merican Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Americ Mission Rooms, Congregational House, Boston, Mass. Rev. N. G. CLARK, D.D. Rev. E. K. ALDEN, D.D. Rev. JUDSON SMITH, D.D. Corresponding Secretaries. LANGDON S. WARD, Treasurer. Rev. CHARLES C. CREEGAN, D.D., Field Secretary. "HARLES E. SWETT, Publishing and Purchasing Agent. ACI above-mentioned persons should be addressed CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE, No. 1 Some treet, Boston, Mass. Communications relating to the pecuniary affairs of the Board should be sent to the Treasurer; subscriptions and remittances for the MISSIONARY HERALD, to the Publishing Agent. Mrs. ELIZA H. WALKER, having care of Missionary children, may be addressed Auburndale, Mass. District Secretaries. New York and the Middle States, Connecticut, and Ohio, Rev. Charles H. Daniels, No. 39 Bible House, New York City. States of the Interior, Rev. S. J. Humphrey, D.D., Rev. A. N. Hitchcock, Ph.D., Merchants Building, Woman's Boards of Missions. W. B. M., BOSTON. Miss ABBIE B. CHILD, Secretary. Miss ELLEN CARRUTH, Treasurer. No. 1 Congregational House, Beacon Street, Boston. W. B. M. OF THE INTERIOR. Miss M. D. WINGATE, No. 53 Dearborn Street, Chicago, Secretary. Mrs. J. B. LEAKE, No. 53 Dearborn Street, Chicago, Treasurer. W. B. M. FOR THE PACIFIC. Mrs. H. E. JEWETT, Secretary, Oakland, Cal. Mrs. R. E. COLE, Treasurer, Oakland, Cal. Letters relating to "LIFE AND LIGHT" should be addressed Secretary "Life and Light,” No. 1 Congregational House, Boston, Mass. Legacies. In making devises and legacies, the entire corporate name of the particular Board which the testator has in mind should be used, as follows: "The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, incorporated in Massachusetts in 1812." "The Woman's Board of Missions, incorporated in Massachusetts in 1869." "The Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior, incorporated in Illinois in 1873.” Honorary Members. The payment of $50 at one time constitutes a minister, and the payment of $100 at one time constitutes any other person, an Honorary Member of the Board. Publications. THE MISSIONARY HERALD, published monthly at $1.00 per year. Pamphlet Sketches of the several Missions of the Board, 35 cents for the set. 66 Concert Exercises" and Leaflets for free distribution may be obtained at the Mission Rooms. The MISSION DAYSPRING, for children, published monthly by the American Board and the Woman's Boards of Missions at $3.00 for 25 copies; $1.50 for 10 copies; single copies, 20 cents. THE AMERICAN BOARD ALMANAC, annually. Price, 10 cents; $6.00 per hundred. WALL MAPS, including Map of the World. Set of seven. Price on cloth, $10.00; on paper, $6.00. MAR 23 1889 THE ARY MISSIONARY HERALD. VOL. LXXXV. — APRIL, 1889. - No. IV. THE receipts from donations for the first six months of the financial year are a little less than $190,000, about $7,500 less than those of last year for the corresponding period. Legacies have fallen below those of last year by nearly $53,000, so that the total falling off is about $60,000. During the remaining six months, therefore, we must look for a marked advance from those whom the Lord is still sparing as his living stewards in order that they may distribute generously what he has committed to their trust. Let every pastor preach a rousing missionary sermon about this time, and emphasize the favorable opportunity for liberal special gifts. The applications for missionary appointment both from men and women, we are glad to report, are steadily increasing. May hearty thank-offerings accompany them! We think that our older as well as our younger readers will be interested in the article in the Young People's Department telling how the gospel reached Samoa. The last reports received by the London Missionary Society from these islands are that the war is demoralizing and impoverishing the natives more than any previous conflict has done. Nevertheless, the schools at Malua and Savaii are unaffected as to numbers, having now under instruction 200 picked young men, the future hope of Samoa. The mission seeks to maintain a strict neutrality in regard to political matters. The Chronicle of the London Society expresses the belief that one word from the three powers that are represented in Samoa, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, would stop the war, and that such an interference would be hailed as an evangel of peace by all the Samoans. We trust that the representatives of these governments are about to speak that word. THE State of Vermont has just enjoyed a "foreign missionary campaign," covering a period of just four weeks, ending on March 3. Dr. Creegan, as Field Secretary, had charge of the arrangements, and with Rev. Otis Cary, of Japan, Rev. James L. Fowle, of Western Turkey, and Mrs. C. T. Rand, of Micronesia, twenty-seven places were visited, forty-five meetings were held, and 165 addresses were made. The visiting missionaries were everywhere cordially received, and much interest was awakened among the churches where the conventions were held and in the regions round about. We look for fruit from this campaign not merely at once, but through the coming years. SINCE the communications from Turkey given among the "Letters from the Missions" were in type, other letters have been received, indicating that while there is no famine there is yet sore want. Our brethren at Aintab are loth to make any appeal for outside aid, in view of what was done last year, but they write that a small sum placed at their disposal would save many a family from pinching want. A few hundred dollars would relieve many hundreds of hungry men and women, and would take a burden from the hearts of our missionary brethren. THIS number of the Herald goes to press before we have had time to receive letters from Japan referring to the fact, made known to the world through the ocean cable, that the Mikado, on the eleventh of February, proclaimed the new Constitution for the empire. The event is one of great significance, and this fulfilment of a pledge made some years since gives assurance that the ruling powers in Japan are firmly determined to carry out the proposed plan of a constitutional government. The features of the new Constitution, which are presented in the brief telegram, are: a legislative assembly, composed of a House of Peers and a House of Commons; the right of suffrage to all men who have reached the age of twenty-five and who pay an annual tax of $25. Liberty of conscience and of speech and the right of public meeting are assured. Another important feature of the Constitution is that judges are to be irremovable except by special law. This fact will take away one of the objections often urged against giving the Japanese jurisdiction over foreigners. It is a long step in advance that Japan has thus taken, and it seems almost a miracle when we consider the condition of the empire twenty years ago. THE restrictions placed upon the press by the Turkish government are many and oppressive. The new censor of the press, appointed in November last, requires of the editors of the Zornitsa, the Bulgarian religious paper published by our mission at Constantinople, that duplicate copies of all matter be placed in his hands two days before it is given to the public. He then mutilates the articles, not merely those having a political bearing, but those in the religious and educational departments, on the ground that there may be a political interpretation placed upon words innocent in themselves. Among the words which are uniformly stricken out are "union" and "freedom." In the sentence in the Sunday-school lesson, "Ruth's union with the family of Elimelech had freed her from idolatry," the words we have italicized were stricken out. Only after representations made by the American Legation was the paper permitted to speak of the United States of America. The absurdities of this censorship are innumerabie. Our brethren connected with the press at Constantinople are entitled to our sympathies in the annoyances to which they are compelled to submit. LETTERS from West Central Africa reach us too late for insertion in this issue. The health report still continues good. Dr. Webster's house at Bailundu has been so far completed that he is now occupying it. The young church at Bailundu has chosen its deacon, who hereafter is to bear the name of Jacob, as its pastor. THOSE who read Mr. Neesima's paper in regard to the Doshisha University, in the last number of the Herald, will be glad to know that the movement in Japan to secure an endowment is making good progress. The several classes in the Doshisha are contributing to the fund, and the police of Kyōto are reported to have sent in one hundred yen. A letter just received from Mr. Atkinson, of Kōbe, states that a meeting was held in the church in that city on Monday, January 28, in behalf of the Doshisha, and that over 1,500 persons, mostly of the middle and upper classes, with a good representation from the various official departments, were crowded into the building. Mr. Neesima, who has been in poor health, made a five-minute speech, although not with the approval of his doctor. Mr. Kanamori, pastor of the college church at Kyōto, made an address of one hour and twenty-five minutes, followed by Mr. Myagawa, pastor of the Osaka church, who spoke forty minutes, both addresses emphasizing the need of highly educated men in all professions, who should be men of high moral purpose and character. The phrase in Japanese descriptive of the institution is, "Kirisuto Kyo Shugi no Dai Gakko," "A university founded on Christianity" (literally, "Christ-teaching-principles-Great-School"). The meeting was a most enthusiastic one and it is expected will result in large contributions. Mr. Atkinson reports that the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly expects to raise 10,000 yen, and that the governor is interesting himself in stirring up wealthy men to contribute. The idea of a people's university founded on Christianity is growing in favor with surprising rapidity. AMONG the many testimonies of East Indian officials as to the work of missions, the following utterance of the Chief Commissioner of the Central Province, on the tenth of December last, at the laying of the cornerstone of some mission buildings in Jubbulpur, may well be quoted. This commissioner, Mr. Mackenzie, was formerly secretary to the Governor of India in the Home Department, and is now the official in rule of ten millions of people. After warmly commending the special work in hand, he says: "In my experience those who depreciate mission work are generally people who know nothing about it. Ignorance is the distinguishing characteristic of the ordinary despiser of missions, at home and abroad. No man who studies India with a seeing eye can fail to perceive that the indirect results of missionary enterprise, if it suits you so to call them, are, to say the least, most pregnant with promise. The Dagon of heathenism is being undermined on all sides. To careless bystanders the image may loom as yet intact in all its ghoulish monstrosity, but its doom we know is written. And great will be its fall. I have often given it as my opinion that ere many years are over we shall have in India a great religious upheaval. The leaven of Western thought and the leaven of Christianity together are working on the inert heap of dead and fetid superstitions, and by processes which cannot always be closely traced, are spreading a regenerating ferment through the mass, which must in time burst open the cerements that now enshroud the Indian mind." Twenty-six Bible classes each week is what one of our missionaries at Kōbe, Japan, reports as part of her work. There is no peril that this part of the educational work will become merely secular when such a report as this can be given. |