well, perhaps, if some such arrangement could be made as that which we understand is being carried out by the Presbyterian churches of Scotland and Ireland. The representatives of the different evangelical churches of papal Europe are welcomed to those churches, and the moneys raised upon their appeals all pass through the mission treasury upon the principle of giving a certain per cent. to the church whose representative has made the appeal, while the remainder is divided among all the continental churches included in the plan. As matters stand, there is a degree of awkwardness in reiterating recommendations which are disregarded; and besides, the agents of European churches are embarrassed by what seems a closing of the door against them. Two or three years ago the statement was circulated by the secular press that missions in Fiji were a pretty bad failure. People who had any knowledge of the subject, however, knew better than this, for they had read not only the missionary magazines of the Wesleyans, but also Miss Gordon Cuming's spicy book, "At Home in Fiji." In addition to that, also, they were familiar with the general and solid fact that a once cannibal king, having been converted and having become satisfied that a Christian. government would be better than anything that he could give to the people, had passed over his sceptre gladly to Queen Victoria. There lie before us some statistics which are decidedly refreshing, from which it appears that of the total 128,414 inhabitants of the Fiji Islands, 111,743 are Fijians; and that of these, 100,154, or considerably more than nine-tenths, are attendants at public worship. As to cannibalism, it has so entirely passed away that the children know less of the horrors of that system than the missionaries can tell them. Said missionary Rev. A. J. Webb, in speaking of Fiji, at a meeting held in Melbourne in November last: I may say that, where fifty years ago there was not a single Christian, to-day there is not one avowed heathen. There may be heathen; but if so, they do not stand up and declare the fact. visits to the South Sea Islands has recorded as a general fact the far greater success of Protestant missions in those islands, as compared with those of the Roman Catholic Church? It is supposed to be a sort of stinging thrust at Protestant missions to constantly hold up in a cheap and irresponsible way the wonderful self-denial and un The statistics of the Wesleyan Missionary paralleled success of Roman Catholic misSociety in Fiji are as follows: The Church Missionary Intelligencer puts some pointed questions to Dr. Lenz, one of those irresponsible travellers who assume to know so much about missions and who with easy assurance pronounce them failures. The first question is, "What missions has Dr. Lenz seen in Africa?" The only ones which he could have visited were the Baptist missions on the Congo and the various missions of the London society and the Scotch societies on Lakes Tanganyika and Nyassa. All these are young, just beginning, and of course few fruits appear. Second, "As to the statistics which missionaries send home being misleading, has Dr. Lenz ever seen a missionary report in his life?" Is it the kind of reading that he is particularly interested in? "As to the success of the Jesuits (and Dr. Lenz, like others of his kind, declares them to be successful), did he meet any of this class in Africa?" and how could he know anything of the subject? In addition to the above questions, we would like to propose one, namely this: Has Dr. Lenz read the narratives of Baron Hübner, himself a Catholic, who in his sions. This can be done by men who know nothing of the modern work, and who never happened to read any of the historic failures of Roman Catholic missions in India, in Congo, in Japan and in China, to say nothing of the early Catholic missions in North America. General Lew Wallace, late minister to Turkey, lately made a speech in Brockton, Massachusetts, in which he gave testimony, from personal knowledge of missionaries and missionary work in Turkey, that is comforting to the church at home, and very creditable to our foreign missionaries. We can fully indorse the statement from actual observation on the ground. General Wallace says: I have often been asked, What of the missionaries of the East? Are they true? and do they serve their Master? And I have always been a swift witness to say-and I say it now, solemnly and emphatically-that if anywhere on the face of the earth there exists a band of devout Christian men and women, it is these. I personally know many men and women, and the names of Dr. and Mrs. Riggs, the names of Woods, Bliss, Pettibone, Herrick, Dwight and others, spring up in my memory most vividly. Their work is of that kind which will in the future be productive of the greatest good. They live and die in the work. One I know has been in the work fifty years. They are and sustained by us. God's people, and they should be remembered The London Times states that the Chinese government has ceded the Chusan Islands to Germany. These islands are an extensive and rocky group lying off the mouth of the Ningpo river. In a military point of view they are of great importance; otherwise they seem of little value. MONTHLY CONCERT. SUBJECTS FOR MONTHLY CONCERTS. JANUARY.-General summary in connection with week of prayer. FEBRUARY.-China. MARCH.-Mexico and Central America. APRIL.-India. MAY.-Siam and Laos. JUNE.-Africa. JULY.-Indians, Chinese and Japanese in America. AUGUST.-Papal Europe. SEPTEMBER.-Japan and Korea. OCTOBER.-Persia. NOVEMBER.-South America. THE INDIANS AND THE CHINESE IN After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb (Rev. 7: 9, 10). MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS. SENECA MISSION. UPPER CATTARAUGUS: Cattaraugus Reservation, western New York; mission begun, 1811; transferred to the Board, 1870; Rev. Morton F. Trippe and his wife; Miss Olivia P. Ball, and six native assistants. SUBSTATIONS: on Tonawanda and Tuscarora Reserves, western New York. ALLEGANY: Allegany Reservation, western New York; Cornplanter Reservation, Pennsylvania; Rev. William Hall. LAKE SUPERIOR CHIPPEWA MISSION. ODANAH: On Bad River Reservation, in the northwestern part of Wisconsin, the reservation fronting on Lake Superior; transferred to the Board, 1870; missionary work resumed, 1871; Rev. Henry Blatchford. LAC COUR D'OREILLES: On the reservation of the same name; station begun, 1883; Rev. Samuel G. Wright. Outstations: At Round Lake, 8 miles from Lac Cour d'Oreilles, and Puhquauhwong, 17 miles from the station, Misses Susie and Cornelia H. Dougherty. THE DAKOTA MISSION. YANKTON AGENCY, Dakota Territory: On the Missouri river, 60 miles above Yankton; station occupied, 1869; Rev. John P. Williamson and his wife; Miss Nancy Hunter, teacher; Rev. Henry T. Selwyn. Outstations, 3; native helpers, 2. FLANDREAU, Dakota Territory: On Big Sioux river, 40 miles above Sioux Falls; station occupied, 1869; Rev. John Eastman. POPLAR CREEK, Montana Territory: On the Missouri river, 70 miles above Fort Buford; station occupied, 1880; Miss Jennie B. Dickson, Miss Charlotte C. McCreight. Outstation, 1; native teachers, 2. WOLF POINT, Montana Territory: On the Missouri river, 20 miles from Poplar Creek; station occupied, 1883; missionaries, Rev. George W. Wood, Jr., and his wife. PINE RIDGE, Dakota Territory: Occupied, 1886; Rev. G. C. Sterling and his wife, one native helper. OMAHA MISSION. BLACKBIRD HILLS, Nebraska: On the Missouri river, about 70 miles above Omaha City; mission begun, 1846; Rev. William Hamilton and his wife; Decatur, Nebraska; Rev. John T. Copley and his wife; Mrs. Margaret C. Wade, Mrs. Margaret C. Fetter, Miss Mary L. Barnes and Miss Eva M. Woodin, Omaha Agency, Nebraska. WINNEBAGO MISSION. On their reservation, adjoining that of the Omahas; mission resumed, 1881; Rev. Samuel N. D. Martin and his wife. Post-office, Winnebago, Nebraska. IOWA AND SAC MISSION. On reserved lands, near Highland, in Kansas and Nebraska; mission begun, 1835; missionaries, SAC AND FOX MISSION. Mission begun, 1883; Miss Anna Skea and Miss Martha A. Shepard. Post-office, Tama City, Iowa. THE NEZ PERCE MISSION. LAPWAI, IDAHO TER.: Work begun, 1838. Rev. George L. Deffenbaugh and Miss Kate McBeth. KAMIAH: Occupied, 1885. Miss Sue McBeth temporarily at Mount Idaho. Outstations: Deep Creek, Wash. Ter.; work begun, 1880; supplied from Nez Perce Reserve. Wellpinit, Wash. Ter.; work begun, 1882; supplied from Nez Perce Reserve. Umatilla, Oregon; work begun, 1882. Native Ministers: Kamiah, Rev. Messrs. Robert Williams and James Hayes; Lapwai, Rev. Silas Whitman; Umatilla, Rev. Archie Lawyer; Deep Creek and Wellpinit, Rev. Messrs. William Wheeler and Peter Lindsley; North Fork, Rev. James Hines; General Evangelist, Rev. Enoch Pond. It will be noticed that the missions among the Creeks and Seminoles in the Indian Territory do not appear in the above list. The reason is this: After a careful examination of the whole question, involving a visit to the field by one of the secretaries, personal interviews with the missionaries, and much painstaking inquiry and consideration on the part |