THE PRESBYTERIAN HOUSE, NEW YORK. Our readers will be glad to see on this page so good a picture of the handsome building now occupied by those offices of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America which are located in the city of New York. It stands on the north-east corner of Fifth Avenue and Twelfth Streets, and was the residence of the late James Lenox, by whose heirs it was conveyed to the Presbyterian Church at a cost so much below its market value as to make it a wise purchase, although its interior is more expensively constructed and finished than would have been thought necessary in a building erected for these church uses. The representatives of the church in holding the legal title to this property are the Boards of Home and Foreign Missions, and the building contains the offices of those Boards, the Board of Church Erection, the Woman's Executive Committee of Home Missions, the Women's Board of Foreign Missions (New York), and the Editorial Office of Woman's Work for The principal door of entrance, conspicuous in our picture, opens into a spacious hall; the two windows on the right of this light the room lately officially occupied by Dr. Kendall, and those on the left the room of the treasurer. Dr. Kendall's room was the first in a series of three on the right side of the hall of entrance, all of which are occupied by the secretaries and their assistants. The rear rooms are occupied by the ladies' offices for Home Mission work, and on the left side of the hall of entrance, between the ladies' rooms and the Treasurer's office, a broad stair-way ascends, beside which is a passage leading through into Lenox Hall, formerly Mr. Lenox's library, now used as an assembly room. In this room farewell meetings with departing missionaries and also other religious and social gatherings are held. On the second floor are the offices of 1892.] The Presidency of the Republic. the Secretaries and Treasurer of the Board of Foreign Missions, arranged much as those below. In the third story are the offices of the Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of Church Erection with their assistants, and the editorial office of Woman's Work for Woman. In the basement are store-rooms for goods of missionaries preparing to depart, and goods to be sent abroad to those in 477 the fields, all under the excellent, faithful care of Mr. C. Cutter. The property thus held by the two Boards of Missions, in trust for the Church, includes, on the left of what has already been described, what was the dwelling of Mr. Lenox's sister, and which can be changed into offices, whenever the expanding work of the Church shall need them. In the meantime its rent is a source of income. THE PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC. Under this title in our August number, we thankfully recognized the generally acknowledged fact that each of the two principal political parties had nominated for the first office of the nation a candidate who represented the better moral elements of his party. We said: It is generally claimed and admitted that the political debate is to be upon the principles and policies of the respective parties, not upon the personal characters of their candidates, and that, whichever party shall prevail in the election, the nation is sure of having for its next president a proved master in statesmanship, and an able, honest, upright man, each with an help meet for him, a wise, virtuous, godly woman. Writing now, within half a week of the time when the ballots of the nation will have fallen as silently "as snow-flakes upon the sod," to "execute the nation's will as [effectively] as lightning does the will of God," we see no occasion to alter one word of what was written four months ago. The quietness, the decorum, the amenity of the canvass are universally recognized and commended. The most intelligent and thoughtful probably feel the greatest uncertainty as to the result so soon to be made sure and known to all the world, and there is little appearance of serious patriotic anxiety concerning it. A tender sorrow has been superinduced upon the nation's thoughtfulness, by the fore-shadowing and the fulfillment of a national bereavement. In the last year of the present presidential term, while the nation has been deliberating in preparation for its choice for the next, the President, with no remissness as to all his official duties, has been exemplifying most signally the highest domestic fidelity under the shadow of a great domestic sorThe nation has stood still in sympathetic silence while its chief magistrate has watched out the life of her who was most dear to him, and as he went sorrowfully to the chosen place for her burial. row. Of the President's many graceful and beautiful utterances we remember none more perfect than that which he left, to be given to the people through the press, as he turned away from the grave of his wife to resume, without delay for rest, his official labors: My Dear Old Friends and Neighbors: I cannot leave you without saying that the tender and gracious sympathy which you have to-day shown for me and for my children and, much more, the touching evidence you have given of your love for the dear wife and mother have deeply moved our hearts. We yearn to tarry with you and to rest near the hallowed spot where your loving hands have laid our dead, but the little grandchildren watch in wondering silence for our return and need our care, and some public business will not longer wait upon my sorrow. May a gracious God keep and bless you all. 478 The Presidency of the Republic. On the morning before the election, the Philadelphia Public Ledger, with characteristic candor, said: The Presidential campaign, which will be brought to a conclusion to-morrow at the polls, has been from the beginning one of the most anomalous in the history of American politics. First of all, it has been one of unprecedented sobriety and dignity. Personal abuse, misrepresentation and detraction of candidates have had little part or share in it. It has been not only a peculiarly respectable campaign, it has been in remarkable degree an educational one. Something of its admirable characteristics have been due, largely due, to the high character of the Presidential candidates, both whom have, with honor to themselves and with credit and profit to the country, filled the great office for which they were nominated. Their countrymen, no matter how ignorant or how prejudiced, know that either is wholly worthy and fit to be President. Each has been tried and found faithful to his trust and competent to discharge it. No charge of lack of patriotism, of personal or official purity, of devotion to public duties, or intelligent, honorable appreciation of them, can be justly made against either. They both enjoy, by their right to enjoy, the respect and the confidence of the people. Their characters have disarmed calumffiy and slander. The only criticism we have to offer upon this utterance is that it stood in the Ledger's column, entitled, The Day Before The Battle, and that it persists in calling the debate a "Campaign," although it so highly and so justly praises the fair, irenic spirit, "the unprecedented sobriety and dignity" with which it has been conducted. Why should we persist in applying the terms and phrases of war to peaceful and friendly discussion, calling candid debates campaigns, and calm voting upon questions that have been candidly debated, battles? "THE DAY AFTER" is the heading of the Ledger's article on the day succeeding the election. We were glad to miss the word battle from the title, and would have been gladder to miss the word campaign from what followed it, but no less heartily do we commend the sentiments which could only be better expressed by exchang [December. ing that word for some one that has no smell of powder. THE DAY AFTER. The Presidential campaign of 1892 having been fought out to a conclusion at the polls yesterday, the entire country can congratulate itself upon the manner in which it was fought. Within the memory of the oldest voter, there is no record of another campaign so wholly creditable to all those concerned in it. In the closing days of the contest a great sorrow fell upon the heart of the Republican candidate, and his opponent was among the first to send him a message of condolence, and Democratic journals and orators vied with those of his own party in their expressions of regret and sympathy. A very large part of the people may not be satisfied with the result, but they should be more than satisfied with the manner in which from beginning to finish it was conducted. President Harrison will retire from the office which he is to administer only four months longer, with the respect and love of the American people. The majority of them have expressed their dissent from his views on some political questions. At the same time they have given peculiarly emphatic expression of their confidence in his integrity and patriotism, their admiration of his character and their affec tionate sympathy in his sorrow. President Cleveland will resume the powers and responsibilities of the presidency, with experimental knowledge of their seriousness and gravity, and with the strongest encouragement to adhere to the patriotic and upright purposes which he has expressed, and in which the nation has shown that it believes him sincere. It is fair to presume that he is too wise to feel himself obliged to please those who bitterly opposed his selection as the candidate of their party, and too upright to disappoint those who have in good faith accepted his clear declarations. 1892.] Our Editorial Correspondents. A Christmas missionary exercise for the Young People's Societies and Sabbathschools has been issued by the Board of Foreign Missions. Christmas comes on Sabbath this year, and the exercises will prove a pleasant evening service. The mite boxes which were distributed at the time of the American missionary exercises in connection with Columbus Day, should be gathered and opened on Christmas evening, and the contents sent to the Treasurer of the Board. An average gift of five cents from our Sabbath-school scholars, either through the boxes or on Christmas day, will amount in all to $40,000. Can it not be given? OUR 1 EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENTS, whose names appear on the first page of the cover, have been appointed by the Boards which they respectively represent, in pursuance of the recommendation of the General Assembly of 1892, in its action upon the report of the Committee on THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD. See Minutes, page 25. It will be noticed that each of these is a Corresponding Secretary of the Board which he represents, and has, in that capacity, been a "special correspondent" of this magazine hitherto. In the case of the six Boards each of which has only one Corresponding Secretary, the recent appointment makes no essential difference. In each of the other Boards, as heretofore, all the Secretaries will assist in procuring and providing the information and communications which will represent the work of those Boards to our readers. But the one whose name appears on the cover is expected, after due consultation with his colleagues, to forward to the editor what shall be inserted in the pages specially reserved for that Board. It is believed that such definite and single responsibility will be convenient to all who co-operate in preparing our pages, and also to those who read them. 479 As the number of pages in each monthly issue is considerably less than formerly-as has been already explained the number of pages for which each editorial correspondent is to provide is proportionally diminished. Sixteen pages are reserved in each number for Foreign Missions; twelve pages for Home Missions, and these are distinctly indicated in the table of Contents on the first page of each number. For the contents of those pages, the respective editorial correspondents are responsible, with the help and advice of their colleagues. Twelve pages will be held in reserve for the other six Boards. That is an average of two pages for each; but the Secretaries of these Boards do not desire to be perfectly uniform in the amount of space which they fill, and we have never had any difficulty in satisfactorily adjusting the pages needed by them. Some of them. do not find it convenient or desirable to appear in every number, nor always to fill the same number of pages. For all other pages than those thus assigned to the several Boards or to their representative correspondents, the editor is responsible. But as in this number, so generally in subsequent ones, he expects to obtain and to publish articles and communications bearing upon missions, both home and foreign, and upon various other departments of the work of our church. For these the Secretaries have no responsibility, except when their own names appear as writers of them. The vacancy which is seen in our list reminds our readers of a faithful and beloved brother, lately deceased. Our readers will surely pray that divine guidance may be vouchsafed to the Board of Missions for Freedmen, and that he whom they call to that post may be as richly furnished with gifts and graces as was Dr. Allen. Since printing the above, we learn that Rev. Dr. Cowan has been appointed, but we do not know whether be accepts. 480 Religious Life in Persia in Cholera Times. RELIGIOUS LIFE IN PERSIA IN CHOLERA TIMES. Some new and interesting phases of religious life manifested themselves during the prevalence of the cholera epidemic. In the spring the cholera was at Meshed. We anticipated its approach by the direct caravan route through Teheran. It had not occurred in Tabriz for 20 years. Rumors of its approach became universal about the time of the Muharrem celebrations of the martyrdom of Hussain. Then religious frenzy reached a higher pitch than usual, in efforts to appease God and especially to obtain the intercession of the Emaums. The Mosques were crowded, the chain-bands, and sword-bands more earnest in their self-tortures, even the women marching through the streets with loud cryings and supplications. The multitude assembled at night in the open plain for religious ceremonies. were greatly encouraged in the assurance of safety by a telegram from Khorasan. A Mujteheed had seen a vision. The Emaum Reza had appeared to him in journey clothes. He asked, "Where do you come from?" He replied, that he had gone to protect Tabriz from the cholera, because they stood so firmly for the faith in the matter of the tobacco monopoly. But how vain these efforts and promises! The cholera came, and by direct course and quicker than usual, from the shrine of this same Emaum, by the new pilgrim route from Meshed by the Trans-Caspian R. R. and Caspian steamer to Baku, Ardebil aud Tabriz. They But religion had not yet exhausted its means of protectiom. Korans were hung over the streets that by passing under them safety might be assured. At one place forty-one Korans were placed in a sheet and suspended from a pole stretching from roof to roof. To the astonishment of the faithful some one dared to steal the sheet at night. At Zenjanab a dream revealed to an old woman, by the mouth of Ali, I believe it is said, that whoever would drink of a certain new spring indicated would escape the cholera. People came sixteen miles to obtain the water, Even the Crown Prince is said to have sent for it. Prayers were printed (lithographed) and thousands of them posted on the streets [December, And above the doors of the houses. I inclose The second one is very similar in style and wording, but has several striking differences. We are told that whoever shall repeat a certain surah three times, |