and the hearts of the people softened through this visitation and made more responsive to the Gospel.

The movement recently authorized by the Board of Foreign Missions for the establishing of two new homes in Wooster, Ohio, for the children of foreign missionaries is meeting with encouraging success. The homes are not to be institutions, but simply, as the name indicates, places where the children of missionaries may have the benefits of a Christian home while pursuing their education, their parents meanwhile remaining in their several fields of labor. The necessity of some such provision has long been felt. Many missionaries are so situated that they have no relatives or friends upon whom they can throw the burden of caring for their children when it becomes necessary to send them to the United States for education. Because of this in not a few instances parents well equipped for their missionary work have felt constrained to withdraw from the foreign field, at least for a time or to resort to a painful separation, the wife and mother devoting herself to the children at home while the husband is left to struggle alone in circumstances where companionship is well nigh indispensable, to say nothing of the loss to the work which the absence of the wife may involve. Understanding the situation, a generous friend of the missionaries and the Board has offered to give $5,000 towards the purchase of two homes, one for boys and the other for girls, in Wooster, Ohio, provided $15,000 additional be secured; and to contribute $500 per year for five years towards the support of these homes on condition that $1,500 additional be secured for the same purpose. Wooster University, meanwhile, with large hearted liberality, has pledged itself to furnish free tuition to all the children of missionaries who may

attend this institution. It is believed that this generous provision, with the one hundred dollars allowed by the Board for each child under eighteen years of age, will reduce the amount required to be furnished by parents to a sum within their reach, and so make it possible for more of them to remain at their posts than is possible at present, while the education and training of their children is being looked after by competent persons at home.

The Rev. E. P. Dunlap of our Siam Mission, at present in the United States on furlough, has been authorized by the Board to raise the requisite funds. Two restrictions have been placed upon the effort in order, as far as possible, to avoid crippling the general work of the Board— viz., that funds which would otherwise reach the Board's treasury as part of its ordinary income are not to be accepted for this special work, and that no subscription of less than $100 is to be received. Dunlap's address is New Wilmington, Pa. All funds for the object should be sent to the treasurer of the Board, William Dulles, Jr., 53 Fifth Avenue, New York.

Mr.

The General Assembly at Portland recommended: "That a special offering to be known as the Columbian Offering' be taken in all our Sabbath-schools and Young People's Societies for Foreign Missions on this Western Hemisphere on Sabbath, the 9th of October." As the President of the United States subsequently recommended that Friday, October 21, be celebrated by the entire nation as "Columbia Day," it seemed wise to the Board to change the date for the "Columbus Offering" to Sabbath, October 23. If, however, it should be more convenient for any school or society to make its offering on the 9th, by all means let it be done.

The Board has prepared and is about to send to all Sabbath-schools, through

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their pastors or superintendents, an Exercise on Foreign Missions on the American Continent appropriate to the occasion. Every school in the Presbyterian Church should take part in the service contemplated. How better celebrate the discovery of this mighty continent than by encouraging the children and youth to remember that part of it which is to-day under the thraldom of Romish error or pagan superstition? Should any school fail to receive a sample of this Exercise, the officers should communicate at once with

the treasurer, William Dulles, Jr., 53 Fifth Avenue, New York, and a copy will be promptly sent.

In connection with the Exercise, and indeed as a part of it, mite-boxes specially prepared will be furnished to all Sabbathschools and young people's societies desiring them, for distribution on October 23, for the usual Christmas Offering for Foreign Missions. It was understood in the Assembly that the "Columbian Offering" was to be a special thank-offering, over and above all usual gifts for Foreign

Missions.

Report of the Committee on Resolutions of the West Japan Mission, dated July 1, 1892: "WHEREAS through sickness or other cause the Mission has been compelled to part with the following members. during the year: Miss Helen S. Loveland, in January; Rev. and Mrs. B. C. Haworth, in May; Rev. and Mrs. M. C. Hayes, in June; and now Rev. and Mrs. J. P. Hearst at an early period: Therefore, be it resolved that we record the pleasure we have had in fellowship with them in this work; that we greatly appreciate the services which they have rendered during their stay upon the mission field, and that we much regret we are compelled to lose them from our ranks. We pray that God may give back health and strength for service, and that they may all rejoice in

[October,

continued usefulness in the Master's vineyard wherever He may be pleased to open the way.

Resolved, also, That the Mission extend to the Rev. and Mrs T. T. Alexander deep sympathy in the sore affliction they have recently sustained by the loss of their oldest daughter, Ella."

An appeal recently made in behalf of some mission work in Syria touched the heart of a young man with a liberal disDeterposition, but of slender means. mined to have a part in the work which appealed to him so forcibly, he set about taking pictures at his odd moments, hoping they might yield sufficient profit to give him a share in the enterprise. He succeeded so well that he has arranged with a lady friend to attempt in this way to raise $100 in the course of the year for other parts of the Board's work in that mission. Is there not a hint in this to others whose hearts respond readily to appeals from the unevangelized millions, but who find it difficult to give their appeals substantial form because of lack of means?

F. F. ELLINWOOD, D. D. The July number of the Church Missionary Intelligencer contains a very instructive article on the Anti-Foreign Riots in China in 1891, by Rev. G. Ensor. After having carefully searched the official records of Consuls and others as found in the Parliamentary Blue Books, the author has been able to present the requisite data for a calm and sober judgment on the causes, the spirit, and the extent of these hostile demonstrations. There has been much misunderstanding caused by sensational reports and surmises of newspaper correspondents on the one hand and the too

1892.]

hopeful communications of missionariesat least in some instances-on the other. From Mr. Ensor's careful review a few points seem to be made clear.

(1) The area of the riotous development has been very wide. The storm center so to speak was in the province of Hunan, but the whole Yangtze valley was more or less affected, and a part of the Province of Chili. There have also been hostile developments in Manchuria.

(2) The disturbances originated not with the ignorant and superstitious classes but with the so-called literati. The masses have been used by the leaders, as they always are in the enforcement of violent measures in any land or age, but this movement in its inception may be called a literary crusade. The pamphleteer has been abroad extensively. All the tactics of an occidental political campaign have been employed. In the vileness and mendacity of published misrepresentations, Western nations have been fairly outdone. Pictorial caricatures, the coarsest and most obscene, have been widely circulated, and perhaps never have so much of spite and malignity been couched in language, both in statements and in names of contempt and loathing.

(3). The hatred has been manifold against Americans and Europeans as foreigners, not as missionaries.

A British consul as well as a missionary was killed by the mobs. The abuses which China has suffered commercially and diplomatically have played an active part, and the haughty and insolent bearing which Europeans have so long displayed toward the Chinese on their own soil is now, bearing its legitimate fruit.

(4). This leads us to emphasize the fact that this widespread hatred of foreigners, produced by whatever cause or causes, is deep and active and permanent. The riots and the placards and the violent literature were only a spasmodic de

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velopment of an animosity which has been growing for a generation and is only a revival of the old sentiment which banished foreigners and Christianity two centuries ago. The peacemaking edicts of the Imperial Government have not changed the temper of the literati, and it may be doubted whether the Government itself would stand guard over the lives and property of foreigners were it not for the strong and insistent intervention of the representatives of foreign powers backed by their gunboats.

(5). If missionaries have in any degree occasioned the riots, it is by the strong stand taken by them against what they consider the actual worship of ancestors.

The literati are Confucianists. Reverence for ancestors and all great sages is the staple of their religion. They themselves aspire to be sages. Their literary pride is touched by any supposed indignity toward the great teachers of the past. They are perfectly sure that reverence for parents living or dead is a cardinal virtue and they are outraged by any new doctrines which seem to discredit it. Just here is and is to be the hard grapple which Christianity must have with the learned classes of China. Our warfare is with an error which is mingled with a great and noble truth. In dealing with Mohammedanism we are baffled by the pure monotheism in which its abominations are intrenched. So here the Confucianist stands firm and confident upon that noblest of all human sentiments, honor to parents.

Some, like Dr. Martin of Peking, have come to feel that some discriminating modification should be made in the attitude of missionaries towards the honors paid to ancestors, but the general voice, as shown in the Shanghai Missionary Conference, is against him. We do not propose here to discuss the question; we only state the situation.

EASTERN PERSIA MISSION.

TEHERAN: capital of Persia, population 200,000; work begun in 1872; laborers-Rev. Messrs. J. L. Potter, S. Lawrence Ward, and Lewis F. Esselstyn, and their wives; Miss Anna Schenck, Miss Cora Bartlett, Miss A. G. Dale, Miss L. H. McCampbell, and Miss Mary J. Smith, M. D.; Pastor Reuben; 2 licentiates, 8 male helpers.

HAMADAN: 200 miles southwest of Teheran, population 40,000; occupied 1880; laborers-Rev. James W. Hawkes and J. G. Watson, and their wives; Miss Annie Montgomery, Miss Charlotte Montgomery, Miss Sue S. Lienbach and Miss Jessie C. Wilson,

M. D.; Pastor Shimon; 2 licentiates, 7 male and 5 female native teachers.

In this country: Dr. J. G. Wishard, Miss A. G. Dale and Miss Cora Bartlett.

Under appointment: Miss Mary A. Clark and Dr. Geo. W. Holmes.

WESTERN PERSIA MISSION.

OROOMIAH (600 miles north of west from Teheran, the capital): station begun under the American Board, 1835; transferred to this Board in 1871; laborers-Rev. J. H. Shedd, D. D., J. P. Cochran, M. D., Rev. F. G. Coan, Rev. E. W. St. Pierre, and their wives; Mr. E. T. Allen; Mrs. D. P. Cochran; Misses N. J. Dean, M. K. Van Duzee, M. W. Greene, E. T. Miller, M. D., H. L. Medbery, and G. G. Russell; 29 ordained and 30 licentiate pastors, 98 native helpers, and 3 Bible-women.

Mountain station-MOSUL: opened in 1889; laborers-Rev. Messrs. E. W. McDowell and J. A. Ainslie and their wives; J. G. Wishard, M. D., Miss Anna Melton; 5 ordained and 4 licentiate native pastors, and 21 native helpers.

TABRIZ (nearly 500 miles north of west from Teheran): station begun, 1873; laborers-Rev. Messrs. S. G. Wilson and Turner G. Brasbear and their wives; Wm. S. Vanneman, M. D., and Mrs. Vanneman; Mrs. L. C. Van Hook, Miss G. Y. Holliday, and Miss M. E. Bradford, M. D.; 3 ordained native ministers, 5 licentiate pastors, 25 native helpers and 1 Bible-woman.

SALMAS: Haft Dewan village; station begun in 1884; laborers-Rev. and Mrs. J. C. Mechlin, Rev. and Mrs. J. N. Wright, Miss C. O. Van Duzee; 1 or

dained and 5 licentiate native ministers, 7 native helpers, and 1 Bible-woman.

In this country: Rev. B. Labaree, D. D., and Rev. J. N. Wright, and their wives; J. G. Wishard M. D., Miss Mary Jewett, Miss N. J. Dean, Mrs. L. C. Van Hook, and Miss M. W. Greene.

Under appointment: Miss Jennie F. McLean and Rev. W. A. Shedd.

"THE MOUNTAIN STATION." A wild tangle of lofty, savage mountains, tortuous valleys, turbuleat rivers that is Kurdistan. It is inhabited by as lawless a population as is to be found in Asia. The region, or that part of it with which we are just now most concerned, is about an hundred and fifty miles measured from east to west, and extends nearly the same distance from north to south. From the north, down through the middle of it, or a little east of such a line, strikes the boundary between Turkey and Persia, making a characteristic border-land, with feuds enough and forays, the defiance of law and the bloody combats of hostile clans, to furnish forth a whole library of Border Tales. And these strifes and robberies and wars, which neither Sultan nor Shah is able to repress, are not the distant and half legendary scenes of which tales are made; their noise and blood and wretchedness break into the very lives of the missionaries whom we have sent to what we call our West Persia field.

Look at the map and you will see the region. It reaches almost all the way from Oroomiah, in Persia, to Mosul, on the banks of the Tigris, a Turkish river. One does not strike the mountains immediately on leaving Oroomiah, and they subside into the plain of the Tigris, perhaps twenty miles before he reaches Mosul, but almost all his journey will find him in this Alpine labyrinth, where he may well pray that his flight be not in the winter, and almost as anxiously pray to be delivered from the summer also, since in the winter the Swiss Alps themselves are not so perilous and impassable, while in

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the summer the narrow, deep-cut valleys, faced with rock, burn like the plates of a brazen furnace.

Yet here are hundreds of thousands of human souls, and here for thirty years the missionaries of our church, working westward from Oroomiah have been trying to carry the knowledge of Christ. Other missionaries, of the American Board, have been working into the labyrinth from the west, climbing up the mountains from Mosul and the Tigris plain. Here, in the midst of these rough tribes, the East Turkey Mission, of our Congregational brethren, and the West Persia Mission, of our own Board, met. It was manifestly better every way that the whole field should be in one mission, and all the work be planned and carried out as one. Syriac was the language of the Presbyterian Mission; Arabic that of the Congregational. But the number of Syriac speaking villages, not only on the Persian half of the mountains, but on the western half as well, and even on the Tigris plain, and beyond the river, was larger than the Arabic. The number of missionaries who spoke Syriac, and the native school teachers and evangelists, the pastors and pastor's wives and Bible women also with whom this was their mother tongue, and who had been educated in the mission schools and seminaries of Oroomiah, was large. Accordingly after long and friendly conference between the Missions on the field and the two Boards at home, it was decided that the Presbyterian Board should assume all the work. Mosul became a station of our West Persia Mission. Rev. and Mrs. J. A. Ainslie, of Mosul, with the native helpers under Mr. Ainslie's charge, were transferred by the American Board to ours. Miss Melton came over from Fiske Seminary, Oroomiah, to begin the girl's school in Mosul. Dr. J. D. Wishard, our medical missionary, and Rev. and Mrs. E. W. McDowell were already there, with a little