Rev. Dr. S. Graves, President of Atlanta fornia and Oregon Railroad; or brave the Baptist Seminary is resting at Kalamazoo, perils of the Pacific ocean by steamer. We Mich., after a few weeks of labor in securing | chose the water route, and thereby had view of funds for the new site and new building at At- the lower Columbia and Astoria at its mouth. lanta. We stayed four or five hours at this town which was founded by John Jacob Astor, in 1811, as a trading post. The town is located at the foot of a steep bluff, and is built for the most part on piles so that streets and houses extend over the shallow water, which rises and falls with the tide.

New Canaan.

BY REV. C. A. HOBBS.
[A Home Mission Hymn.]
America!

O Canaan new,

Oh later promised land! Behold the wondrous destiny

Thy God for thee hath planned.

He held thee hidden in His palm
When Christ hung on the tree,
The refuge for His people, calm,
In ages yet to be.

But now o'er thee His Bethlehem's star
Rekindled He hath set,
And lo! the peoples from afar,
Beneath its beams have met.

O chosen hosts of Israel's God
Possess this goodly land,
The purchase of redeeming blood,
And given to your hand.

Here bid the nations find their Christ
As in old Canaan fair,

And by His matchless love enticed
Proclaim him everywhere.

To your Immanuel's gracious name
His foes shall bow forgiven.
Rise then, His loyal hosts and claim
This land for Christ and Heaven.

Delevan, Wis., April, 1888.

While the steamer was lying here the minister of the Congregational church came on board, and from him we learned that there is a Baptist church here of which our old time friend, Rev. M. L. Rugg, was pastor. At four o'clock in the afternoon our steamer started on her ocean voy. age for San Francisco. A stiff northwest breeze was blowing, and a heavy sea rolling as we crossed the bar, but our sea-going qualities proved equal to the requirements, and we had no occasion to use the quotation aptly suggested by Dr. O. W. Holmes under similar circum

stances:

"Down thou climbing sorrow,

Thy element's below."

The voyage to San Francisco Bay was easy and agreeable. The entrance through the "golden gate" was pleasurable in the extreme. An attenuated fog hung over the landscape, and shining through this the subdued light of the sun gave the bluffs on either side the appearance of being covered with dust of gold. We landed in the city Saturday afternoon; and that night, under the guidance of policeman Traverse, we visited Chinatown, in its heights and depths, and lanes and holes, where we saw scenes in opium dens, and gambling hells, and brothels, unutterable to polite ears.

The Joss houses particularly interested us, as indicating the religious condition of these forty thousand pagans. While this subject is not new, some readers of the magazine may be interested to know that these houses are not like church buildings, used as assembly rooms for

OBSERVATIONS ON THINGS SECU worship, but are simply dwelling places for

LAR AND RELIGIOUS IN CALI

FORNIA.

REV. THOS. ROGERS, D.D., ELBRIDGE, N. Y.

Two routes from Portland, Ore. to San Francisco, are offered to the tourist. You take your choice, pay your money, and proceed by Cali

their idols. One priest is in attendance, and he sits behind a counter near the door and has for sale "Joss money," a piece of brown paper six inches square, with a square gilded spot in the centre. He also has a supply of tapers made of soft wood, which, set upright, will burn slowly without flame, and in burning give off a pleas ant and penetrating odor. These are sold to visitors as a sort of admittance fee. The prom

Francisco. American butchers buy at whole

retail. Whole sides of swine's flesh ready roasted may be seen hanging in their shops, which we were told brought an extra price as having been prepared in sacrifice to idols.

inent idols or Josses are gods of luck, of medicine, of war, of peace, and of plenty. As the sale of Chinamen whatever pork they sell at Chinaman is an inveterate gambler the god of | luck is most frequently consulted. When he wishes to engage in a game of chance, he goes to the Joss house, writes on a tablet or paper the | question, "Shall I win if I play to-night?" pays his money and goes out. After awhile he returns and finds written an answer, yes or no, which he believes the god has given him and

acts accordingly.

The image of Confucius is prominent among these figures. In one case we noticed that he appeared with benignant expression, and in another with a most malignant cast of countenance. The Chinamen believe that the former is his attitude toward the obedient, and the latter an expression of his wrath toward the disobedient. These images in a heathen temple affirm the truth that the conception of divine justice is born in the human conscience, and co-extensive with the human race. "According to thy fear so is thy wrath."

They are organized into different mutual aid or protective associations for the purpose of caring for the sick and burying the dead. Each organization has a separate part of the cemetery

for the burial of its own members. In these

plots are furnaces in which at the time of burial are burned the clothing and utensils of the departed Chinaman. After a few years the body is exhumed, the bones cleaned and carefully shipped back to China, for a final resting place in the land of his nativity. In former times it was their custom, at funerals, to leave a good supply of roast chicken and other toothsome in-viands at the grave for the sustenance of the departed till he should find his way to the better land. But the hoodlums" fell into the habit of appropriating for their own benefit this food piously intended for the spirits of the Chinese. Learning wisdom from experience, the Chinaman now places these dainties on the grave temporarily, and then takes them home so that if the spirit wishes for any refreshments for his long journey he must avail himself of the privilege before nightfall.

But gospel light shines even in Chinatown. Sunday evening we went into a "praise-meeting," which was being held in one of the churches. Some American teachers were conducting it, but the singing in English from "Gospel Hymns" was being done by Chinamen. At the close of the service, standing with bowed heads, they reverently repeated in con cert some passages of Scripture, and closed with

prayer.

On a week day we entered a store to purchase some souvenir, and inquired for a "Joss," but the merchant probably misunderstanding our motive shook his head, and pointing upward reverently said: "No Joss, we believe in the one God." On further conversation he said his partner was a Congregationalist and himself a Baptist. We found them to be clean, intelligent, gentlemenly men, and of a character likely to exert a healthful moral influence either in this republic or in old China if they return thither. The missionary in Chinatown is doing a good work, and sowing the seeds which a future harvest will yield a hundred fold.

The next stage of our journey from San Francisco was to Yosemite Valley. We went by railway up the San Joaquin valley, through Stockton to Milton. Then we started for upward of ninety miles ride by stage. This route took us through Copperopolis, Chinese Camp, Stanislaus, Big Oak Flats, and Crockers. Mrs. Crocker, whose husband keeps a wayside inn, we found to be a Baptist, with whom we spent a pleasant hour while taking our mid-day rest. We passed over thousands of old mining grounds, where hundreds of young manly lives had been sacrificed in the hunt for gold. These once active camps are weed grown and quiet now, which painfully suggests the vanity of this mortal life. The famous Yosemite Valley has been so often and so well described that I will not attempt to repeat what has been adequately done before. The drive from Milton occupies two full days, and leads through the Tuolumne big trees, and over an elevation of seven thou sand six hundred feet. The bottom of the valley itself is four thousand feet above the sea.

The Chinese are an industrious, thrifty people; in some shops they were busily at work as late as eleven o'clock at night, and their pe. culiar meals were being served at that late hour in their eating houses as though they intended to keep up their activities till morning. These strangers monopolize the pork business of San-is five miles long and from one to two miles

It

wide, shut in by almost perpendicular sides from three to four thousand feet high, and through it flows the Merced River. The Dome and Half Dome, the Cathedral Spires, the Three Brothers, Sentinel Rock, El Capitan and Glacier Point are unique and magnificent points of scenery. But the travel of getting there is extremely trying to one who is averse to physical discomfort.

overpowering-and, by all means, before he visits the national Yellow Stone Park, and particularly Alaska. I had thought to finish the series with this, but will reserve what I have to say of Salt Lake City and our journey thither for another paper.

FISSIONARY DEPARTMENT.

OVER MY FIELD.

BY REV. DWIGHT SPENCER.

We left Ogden May 15th, and went directly to Bellevue, Idaho. The route is over the Utah and Northern Railway to Pocatello, thence west by Oregon short line to Shoshone, thence northwest by branch of the same road to Bellevue; distance, 310 miles. Bellevue is in the Wood River Valley, which here is quite narrow, though in places it is as much as ten miles wide. The valley is well adapted to agriculture, and the mountains are rich in gold and silver

ore.

We first visited the town seven years ago, when it was in its infancy. Then we preached in an unfinished store, with four nail-kegs for a pulpit and rough boards for seats. Soon after

The climate at San Francisco in August is delightfully cool. On the second Sunday of that month we found overcoats and heavy wraps necessary to comfort; and at evening church services we observed that many ladies wore furtrimmed cloaks and seal-skin sacks. But fifty or a hundred miles from the coast the whole land is a true California, which we have been told means "a burning furnace." And then to add to the discomfort of the smothered and sweltering traveler, every Californian insists that there is no such delightful climate as this in all the world. "Ah!" says he, "you do not have anything like this back East. If the mercury stands at 110 we can work in the field without danger." Before now I have met with fond parents rejoicing in the possession of their first baby," who, with commendable pride, thought there never was such a baby before and never would be such another. The writer concedes to all such happy parents the full right of private judgment in a matter so important. But when these same parents insist on everybody else holding the same opinion in regard to the said baby it is quite different. So with the Californian. Full right is accorded him to exult in his climate as unequalled. If he counts it a blessing to receive not a drop of rain from April to October, to live half the year under a cloudless sky and a scorching sun, he is welcome to the privilege. But it grows a little monotonous to the Eastern traveler to haveings, with house crowded and some leaving for every day fifteen or twenty natives to the manor born attempt to compel him to make confession to the same faith. In that Ishmaelitish disposition to which the best of men are sometimes provoked, the writer secretly purposed that if he should ever have an enemy against whom he cherished a deep-seated grudge, and with whom he wished to be even, he would advise him to go to Yosemite in August. But time and distance have removed that unwonted asperity, and his advice now to friend and foe alike is to go there early in the season, when there is water enough to run the famous falls, and before the dust becomes so deep and the heat so

a church was organized, which has been steadily growing; present membership, 34. Rev. J. B. Foster is pastor, and the difficulties under which he labors would discourage an ordinary man. The church worships in a loghouse 13 x 34, with only one window and seats made of rough boards. Preached three even

want of room. Sunday morning the people flocked in from the country, and the meeting was very solemn. After the sermon three were baptized. Then the Sunday-school, completely filling the house, and the pastor told me they could have twice the number if they had the

room.

In the evening the house was full again, and after the sermon we observed the Lord's Supper; then talked with the brethren about building a house. All eager to have the work begun, and about $300 subscribed. The next day visited and made the subscription up to $500, and promised $500 from the Home Mis