mother showed her interest by making several gifts to the school.

Some years ago Chang Kum, a member of the Lakawn church and a teacher in the girls' school, was married to a likely young man of a Buddhist family. They lived happily together for nearly two years, then he went to the bad and no longer wished to continue the marriage relation. His wife had to leave him. Later their little daughter was taken ill and given up to die; but the mother's faith, as strong as her love, clung to the life of her child. Her prayers to God were constant, and finally assumed the form of a vow, "O Lord Jesus, if Thou wilt heal my child, so near to death, I pledge to Thee the sum of ten rupees." Christ healed the babe, and one Sabbath morning during preaching service, the ten rupees, wrapped in paper into a neat roll, came into the church offertory.

Dr. J. W. McKean writes: "During the past year we made the experiment of producing our own vaccine. The Lord prospered the attempt and our Christian men vaccinated more than ten thousand children. These men are required to come into the hospital for a session of three days' instruction each month. They were given repeated instruction in the art of vaccinating, which when properly done is not so simple a matter as it might appear to an ordinary observer. They were also instructed in the Bible and in evangelistic work. At the close of each session the men were furnished Scriptures, tracts, etc., for their work, as well as with vaccinating outfit. At the beginning of each session they reported on the religious aspect of the previous month's work first, and later reported on their vaccinating success or failure. One-half of the receipts go to the vaccinators and one-half to the medical work. In this way our vaccinating work becomes a form of self-supporting evangelistic work of great importance, which we hope will grow in power and efficiency from year to year. It is hoped to further enlarge their usefulness by training them in the use

As they go

of common medicines. about the country, they continually come in contact with the sick. To be able to use even the simplest remedies will increase their power for doing good, as well as their opportunities for presenting the Gospel message.

During rice planting season an epidemic among the cattle caused the loss of many buffaloes, the Laos plow steeds. One of the elders of Lakawn church lost seven out of eight. Two died one Sabbath morning while service was being conducted in his house. A crowd of neighbors came asking to buy the meat. The elder told them that he did not buy nor sell upon the Lord's Day, nor did he think it right to sell diseased meat; therefore he had the carcasses dragged away and buried. A surprised neighbor asked, "What sort of a man are you? Don't you love money?" The elder replied, "I love God more than money, and my religion teaches me that to do what God commands is life." Such preaching of the Gospel is eloquent.

Christianity is cosmopolitan. Of the eight received into the Christian church in Kentung, one was a Hindu, one a Kün or Kentung Laos, one a Lü or Laos from further north-east, and five were Laos from Siam.

A man came to the missionaries in Kentung inquiring if they could save him from guilt incurred through committing adultery while still a Buddhist monk, a sin which according to Buddhist tenets is without possibility of salvation. salvation. When assured that Jesus could save him if he was penitent, he asked, not how much the missionaries would give him to become a Christian, but how much he would have to pay to learn the way of salvation. Apparently the way was too easy, for he never came back.

Dr. W. A. Briggs, of Chieng Rai, has, at the request of the government. overseen the laying out of Chieng Rai into streets and the draining of a large part of the city which heretofore has been a malaria swamp and tiger jungle. Christian carpenters, under Dr. Briggs' supervision were called upon

to build a house for the Crown Prince. With hundreds of sawyers and coolies to help a fine building was finished in five weeks of six days each. That is "hustling the East" truly.

Thus writes Rev. W. C. Dodd, D.D.: "Never such opportunities! We gladly give about half our time since. the completion of the new chapel to preaching, either in the bazaar or at our own house, by day or by night."

The goods of Dr. and Mrs. C. H. Crooks arrived in Pre last year two months after they did. For seven months Mrs. Crooks saw a white woman only four or five times. Discouraged? This is what they say:

"We are thankful to God for the experience of the year and glad that our lot has been cast thus."

Dr. McGilvary notes a gradual change toward Christianity in the majority of the people with whom he comes in contact. It is the exception that we can get up an argument with the strongest Buddhists. Our Christians find the same true. A leading man remarked to Dr. McGilvary, not long ago, that it was a remarkable fact that when even an ignorant man became a Christian he soon became so expert in argument that those of the other religion could not answer him.

Workers in the Livingstonia Mission have seen changes which illustrate the power of Christ and His Gospel.

There are changes in the country. Civilization marches on apace. Perhaps four times as many steamers are on the Zambesi and Shiré as twelve years ago, when the journey had frequently to be made in small boats. Now there is a line of fine steamers, with excellent food and comfortable accommodation. Railways are slowly creeping up from Port Herald, on the Shiré, to Blantyre, and from the Victoria Falls, on the Zambesi, toward Tanganyika. There is an increase in the white population, and a great improvement in the quality of the individual, a growing public opinion, a healthier moral atmosphere; in some quarters a distinctly Christian atmosphere; nowhere, perhaps, more evident than among the employees of the African Lakes Corporation, a company which is more and more a power for good. British government is thoroughly established everywhere; and

Condensed from United Free Church Record,

tho not free from imperfections, it is the best there is, and we are thankful for it.

Health is better. The people have spread out in all directions as a result of peace following the Gospel. There is consequently less crowding and a more extended cultivation. The raiding days are over; cattle, becoming more numerous, keep the long grass down, and so lessen the number of mosquitoes and the amount of fever. We have better houses, and ideas of how to live, what to eat, and what to put on. The average missionary is to-day a much more effective agent than formerly.

There are changes in the natives, too. When traveling inland twelve. years ago, one found the tribes less and less clothed, and the Tonga round Bandawè worse in this respect than any nearer the coast. To-day one of the sights of Bandawè is on a Saturday afternoon to see the beach crowded with people washing their clothes for the Sabbath. To the services the men turn out in white and other suits, and the women in all the

colors of the rainbow, but chiefly in white clothes, with waistbands of red or blue. Red clay and oil have gone out of fashion; soap and water and clothes have come in.

There is a steadily growing wellbeing among the people. They lived in miserable huts, slept on mats on the clay floor, ate their food off coarse baskets or leaves on the ground. Theirs was a thriftless, improvident, hand-to-mouth, day-today sort of existence; indeed it was dangerous for any one to try to better himself. New wants have been created, and there is growing effort and ability to supply them. Almost everywhere they are building themselves larger, stronger, more comfortable houses, making bedsteads, buying spoons and dishes; and some have even such luxuries as chairs and tables. They have an abundance of food-stuffs; and from time to time. new plants have been introduced, such as rice, various fruits and vegetables, and recently cotton. There is an ever-increasing number of trained artisans, clerks, teachers, etc., whose abilities command larger pay either at home or farther afield. The great need is the establishment of some industry to keep the people at home; the bulk of the young men must go long distances for work-to Blantyre and the coast, or to the mines and agricultural districts of Southern Rhodesia. This is not the best thing for the people or for the country.

There is a large reading and writing public-some 33,000 scholars in the mission schools, and in connection with Bandawè last year 6,800 on the roll. Some thousands have already passed through the schools. The native mail has grown; letters go to and come from all parts of the Protectorate and Rhodesia, and even more distant lands. They buy all their books, which consist chiefly of portions of Scripture, hymn-books, "Pilgrim's Progress,' catechisms, and school primers, in the vernacular, and Bibles and school books in

English. One difficulty is to get books translated quick quick enough. They clamor for books. The time has come for a literary department in connection with our work.

There is a spirit of tenderness and helpfulness mostly new to the African. Life was cheap in the old days, and there were a carelessness and callousness in the presence of suffering. Now, willing hands and tender hearts are generally found ready to help in time of need. The people have seen how carefully, tenderly, unwearyingly the medical men have dealt with the suffering ones; and now the spirit of Christ is beginning to manifest itself in them also.

Customs low, immoral, cruel, have passed away, or are going rapidly. The burying alive of slaves and wives at the death of a chief, the killing of twins, the poison ordeal, the raiding of helpless tribes, the kidnapping, buying, and selling of the unprotected, the tribal wars, have ceased; the vile dances, beerdrinking parties, have disappeared in some districts, and in others are greatly lessened; superstitious beliefs, polygamy, etc., are declining everywhere.

If we sought for numbers, we could easily get them. It has become fashionable to be connected with the Church. The bulk of the Tonga tribe, for example, want to join the classes or to be baptized. The missionaries find it well-nigh impossible to overtake all who come forward seeking to be examined. But it is not numbers we seek. The figures we have to show (something under one thousand baptized adults, and something over one thousand candidates for baptism at Bandawe) are comparatively small-small when compared with the great figures shown by such missions as that of the Church Missionary Society to Uganda; but they are not the measure of our work or of our success. The whole people has been permeated by the Gospel, raised, more or less, by the power of Christ.

THE RELIGIOUS CRISIS IN FRANCE

Paul Sabatier, who wrote that classic, "The Life of Francis d'Assisi," is likely to write as a seer of the modern movements in the French Republic. In his new book on "Separation of Church and State," he treats: (1) The origin of the crisis; (2) the present status of the Catholic Church in France; (3) the consequences of the rupture of the Concordat. It is not dogma which has destroyed the Church of France, but politics. We quote a few comprehen

sive sentences: *

crisis reaches back in its roots to the Catholic reactionary tendencies during the seventh decade of the last century. Pope Leo XIII. had advised the Catholics to come to an understanding with the republic, but they refused and would be more Catholic than the head of the Church himself. One result is that there are not two parties, but two entirely contradictory conceptions of the world and of life; and such a struggle the world has never before seen. On the one side the ultra-Assumptionists with the famous 'Croix' as their belligerent exponent, and also what they call 'the good press'; on the other, the De

olic circles, and a new movement in his favor will no doubt become a decided factor in the new Church life. Some other abbés, notably Dabry, Lemère, Naudet, Houtin, Delahaye, and even laymen like Le Roy, have recently written works so liberal in tendencies as to lead the Jesuit Pater Portalie to exclaim, 'This is the end of Catholicism! But these are only signs of a new Catholicism developing within the old Church of France. We have no reason to look for a new heresy or a schism. All those, antiheresy or a schism. clerical or Protestant, who think the new turn of affairs will bring new recruits to their side are completely mistaken. Something more organic than all this is taking place, something that lies deeper than the movement of the 'Former Priests.' Protestantism has no reason to believe France will as a consequence become more Protestant. Le Roy and the new journal called Demain, go much further than Protestantism. He declares: The mere idea of a dogma is an offense to us. At bottom I do my own thinking, and no authority can think for me.' Demain asserts: 'Catholic France is constantly becoming less and less Christian. It will indeed preserve its religious form; but the baptized vessel is daily losing. more and more its spiritual and ethical contents. The Christianity of France must sever its connection with

since 1870, and insisting upon popular education that is both obligatory and non-religious. France has concluded that the people have been thoroughly deceived by the clericals. True, the clericals are not the Church, but this distinction the people at large do not make."

As to the consequences of the abrogation of the Concordat, Sabatier predicts:

"Abbé Loisy, the protagonist of a modern type of theology and of an evangelical life in the Church, has met with great favor in many Cath

From the Literary Digest.

tellectual and also in the social and political departments. The critical spirit has found its way into all spheres of thought and life, and nothing can resist it. In our estimation every truth that is demonstrated to be such is an orthodox truth.'" Sabatier concludes:

"If among these priests and freethinkers a prophet with overflowing heart and flowing speech should arise, then we will all see in this country an awakening of faith which has never been seen elsewhere. It will be something greater than even the Reformation of the sixteenth century."

INDIA AND THE GREAT PENTECOST The week of prayer observed for India has been followed by large increase of blessing, particularly at Kolar, where seven weeks of most fruitful meetings are reported; also at Bankura, beginning among the girls at Raghunathpur, Manbhum district. In a bazaar at Kurseong, where two thousand were gathered, the people frequently heard the Gospel, and crowds followed the evangelists and fought to get the books they had for sale, throwing money at them to get the preference, and exhausting

the whole stock in an hour.

In Gujerat the work goes steadily on. After ten weeks of meetings, over three thousand orphans have been reached, and over four hundred profess to have accepted Christ. Also at the Kaira orphanage.

OUR INJUSTICE TO CHINA Before the Presbyterian Union, at its March meeting, Rev. Dr. Arthur H. Smith, missionary of the American Board to China, spoke of present conditions and prospects in the empire. He wittily remarked of some people that they "were willing to abide by the law of God until they could find something better." He portrayed the Chinese as superior to the Japanese and remarked: "Yet we welcome the Japanese here to our schools and colleges, to Annapolis and West Point, to be clerks, merchants, artisans, scholars, everything they choose: vet exclude the more highly valued Chinese; not even a scholar, a statesman, can come here to engage in industrial pursuits: the treaty gives both certain privileges, virtually denied by the officials administering the law; who on their arrival at the Pacific coast send them out of the country. The acquisition of the railway-grant to Hong Kong by a United States syndicate, and the selling of it to Japan, Dr. Smith declared to be an offense to the Chinese government, arousing deep resentment in Peking and among the people.

The Chinese would gladly be

friends with America, and send their sons here to be educated, to engage in mercantile pursuits; to go to our schools and colleges-but they must stay at home; and only Japanese permitted to come. The result is, we are playing directly into the hands of Britain and Germany, who are glad of the estrangement between this country and China. Dr. Smith has had an interview with the President, before whom he has laid the exact situation. Every friend of justice and opponent of mal-administration hopes something tangible will be the out

come.

THE CHINESE COMMISSIONERS IN

BRITAIN

At the Chinese Legation, shortly since, these representatives of the Celestial Empire received a deputation of forty prominent men representing about a score of missionary societies, including such men as Sir T. Fowell Buxton, Sir Andrew Wingate, Albert Spicer, M.P., Dr. Monro Gibson, and Dr. Timothy Richards. The address, presented to Duke Tsai Tseh, as head of the commission, explicitly stated that the object of Christian missions is distinct from that of foreign governments and commercial enterprises, and is simply the raising of China to the highest ideals of Christianity. Sir Andrew Wingate then presented, on behalf of the Bible Society, splendidly bound copies of the imperial edition of the Wenli New Testament and the Queen's Jubilee edition of the English Bible. In reply, Duke Tsai Tseh acknowledged that the interest of English missionaries in China is a sign that the whole British nation is well disposed toward that country.

MONEY AND MISSIONS

Mr. J. Campbell White, of Allegheny, Pa., lately told six hundred young people of the Interdenominational Missionary Conference a valuable thing or two about the relation of money to religion: "If the Christian Church in America could be