from debt, the academy building, and roomy grounds enough around it. Save it, brethren, and we can build it up by degrees. Will not some men in Philadelphia, in whose city the two ends of our church's century are soon to come together with so great interest, wrap the far borders of the continent together by making themselves the saviours of this young "Neshaminy" on the Pacific?

If they will see to it that their gift for this purpose passes through the treasury of this Board, we will see that it shall not be paid out upon the property except in extinguishment of the existing debt; and that it shall then be paid only under such safeguard by lien as shall protect the amount from loss or perversion.

Mr. Whitworth remains in Philadelphia during October, at least, to co-operate with this earnest appeal. His address is 1334 Chestnut Street.

CARTHAGE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE.

The community of Carthage, Mo., led by Rev. W. S. Knight, D.D., pastor of our church in that place, have made a most

spirited and successful movement for the establishment of a collegiate institute. A local subscription of $13,000 has enabled them to purchase their lot and erect their building. Their school, which has been taught for a year in premises belonging to the church, will very soon enter its own very handsome edifice. The good spirits of the community are further raised by the fact that the trustees have secured as principal of their institute Rev. Dr. J. G. Reaser, in so many ways most favorably known in the Presbyterian Church. Professor Reaser has been requested by the trustees to make the canvass which this Board by its certificate approves, in the Presbyteries of New Brunswick, Monmouth and West Jersey. The best effort of the Carthage community leaves their work incomplete. Some generous help in finishing and furnishing their building, and for the provision of needful apparatus, will be necessary in order to provide Dr. Reaser from the start with facilities for his work, and to insure, by God's blessing, his earliest success. those who know him he needs no commendation.

Το

Further detail concerning institutions and canvass must be delayed to future issues.

INCREASE OF CONTRIBUTIONS. With great pleasure the announcement is made that there has been a substantial increase of contributions to this Board. The total amount received last year between April 1 and September 1 was $24,454; the amount received this year during the same period will reach at least $36,000. The exact amount cannot be ascertained before going to press, as all the returns are not yet in; the increase, however, will be about $12,000. Should this rate be continued, the contributions for the year will be about $56,000.

While it is gratifying to contemplate such a possible increase, it should be recognized that the amount mentioned would be but little more than one-half of the $100,000 recommended by the last Assembly—a sum absolutely necessary for the successful prosecution of our Sabbath-school and missionary work.

In this connection it is proper to call attention to the fact that five hundred less than half our churches made last year any contribution to this Board. Amongst the churches that have failed to contribute are many of the most wealthy, and in other di

rections most liberal, in our denomination. If the thirty-seven hundred and sixty-two noncontributing churches would give us on an average but ten dollars, the whole amount of contribution would reach nearly the one hundred thousand dollars recommended by the Assembly.

Will not all the branches of our Zion give us a portion of their fruit, that we may be enabled to do something proportionate to the wealth of the denomination for the more than ten million spiritually-destitute children of our land?

ADVANTAGES OF SABBATH

SCHOOL MISSION WORK. Sabbath-school mission work is the most economical and most effective means of evangelizing the unreached millions in the land. The quickest and cheapest way to build up churches in new or godless districts is to start mission Sabbath-schools. This is now universally admitted. In one city of our country one hundred and fifty churches, and among them some of the strongest in that city, can trace back their origin to mission Sabbath-schools.

Nor is the advantage of this kind of evangelization confined to cities. In all the central west, the northwest, southwest and southern and western portions of our land there are tens of thousands of churches which have grown from Sabbath-schools.

Mission Sabbath-school work shares in the blessing mentioned in Proverbs 16:9"When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." It is not opposed. Men would as soon think of opposing sunlight or water.

Something in the worst of men is the ally of the Christian school. It is their ambition for their children's improvement and education. Even the abandoned desire their offspring to be better than themselves. Multitudes of unbelieving Germans and of all races hate the church as the representative of religious despotism, but they love and reverence her as the educator of their children. It is touching to see them commit to her their dear children.

Another ally is the social instinct. How

powerful is this in new communities! Lonely hearts hunger and thirst for social life, sympathy and recognition. This longing sends the laboring and heavy laden in the sparselysettled places to the new Sabbath-schools. There the forms of worship are readily adapted to every shade of culture and of life. The social Bible study, "the bairns' hymns," the festivals and holidays of the school, bring hearts near together. Then the teachers, with their devoted and loving Christian hearts, touch these sensitive souls. In these teachers the needy and young find their truest helpers, their most faithful friends, their wisest guides in all life's affairs. The personal character and influence of these teachers are the divinely-used powers in this work.

These reasons for mission Sabbath-school work apply not only to that work as carried on in mission schools, but to all efforts in church schools to reach and gather into them the poor or the careless children and youth. No Sabbath-school should omit such efforts.

EXTENT OF THE MISSIONARY

FIELD.

It will be remembered that in the September number there were published, as indicating the extent of our field, letters from missionaries in India, Mexico and Brazil, as well as from different portions of our own land. We now lay before our readers an interesting petition from Africa. All quarters of the world call upon us for aid.

CLAY ASHLAND, ST. PAUL'S RIVER, Near Monrovia, Liberia, Africa, May 9, 1887. PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. GENTLEMEN:- -We have a very interesting little Sabbath-school at this place, composed mostly of native African children. We have one great drawback, however-we lack suitable books, cards and songs. The school numbers forty-five altogether. Most of these are in their letters, simple spelling and reading lessons.

Under the direction of our teacher and superintendent, Mr. Alfred B. King, we have saved our coppers until they now amount to five dollars. Stretch it as far as it will go toward supplying our present needs. We cannot wait any longer to accumulate more money just now

to buy all the books and literature we need. We have no objection to receiving a portion of the books we need now through your missionary department, if you consider us worthy. We are quite sure that they will be gratefully received and put to proper use. Our needs are:

1. Gospel Songs, Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 combined. We would like to get them through you, even if you do not publish them-half a dozen with music, and the rest the words only. We would take second-hand ones if you find them too costly.

2. Catechisms: Catechisms for Young Children, and the Shorter Catechism, at least fifty each. These and Gospel Songs are specially needed.

3. Primers of the simplest nature, to teach how to spell and read.

4. Cards: Alphabetical cards, Scripture readings, cards for the wall.

5. A few Bibles and Testaments.

6. Church Hymnals, as many as can be given for this purpose.

Praying that you will favorably consider our petition, and, if practicable, supply our needs, Yours with Christian love,

WILLIAM H. DIGGS.

A colporteur in Iowa writes:

Enclosed you will find my report for the quarter. I have been greatly blessed in the work this winter, especially among the poor and needy, who receive the tracts and cheap books so thankfully, and I know of many who are reading them and trying to live different lives. Any one who has never done work of this kind does not realize the suffering and sorrow there is. A short time ago I wanted to make a few calls on the sick and needy before I should leave the town, as I was going in about three hours. I asked an old gentleman, an elder, to go with me, and we soon found a boy who had been sick for a long time with running sores on his limbs. We could not find room to sit down, there was so much disorder and confusion in the room, but the people appeared glad to have any one visit them and talk with them about the place where there is no poverty or sickness. We made several calls among that class of people. The elder thought that he had learned more of his duty, as an elder, in two or three hours with me, than he had ever thought of before.

Here is a good word from Minnesota : I wish to return my thanks to you for your great kindness to us in granting us the supplies

asked for. Many "God bless yous'

have

gone above for you from our devoted Sabbathschool workers and children. One church organization has already grown out of this work, and others are on the way. We are about to organize other schools, and hope to find you still generous if we need your aid. Some of these new organizations pay their own way from the start, and two of them are now helping others. I have more calls for this work than I am able to fill. We never get time to hunt out places for work, but they find us long before we are able to get around to them. May the good Lord fill your coffers with gold for the prosecution of his work!

TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION.

When we hear of the wonders wrought upon human souls through the reading of a single tract, forgetting that the power is of God who is wonderful in working, we but half yield credence to the stories; but this questioning does injustice to the truth. The following incident, given by one of the missionaries of the Philadelphia Tract and Mission Society, can be read without question. The persons to it are known, and their names can be given. Striking as it is, it is but one of many illustrations of what God is doing by this amazing agency-the press.

A messenger came to the house of a lady in my district, asking her if she lived a year ago where she was now living. Receiving an answer in the affirmative, he said, "A man living at Street, and in a dying condition, is anxious to see you; will you grant him his request?" The lady suggested that the locality mentioned was of bad reputation; but if her husband, whom she would consult when he came home, was willing, they would both come down promptly. They called as promised, and the dying man asked the same question-if the lady and husband had lived a year ago where they were now living. Receiving the affirmative reply, he said, "You were chloroformed and robbed on such and such a night?" They replied that they were. Said he, "I was the man who robbed you, and as I am now dying, I wanted to ask your forgiveness. When I was in your bedroom, I saw a tract, with a picture on it, lying on the bureau, and strange to say, I took it home for my daughter to read. Somehow I

felt I must read it also, and as I read its contents, I was led to see what a great sinner I had been. It was the means of my conversion to Christ. I cannot restore you that of which I robbed you, as I am so poor, but I want to ask your forgiveness for the great crime I committed." The lady remarked that when the stupor passed from her on the night of the robbery, she looked for the tract which she had placed upon the bureau, and was surprised to find it gone. "Could it be possible," she asked herself, "that the robber has taken the tract ?" And so it was; and God had made use of the tract to his conversion to Christ.

This missionary adds:

I myself shall never forget the tract I received fifty-nine years ago; the same year when this society was organized, and I believe it was one distributed by the society at that time. Then I was living with my widowed mother, on a farm not far from this house of worship. One day a Christian gentleman, riding on a white horse, and passing our house, threw a tract near the gate. His name was Robert Ralston. I discovered a picture upon the leaflet, which induced me to make further examination and read it. Reading it line after line, I came to a passage like this from one of the Psalms: "The wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God." This made a deep impression upon my mind never to be effaced. Years after reading this tract, I was led by the word and Spirit of God to give myself to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The following from the pen of the lamented Dr. Dulles will be read with interest. It was probably one of the last articles prepared by him for THE CHURCH :

THE ELMRIDGE SERIES. The old story of "Eyes and No Eyes," of the boy who saw nothing in his walk and the boy who saw much in tree and flower and bird and animal life in going over the same ground, is being repeated everywhere by the boys and girls of our day. The number of those seeing nothing, or almost nothing, of the wonderful works of the Creator, is very great. It is to overcome this sightlessness of our young people-which, by the way, does not so greatly exceed that of their elders as we might suppose that the "Elmridge Series" is prepared by their author, Mrs. Ella Rodman Church, and published by the Presbyterian Board of Publication. The volumes do not profess to be

scientific treatises on ornithology, botany, etc., but are attempts to open the eyes of their readers to the boundless stores of delightful wonders that lie enclosed in bird and beast, in flower and tree, and so to awaken in them the habit of observation and to lead them nearer to the Creator of all as well as to a vastlyincreased enjoyment of his gifts. The first volume of the series is "Birds and their Ways;" the second, "Flyers and Crawlers;" the third, "Flower Talks at Elmridge;" the fourth, "Among the Trees at Elmridge," and the fifth, "Talks by the Seashore." All of these volumes are profusely illustrated and made attractive by good paper, print and binding. It seems a pity that those who are loud in their complaints of the "Sunday-school novel" do not take pains to have such volumes as these put in their own Sunday-school libraries. It is found that narratives outsell these books of fact, in which are invested far more labor and expense.

THE HUNDRED BEST BOOKS.

It is not often that we meet a more pithy setting forth of the value of the books of our Presbyterian Board than was given to the Synod of Wisconsin by the Rev. W. A. McAtee, of Madison, as a part of his report to the Synod on publication. In it he says: In the early part of the present year a very interesting discussion was carried on in the public journals of England and America in regard to the hundred best books. The discussion was started by Sir John Lubbock, who, in a lecture to a workingmen's college on reading, ventured to indicate what he believed to be the one hundred supreme volumes in the literature of all time. The lecture and the list were given to the public, and a large number of literary men and women were invited to express their views in regard to the matter. Many freely responded, and we soon had Sir John Lubbock's list criticised and amended, or entirely reconstructed by such greater lights as Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Ruskin, and by such lesser lights as Miss Braddon and Oscar Wilde. Echoes of the discussion are still frequently heard, and only lately lists of the hundred best novels, of the hundred best books for children, of the hundred best American books, have appeared in our literary periodicals.

THE HUNDRED BEST RELIGIOUS BOOKS. It would be a very rash experiment for any one to propose a list of the hundred best religious books, and this would not be the time

or place for the attempt. Yet if any one of us were called upon to prepare such a list, the very best place for us to go for suggestions would be to the catalogue of the Board of Publication of the Presbyterian Church. It is, indeed, a constant source of pleasure and pride to run one's eye over that richly-stocked list, and to see how much that is of the very best in the world's religious literature may be obtained with the imprint of the Presbyterian Board. In the departments of church history and biography, of systematic and practical theology, of commentaries and sermons, of personal religious experience, of defences of the common faith of the evangelical churches, of treatises on practical Christian duty and our pressing popular reforms, this catalogue is rich almost beyond comparison. We find here the choice works of Calvin, the reformer; of Baxter, Bunyan, Owen and Flavel, the great Puritan divines; of Edwards, the elder Alexander and Hodge, the great theologians; of church historians like Lorimer, Gillett and Moffatt; of biographers like McCrie and Bowen and Blackburn; of preachers like Davies and Hamilton and Newman Hall; of practical writers like Mott, Henry, George, Bonner, Dr. Spencer, Dr. Plumer and Bishop Ryle; and of fervid missionaries like Bird and Jessup and Henry; almost every department of religious literature, not forgetting religious fiction, is here represented at its best.

THE SUBJECTS DISCUSSED.

Amid the varied publications of the Board, I find under the head of temperance thirty-five separate titles; of the Sabbath, twenty-four titles; of the Sabbath-school, eighteen titles. Thirteen books and tracts treat of Protestantism; sixty-three of the Reformation; sixtyseven of Presbyterianism. Eighteen separate treatises are devoted to the Lord's Supper, twenty-six to the subject of benevolence, thirtyfour to prayer. Amusements are treated in sixteen separate works; baptism in thirty-three; conversion and the first steps in a Christian life (inquirers directed) in seventy. Some dozens of volumes are devoted to foreign lands, and fifty-one titles relate to the work of missions at home and abroad. In the department of church history the catalogue is particularly rich, and eighty-seven titles are given to biography. A fuller analysis of the Board's catalogue would confirm the impression this hasty glance suggests. Considered from whatever point of view, its publications do the highest honor to the church it represents, and are worthy of the widest possible diffusion.

If

they could have the place in our homes to which their value entitles them, the gain to the youth of our church and our country would be incomputable.

IGNORANCE ABOUT IT.

It is a sorrowful confession to make, but truth requires it, that this noble body of Christian literature-covering over twenty-five hundred titles in all-is almost unknown to the great body of our membership. The Niagara torrent of ephemeral newspapers, periodicals and books ever pouring from the press has almost buried out of sight the rich treasures at which we have glanced. The veriest trash, the most abominable and corrupting products of degraded minds and beastly hearts, is allowed to take their place in the formation of the character and the determination of the destiny of the youth of our land.

WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.

No subject or question, your committee believes, is worthier of the mature consideration of pastors and elders than how to direct the reading of the young; of the mature also, so far as they are readers at all. Reading habits are most powerful educators, and character depends more on what the people read than what they hear. Our Board of Publication provides us with a set of most admirable helps in this unspeakably-important department of our work. If every family were provided with a choice selection from its attractive lists, much inferior mental food would thereby be ruled out. "The expulsive power" of a good book is equal to or co-ordinate with that of "a new affection." An annual sermon on religious reading, with the descriptive catalogue of the Board as a text, would hardly fail to lead to good results. A little lending library of the Board's books, owned by each minister and elder, and judiciously kept in use, would furnish an index to other treasures of the same kind. A congregational library, if it were actually worked, would serve the same end. A recommendation from the pulpit of some fresh books, or of some older one, bearing possibly on the topic of the sermon, or on some subject of present and pressing interest, would oftentimes awaken interest. Many of the tracts of the Board lend themselves admirably to the use of an earnest pastor, elder or private Christian. Scarcely a phase of doctrine or duty but may be found treated in a crisp and effective way in this cheap and handy form. Scattered in the pews, enclosed in a letter left on a visit, handed direct to a friend, they may prove the good seed falling into good ground.