A CALL FOR INTERCESSORY

MISSIONARIES

Rev. James A. MacDonald, of St. Andrews Kirk, Calcutta, sends out a call for "Covenanted Intercessors" as fellow-workers with missionaries abroad. His appeal in part follows:

An intercessory fellow-worker is a laborer who can not go abroad in person, but who has, under God's guidance, set himself apart to pray for some chosen worker in the foreign missionary field. He only is entitled to the name who enters into a covenant to strive in prayer for a definite center; an engagement as real as an appointment by a foreign missionary society.

That mission field which has the largest number of faithful intercessors will always yield the greatest harvest.

This is so

God's

(a) Because missionary labor is a conflict with spiritual hosts of wickedness. (b) Because prayer based on Word is the only weapon man can use to defeat the invisible foe.

(c) Because the missionary on the field can not cope alone with these mighty powers of darkness.

(d) Because all the resources of Omnipotence are available, through intercession, to insure triumphant victory.

The following form is suggested as a letter to a missionary from a “Covenant Intercessor":

In response to the appeal for Covenanted Intercessors on behalf of Christ's missionaries in foreign lands, I am desirous of bringing, with your permission, your name before God in prayer, with a view of seeking His aid and blessing on your labors. I propose to set apart..

while a debt rests upon the American Board. In view of the determination of the Prudential Committee to reduce the work, even to the closing of missions, in case the Board can not be freed from debt and assured of adequate support, he said that such a celebration as is contemplated would be a confession that we in our day are not prepared to assume responsibility for the work started in faith and prayer by the young men of the haystack one hundred years ago. Dr. Smith pictures the spectacle of the Congregationalists on their knees about the haystack monument and offering some such prayer as this:

O Lord, we thank Thee for the sublime faith of those young men who one hundred years ago dedicated themselves to the work of the world's evangelization, and who said "We can if we will." We thank Thee for this great American Board and all the other Boards which arose out of their faith. We recognize most heartily that Thy blessing has been upon this work. We rejoice in the millions of souls saved in heathen lands, in the thousands of churches, schools, hospitals, orphanages and other Christian institutions which sprang up in the path of these men of the haystack. But, O Lord, we confess that we are not equal to these things. We acknowledge that we are tired of this work, and that we can not give enough to carry it on. We admit before Thee that we must ask the Board to destroy some of these missions and call the missionaries home. Lord, we are glad there were such men as Samuel J. Mills and his companions one hundred years ago, but we are a very different sort. Amen,

A GREAT NEED IN KOREA

Acute problems are now before usthe missionaries in Korea. The accelerating movement toward Christianity in this land is already well known. The conversions of last February (a time of special meetings) were 2,000 in Pyeng Yang and Seoul alone. Dr. C. C. Vinton, of Seoul, writes: "One of our greatest aids in feeding this people is the printing-press. But past funds are wholly inadequate. I made a special trip to America during the past winter, taking with me one hundred titles of books in manuscript that ought to be printed at once, and spend

ing two months in the effort to raise thirty thousand dollars, as a basis for a publishing house, in which the Tract Society and the Methodist Press are to be the factors. I was granted partial success. But money we hoped to have at once is being diverted for San Francisco's needs, and we are asked to wait; and the sum promised leaves still more to be desired-while the present need about us is overwhelming. All our literary work is interdenominational or undenominational."

THE REVIVAL IN INDIA

From the reports which have been pouring in from India, Burma, and Assan, in regard to the religious awakenings there, one might think that the whole land was being shaken and would soon be brought to Christ. India is a large land, however, so that we can understand how it happens that while some missionaries have written as if a great spiritual awakening were sweeping through India, others have disputed the accuracy of the published reports of revival. "The fact is," writes Bishop Robinson in the Indian Witness, "that only a comparatively few parts of the country have been visited up to the present with anything like a deep spiritual quickening. Many sections in which successful evangelical work has been carried on for many years know nothing of special awakening, such as has been experienced

elsewhere."

Bishop Robinson continues:

It has been my unspeakable privilege to see this gracious work wrought in various parts of the country, among representatives of half a dozen of the principal vernaculars.

The writer is constrained to declare that he has witnessed more striking manifestations of the transforming power of the Divine Spirit during the past six or seven months than in his whole thirty-one

*We should be glad indeed of any help, in small sums or in larger ones. Dr. Shearer, of the American Tract Society, will receive monies for us, as will Mr. D. H. Day, 156 Fifth Avenue, the treasurer of my own Board. I will give much fuller information, if desired.

years' service in India. And this work, he is glad to testify, is nowhere attended by serious extravagances, such as often have marred revivals in Western lands.

THE INDO-CHINESE OPIUM TRADE

In view of the recent action of the British House of Commons, and the declaration that should China so request, the government will bring this opium trade to a close, the International Reform Bureau plans to follow up this action. Dr. and Mrs. Crafts plan to go at their own cost around the world to enlist missionary socic.ies, chambers of commerce, and various governments, in a treaty for the abolition of the sale of drink and opium to uncivilized races. Preparatory work is proposed in the dissemination of literature, explanatory of the movement and auxiliary to its purpose.

A GRAND ANNIVERSARY SERMON

This

That "mother of us all"-the great Church Missionary Society-sets all other societies an example in the marvelously sustained character of the anniversary sermons which year after year mark its course. We venture to affirm that history furnishes no other series of annual discourses of such a high average of excellence. year a remarkably eloquent and persuasive sermon by Canon Denton Thompson added one more to the long series delivered literally before the Committee and the Society, represented by hundreds of clerical, lay, and women workers, whose hearts, and in some cases, whose lives, hav、 been given to its sacred cause. The keynote was a call to communion with Christ, in order to see as He saw, to feel as He felt, to do as He did." The miracle of the loaves and fishes symbolized: (1) The Necessities of the World; (2) The Responsibilities of the Church; (3) The Opportunities of the Age. The sermon eminently appealed to the heart, and was one which will have effect in days to come.

ASIA

Some Japan Statistics

The following statistics are given in the annual report of the Japan Bible Agency and of the British and Foreign and Scottish Societies: Population (1904), 48,321,195. ReligionsThe chief forms are: (1) Shintoism, with 84,000 priests; (2) Buddhism, with 117,000 priests. Christian progress-There are 1,461 Christian church buildings, including preaching stations. There are 15 theological schools and 186 students in same. Total membership of the churches (1904), 66,133. Total baptisms during the year, 5,874. Total Japanese ordained workers, unordained, and Biblewom

tianity.

In acknowledgment of the indebtedness of the government to this work, General Terauchi, the Minister of War, has sent the following remarkable letter to Yoichi Honda, Esq., the president of the National Committee of the Association:

The Young Men's Christian Association, moved by the desire to minister to the welfare and comfort of our officers and soldiers at the front, carried on its beneficent work throughout the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905. At large expense of money and labor, and by a great variety of means, it filled the leisure of our officers and soldiers, far from home, with wholesome recreation. The completeness of the equipment and the success of the enter

work.

(Signed) M. Terauchi, Minister of War. Tokyo, May 28, Meiji 39 (1906).

A Missionary's Great Achievement The Methodist Protestants used one of their missionaries, Rev. U. G. Murphy, now president of the Japan conference, for the possible liberation of the 70,000 girls sold by their fathers into virtual slavery in houses of ill fame in Japan. This great evil had back of it the custom of 300 years, says the Rev. T. J. Ogburn in the Missionary Herald of the American Board, and the investment of millions of dollars; but the courts in response to Mr. Murphy's appeals at last decided against the retention of these poor unfortunates, and more than 20,000 have accepted their liberation and have entered upon a different life. This great achievement was greatly praised by the leading papers in Japan, both native and foreign, and by the mission journals throughout Christendom.

The Salvation Army in Japan

The Salvation Army has been able to offer some substantial aid to the Japanese peasants of the northern provinces who have been suffering

from famine on account of the failure of the rice crop. Young girls that would have been sold into a life of shame, the officers of the Salvation Army have taken and placed in desirable situations. Commissioner George Railton, a former side partner of General Booth, and a Salvationist of 33 years' experience, has been on a visit to the Mikado's kingdom, and while there visited the slums of Tokyo, and

investigated the famine conditions in the north. The army in Japan now has a force of 100 officers. There are students' homes for men and women, rescue homes, and lodging-houses maintained by the Salvationists in the large cities. The Japanese authorities. have been kind to these slum workers, giving them free access to the jails, altho the prisoners are supposed to be under the spiritual direction of the Buddhist priests.

A Japanese Tribute to Christianity The editor of a Japanese large daily paper, himself a non-Christian, pays the following tribute to Christianity: "Look all over Japan. To-day more than 40,000,000 have a higher standard of morality than they have ever known. Our ideas of loyalty and obedience are higher than ever, and we inquire the cause of this great moral advance. We can find it in nothing else than the religion of Jesus Christ.'

"

A Thing Unheard of in Korea During some special services held recently in one of the largest cities in Korea a highwayman confessed to having made that his profession, writes a correspondent in the Scoul Press Weekly. "Now I have decided to believe in Christ, what must I do?" he asked of the missionary. He was told that the only thing that he ought to do was to go to the magistrate and make confession. This he did, and the magistrate, remarking that this was a wonderful thing, told the man that tho he would have been beheaded if caught, that now he had made confession the matter would be referred to the governor of the province. The governor wrote back that never before in the history of Korea has there been such an experience as a criminal making voluntary confession of crime, and therefore in this especial case the man should be pardoned. When the magistrate called the man up before him, he gave him some fatherly advice and told him that he was very gratified to find that there

was a religion that would so change the hearts of men as to cause them to do what he had done. In addition to mere words the magistrate gave him a present of four dollars to pay for his rice during the few days of his detention.

Medical "Science" in Korea

The Korean doctor is woefully deficient in his knowledge of surgery, as the following paragraph abundantly demonstrates. We read:

There are only two instruments-two "chims," as they are called. The shorter, a little flat knife-blade, is used but seldom, and then to 'open a vein to bleed, or to scarify where counter irritation is needed. The long knitting-needle-looking instrument is the dangerous one. It is plunged into almost any part of the body, a distance of one to three inches generally, to let out the evil spirit who is causing the disturbance, sometimes at a point quite distant from the seat of disease, in order to draw it away and dissipate it among the healthy tissues. It is always surgically dirty and produces many an abscess. I have had several cases of joints rendered quite immovable from the introduction of this chim directly in between the bones without antiseptic precautions. Several prominent men in Taiku brought their boys, of from eight to twelve years, with perfectly stiff elbows or knees due to this.

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How A Korean Church Grew

On an arm of the sea which runs far up into the heart of the richest rice plain in Korea is a market town called Sinaupo. Here every fine day men and women gather from far and near to buy and sell. To this busy place about nine years ago came industrious, tho poor, farmer named Hans, with his brother and their families. For two years previously he and his house had been believers in Christ, and tho living in an obscure mountain village the noise of his belief had preceded him. Almost immediately he found many inquirers, and on Sabbaths his house was full of men who came to hear and to worship with him. He prayed to God, preached to men and sought them, traveling all over the big rice plain in the cause of his Master. Men came on foot five, ten, and fifteen miles to

have him preach the Word. Once or twice a year a missionary came to visit the believers, baptizing such as had given abundant evidence of their salvation.

After this rice farmer had been there a year the congregation had come to number about 30. They could scarcely meet in Hans' house, so they bought another house and made alterations so that it would seat about 60 people. A year later this was too small, so a larger house was bought and altered to seat about 90. A year later this was too small, and they erected a building which seats about 120, and which they now use as a schoolhouse. They had built this expecting to add to it as need was felt. But some of their plans miscarried, and it was deeemd best to commence what they called at that time a permanent building on another lot and on a larger scale.

For the fourth time, therefore, they prepared a house of God which, by crowding, would seat 250 persons. This was found sufficient for their needs until a year ago. Now their congregation numbers about 350. So, while they are erecting a building to seat 500, the men and women meet in different places and hear the Gospel separately. The support and propagation has been entirely done by and through the believers, for a missionary pays only an occasional visit. Truly such a church is of the Lord! WILLIAM B. HUNT.

Chinese Fighting Opium The Rev. Dr. M. Mackenzie, of Fuh-ning, sends the following to the North China Gazette of March 23, which shows that the Chinese are themselves becoming more alive to the evils of the opium habit, and are taking active measures to rid themselves as a nation from its bondage:

It is stated in reliable quarters in Peking that instructions are soon to be sent to the viceroys and governors of provinces to put into effect the scheme of Viceroy Yuan shih-Kai to put a stop to the opium-smoking habit among the official and literate classes. If after the expiration of an ample limit of time to all to get rid of the noxious habit, there be found any one still

addicted to the use of the drug, the culprit is to be severely denounced and punished. The age limit, we understand, is forty years. All under that age will be forced to get rid of the habit; those above are given the option to continue or stop as they please. Such men are, however, to be registered, and to be granted certificates, which, upon the death of the holders, must be returned to the yamên for cancellation. As this class of men die away there will naturally be no more opium-smokers in the country. The masses are to be told about the flourishing condition of the men and youths of Japan as compared with the emaciated state of the great portion of the people of China who are opium-smokers, and effort is to be made to inflame the

patriotism and sense of shame of the people.

China's Great Need

The Christian Church must enlarge its force of workers in China, if the Gospel is to be preached to the Chinese during this century. This is shown by the following facts:

1. There are 109,000 communicant Christians in the 7 coast provinces of China, whereas in the 12 interior provinces there are only 22,000.

2. In only 3 provinces (namely, Fuhkien, Manchuria, and Chehkiang) is there more than one communicant Christian for every 1,000 people.

3. Outside of the 7 coast provinces there is no province where the proportion of Christians is greater than I to 3,000.

4. In five of the interior provinces the proportion is less than I to 33,000, and in 2 of them (Kansuh and Yunnan) it is less than 1 to 100,000.

Tremendous Changes in China's Capital

A missionary of the American Board names these seven illustrations of radical revolutions in progress in Peking: The macadamized pavement; the new shops along the streets, instead of spreading goods upon the ground; the first woman's newspaper which, better than anything else, shows the new attitude toward women; the many girls' schools; the popularity of lectures upon Western science; the reception into the missionaries' homes of the sisters of the third prince, one a Mongolian princess herself, and that these ladies are willing