The Society's fiscal year will close at the offices of the District Secretaries April 10th, and at the Rooms of the Society in New York April 11th. Contributions made on the second Sunday of April (the 8th) should be forwarded by first mail on Monday to the Secretaries or to the Rooms, in order to be included in the year's receipts.

Please note particularly that an excellent exercise for Sunday schools has been prepared for Chapel Day, the last Sunday in March. Pastors and Superintendents are earnestly requested to co-operate in the adoption of the exercise, and in obtaining generous offerings for the erection of chapels in the West. It is eminently fit and proper that the children who are well cared for should become interested in those who are destitute of like privileges. Send for the sample copies, that are sent free to applicants.

We must again ask all who send items of interest that they wish published in the MONTHLY to write only on one side of the sheet, to "boil it down," and to avoid the use of abbreviations. We have no time to work over and re-write communications.

The N. Y. Tribune, upon careful calculation, estimates the population of the United States, January 1, 1888, at 62,523,597. The census of 1880 gave 50,155,783. Thus in eight years we have a gain of twelve millions! This is computed on the ratio of actual increase yearly during the decade from 1870 to 1880, with immigrants added. Should there be no material diminution in immigration the census for 1890 will show a population in the United States of about 67,000,000. Think of it, friends of Home Missions! Think of the addition of seventeen million souls to the population of these United States in ten years! There is no other nation under the sun that has such home mission problems as those which confront American Christianity. One of the elements in this problem is the foreign immigration which, according to the official report for the year 1887, reached 509,281 persons.

The harvest is great. Pray for more laborers to go into the harvest, and at the end of your prayer send a generous contribution to sustain them in their work.

The third Plenary Council of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States, held in Baltimore about two years ago, directed

that an annual collection should be taken in all Roman Catholic Churches in behalf of the colored people and the Indians. In compliance with this decision, Catholic archbishops and bishops have just issued directions on the subject to each Roman Catholic pastor in their dioceses. A Secretary for the Catholic missions among the colored people and the Indians has been appointed, and the work is to be prosecuted with fresh vigor.

In view of this fact, and in view of the other fact that our wisest and best managed Pedobaptist societies are pressing forward their work among the colored people, ought the Baptists of America to slacken their efforts for the vast multitude of this people whom God has given into their keeping?

"Where will the anniversaries be held this year?" This is a frequent inquiry. The Baptists of Cincinnati, after due deliberation, decided not to extend the invitation that had been expected from them this year, but strong ly hint that they will be ready in 1889. The pastors and churches of Washington, D. C., unite in a hearty invitation to the societies to meet in that city in May. The Board of the Home Mission Society, at the regular meeting, February 13th, voted to accept the invitation, if the other societies concur, and to begin a week earlier than usual, viz., May 16th.

The societies, since 1832, have met but once at the Capital of our Nation. This was in 1874-fourteen years ago. In the last nine years they have met at Saratoga Springs four times. Western men are emphatic in favor of Washington. For central Ohio it is 200 miles nearer than Saratoga, and for Chicago and points beyond 100 miles nearer. It is almost as near for New York City, and much nearer for Pennsylvania and West Virginia. A new element in the constituency of the societies will be reached by holding the meetings in Washington. In the middle of May, Washington is in its beauty and glory. It will be a delightful place and time for the meeting.

The date of the meeting is fixed one week earlier than usual, chiefly for the following reasons: The Southern Baptist Convention is to meet at Richmond, Va., May 11-15. Northern friends, who wish to attend the sessions of that body can do so. with very little additional expense or loss of time, while the same thing will be true of our Southern brethren who would like to attend the meetings at Washington. Besides all this, if the Education Committee shall decide to call

a meeting to consider the question of organizing an American Baptist Education Society, in connection with these Anniversaries, no other arrangement could be better than this to secure a general representation from all parts of the country.

The West, having learned of the possibility of the meetings being held in Washington, is already making preliminary arrangements for special trains. Let the Baptists of the Country come to Washington in such numbers, that politicians and statesmen, seeing and hearing them, shall be reminded of the fact that nearly three millions of Baptists among their constituents are not to be ignored when great moral questions are at stake, and that the religious element of this land is a mighty agency for good in all that pertains to true national character and life.

The memory of Dr. Jay S. Backus is very dear to many who knew him as Corresponding Secretary of the Society. His services on behalf of the colored people during those troublous times of the war and the years im-` mediately following have not, perhaps, been duly appreciated. In a private letter from his son we find a reference to this matter, which is of such interest that we put it in print. He says: "No man could have been more unselfish, more conscientious, more patriotic than he in those trying and inspiring days. And he was strangely misunderstood by many of his brethren. He was, at heart, a determined abolitionist, and had been the daring agent of an 'underground railroad' station in days before the war. Perhaps that

fact made him the better acquainted with the character of the negro, and the more conservative in his policy towards the emancipated people. That caution was misinterpreted by post-bellum abolitionists, and he was amusingly denounced for his hostility to the blacks. He often made himself merry with the absurd charges hurled against him in private letter and public speech. If you are ever misunderstood and falsely accused by those who should know and sustain you, it may be a comfort to you to know that a gentleman in your position has endured the same, and did not lose a pound thereby."

The man who cannot carry his point is very apt to denounce the other man who maintains his position as "arbitrary," "dictatorial," and all that sort of thing. Three or four men may thus denounce twelve or fifteen other good men. The dissenting twelfth juryman regards his eleven associates as unreasonable, obstinate, arbitrary fellows. All of which proves nothing. The world is so accustomed to these things that it smiles and goes on as if nothing had happened. For it knows that the men who utter such passionate denunciations are usually themselves the most arbitrary characters if they have a chance.

The "Book of Mormon " explicitly prohibits polygamy. In one of the Books of which it is composed-the " Book of Jacob" -are these words: "Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord; for there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none."

A MISTAKEN NOTION.

From time to time, in personal correspondence, or in the public prints, the idea is conveyed that Secretaries and Boards located in the East cannot, and do not, have any such knowledge of the condition of things in the West as men who reside in the States and Territories. How

do these latter persons get their information? Take half a dozen pastors at random in a western State, and who will say that their knowledge of the condition of things in that State is obtained by protracted personal examination into the various localities in question? Nine-tenths read and hear. of their knowledge is obtained from what they

Knowledge of this sort is just as available at the Home Mission Rooms as in the West itself. At hand there are always the latest maps of States and Territories with quarterly supplements for consultation. There are on file the

denominational newspapers from all parts of the country, while nearly every day brings marked copies of secular papers from missionaries concerning religious gatherings and events, and the development of cities, districts and territories. In addition to these are hundreds of letters each month from local and itinerant missionaries. Then comes the correspondence from the general or State missionaries and superintendents of missions, emphasizing special needs of these fields and giving comprehensive views of the

work as a whole.

The missionary literature of other denominations is received and information

derived therefrom. In addition to all this we are frequently honored by visits from returning

travellers, who leave us their impressions and urge some special measures to be adopted. Still further, the Corresponding Secretary of the Society, within the last eight years, has repeatedly been at many of the "nerve centres" of our mission fields-within the last two years personally visiting a large number of stations from Lake Superior to British Columbia; thence southward to California; and thence east through Utah to the older West. Having begun his ministerial career as a missionary of the Society in a thoroughly typical, "booming" home mission field, and having "been through the mill " of grinding circumstances, perhaps he may be pardoned for claiming a lively sympathy with all similarly situated now, and a kind of instinct concerning the condition of such fields which one without like experiences could not have.

It is needless to say more. We only add, that at any time we shall be glad to compare notes with those who are well informed about the field as a whole, while they who are sure we are in ignorance of essential and important facts relating to our mission work will confer on us a favor by communicating such facts to the Board, and to the Corresponding Secretary of the Society.

WHAT ARE THE FACTS IN THE CASE?

given largely for sites, buildings and endowments, will be more and more illustrious as the years go on and the necessity of their benefactions becomes more apparent even than now.

The Society welcomes such gifts, which, however, it cannot use for any other than desig.

Thus it appears that since 1879 the increase for teachers' salaries, at the highest point reached, was $43,544, while the increase for missionaries' salaries at the same time was $115,517. Since retrenchment in 1886 the amount for missionaries' salaries has been about $132,000, while that for teachers' salaries has been about $59,000.

2. In their comparisons our friends have not always discriminated properly. They have massed all the expenditures for schools against the expenditures for missions, without taking

into account the fact that in the former there frequently are large sums designated by the donors for specific purposes, as buildings, etc., which the Society must use as designated. It is mainly by such specific gifts that property has been acquired and buildings erected. The names of the Bishops, Hoyt, Rockefeller, Shaw, Estey, Benedict, Chamberlain, Coburn, Parker, Sampson, and others who might be named as friends of the Freedmen, who have

tures should not be taken into the account as if they were a part of the Society's resources that may be used for any purposes whatsoever.

3. There is another matter which our friends have strangely overlooked, and which bears directly upon this subject. Prior to 1881 there was no Church Edifice Gift Fund, and nothing was regularly given to the West for the erection of houses of worship. The writer, in 1880, seeing the necessity of such a fund, determined, if wit, wisdom, or work, or all combined, could establish such a department of church edifice work, it should be done. It was done. The first gift of $200 from this fund was made in 1881. In 1882 the gifts amounted to $15,805; in 1883 to $30,163; in 1884 to $47,662; in 1885 to $29,779; in 1886 to $8,880; in 1887 to $10,818. Thus in the last seven years, ending May, 1887, in an entirely new line of work, second only to that of supporting missionaries, the Society has expended in gifts for church edifices $143,309. This has secured the erection of 362 church edifices. Brethren, please remember this. Remember also that the great bulk of this, as of missionary expenditures, has been upon Western fields.

4. It is not our purpose to go into an argument as to the relative claims of the educational and the missionary departments of the Society's work. To the Society the denomination has committed both interests. The particular friends of each are strenuously clamorous for larger appropriations to their respective objects. It is our duty-a delicate and difficult one often -to hold the scales as evenly as we can, so that neither shall be robbed of its proper share in order that the other may be benefited.

For the past six or seven years the burden of the Society's appeals has been for the West. Chiefly for enlargement in the West, the expenditures for missions were carried up from $38,929 in 1879 to $154,446 in 1885; and expenditures for Church Edifice Work from nothing in 1879 to $47,662 in 1884.

5. It is claimed that after about twenty-five years of help to the colored people, they should do more for themselves, and the Society less, so

that larger appropriations may be made to the West. Those unacquainted with the necessity of strengthening these Christian institutions at the South are doubtless hardly prepared for the assertion that we make with all possible emphasis, namely: that if the Society were to drop that work now, or even seriously curtail its expenditures therefor, there would be an utter collapse of these great Christian enterprises; while other denominations, which have been and are expending two and three dollars to our one for these purposes, would exultantly reap the field. The colored people, though helping support this work, cannot carry its financial burdens.

This theory, that those who have been helped by the Society twenty or twenty-five years should be left to shift for themselves, is a twoedged sword, which has an equally keen blade for Western States which have been fostered by the Society for this length of time. In these States the Society has expended hundreds of thousands of dollars. In some of these States Baptists have sprung up from nothing to tens of thousands and are in as good average circumstances as their brethren in the rural districts and larger villages of the East. More is being done by them than formerly, but it is a fair question whether some of the older Western States are doing what they should for themselves, to say nothing of what they should do also through the Society for the evangelization of the new Territories, the Indians, Mexico, etc. 6. There are as many souls dwelling in dark skins in the South as there are souls dwelling in white skins in the West, i. e. in the eighteen States and Territories which constitute the chief Western mission field of the Society. Since the War, the colored Baptists have increased from about 400,000 to a round million. The work among them has been as productive and is as important as the work among any other people. Their peculiar claims upon us cannot be disregarded. The gravest problem for America next to that which shook this nation to its centre twenty-five years ago, remains to be solved. It is the reverse of that of twenty-five years ago, which was: "What shall we do with the Negro?" It is and is to be: "What will the Negro do with us?" This "Negro Problem" for America is not yet settled. Christianity must be a potent factor

black man of the South more than the white man of the West-for we call all men to witness that we have in agony appealed for the Westbut we say them for the consideration of some who, we fear, have not carefully looked into these things as painstakingly as they should.

The conclusion is unmistakable. The Society needs at least twice the amount it now receives annually to meet the demands of the whole field. Now, good friends, turn your batteries on those who are keeping back their offerings and see how serviceable you can be in this direction.

PERSONALS.

Rev. Reuben Jeffrey, D.D., of Indianapolis, Ind., is to preach the annual sermon before the Home Mission Society, in May.

The appointment of Rev. Robert Cameron as General Missionary of the Society meets with general approval. He will not, however, enter upon his work until about the 1st of April. A gentleman in one of the mining towns which Mr. Cameron visited last summer writes in very high praise of his tact and success in preaching to a rough crowd in front of a noted saloon.

Rev. W. J. Simmons, D.D., of Louisville, Ky., District Secretary for the Southern States, during the latter part of January and the early part of February, addressed the theological students at Rochester, Hamilton, Newton, and Crozer, the Pastors' Conferences at Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, besides speaking in Tremont Temple, in Orange and in Philadelphia churches, on the condition of the colored people of the South. His addresses have been well received, and much interest has been felt in him as the exponent of the feelings and desires of the colored people, whom he so ably repre

sents.

in its amicable solution.