William Reed, of Pittsburg, Pa., the eccen- It is not mine to walk through valleys dim, tric locator of oil and minerals by means of | Or climb far mountain heights, alone with Him. divining rods, who was drowned recently on the He hath no need of me in grand affairs, New Jersey coast, left the greater part of his Where fields are lost, or crowns won unawares. estate of $250,000 for the benefit of students for the ministry, struggling churches, and Yet, Master, if I may make one pale flower Bloom brighter, for Thy sake, through one short hour; missions. Philip Embury, who died a few days ago at Orange, N. J., recently gave away $300,000 to charitable institutions. The will of the late Mrs. Charlotte Augusta Astor, of New York, after bequests to relatives and personal friends, makes the following public provisions: Woman's Hospital of New York, $25,000; St. Luke's Hospital, $25,000; Young Women's Christian Association of New York, $25,000; Children's Aid Society, $25,000; for an Industrial School on Avenue B, $10,000; Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hampton, Va., $25,000; and the sum of $25,000 to the domestic and foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, one-half to be applied to the education of Indian boys and girls of South Dakota, and the other half to the repair and enlargement of schools in the same district. "It is as bad to be barren as to be wicked. He who blighteth the fig-tree looks down and frowns on the fruitless religious life in the church and out of it. The greatest curse is increasing wealth, with a decreasing disposition to give. If God took as summary vengeance now as in the days of Ananias, the undertaker would do a thriving business. If piety increased in our denomination as wealth increases, every call would find a generous response."-Rev. John Peddie, D.D. NOT MINE. It is not mine to run with eager feet, It is not mine to pour the oil and wine, It is not mine to break at His dear feet, If I, in harvest-fields, where strong ones reap, May bind one golden sheaf for Love to keep; May speak one quiet word when all is still, Helping some fainting heart to bear Thy will; Or sing one high, clear song, on which may soar Some glad soul heavenward, I ask no more! MRS. JULIA C. R. DORR. OUR PRESENT PERIL. Address Before the Chicago Baptist Social Union BY W. M. HAIGH, D.D., SUPT. MISSIONS. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Among the stupendous tasks which the denomination has devolved upon the Home Mission Society, there is none at the present moment that commands so much interest and solicitude as that which concerns the evangelization of our foreign populations. By recent events and by circumstances over which we have had no control, this question is now at the front, and every thoughtful citizen, and especially thoughtful Christian, is pondering it with unwonted anxiety. It is well that we should; for these populations are growing to be enormous, such numbers being already here, and such numbers continuing to pour in upon us, that if Dr. Strong's figures are reliable we shall probably in the year 1900 see here forty millions of people, foreignborn or of foreign parentage. Besides, after making all wise allowances these people are largely out of sympathy with the religion and the religious ideas which are regarded as fundamental in American life and civilization. They have the tendency on a large scale to lower the whole tone of personal and national life. Our criminal courts and jails and penitentiaries tell a sad tale on this line. Moreover, the presence of these populations complicates and intensifies every serious prob Some would even go further and close our ports entirely to foreign immigration. That probably is neither possible nor politic, and will not be done; but even if it were, what of the millions now here, what of the questions about them, fiery and burning, that will not down? lem given us to solve. Grave problems are before us which we must solve, even if there were no foreign peoples; but their presence adds immeasurably to the difficulties of the task. Romanism, what is it, priest and people alike, but largely a question concerning the foreign population? Intemperance, how it looms up I will not detain this intelligent Christian audiwith ever threatening aspect! But it is overence to show how futile are even the press, the whelmingly a question of the foreign popula- school, our free air, the genius of our institution. The Sabbath, shall we keep it or shall tions, or whatever else in these directions may we lose it? is also a question of the foreign pop-be the boast of our day and nation; they are ulation. Mormonism! nine-tenths of the Mor-all, however excellent, only powerful as they remons are foreigners. Socialism! especially in inforce and fall into line behind the all conquerits aggravated forms of communism and anarch- ing power of the gospel of Christ. This it is ism, exclusively a foreign question. that has changed the face of nations in the past, has brought us what we have, and made us what we are, and to it we must turn for our only real and permanent security. Its power in the nineteenth century is as unexhausted as in the first, and it is capable of softening, moulding, purifying all natures, even the worst the anarchist. Take, too, that question which begins to tower in dangerous height above all others, baffling statesmanship and putting in jeopardy the very existence of free government, the massing of population in large cities. How does this question take on its most serious aspects as we see the foreign populations pouring into the centres, and bringing all these vexed problems to a white heat. Then comes demagogism, the bane of republics, truckling to the Irish vote, truckling to the German vote, truckling to the Bohemian vote, ready to sell out our rights and privileges for place and power and pelf. Even the most sanguine among us must confess that there is ample reason for the grave solicitude which is felt on every hand in regard to the foreign population. What shall be done? Where is our safe guard? We Something can be done by legislation. can keep out criminals and paupers. A nation that can make a steamboat to dive and reappear like a duck in New York harbor, can construct a screen at Castle Garden which shall shut out the refuse of Europe. We can say that we will not have our virgin soil made the dumping-ground for the contents of workhouses and jails in foreign lands. We can prevent, too, the coming and the naturalization of men whose past lives and whose avowed purposes show them to be the enemies of government and law. Something, too, can be done by the infliction of penalties on the wrong-doer. Men who plot against life, against officials, against the State, no matter whence they come, or what their tongue, or professions, are criminals, and as criminals they must be met. Thank God we know at last what the law is, and that law must and shall be obeyed. Let us be just. The real anarchists are very few. The first Scandinavian anarchist has yet to be discovered. The Germans in overwhelmThe trouble is that the tyrannical superstition, the ing numbers are loyal to government and law. formalism, the infidelity and godlessness which have so long held these masses in bondage prepare a soil in which anarchism can thrive and bring forth its bitter fruit. Let us cleanse the soil and roots, that the fruit may be good. The funeral which followed that fatal Friday was a sad scene. I confess that one sentence uttered on that occasion has followed me, sounding in my ears day and night. Not for any fear that it inspired, for anarchism is not going to rule here. Not for the opposition it waked up within me, repulsive as it is; but for the glimpse it gives into the heart of these people, "We have showing us how they live and feel. loved long enough, now let us hate." I have closed my eyes and tried to realize what change must come to me and how I must feel to speak and act like that. How must every light go out in my heart, every light in my home, every light in society, and the world, every light in the heavens. No sun, no moon, no stars, no faith, no prayer, no hope, no God, "without God in the world," God, if there be a God, my enemy; society my enemy; everybody my enemy; myself my own enemy-why this is hell. "Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell." O, the unutterable wretchedness of such hearts of men and women, such homes, if homes they may be called, and Oh what a future for the young, breathing such air, and learning such ways! And these people are not in China, nor India, nor on the Congo, they are in Chicago, they are on Milwaukee avenue, on Halsted street, they are over the way, while we sit in this bright room! Yet they are in delusion, a fearful deadly delusion. Society is not their enemy. Heaven is not all blackness, for over their heads bends to-night the tender love of God; over them wept and bled the Son of God on earth, and even now at their door waits the gentle, yearning Spirit, wooing them to come forth from their dark prison-house, into the light of God. O, that they could but hear the loving voice that calls them; that they could in some way catch a glimpse of that "glory of God which shines in the face of Jesus Christ," that they could "But feel at heart that One above, In perfect wisdom, perfect love, How would "old things pass away, behold all things would become new," the tempest of passion and hate which have swept through their souls would grow quiet, and the man whose dwelling had been "in the mountains and the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones, whom no man could bind, no, not with chains," would be seen "clothed and in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus," and anarchism would die, conquered by the love which is law, and the law which is love. Leaps there not up in every Christian heart a longing desire to give to them what God has given to us? Let us bear in mind that the foreign populations as a whole are specially susceptible to kind approach. Nowhere does a kind word or act mean so much, and go so far, and last so long, as with the foreign population. They are susceptible to spiritual religion, and in proportion to the men employed, and the money expended, the fruits among them are much larger than among the native population. When converted they become the brightest examples of personal devotion and consecrated spirit. If we would catch a glimpse of primitive piety, if we would look in upon the church of Jerusalem, and breathe its spirit we have but to go over to a German, or Scandinavian Baptist church, and our wish is met. They become a power among their countrymen. Every such church becomes a center of Sabbath-keeping, of Bible study, of temperance, of industry, of thrift, of all the virtues which makes home happy and society safe. Their willingness to sacrifice for the salvation of their people is wonderful to behold, throwing utterly into the shade what our churches are accustomed to deem sacrifice. These churches are our hope in reaching their own people; they are to us what the gallant policemen were at the Haymarket, our noble defenders, baring their breasts, and reaching forth for the salvation of their kindred. Our safety then is in multiplying these churches, in building these forts on every hand to keep back the incursions of infidelity and atheism and anarchism, that "salvation may be to us for walls and bulwarks." Mr. President, there is no city on this continent that has more to hope from the prosecution of this work, none that has more to fear from its neglect, than Chicago. Twice in the short fifty years of its life, has it become the focus of the world's gaze. Once when the flames broke stealthily forth, now advancing, now checked, until at last breaking away from all bonds, they leaped from street to street, licking up huge blocks, crumbling giant palaces, and driving 40,000 people in abject terror out on to the shelterless prairie. The heart of the nation stood still for a moment with horror, and then poured forth its sympathies and its aid with a magnificent grace that cannot be forgotten. Once more all eyes have been turned to Chicago. On that fateful day, while our whole city waited with bated breath for the sad signal, New York was waiting, too, and the ear of London was attent, and of Paris, and Berlin, and St. Petersburg, and when Chicago spoke, she spoke not for herself alone, nor for this commonwealth, nor for this great nation, but for the world, for free government, for justice and liberty in all coming time. But is this all we have to say to our own nation and the nations of the earth? Has Christian America, and Christian Chicago reached the limit of its resources at the gallows? Then what do we more than Russian, than Germany, than France who look forward only to fresh executions as each returning wave of communism and anarchism shall burst upon their shores? O, followers of Christ, greater things than these are expected of us, even that greatly need more just such men. They do not respond to our call in sufficient numbers, and in consequence many important fields are now unoccupied. we shall turn enemies into friends, anarchists ISSIONARY DEPARTMENT. WESTERN NOTES. BY H. C. WOODS, D.D., NEB. SUPT. MISSIONS. Attendance at Western Conventions is like a revelation, even to one who has lived for years in the West. It has been my fortune recently to meet with the brethren of our Baptist Zion in Southern Dakota, Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska. And from my note book I bring these jottings. 1. In our Home Mission work we are falling far behind the material development of the great West. The tide of immigration was never greater than during the past year. The Western portions even of Kansas, which we have come to consider one of the older Western States, has all the features of a frontier. In Colorado and Nebraska towns of a population of 1000 or more are springing up by scores. We are not able to occupy one in ten of these needy fields. These are not paper" towns, More and these people have come to stay. money for Home Mission work is everywhere the urgent need. 66 3. The question of systematic benificence is everywhere receiving most serious consideration. The claims of the cause of Christ upon a fair and fixed proportion of each believer's income are being more fully recognized. There is evidently a deepening sense of personal reSome churches would gladly be carried by the Home Mission Society indefinitely, but such is not the case generally. There are noble givers in these Western churches. 4. Everywhere in the West the Educational question is coming to the front. The newest States and Territories have their schools in prospect or already in operation. The very best of our brethren believe in the movement. Many ill-advised efforts will doubtless be put forth. But this interest in higher Christian education should not be repressed if it could be. But it does need direction. The Home Mission Society has not moved a moment too soon in this matter. The brethren in the West will gladly, as I believe, confer with representatives of the denomination who may constitute the Educational Committee or Commission, and will defer to their judgment. The fact is recognized that Eastern brethren take but little "stock" in these Western "universities." But their sympathy and financial help are greatly desired and are justly asked. THE WORK OF A HOME MISSION BY REV. J. C. BAKER, THE DALLES, OREG. II. The second installment of the work of a Home Mission Church is to provide suitable buildings and equipments for growth. 2. The brethren in the ministry in these Western States are royal men. In appearance, Corn must have a hill to grow in; children a when gathered in Conventions, they rank with home for proper development; and the family any of the Eastern States. In sermons and must own property or be dependent. The farmer addresses they evince culture, real power, a must have horses and machinery, houses and grasp of the situation, a thorough consecration. barns; the mechanic, tools; the railroad, its What sacrifices they are making, what meagre machine shops. So the church must have a salaries they receive, what hardships they cheer- house to live in, buildings to work in, and tools fully endure, is fully known in many cases to work with. The work of the Home Mission only to themselves and their Lord. But we Church is to provide these. I. For the public congregation. This is the field from which the supplies come, the place where the bait is thrown out to catch the fish, where the volunteers are persuaded to enlist and where the soldiers learn the tactics of war; to provide for this a substantial, comfortable, attractive, convenient, homelike building, is necessary. Not to build a temple, a cathedral, on a debt, but a place suitable for the congregation. You have reasonable expectations of gathering within the year, or five years. Build for present use, not for the next generation. This dispensation might end before that time arrives, and then what would become of the temple and the church debt? The Lord might burn the temple, but what could He do with the church debt? Progress. My third annual report, which is hereby submitted, gives substantial evidence of continued progress on the part of the Indians toward civilization. This is gratifying to every American patriot, and to the humanitarian of any clime or country. The progress shows itself all along the line, in increased knowledge and experience as to the arts of agriculture, in enlarged facilities for stock-growing, in better buildings and better home appointments, and in the adoption of the dress and customs of the white man. Even higher evidence of progress is given in the largely increased attendance of pupils at school, which has been greater during the past year than during any Get plans, get money, build as far as the money preceding year, and in the still more gratify. goes, then wait and work for more. Enclose and seat temporarily if you cannot finish at once. Add baptistry, dressing rooms, study, lecture, and other conveniencies as the church is able. 2. Build a parsonage. A good substantial house with such modern improvements and grounds as to furnish the pastor and his family a good, comfortable and pleasant home, where he will not have to take a fifth of his income every month to pay rent, or fear that he will be sold out of house and home before the next month ends. Good parsonages help to make contented, long, and efficient pastorates. It makes both pastor and church feel as though there was a common home interest, to have a good parsonage. In all this building don't attempt a "boom," nor to outbuild others, or to create a sensation, or to gratify ambition or pride. Consider what is needed, count the cost, ask God for the money, go to work for it as a matter of business, apply business principles, both in collecting and disbursing funds, letting contracts and requiring prompt fulfillment of conditions, trust the Lord and pay promptly, and He will give you the means to complete a work so undertaken. THE INDIANS. From the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Indian affairs we make some extracts of interest to all who are interested in the advancement of the Indian toward civilization and citizenship. ing fact, admitted by all intelligent and close observers of Indians, that the parents desire that their children shall avail themselves of the generous opportunities for education afforded by the Government, and by kind-hearted Christian missionaries, who unselfishly devote time, labor and money to the education of Indian youth. Land in Severalty. There is danger that the advocates of land in severalty will expect from the measure too immediate and pronounced success. Charac ter, habits, and antecedents can not be changed by an enactment. The distance between barbarism and civilization is too long to be passed over speedily. Idleness, improvidence, ignorance, and superstition cannot by law be transformed into industry, thrift, intelligence, and Christianity. Thus the real work yet remains to be done, and can be accomplished only by persistent personal effort. In fact, the allotment act instead of being the consummation of the labors of missionaries, philanthropists, and Government agents, is rather an introduction and invitation to effort on their part, which by the fact of this new legislation may be hopeful, and should be energetic. Moreover, with this new policy will arise new perplexities to be solved, and new obstacles to be overcome, which will tax the wisdom, patience, and courage of all interested in, and working for, Indian ad vancement. The President has wisely ordered that allotments be made only on reservations where the Indians are known to be generally favorable to the idea, and the following have thus far been selected: Papago and Pima (Salt River). Ar |