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vast work yet to be done in Evangelism, in general education, especially in the training of Christian workers, far beyond the possible strength of the native Christian communities for many years to come. How fully this was realized was evident in the action of the Conference endorsing most earnestly the action of the Annual Conference of Foreign Missions Boards, and of the Student Volunteer Convention, calling for at least one thousand new missionaries annually, which certainly does not look as if those who know most of the actual conditions thought that there was much danger of their becoming supernumeraries.

A Survey of the Field

The opening session, on Wednesday evening, as usual was a Recognition meeting, in which the missionaries present arose and gave their names, place and date of service and the Board under which they served. Mrs. Foster, widow of Dr. Henry Foster, who, since her husband's death, has been superintendent of the Sanitarium, carrying out his ideas and purposes as no one else could have done, gave a cordial welcome to the Union, and then Rev. H. O. Dwight, LL.D., in a clear and scholarly, but not less vividly interesting paper, surveyed the entire mission field. The paper will be found entire in the reThere is port of the Conference. room here only for a summary of it.

Referring to the necessarily aggressive character of the work of

of Jesus proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus

Christ, and the inevitable opposition aroused by it, he held that its persistent escape from destruction, even in face of the mighty opposing

wonderful

forces, was really less
than the progress actually made.

"There is increase in the number of converts and growth in their quality; increase in the desire of converts to bring others to Christ, and increase in the number of those not yet Christians who, dissatisfied with their own religious ideas, are insensibly and unknowingly approaching the outskirts of the Kingdom of Christ. What has growth as well as permanence has life, and God giveth the increase."

Taking up first the increase in numbers, he passed in rapid review the great fields. In the Pacific, 350 missionaries and 3,000 native preachers and teachers, in 200 central and 2,000 other stations, have gathered about 300,000 converts, and every year adds to the number. In Africa some 750,000 native Christians are forming communities which have won such official recognition that governments encourage missions for the sake of their fruit in citizenship. Even Mohammedan youths are studying in mission schools and Christian songs are sung by fishermen on the Kongo. In India it is estimated that since the last census (1901) at least 300,000 converts have been baptized, while in Travancore the commissioner states that "out of every 10,000 of the population, 373 Hindus have disappeared and been replaced by 333 Christians and 40 Mohammedans." Farther north among the wild men of the hills of Burma and Assam there have been wonderful revival movements, while one significant fact has been the visit of two well-known Japanese pastors who addressed large audiences with great in several of the great acceptance cities of India, with the object of

[graphic]

MISSIONARIES

AT THE INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY UNION MEETING AT CLIFTON SPRINGS, N. Y., 1906.

4. Rev. C.

MISSIONARIES AT THE INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY UNION CONFERENCE, 1906 W. P. Merritt, M.D. Kumm. 5. Rev. C. S. Eby, D.D. 6. Mrs. E. M. Bliss 11. Karl W. Kumm, Ph.D. 7. Mrs. David McConaughy. 1ST Row (read from left to right, beginning at bottom of picture)-1. Rev. W. A. Cook. 2. Mrs. Moses Parmelee. 3. Mrs. II. J. Bostwick. 8. Mrs. Fox. 9. Rev. D. O. Fox. 10. Mrs. Lucy Guinness Young. 8. Bishop C. C. Penick. D.D. 12. Rev. G. F. Leeds, M.D. 13. * Master Leeds. 14. Miss Emma Oates. 15. J. Campbell White. Le Barre. 9. Mrs. Gracey. 10. Rev. J T. Gracey, D.D. 11. Rev. J. W. Waugh, D.D. 2D Row-1. Rev. E. M. Bliss, D.D. 2. Rev. J. S. Stone, M D. 3. Mrs. Stone. 4. Mrs. Hallam. 5. Rev. E. C. B. Hallam. 6. Rev. E. R. Young. 7. Mrs. 12. Mrs I. M. Channon.

13. Miss A. L.

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3D Row-1 Miss Jennie Moyer. Merritt 2. Miss E. M. Dunmore. 3. Mrs Charles Leaman. 4. Mrs. Humphrey. 5. Rev. J. L. Humphrey, M.D. 7. Mrs. W. C. Gault. 7. * Jennie Sanders, 8. Rev H. A. Crane, M.A. 9 Mrs. Crane. 10. Mrs. S. E Newton. 11. Rev. W. A. Raff. 8. Gladys LaFetra 12. Anna E. Corlies, M.D. patrick. 9. Mrs. A W. LaFetra. 10, Mrs. A. T. Graybill. 11. Mrs. J. O. Denning. 4TH Row-1. Edward Merritt. 2 Mrs. H. J. Wilson. 3. * Clarence Kirkpatrick. 4. *Geraldine Merritt. 5. Miss M. E Riggs. 6 Miss Julia Moulton. 12. Mrs. Harned.

6. * Anna

13. Murray Kirk

5TH Row-1. Miss F. A. Scott. 7. Mrs. Laflamme 2. Mrs 6TH ROW-1. Rev. N. L. Rockey, D.D. 8. Mr. II. F. Laflamme.

burg.

Henry Huizinga. 3. Rev H. C. Withey. 4 Rev. M C. Mason. 5. Mrs. Mason. 9. Rev J. O. Denning. 10 Mrs. M. C. Worthington. 2. Mrs. Rockey 11. Miss Annie Winslow. 3. Miss C. M. Organ. 7. Miss N. J. Cartmell. 8. Mrs. J. P. Moore. 9. Mrs. A. M. Williams. P. Moore, D.D. 14. Rev. R. H. Tibbals. 15. Miss E. E. Hall. 7TH Row-1. Rev. II. E. House. 2. Rev. F. Mendenhall. 3. Rev. H. Huizinga. 4. Mrs. Vodra. 5. Miss E. M. Estey. 6. Miss Hester Alway. 7. William 16. Miss F. I. Gracey. 17. W. II. Bostwick. Malcolm, M.D. 8. J. A. Sanders, M.D. 9. Mrs. H. C. Hazen. 10. Rev. S. W. Rivenburg. 11. Rev. Charles Leaman. 12. Rev. M. B. Kirkpatrick. 13. Rev. J. 18. Rev. A. W. Beall. 19. Marshall Sanders.

6. Rev. Hunter Corbett, D.D.

4. Mrs. L. K. Crummy. 10. Mrs. L. L Davis. 11. Miss Mary Graybill. 5. Mrs. C. W. P. Merritt. 6. Mrs. S W. Riven

20. Mr. H. J. Bostwick.

Children of missionaries.

stirring the people to Christ-like activity in evangelization. "According to tables just compiled the number of Chinese Christian communicants has doubled every seven years since 1842. At the end of 1905, the number of communicants was about 150,000." In one city, Hankow, where 45 years ago, when Dr. Griffith John entered it, there was not a single Christian, to-day there are over 8,000 believers. "The tale of increase in China is just commencing, and the Word now shows its power in almost every district."

Next to China is Korea, with its 10,000 church-members and 20,000 candidates, noted for their "close and intelligent study of the Bible and application of its principles to life." In Japan, at the close of last year, there were about "350,000 Christians, including Roman Catholics, with about 450 ordained Japanese Christian ministers, and 600 unordained teachers and evangelists." Attention is called to the disproportionate share of Christians in the conduct of national affairs. The editors of four out of twelve leading papers are Christian men, and Christians lead everywhere in reform and benevolent work. Elsewhere, in Sumatra, Persia, Arabia, the record is of steady and in some cases remarkable growth.

Even more important than increase in numbers is increase in force, and here the record is most notable: an ex-fetish priest in Africa converting 1,000 pagans; Christian native officials in India giving their extra time to evangelistic work; Christian officers in the Japanese army teaching Christ to Chinese in Manchuria: Samoan Christians as missionaries in

New Guinea; Chinese Christian business men in Borneo and Java bringing their countrymen together in Bible classes-these are some of the pictures that stand out in clear light.

What are sometimes called the indirect results are scarcely less significant. Imagine a missionary boat on the Kongo welcomed with shouts of enthusiasm and the cry: "Have you books? Books! we want books"; or Hinduism being "doctored over to bring it into harmony with modern, that is to say, Christian requirements"; or Mohammedans trying to purge Islam of the blemishes revealed by the light of the Gospel; Buddhists adopting Christian Sunday-schools and tracts; Shintoists declaring their form merely a cult! In China Confucianism has been "smitten to its vitals," temples transformed into school houses, the idols cast out by order of the government. Even the Roman Catholic Church has been forced in Syria and Brazil, and under the shadow of the Vatican, to give the people the Bible in the vernacular. Even the governments are the allies of missions. Traveling has become safe. Religious liberty is no longer a dream of the future. French schools, even if not evangelical, are cutting the nerve of Islam in Africa.

And so on over the wide world, through every department of human activity, the Gospel is making its way. The sessions that followed were the unfolding of the theme that Doctor Dwight presented at that evening. meeting. As one by one the fields were passed in review, while there was no failure to recognize the difficulties, there was everywhere the note of optimism.

The pagan world of Africa and the Pacific was presented Thursday afternoon. Bishop C. C. Penick spoke of the testimony everywhere found in African folk-lore to God, as clear a conception as there is in the Pentateuch. Rev. H. C. Withey, who went out as a boy with his parents in Bishop William Taylor's first party, and grew up in the work, coming to this country for only a single year in all that time, told of the victory of faith over disease, and the guidance through the perplexing mazes of languages which had to be reduced to writing in order that the Gospel might be made available for the people. There was amusement as well as pathos in Mr. Raff's vivid description of the saving of two lives from the witch doctors of the Kongo, and in Mrs. Theodora Crosby Bliss' portrayal of the victory of the Gospel over superstition in the South Seas, but the most startling testimony was that of Dr. Karl Kumm to the opportunity among the pagan tribes of the Western Sudan, among whom Mohammedanism is making such strides that prompt action is taken by the Christian world, some of the most promising races of the continent will be ranked among the most bitter oppo

nents.

unless

Some of the more important facts brought out by Dr. Kumm are: The great extent open to missionary work through the victory of Europe, especially of Great Britain; the facility furnished by the prevalence of the Hausa language; the healthiness of the greater part of the country; the practical destruction of the slavetrade; the readiness of the people to accept a new religion.

From the Nile to the Atlantic there are ten large kingdoms besides about one hundred free heathen tribes. Of the former, six are under British control, three under French, one under German. In one, Sokoto, there are five English (C. M. S.) missionaries; in another, Nape, there are thirteen Canadians, and that is all. The distribution is something as if in Europe there were two stations at Stockholm, two at Christiania, one at Cadiz and one at Lisbon, with the rest unprovided for. The testimony from Bishop Tugwell and Canon Sell, than whom there are no better authorities, is emphatic as to the readiness of the people for the Gospel and the terrible loss if the present phenomenal advance of Islam is extended over the entire country, while two missionaries, Rev. J. Aitken and Dr. Miller, give numerous instances from their own observation endorsing Bishop Tugwell's plea. Mr. Aitken, on visiting Kporo, found that the people had "ceased working on Sunday, because it is the Sabbath day of the white men who have kept the Fulani (Moslem slavers) from coming to their country. To honor the white men, they cease from work on the white man's Sabbath day." The heathenism of the past is passing rapidly. The question. is between Christianity and Islam.

India, China, Japan and Korea were discussed in two sessions each, the first covering more distinctively the evangelistic work, the second dealing with the problems of political change, higher education, etc., in their relation to the spread of the Kingdom. One fact was noticeable in regard to China, Japan and Korea,

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