had scarcely strength enough to keep the covering over him while in bed. No friends near. For forty-seven years he had been a Mormon, but not a single one to look after him in this, his need. Any other city than those in Utah would give better care to a dying dog. I prayed with him, and cared for his immediate wants as best I could. I shall at once see the Mayor of the city, and if nothing is done I will write a note for the paper, telling all that was told me. Started then for home, for I had seen enough for one day. On my way was stopped by the first wife of a polygamist. She had previously told us her life. Her husband had left her to live with the second wife, and she was supporting herself as best she could in her old age. Her first words were, 'God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.' Then she told me that the second wife had forsaken her husband and family, and was expected soon to marry another man; that the husband and children of the second wife had come back to live again with the first wife, and she says, 'What is my duty?' Will the wise men of the East give an answer to her question? I reached home, but depressed in soul. Such is the work of Utah. 'How long, O Lord, how long?'"

Indian Territory.

weeks among the Peorias and Ottawas, and in the northeastern part of the Cherokee Nation. Was with Bro. Richardson several days. My visit was in an unfavorable time, on account of stormy weather, bad traveling, moving time for renters, and political difficulties and excitement. Yet our meetings were interesting, and I think the Church was spiritually benefited. They are planning for enlarged work, which I hope they may carry out. Bro. Richardson seems to be liked by all in the Church, and generally outside.

"The present Chief of the Ottawas and two former chiefs are members of the Baptist Church, also the more reliable part of the tribe. If the Quakers had given more of their energies to the conversion of those outside of the Church than to the winning over of Baptist members to their faith, I think there would be more harmony in the tribe.

"The Ottawa reservation is now sectionized. The head of the family will have 160 acres, and the children under age 40 acres, those of age 80 acres. After the division there will be several thousand acres left, which will be open to purchase and settlement of whites. This will, of course, naturally result in the Ottawa Indians becoming United States citizens. Owing espe cially to the changes in prospect, I think we should give all the encouragement and aid that we consistently can, so that when the country is opened we may have a good beginning. The

Since last Christmas a good deal of interest has been manifested on the part of sinners in the welfare of their souls. Seven have been received into the church by baptism. Two have been restored to Christian fellowship; and there is one awaiting baptism.

The Lord has gladdened our hearts very much by this glorious work of his Holy Spirit. —Rev. W. P. Blake writes that Rev. John Jumper recently preached, by invitation, to the children at the Sa sak-wa school. About twenty

members of his church also attended. The occasion was one of much interest to all.

Among the Ottawas.

Rev. Daniel Rogers writes of his recent visit to the northeastern part of the Territory:

"I returned last night from a trip of two

There is no comfortable meeting-house on the reservation. The Quakers own a house which all helped to move there, and so Quakers, Methodists, and Baptists meet in it for worship. There will be a meeting on Thursday of this week to take steps toward building a house for the Baptist Church. Provision is made, under the present allottment plan, to give 160 acres for mission purposes. The Baptists would have the first preference to this, as they commenced work first among the Ottawas, and have continued it. A compromise may, however, be made, and the 160 acres be divided between the Quakers and the Baptists. Eighty acres, enclosed and broken, would help very much in support of preaching there.

"Mt. Pleasant Hill Church, in the Cherokee Nation, is holding on and making some progress. On the Sunday morning that I was there, I took a collection of $5 for our Associational and Conventional work in the Territory. This church is largely made up of renters, and so liable to changes. The Hudson Creek Church,

some ten or twelve miles north, will probably lose one-half of its members (15) this spring by removals. Some of the renters who come may be a help in the place of those going away."

Letting in the Light in Utah.

Rev. M. T. Lamb is hopeful that his peculiar work will accomplish much in lessening the Mormon regard for the "Mormon Bible," and so lead them to the one source of truth. Recently he visited Willard, a town six miles south of Bingham, and so "completely under the heel of the priesthood" that no evangelical preaching has been allowed there. He says:

"They gave us the use of the Mormon meeting house—even gave up a priesthood meeting so that we could have the place free of charge, except one dollar for lighting and warming. The services were announced in the public school. A liberal minded young man in one of the stores, glad to have a change of some kind, took pains to distribute a lot of bills I left with him. And when we came last eve, though a very unpleasant and stormy night, the house was crowded full; at least 200, including the Bishop. All the leading young people of the town-some very intelligent in appearance and the most perfect order preserved to the close. I talked over one and a half hours, and above twenty copies of my book were taken and paid for at half price. Brother Gillespie [the Presbyterian minister who went with Brother Lamb], was exceedingly happy over it, and said that one lecture and the books would certainly accomplish more than a month of preaching.

The facts are, the Mormons will not come to preaching. Only a few apostates, and these quite usually bitter infidels and very likely the worst kind of drunken profligates, with a few of their children, and the teachers in the mission school, compose the congregation at a preaching service. No effort before has succeeded in getting right into the very centre of the Mormon communities. I have scarcely ever had greater liberty in preaching, or have preached with greater acceptance to the few who came. But those we want to reach will not come to hear preaching, and so the cause seems almost hopelessly lost. The barriers, however, seem rapidly breaking away in some places.

Brother G. wishes we would take hold of Willard. There are three little towns close together-Willard, Slaterville and North Ogden,

entirely unoccupied by any denomination. Willard with its surroundings must have a population of seven or eight hundred, and a most beautiful location three miles from the Great Salt Lake, and commanding a magnificent view of it and of a large extent of country all around it. Slaterville, three miles south of Willard, is the somewhat noted Hot Springs, consisting mainly of the hotel, though a small village, chiefly Gentile.

Brother. G. thinks the Doctor in charge, Dr. Slater and wife, are or were Baptists. I will try and find out upon my return. North Ogden, three miles south of Slaterville and eight miles north of Ogden, has with its surroundings a population of 1500-so that about 2500 people, all within eight or nine miles of each other, have no mission of any denomination

a field ripe for the harvest, or at least rapidly ripening. Upon my return from a short trip farther north, I will visit Slaterville and North Ogden and report to you. Is it possible for the society to send a man to such a field?" In December he wrote:

66

At

Altogether I have visited 12 towns, whose combined population is about 14,000 (threequarters Scandinavian). Have given 23 lectures and preached 6 sermons. The lectures have ranged from one and a quarter to two full hours in delivery; average one and a half hours. tendance from 55 to 250; average 114. The smallest attendance (55) being in a small town, Elsinore, at a very unseasonable hour, 9:30 o'clock on a Monday morning. (We had to put it in then or miss the town entirely.)"

He had then sold at about half price 250 copies of his book. The importance of his special work grows upon him continually.

Alaska.

Rev. W. E. Roscoe, at Kodiak, gives some of the lights and the shadows of his work there:

We have had a pretty good school during November. Fifty-one in the day school, and a part of them and some others in an evening school. In accordance with a provision of Congress, the Alaska Board of Education passed rules equivalent to a compulsory education law of which we have a copy. Some of the white men here told the people that they need not obey the rules, that Government would not enforce them, etc. Hence the rules are not so effective as they otherwise would be. opposition Russian school still has quite an attendance, but we are gradually getting the

The

Taylor, wife of the pastor at East Orange, N. J. She says:

"Our ladies went bravely to work and made into garments forty-nine yards of muslin and nine yards of flannel, beside sending fifteen yards extra of the muslin for them to make as they might prefer.

"We sent twelve suits of merino underwear and eighteen pairs of stockings. I mention these items because I noticed in October copy of the HOME MISSION MONTHLY that it was spoken of as 'doing the handsome thing' to send so many new things in the barrel of a certain church.

"It has been our custom to provide two suits of heavy underwear and at least two pairs of stockings for each member of the family given, besides all the other garments that we could make up ourselves. Our barrel this year contained four heavy warm winter cloaks, one overcoat and three suits of men's clothes-not new, but not at all the worse for wear. These articles were given by ladies and gentlemen who can afford to change their costumes with the seasons and not wait for them to wear out.

"The barrel was filled to its utmost and when the freight had been paid—we estimated its value at $77.75. This is giving the amounts we had to pay for everything we bought, and a low estimate on everything else."

-A lady, not a Baptist, but a lover of the Lord, has sent us $300 to build a chapel in Arizona. That chapel will be a monument to her love for Christ, more precious in His sight than a shaft of the most costly marble.

-In the March MONTHLY we asked for $350 to enable the Seminole Indians at Mickasukee, I. T., to rebuild their chapel, which had been burned down. A lady in Philadelphia sends the $350, and the chapel can now be rebuilt. Who gives quickly gives twice. We have only $50 of the $400 needed for the heroic little church at Santa Rosa, Mexico, in Brother Westrup's field. Who will finish up that good

work?

"The hall in which we are obliged to hold our Sunday school is the dancing hall, elaborately decorated and ornamented with mottoes designed to turn the mind away from the more serious and prosaic order of things, the most conspicuous of which is in the centre of the hall, in large colored letters, 'Dance and be merry.' We can do no better at present."

So writes a missionary from Nevada. To teach the truth in such a place is like sowing good seed among thorns.

CHURCH EDIFICE DEPT.

Church Edifice Notes.

-Mason City, Neb., may be taken as a fair specimen of many churches in the West that we are called upon to help. It is a town only two years old, in a new county, and already has a population of 600 or 700, has a Baptist church of about twenty active members, with no other church of any kind organized in the place, and no minister except Rev. L. W. Gowen preaches there, save that now and then a passing Metho dist brother preaches to the people. Brother Gowen writes that they have a house inclosed and the floor laid, and, uncomfortable as it is, they have a congregation of about 100 and good spiritual meetings. The town has fine waterpower and good surrounding country. They ask for $150 to complete their chapel.

KANSAS.-Rev. J. D. Matthews sends good tidings from his field. He says: "Belleville, the county seat of Republic County, is a town of 2,000 or more inhabitants. Many causes make this a hard year for new churches in this new country: the poor crops of last year, extremely cold winter, etc. The great demand for help prohibits the Board from helping each place as much as they desire to help. We have some disadvantages peculiar to Belleville Church. About one-third of our members and two-thirds of our wealth is ten miles north of town. That is a Mission station, and they have their Sunday school and prayer meetings every week, while I preach there only once in two weeks. This leaves us about seventy-five members within six miles of town. Of this seventy-five about thirty are residents of town. The sweeping blizzards that frequent these parts render it often unwise for three-fourths of our membership to attend services, as we are scattered over a radius of sixteen miles. So you may imagine the catalogue of difficulties, financial, religious, and otherwise, that would naturally follow such a state of affairs. But notwithstanding all this, God has

-The pastor of the church at Warren, R. I., sends a contribution for Church Edifice Work and says: "Of this amount $1.36, is the gift of Stella F. Mason, one of the youngest members of our church, who on her dying bed gave me her pocket book with the request that all of her little treasure be spent to help poor houseless churches." My brother or sister, have you left something in your will to help build houses of worship for homeless churches? If you cannot give as much as you wish now, follow the example of this little girl and leave something to build monuments for you when you shall have gone home. A house of worship is something enduring in its influence on the world.

-From distant Oregon comes the following

note:

"Yesterday we received the Society's check for $300, gift to the Adams Church. I desire to thank the Society both in behalf of myself

and our church."

The house is completed free of all indebtedness and ready for efficient work.

-A missionary from Kansas sends this: "We are engaged in special meetings with good interest. Six have joined and others expected. We use the town hall in which all kinds of meetings are held, such as theatres, dances, school exhibitions, etc. We had to give up our meetings two evenings, so that it was almost like beginning anew. We have organized a Sunday school with four teachers and forty scholars. I divide my time between this place and Rosebury. The want of a house of our own is a serious drawback to our work."

This is only a specimen of reports constantly coming in.

-This is the testimony of Rev. J. Sunderland, our General Missionary in Minnesota, as to the importance of our Church Edifice Work:

"Of the sixteen churches built on our mis

sion field last year, all but three had help, either from this fund, or from some other source. The testimony of these churches is uniform, as to the great value of this help. In most cases to build would have been impossible without it. In no case where help has been given, could a debt have been avoided otherwise. From $100 to $500-given to a church when it will pay the last bills, stimulates it to do its best-and helps it out at just the right point. Experience has shown that it is money largely wasted to support missionaries where there is no meeting house, or speedy prospect of one."

He evi

-Rev. F. T. Treviño, our native missionary in the State of New Leon, Mexico, writes that the church in Santa Rosa has secured 800 sillares (a large square stone used for building) and $250 in money, and through the Mexican paper La Luz calls on the Mexican members to subscribe 400 more sillares and $150. dently expects them to do all they can. will still need about $400 windows, doors, and seats. good sister has sent us $50. Shall we not have at once the balance necessary, that we may write to the missionary to begin the work?

summer.

They to buy the floor, Of this amount a

-The Superintendent of this Department wishes to express his great gratitude to the many brethren, sisters, churches, and Sunday schools who have sent in their subscriptions to the $10,000 Fund, for twenty-five chapels this We have the amount in good subscriptions, many of them paid in, and thus have a small basis for our summer work. But what are a few loaves among so many? Twentyfive chapels among 700 houseless churches west of the Mississippi River! There is still vast need of generous contributions.

-We once assisted Fairmount, Minnesota, in erecting a house of worship. They now send $15 to help some other place, and say:

"We have in grateful memory the prompt assistance rendered us by the Society toward our church edifice. This was the inspiration given us to put forth our best effort for a house of worship."

-For the first time the West is vigorously taking hold of our Chapel Day effort. In California, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, and Iowa the corresponding secretaries of the State Conventions have issued circulais calling the parti