San Rafael, under the care of the devoted Miss Walker. I have been in this school, and feel with her and her pastor, the Rev. Arthur Crosby, and others on the ground, the great importance of a permanent meeting-place for the school, and that a Chinese missionary should be employed, if one can be found, to have general charge of the work here and at Petaluma and Santa Rosa. Already converts have been received to the communion of the San Rafael Presbyterian church, and are cared for by the pastor and elders. But they need to be taught by Christian ministers of their own nation; and this can be done only by associating the people of neighboring villages and setting over them pastors or evangelists.

The work is worth all it costs, and would cost if greatly enlarged, because it brings salvation to some, and in the aggregate many, who come to our shores.

FAR-REACHING INFLUENCE.

But viewed in its wider relations, to the salvation of many others here and many more in China, it is impossible to exaggerate its importance. Christian Chinamen return to their native villages and cities, not merely to see their kindred, but to tell them what a Saviour they have found. And they do not return in vain.

NAM ART, well known on the coast, came hither a pagan.

He had never heard of Christ,

nor had he ever seen a person who had any knowledge of Christianity. The whole village to which he belonged was in the region and shadow of death. Slowly the light of the gospel entered his mind and heart, until he saw, believed and was saved.

Returning to his village after some years, he found a Christian church in it; and there he preached to his former neighbors and some of his kindred a whole year; and finally he had the joy of seeing his mother and brother come to the knowledge and belief of the gospel. They desired to confess Christ as their Saviour, but before the opportunity was given them to come to the Lord's table, the mob destroyed the little chapel and scattered the Christian people.

Many witnesses for Christ go home, yearn

ing for the salvation of their kindred and former neighbors; and blessed are they who help forward a work that has such results and possibilities. And therefore blessed are the Christian mothers and daughters of California who are banded together in organizations, small and great, in congregations, and presbyteries, and synod, all auxiliary to the Occidental Board, reading, working, giving and praying for the salvation of the Chinese and the world. I wish to put in a word in regard to the abundant labors of the brethren in charge of the Chinese work on the coast. I have not seen the Rev. Mr. Condit, of Los Angeles, or the brother at Portland; but I have been with the Rev. A. W. Loomis, D.D., and the Rev. Alexander J. Kerr in San Francisco. They have charge of the work north of Santa Barbara and south of Portland, and harder-working men I have not seen in any department of ministerial service. Forenoons, afternoons, evenings until late hours, find them at work. They have many things to do for the Chinese beside teaching them to read and preaching the gospel to them; and not being prominently before the public, as are pastors of churches, they are hardly thought of as engaged in a great work that taxes their mental and physical powers to the utmost. And I am sorry to add that their work, so important in itself and all its relations, and blessed of the Master, is not popular, and does not command the co-operation of Christian people here as it should do.

SAN RAFAEL, CALIFORNIA, May 28, 1887.

THE INDIAN QUESTION.

REV. T. S. CHILDS, D.D.

The number of Indians in our country is estimated at from 250,000 to 300,000. Apart from the work of the churches, there are two or three prominent organizations whose object is to guard the interests of the Indians. 1. The Indian Commissioners, of whom Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, of New York, is president, and Hon. E. Whittlesey, of Washington, secretary. These are government appointments. The work is a branch of the Department of the Interior. The commissioners, as a part of their work, purchase,

by bid and contract and after careful examination, the yearly supplies of provisions, clothing, household goods, farming tools, medicines, etc., for the various tribes supplied by the government. In this direction their work has been invaluable in arresting, to a great extent, the enormous frauds upon the Indians and the government by former contractors and agents.

The commissioners co-operate with the religious and benevolent societies in general and special efforts for the benefit of the Indians. There is much, however, that their very relation to the government makes it impossible for them to do. Hence

2. We have the Indian Rights Association, of which Herbert Welsh, Esq., of Philadelphia, is secretary. This is an entirely voluntary association, supported by voluntary contributions. This association, as its name suggests, interests itself in preventing if possible, or setting to rights, the "wrongs" of the Indians. Unhampered by any connection with the government, it attempts vigorously, if not always successfully, prompt relief for the injustice to which tribes and individuals are constantly subject. It has done an important work, not only in immediate results, but in arousing public attention to the whole subject of justice to the Indian. These two organizations work in general harmony.

In addition to these, and differing in policy, is the Indian Defence Association, having its headquarters at Washington, with Rev. Dr. Byron Sunderland as president. This association holds that the true policy for the Indians is to keep them permanently separate from the whites, retaining for them their strict tribal relations, with their territory in common, and enforcing the honest fulfillment of the treaty obligations of the government. In some respects this would seem the simplest solution of the Indian question. It has special advantages for missionary work in that it secures a more compact state of the Indian tribes. Schools and churches would seem to be more easily and more effectually sustained among them. But the judgment of many of the friends of the Indians has of late years been drifting to a different conclusion. To keep the Indians permanently in the tribal relation, with no land

except that which they own in common, sustained on this land by government, is believed to involve permanent pauperism and comparative savagery. The prevailing sentiment now among those who adopt this view is in favor of breaking up this whole system as fast as the Indians can be persuaded to consent to its dissolution.

The characteristics of the new policy are to make the Indian a citizen of the United States, with all the responsibilities and obligations of a citizen, to give every man his own land by deed, to lead him thus to self-respect and selfsupport. This is the object of the well-known "Dawes bill," which became a law at the last session of Congress. This bill is probably the result of more careful and anxious study, in Congress and on the Indian reservation, by its honored author, than has been given by any one man to the most perplexed and perplexing Indian question. Its main features are—

1. To secure by deed to every family a home of its own. Each head of a family is to have 160 acres, and each child a less amount. This is to be unalienable for twenty-five years, with power in the President to prolong the time if it seems best. This is the division of the land "in severalty," as it is termed. And the conditions secure it from being alienated by speculators.

2. To secure to the Indian citizenship, the same rights and privileges that are given to the colored man and to foreigners. This is to be applied also to all Indians who have withdrawn from their tribes and adopted civilized life.

3. After the division has been made to each member of a tribe, if there is land remaining, it or any part of it may, with the consent of the tribe, be sold, and the proceeds invested at a fixed rate of interest, to be used “for the education and civilization" of the tribe.

Lands which for special reasons are exempt from the operation of this act are those occupied by the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles and Osages, Miamies and Peorias, Sacs and Foxes in the Indian Territory, and the Seneca reservation in New York, with certain lands in Nebraska adjoining the Sioux nation. Some of these are lands on which our

church has missions, and it is believed the exemption is a just one and will work favorably.

4. The rights of religious societies now occupying land affected by the bill are guarded by securing to them not over 160 acres in any tract, as long as so occupied, and on terms that the Secretary of the Interior shall deem just. And no claim of any such society for its relig ious and educational work, under previous laws, is to be changed.

Such are the main features of the "Dawes bill." While much is hoped from it, and while Senator Dawes put into it the wisest thought of his own and the wisest judgment he could command from others, it is fair to say that he was not without anxiety as to its practical working. It would indeed be a wonder if there were found no grave defects in its actual operation. We shall watch with interest its effects upon our missions. It is not intended to force the scheme upon unwilling tribes; but an important fact is that at least 75,000 Indians are reported by agents as now prepared for the change and desiring it.

In reference to the work of the churches, the report of the Board of Indian Commissioners, recently issued, has this significant language: "We find no better Indian schools than those maintained by the Christian missionary societies, and we believe that all possible encouragement and aid should be given by the government for the continuance and extension of their useful service." The need of this is emphasized by the fact that only about one-third of the children of school age among the Indians have been under instruction even one month for the past year. But this is a hopeful advance. The Indian Commissioners sum up the evidence of the progress of the cause during the past year in "the increased attendance upon schools, the enlarged membership of churches, the awakened interest of the people at large in securing justice to the Indians, in more liberal legislation by Congress touching their interests, and the wholly sympathetic attitude of the Executive."

It is to be said in this connection that the appropriations of Congress for Indian education alone have advanced in about ten years

from $20,000 to $1,200,000. It is not necessary to claim that the administration has been free from mistakes, to accept the statement of the Board of Commissioners as to the attitude of the President. To a committee that waited upon him last year, after a full and earnest conference, he said with evident emotion, "No matter what we may do in Congress, no matter what I may do, no matter what may be done for the education of the Indian, there is nothing like the gospel, after all, to elevate the race."

A valuable and instructive book has been issued by the mission press in India, entitled "Historical Sketches of the India Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, known as the Lodiana, the Furrukhabad and the Kolhapur Missions, from the beginning of the work in 1834 to the time of the fiftieth anniversary, in 1884." It will repay perusal by all who are interested in India. The Presbyterian Observer says of it, very justly:

The reader is carried over half a century of labor in a single portion of heathendom. He notes its beginning in the landing of Dr. John C. Lowrie, the present senior secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, and in the twentyseven missionaries who came during the first decade of the mission's history. He observes their difficulties and hardships. As he goes over the record, he is impressed with the progress, permanence and greatness of the work done in the schools established, in the Christian ideas disseminated, in the foothold gained and in the converts made. He rises from the review full of gratitude to God for what he has enabled his self-sacrificing servants to accomplish, and anticipative of a bright and glorious future for the field upon which so much prayer and labor have been expended. The price of the volume is 75 cents, and it can be had by addressing the Rev. Dr. John C. Lowrie, Board of Missions, 23 Centre Street, New York.

If the Church would have her face shine she must go up into the mount and be alone with God. If she would have her courts of worship resound with eucharistic praises she must open her eyes and see humanity lying lame at the temple gates, and heal it in the miraculous name of Jesus.-Bishop Huntingdon.

ADDRESS DELIVERED BY REV. F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D.,

BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT OMAHA, MAY 25.

(Published by request.)

Soon after the rising of the last Assembly the Board of Foreign Missions laid out its work for another year. It had a debt, but it also had faith in God and in the churches. It proceeded precisely as the disciples did at the feeding of the multitude. Having no great accumulation of bread, scarcely a few loaves even, it simply began the distribution, trusting that a divine power would keep up the supply. The supply has been kept up, and there are a few baskets of fragments left. It was said a long time ago that God sometimes "chooses things that are not, to confound the things that are," and the way in which we have been enabled, spite of all dark prophecies, to appropriate hundreds of thousands from an empty treasury is, I think, a case in point. Seven hundred and fifteen thousand dollars were pledged, and seven hundred and eighty-four thousand have been received. Seven hundred and eighty for the work and the old debt, and four thousand with which to set up our grateful Ebenezer at the close of our first half century. Even the heathen are saying, "God hath done great things for them." The Lord hath done great things for us whereof we are glad. Our captivity-and it was a captivity-is already turned as the streams in the South, and we have come to the Assembly with doxologies.

This result has not been accomplished without the use of means. Never was greater effort made, and never was there a clearer proof of the efficacy of prayer. Up to the first of November, the receipts had run $83,000 behind those of last year; but the first Sabbath of that month was observed by many churches in our own and other lands as a special day of prayer for missions; and thenceforth the work of advance proceeded. Month by month the deficit of

the year grew smaller, and finally the advance reached the old debt, and that began to vanish. Meanwhile the Board, always a model of prudence, had heroically retrenched its work to the amount of $23,000; and thus between the upper and the nether millstone, the great bugbear was crushed.

It is but just to say that there was no great influx of legacies beyond average years, nor any one princely gift such as have often been received in the past.

The best thing about it is that this large amount has come from the great body of the living church. The Sabbath-schools made an advance of about $15,000, and the Woman's Board exceeded last year or any previous year by $24,000, reaching a grand total of $248,000. And besides this, individual women all over the land were sitting over against the treasury, watching with sensitive interest as the end approached, and one and another gave quietly $1000, and $3000, and finally, as the books were closing, $5000 was placed by a woman's hand as the cope-stone of our mission work of 1886 and '87. All honor to the faith and prayer and liberality of our Christian women! Yet I must not pass by the many generous gifts of the men,-men who by the full support of a missionary are setting the bright example to a thousand others of preaching the gospel by proxy. I will mention one who gave his opinion of the debt business by sending a check for $10,000 for himself and his church, and he said, "If you will advance with your work, if you will advance, you shall have another $10,000 next year." He represents a large class who will give for new and progressive work, but will not contribute if we are merely to hold our ground. God grant us wisdom to pursue some medium course between these earnest videttes and those whose different refrain is, "Keep out of debt."

I should fail to present our full cause for gratitude if I forbore to speak of the kind Providence which gives us, in common with

other boards, a new mission house. We have a reverence for "23 Centre Street," though not so much for the place as for the history which it represents. We cannot forget that there has been accomplished the full balf century's work of the Board since its organization under the General Assembly; that out of that modest little building have gone forth those living impulses which have blessed so many lands. There has been the roll call of the hundreds of noble men and women who have honored the church and her divine Master on all the continents of the globe. But it is the work, not the place, that we honor. Our history is transferable, and we are quite willing to carry our Ark of the Covenant with us into a land of better promise.

Through the munificence of a family memorable in the Presbyterian Church, and the special liberality of an honored representative of it, the most ample and commodious and attractive quarters have been provided for us at a nominal price. In a few months the three Presbyterian boards in New York will take joyous possession. What will the new site witness in another half century?

There is one change in our outlook that calls for a thoughtful and heartfelt word of tribute. Our faithful treasurer, William Rankin, proposes to lay down a service which has covered thirty-six years. He has smitten the rock many times for refreshing supplies, but it is not for this that he stops short of the promised land. He feels that the infirmities of age warn him against a further taxing of his strength, and he prefers to transfer his trust to a younger man at a time when the books of his exchequer close so grandly.

In the thirty-six years of his service Mr. Rankin has received and disbursed over thirteen millions, and who in all that time has ever suspected the purloining of a penny? Through all that long period he has remitted one-fourth of his salary to the Board, besides being a generous contributor. As to labor and fidelity to his post he has been indefatigable in season and out of season. He is one of those old-fashioned people who do not believe in vacations, and so

through the cold of winter and the heat of summer, William Rankin and the Mission House have remained, though half of New York had fled. Long live the memory of our faithful treasurer, who, I trust, may himself see yet many years of rest and peace.

A NEW HALF CENTURY.

We close a half century of the Board's history with thirty-four missions under our care, and occupying sixteen different countries. There are five hundred missionaries, male and female, and two hundred and eighty-nine native preachers of all grades. Into thirty-one languages and dialects used by us the Scriptures are translated in whole or in part, and more or less of Christian literature has been prepared. We have eight printing establishments, with a yearly issue of many millions of pages. Nine hospitals and twelve dispensaries are carried on in connection with our work, and probably 40,000 patients are treated. Hundreds of thousands of dollars' value in real property is held by the Board in the form of churches, residences, colleges, seminaries and primary schools, press buildings, hospitals and orphanages. There are three hundred. and ten organized churches, with a membership of nearly 22,000, and over 23,000 pupils of all grades are in our seminaries

and schools.

Such are the statistics of our force and of the appliances with which we make our new beginning. Even with lower ratios of gain than we have reached during the past few years, we should report fifty years hence. 730,000 communicants on our mission fields, or above the present number of the church at home; and with the same ratio, all Protestant missions together would then report 32,000,000 of communicants and 120,000,000 of nominal Christians. It is said as a discouragement that the population of heathen nations has thus far increased far beyond the successes of the mission work, and that is true. But while the world's population doubles in a century, the fruits of many missions are now doubling every ten years; in Japan they double in three years. At such ratios of increase, there would, a hun