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schools among them, nor to provide for their
support in the town school. The doors are
all open.
Old prejudices are much modi-
fied. We are raising every pice we can
from native sources; are giving every cent
we can afford out of our salaries. If the
churches could be brought face to face with
our needs, I am sure they would respond.
Is not the freeing of the Union from in-
debtedness a second time evidence that
the good hand of the Lord is upon us, and
an appeal to the churches to rally to our
support?

Missionaries Overworked!
Ropes Slip!!

Rev. DAVID GILMORE, Tavoy

Don't let the

How goes the battle with us today? At this present moment my wife is sick abed brought there by nothing in the world but overwork, in trying to carry the burdens which properly belong to both the missionary's wife and a lady helper. I am using up every bit of time and strength from day to day, trying to do not only the work which properly falls to me, but also much of the work which my native teachers ought to do, but which they are utterly incompetent to do. At night I cannot sleep for trying to evolve plans by which I can keep the work going on the resources at my command. How can I get up a letter for those at home who are "holding the ropes "? Holding them? To us at the bottom end it seems as if they were letting the ropes slip through their fingers at an alarming rate.

The tokens of God's blessing are most evident. Last January I baptized thirteen of our pupils, and one more last June. Up to the present time their Christian walk has been such as to satisfy me. There are eighteen now knocking for the first time at the door of the church.

The Siamese frontier is very near. Just over the border are thousands of heathen Karens. There several villages are asking for the gospel. Steps should immediately be taken to enter these open doors.

For

I won't consider the question of a reduction. But I will tell you what will happen if we cannot have additional help. twenty years Mr. and Mrs. Morrow have been laboring to build up the school here. That school is the very heart of the work in this district. Now government requirements are constantly growing heavier and stricter, and the school cannot go on at its present grade unless we have a better qualified staff of teachers. Our present staff is not up to the work. stead of having less money, we must have

more.

This means that in

Fields crying "Advance!"

Christians crying "Retrench!"

Rev. GEO. J. GEIS, Myitkyina

IT greatly pains me to think of the thousands of God's children who are withholding the bread of life from the starving millions in heathen lands. If I could stand with some of them on the banks of the Irrawaddy at the farther end of our compound, and could point out to them the many Kachin villages in the mountains before us where God has given us an open door, and if I could tell them of the wonderful way in which some of them have been opened, I am sure many would joyfully deprive themselves of a few luxuries in order to be co-workers in spreading the word of life to these dark, dismal homes.

66

Five years ago no official was allowed to go into these mountains without a military escort; the Kachins were up in arms against the new government, and would have taken the life of any white man at a suitable opportunity. I could not claim a military escort and go among them preaching a gospel of peace. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh." Those early days were days of patient waiting and making use of opportunities for doing good to Kachins as they came to Myitkyina. A little liniment rubbed down the back of a dirty coolie, a dose of quinine to another and Dover powders to another, and these again

followed up with a hymn and a short story about our work; or helping some Kachins to secure their wages, out of which a petty contractor had been trying to swindle them, were some of the means God blessed in opening the hearts of the people. There is scarcely a day passing but what some Kachin comes to me for help in his distress and sorrow, and I have occasion to tell them of the Savior whom I represent.

Perhaps many at home excuse themselves on the ground that they cannot make large contributions, forgetting that with God's blessing the loaves and fishes multiply. Two years ago I went to Sima, a large village on the border of China. With one dollar I bought a small house. The house was not worth much, but with the house we got a beautiful site, the highest place in the village. After some repairs on the house I left a native preacher in charge of it. He opened a school; a few boys learned to read and write and sing Christian hymns. Two of those boys have since been baptized into fellowship here.

In this vast field, from Bhamo on the south to Tibet on the north, and from the Irrawaddy far into the Chinese province of Yunnan, we are the only missionaries. As men and means present themselves, it is my plan to place native helpers in the largest villages on the high roads of travel, and have them work out from the centres.

The Master and the field are crying "Advance!" but the Christians cry "Retrench!" Recently a high English official said with reference to the recall of Captain Barton from Landi Kotal, the Khyber and adjoining forts and allowing them to fall into the hands of the Afridis in 1896: "It was a day of shame, pain and humiliation for every Englishman in India."

May God forbid that we shall ever see the day when, because of the carelessness of home churches, missionaries must be recalled and promising fields which God has given us fall into the hands of Buddhists, Hindus

and humiliation awaits us unless every child of God makes a personal sacrifice for the extension of the kingdom of God.

Pioneer Perils! Richer Mines than Klondike!! TOUNGOO

FROM that most interesting field among the Karens of Toungoo, Burma, where Dr. Alonzo Bunker has seen the number of churches grow from nine to eighty-five, and the converts multiply from a mere handful to thousands, comes this word from E. S. Corson, M.D.:

"Many of our native helpers are showing their devotion and self-sacrifice by leaving their homes and going among strangers to learn a strange language, in order to preach the gospel in regions beyond. Much of our pioneer work has been done at great personal peril by these native helpers. The needs and opportunities for work are inconceivable.

"There is the need of a hospital for the medical work. There are thousands as yet heathen who have not heard the gospel. In order to meet these needs, at least $1,500 should be given to build and equip the hospital, and two new missionaries sent at once. A free dispensary would greatly extend our influence. If missionaries are not soon sent the Catholics will have largely occupied the field, thus increasing the difficulty of reaching the people, for the Catholics forbid their converts listening to the preaching of Protestants, or accepting a Protestant Bible.

"I am certain that the churches at home do not grasp the significance of the information given them. If they did there would be as great a rush to gather this spiritual harvest as for the gold of the Klondike."

One Pastor to 40,000 Parishioners Rev. W. A. SHARP, whose work is among the Burmans of the Toungoo district. The field has never been adequately

has consisted of one missionary and two or three native preachers from the first day until now. Such a force can sow the good seed but sparingly among 150,000 souls.

There are now as many as six Roman Catholic priests laboring among the Burmans in this field, and they are no respecters of persons, for they do not hesitate to enter upon the labors of others. The converts they do gain are left in a worse state than when found.

We need now funds to place resident preachers in four or five villages of this district, ranging in population from one thousand to three thousand. Shall this appeal be met as a similar one was last year by taking away what we have? "From him that hath not shall be taken away that which he seemeth to have," was not stated as a precedent for advance in missions.

Vast Fields Untouched!

Half a Million Never Heard the Gospel! Rev. M. B. KIRKPATRICK, M.D., Namkham

On

IN the Namkham valley in easy access we have about twenty thousand Shans. the surrounding hills are from five thousand to ten thousand Paloungs. There are also many thousands of Kachins living so near that they come to the bazar every fifth day. Just over these mountains, in every direction, are vast numbers of Shans in all of the large valleys. Many of these valleys have never been visited by a missionary.

Doubtless there are at least half a million souls nearer to us than any other station, who have never heard the sound of the gospel. For all of this great field we have but five preachers, three Bible women, one teacher for the school, and a trained nurse to help me in the hospital work.

Do the churches at home think we are too many, and wish to cut off some of these workers?

THE

THE SECRET OF SUCCESS

DR. J. S. DENNIS

'HE devotion and loyalty of the Church to her missionary calling is the secret of her success, the divinely appointed method of her advance both at home and abroad. In this she will find her joy, her inspiration, her endowment of power, her meed of honor, her irresistible claim to the world's reverence, and her final, unanswerable apologetic. It is in fact her raison d'etre, her highest and divinely emphasized mission in human history. Devotion to this sublime calling will be her password to an unchallenged place among the most influential forces which sway and mould the progress of the

race.

Nothing would so fully "vindicate the claim of Christianity to stimulate, to inspire, to lead the world's progress." The reflex influence of this service would fan the graces of the Christian life and make the church aflame with thoughts and deeds which were Spirit-born and God-given! If the church could do its work under the stimulus of a faith-quickened vision of a triumphant gospel and a redeemed humanity, it would feel the pulses of a new life, and cheerfully give itself to sacrifice and toil, which God would quickly and grandly reward.

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THE

HARVESTS AND HEROISM AT BANZA MANTEKE

REV. E. T. WELLES, BANZA MANTEKE, CONGO

HE seed sown here in weakness is being reaped in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Twenty or more each month come into the church, and this has been going on for many months. Our church now numbers more than one thousand. school work is becoming larger every year. The light and influence emanating from this station is constantly reaching out in wider. and wider circles.

Our

The devotion of some of our native Christians and teachers remind us of those who in other days rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. A signal instance of courage and fortitude has just occurred. Another Stephen, who was educated in America at Shaw University and now has charge of inspecting and grading our outside schools and incidentally does a great deal of preaching and evangelistic work, has suffered much for the Lord Jesus.

Last week he was on his work on the north side of the river. On Sunday he was planning to go to a new place to preach when a native in State uniform, with a government gun and sword, at the head of a mob of angry heathen met him and threat

ened to tie him and beat him. Feeling confident that they would not dare to touch him, as our teachers are protected by the laws of the State, he produced a cord, saying: "If you have anything against me, tie me."

They then seized him and tied him and beat him cruelly with clubs, and when the Christians who were with him tried to release him the man with the gun threatened their lives if they did not desist. Stephen bore it all patiently, and it would seem that the Lord only preserved him, for they dealt blow after blow on his head with heavy ebony clubs.

In relating the affair he said: "I need not have borne it, for we could have overpowered them at the first, but I knew if I offered resistance to a State soldier it would only injure the cause of Jesus." And so he bore it all for Jesus.

The land is before us. It is dark with sin and superstition, but the Everlasting Arm and the Living Word and the Spirit of Power are entering in. We need more of the "mighty power of God," and you can help us in this when you kneel before the Throne. We need forty native teachers

now: a demand which we cannot fill for two or three years at best. We need a small endowment for our training-school, to put it on a firm basis and leave our regular appropriations for the extension of the work. We need a good stereotyping apparatus for our printing office and a hundred dollars a year to put into that work. We need a constantly increasing appropriation for this growing work, for if it multiplies for ten years to come as it has in ten years past we shall see ten thousand souls won for Jesus in this dark region.

D

Shall we stop now? Shall we withdraw our forces from this white harvest field? God hath set before us "an open door." Shall we fail to enter in?

Brethren, I plead for the Congo, and I plead no less for India, China, Japan, Assam, Spain, France, Germany and Sweden. I plead for every lost son of Adam, for every poor wretched sinner for whom Christ Jesus shed his precious blood. Shall they stand up in the Judgment and say, "No man cared for my soul?"

LIGHT IN DARKEST AFRICA

REV. JOSEPH CLARK, IKOKO, UPPER CONGO

URING the course of last year the subject of baptism was frequently brought before me by a number of our young people. They had for considerable time been professed followers of Jesus, and so far as I could see were doing well, their lives presenting a great contrast to those of the natives around them. I delayed baptizing them as I was anxious to test, as fully as possible, those to be first received here. After continued teaching and examination I finally accepted five and baptized them. For three years we have steadily labored day by day here, often with very much to cast us down, but yet God has been with us and helped us to press on even when all our work has seemed on the point of destruction. War has waged around us, and threats of attack have repeatedly been made, but amid all God has kept us in peace and safety. And now our hearts are glad that even a few of those young people have for so long a time been enabled to resist the innumerable temptations that surround them. When you consider that they are of a people who can only laugh at immorality, and who can openly and without shame arrange for it and discuss its profits, you can have some idea of what they have

to withstand. But no one can truly gauge the trials of natives that would follow Christ, among such surroundings, who has not lived among these people.

Another pleasing thing about those who have been received here as church members, is that all have pledged themselves to give a tenth of their income to the Lord.

Of course their incomes are small. Wages in some cases are only half a dollar a month and allowance for rations 60 to 80 cents per month; but so long as they give in proportion to their income they do well. The other day one came to me with ten cents. I asked what it was for, and he replied: "It is God's money. I received a dollar from Mrs. Clark for rearing ducks for her, and this is the portion for God."

The Pioneer" was here a few days ago, and on it a lad who had gone to Dr. Fleming seeking medical relief from the awful sleeping sickness. He was in a dying state, and after the steamer sailed his hymn-book and gospels were found in the lake. In one I found a slip of paper evidently written by himself. "Jesus is my owner and I am his slave. The thing he desires I will do, but what he likes not I also will not do, but only what he desires. I am Mabomi."

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