Ir is well that the methods of conducting missionary work should be closely examined. God gave man his reason, and it should be used in the conduct of the affairs of the kingdom of Christ as much as in matters of lesser importance. But while we discuss methods it should never be forgotten that there is something of higher concern, the presence and blessing of the Spirit of God. As a missionary worker in China has well said, "There is no missionary method which with more Holy Ghost power would not bring abundant returns to the praise and glory of God. What the Church needs is to be filled with the Holy Ghost."

Two recent volumes bearing upon missions, one of which we noticed last month (Dr. A. C. Thompson's Foreign Missions: Their Place in the Pastorate, in Prayer, in Conference), and the other the Autobiography of John G. Paton, noticed more fully on another page of this issue, are specially valuable additions to missionary literature. We have just learned that a Christian gentleman has been so impressed with the worth of these volumes that he has distributed 150 copies of each among home and foreign missionaries. No better investment for missions could be made.

THE twenty-sixth annual report of the Hawaiian Evangelical Association has reached us in print, and gives a full, and on the whole encouraging, account of Christian work at the Hawaiian Islands. The fifty-six native churches report a membership of 5,747, besides other churches for Englishspeaking residents and Chinese, having a membership of 679. These native churches contributed for pastoral support $9,531, and for home and foreign missionary work, if we rightly understand the treasurer's report, something over $20,000. Eight pastors have been installed during the year, seven of whom were ordained. The Chinese mission, under the care of Mr. F. W. Damon, has been prosecuted with success. Daily evening schools have been well attended. Four new Sabbath-schools for the Chinese have been opened in different parts of Honolulu. There are 22,000 Chinese now residing in the Hawaiian Islands. The Japanese work, begun so recently, has had a remarkable development, both in Honolulu and in other parts of the islands. The North Pacific Missionary Institute, under the care of Dr. Hyde, has graduated eleven students and received ten in their place. These graduates are all at work in different localities.

IN the wonderfully impressive autobiography of Rev. J. G. Paton, the missionary to the New Hebrides, who before he went to the South Seas was a most successful laborer in city missions in Glasgow, he speaks of some of the objections he had to meet when he decided to go to the heathen. "Some said, "There are heathen at home: let us seek and save, first of all, the lost ones perishing at our doors.' This I felt to be most true, and an appalling fact; but I unfailingly observed that those who made this retort neglected these home heathen themselves; and so the objection as from them lost all its power. They would ungrudgingly spend more on a fashionable party at dinner or tea, on concert or ball or theatre, or on some ostentatious display or worldly or selfish indulgence, ten times more, perhaps, in a single day than they would give in a year, or in half a lifetime, for the conversion of the whole

heathen world either at home or abroad. Objections from all such people must, of course, always count for nothing among men to whom spiritual things are realities. For these people themselves-I do and always did only pity them, as God's stewards making such a miserable use of time and money entrusted to their care." And in reference to the argument used to dissuade him from his purpose drawn from the needs of the poor people in Glasgow to whom he had been so successfully ministering, Mr. Paton says: "I saw them (the heathen) perishing for lack of the knowledge of the true God and his Son Jesus, while my Green Street people had the open Bible and all the means of grace within easy reach. None seemed prepared for the heathen field: many were ready for the home service."

It is said that no single word in Chinese can give the meaning of "Amen," and a phrase must be used to translate it which means. "My heart wishes it to be exactly so."

WE close our pages for this issue of the Herald while the National Council of Congregational Churches is in session at Worcester, too early to learn of its action on many important matters to be brought before it. But the noble address of Rev. Dr. Storrs on " Foreign Missions," on the evening of the first day of the session cannot fail to have a marked influence on all the deliberations of the Council. After a stirring presentation of the manifold and pressing calls for Christian effort in our own land, Dr. Storrs dwelt most impressively upon the Master's command to preach the gospel to all the nations, urging that the duty of caring for our own land, to which we are summoned by motives of patriotism, should not be suffered to obscure the claims of foreign missions, which more than any other object can inspire the highest form of Christian enthusiasm. It was an address worthy of the occasion and the man, and it produced a profound impression.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE "ALTAR OF HEAVEN." THE telegraph reports the destruction by fire of the "Altar of Heaven" at Peking on September 27. This structure is the most imposing and sacred of all buildings in China, and if it has really been destroyed a profound impression will unquestionably be produced upon all Chinamen. It is impossible to foresee what superstitious notions may be awakened in the minds of the people, who will doubtless regard this calamity as a fearful warning from heaven. Perhaps it may be connected in their thoughts with the revolutionary projects of the emperor in reference to railroads.

This "Altar of Heaven," of which we give a cut on the opposite page, is an immense structure, in the midst of a vast compound, surrounded by a wall three miles in extent and fifteen feet high. Within, on the various terraces, are groves of locust and pine and fir trees. Dr. Williams, in his "Middle Kingdom," says: "The great South Altar, the most important of Chinese religious structures, is a beautiful triple circular terrace of white marble, whose base is 210, middle stage 150, and top 90 feet in width, each terrace encompassed by a

richly carved balustrade. A curious symbolism of the number three and its multiples may be noticed in the measurements of this pile." This structure is covered with blue enamel tiles, and leading up to it are many avenues, some of them nearly a mile long.

To this "Altar of Heaven" the emperor is brought with the greatest solemnity once each year, and there offers prayers in behalf of the people. Connected with it is a great furnace in which, at the yearly ceremonial, a whole bullock is offered as a burnt-offering. According to Dr. Williams, no foreigner has ever witnessed this ceremony, but foreigners have often entered within the enclosure. It is said that the premises have had for a long time an air of neglect, and that the really noble structure seemed to be going to decay. In view of the fact that the whole structure is of white marble, it is difficult to understand how a fire could seriously affect it. It will be interesting to watch the effect produced upon the Chinese if this report of the destruction of their sacred edifice should prove

correct.

Since the foregoing was written a further despatch from Peking states that the fire is supposed to have been the work of incendiaries, whose object, it is said, was to create a popular impression that "heaven" was displeased at the imperial approval of the scheme for building railroads. There is nothing improbable in this, though there is something ludicrous in the idea of seeking to force a verdict from heaven by setting fire to a temple. But a less ominous event than this has been known to change imperial action in China.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE DOSHISHA AT KYOTO.

It is interesting to look back upon the beginnings of this Christian training school of the American Board in Japan, which in the short space of fourteen years has grown from nothing to an institution of national reputation, with seven hundred students. Little did Mr. Neesima anticipate, when he pleaded on the platform of the American Board at Rutland, in 1874, for means to open a Christian school in his native land, that within so brief a period he would stand at the head of an institution of such magnitude, and one which would receive the hearty encomiums of his countrymen, including some of the highest officials of the empire. From the position which the Doshisha now occupies, we look back with mingled wonder and gratitude at the commencement of the enterprise in narrowest quarters and amid bitterest hostility. Dr. Davis, of Kyōto, who from the first has borne a most honorable part in the work of the Doshisha, has sent us a photograph of the building called "No. 30," in which instruction was given to the first theological class. We give, on the next page, an engraving from the photograph, with the note from Dr. Davis which accompanied it. Clearly, the value of an institution is not to be measured by its buildings. Plain living and high thinking went together at Kyōto, as they have often done elsewhere. This picture of the earliest "theological hall" of the Doshisha may serve as a memorial of the past, and should prompt all hearts to devout thanksgivings to Him who has so wonderfully prospered the

institution during the brief period of its life. The following is Dr. Davis's note respecting this building :

"When Mr. Neesima secured permission, in 1875, to open a Christian school in the old city of Kyōto, and when, in October of that year, Mr. Neesima and Rev. J. D. Davis and family removed to the city, the whole city was moved. The Buddhist and Shinto priests were greatly stirred, and they sent a strong petition to the central government to have the vile thing expelled from the city. On account of this great prejudice the central government counseled great caution, and especially that the Bible should not be taught in the school for the present. The Bible classes were taught in the house of Mr. Davis for

THE BUILDING USED BY THE FIRST THEOLOGICAL CLASS AT KYOTO.

the first year. In September, 1876, the first two buildings were finished, and the school was opened in them. The government conceded to us the right to teach the Bible and to preach in our own private houses, and preaching was conducted only in our private houses for several years. This old building stood immediately across the street from our new buildings, and it was also adjoining a piece of land owned by Mr. Neesima. It was offered to us, with the land on which it stood, for thirty dollars, and Mr. Neesima bought it; and in it, for more than two years, all our biblical and theological teaching was conducted. The first theological class-the somewhat famous class of fifteen-received most of their teaching in this building. The occasion for teaching the Bible there ceasing to exist, the building was used for students' rooms, for a hospital, and finally for a storeroom, and now, before it was torn down, its photograph is taken to be preserved as a picture of one of the historical landmarks of the Doshisha."