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COPY of this number of the BAPTIST MISSIONARY MAGAZINE is mailed to every Baptist minister in the states which make up the home field of the American Baptist Missionary Union. Every one not now receiving the MAGAZINE is invited to become a subscriber. The attention of pastors is specially called to the statement on the back of the frontispiece. In order that all may know how they will feel after taking the MAGAZINE we present a few of the many good things

said of it.

I would not do without the Magazine if it cost $3.00.- Rev. E. P. Brand, Orion, Ill. I am delighted with the elegant appearance and contents of this Magazine. Houghton, Esq., New York City.

Henry

It is superb in style, and unsurpassed in the excellence of its contents.- Rev. I. N. Clark, D.D., Kansas City, Mo.

The Magazine is a beauty. Rev. A. M. Prentice, Ogdensburg, N. Y.

The January number just received is, I think, the finest number of this ever-improving Magazine. Rev. Charles A. Cook, Bloomfield, N. J.

Every copy is a District Secretary of itself. Hankins, Atmakur, India.

It has a great mission. Rev. I. S.

The more I read the Magazine the more it interests me. It is a friend which you appreciate most when you know it best. Rev. C. R. Delepine, La Conner, Wash

I must congratulate you on the transformation of the Magazine. A revolution in form and substance. It is now a joy and pride.-Rev. John McLaurin, D.D, Ootacamund, India.

The Missionary Magazine deserves all the good things which are being said of it. It is indispensable to our pastors and their people.-Prof. T. Harwood Pattison, D.D., Rochester Theological Seminary.

Systematic Christian Beneficence is good, proportionate beneficence is better, but a wise and intelligent Christian stewardship is best of all. A man may regularly give one hundredth part of his income to various objects of Christian benevolence that is systematic beneficence, but it is hardly the ideal of Christian giving. A man may give one dollar to every object of charity or benevolence which presents itself, great or small, giving equally to foreign missions and home missions, the relief of a neighbor or the building of a schoolhouse or church in some destitute region, and the total amount may equal a fair proportion of his income, not less than one-tenth-this is proportionate beneficence, but neither is it the ideal of Christian giving. Intelligent Christian stewardship includes regularity in giving and proportion in giving, both with reference to one's own income and the relative importance of the various objects of benevolence. An intelligent administration of the bountiful gifts of God for the good of others and the advancement of the kingdom of our Redeemer in the world stands on a distinctly higher plane than all other methods or ideas which can be applied to Christian beneficence.

T errible Disasters Continue in China. There is the overflow of the Yellow River, flooding a large part of Shantung province, drowning thousands, making many thousands more homeless, and reducing them to a starving condition. Then Oct. 1 and 2 a conflagration destroyed one-tenth of the great city of Hankow, with an estimated ten thousand houses burned and more than one thousand lives lost; later one side of a whole street in the same city slid into the river, drowning about one thousand people, occupants of the submerged houses and boats. Kansu, the northwestern province of China, is desolated by a severe drought and famine, and the great western province of Szchuan is paralyzed by a rebellion which the government has not been able to check, and which seems to be extending southeastward into Kuangtung province. As if this were not enough, the powerful nations of Europe are watching each other with tiger-like cunning, and seizing every morsel of Chinese territory they dare. Poor China!

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ritish Rule is Supreme in the Sudan. By agreement with Egypt the entire Eastern Sudan, from Wady Halfa southward, is placed under the absolute authority of a Governor-General to be appointed by Egypt, with the approval of England. The limits of this domain to the south and west are indeterminate and will be extended by England as far as arrangements with other European nations will permit, probably to Lake Tchad on the west and certainly to British territory on Victoria Nyanza and Lake Tanganyika on the south. No representatives of other governments are to be allowed to reside in the territory except by the consent of England, and the whole is to continue under martial law until the Governor-General proclaims otherwise. Lord Kitchener is appointed Governor-General of this vast territory, which is equal to the United States east of the Mississippi River, and it is divided into seven districts for administrative purposes, each ruled by a governor. The slave trade is prohibited, and the provisions of the Brussels Act regarding restrictions on the sale of firearms, ammunition and alcoholic liquors are to be enforced. This agreement gives England undisputed control of a continuous area the entire length of Africa, from Cape Town to the Mediterranean, and marks a prodigious advance for civilization and for the welfare of man in Africa. The Church Missionary Society already has three missionaries on the way to open a mission on the Upper Nile, and ample funds have been raised to found a Gordon Memorial College at Khartum. The politicians may not realize it, but this is a mark of the majestic onward march of our God.

A Large Increase in the number of MAGAZINES printed for January and February

was ordered, but the receipt of new subscriptions has so far exceeded the most sanguine expectations that we are no longer able to supply the numbers for those months except a few to those who specially desire the complete volume of the MAGAZINE for 1899. Otherwise new subscriptions received this month will begin with the present number.

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In Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Missions will be held in New York City, April 21 to May 2, 1900. It will be similar in its features to the great Missionary Conference in London in 1888, when fifteen hundred representative Christians from all parts of the world came together and conferred on important questions affecting the progress of the kingdom of God in mission lands. The results of the coming Conference will be even more striking and momentous, as the world has advanced in intelligence, in unity, and in national strength. As Dr. Judson Smith says in his call for the Conference:

"Every church and every pastor of every name in the length and breadth of the land should awake to the fact that this Conference is coming, take note of the time and place of the sessions, prepare for it, enter into it as far as may be, and gather from it impulse and knowledge and faith and power."

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The Death of Mrs. Lydia L. Simons in Brooklyn, N. Y., Nov. 29, severs another link of the present with the past of our missions. Mrs. Simons sailed for Burma in July, 1846, as Miss Lydia Lillybridge, laboring there with great constancy and faithfulness, and was married to Rev. Thomas Simons of Prome, May 13, 1851, at Moulmein. Her service was particularly in connection with the Morton Lane Girls' School, which at that time had a boarding department for Eurasian girls, the latter having been separated since that time. In her work at Moulmein, Mrs. Simons was closely associated with Dr. and Mrs. Judson and others of eminent name in connection with our early missions, and later at Prome, in work with Rev. Eugenio Kincaid. Her labors at the latter place were greatly blessed. In 1874 Mrs. Simons was compelled to return to America for the benefit of her health, and during her absence Mr. Simons died of cholera on Feb. 19, 1876. Since that time she has resided chiefly in Brooklyn with her sister, and in the midst of many sorrows her trust in the Lord has continued bright and firm, and she has always manifested a lively interest in the missionary work in Burma. Her death removes the last one of the members of that notable missionary circle which labored in Moulmein in the year 1846.

A Significant Indication of the current of thought in missions is the resolution of the Conference of Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society held at Allahabad, India, a few weeks ago. After a full discussion of the future of the Christian Church in India, the strongest ground was taken in favor of a native church and a native episcopate entirely independent of control from England. It was decided

"That the future outcome of the C. M. S. Native Church Council System should be the formation of an independent Indian Church, governed by its own synods, under an Indian episcopate and in communion with the Church of England."

This unquestionably expresses a trend of mind which is prevailing more and more in missionary circles. In communities where Christianity has gained a considerable number of converts there will be a demand on the part of native Christians for recognition in the leadership of affairs and a desire among supporters of missions at home that Christianity once planted shall manifest its inherent and

Remarkable Changes in Korea are attracting attention at this time when the eyes of the world are fixed on Eastern Asia. So long known as "the hermit nation" because of its exclusiveness and rigid conservatism, Korea has advanced to the front of Asiatic nations in its readiness to receive Christianity. While Japan has absorbed with avidity Western science and learning, its people as a whole have not been hospitable to the religion of the West. But if we are to believe the recent reports from Korea, the people from the king down are favorable to Christianity, and the Christian missionary finds a hospitable reception and a ready hearing. It appears as if the openness of mind shown in Japan toward the secular advantages of the West is manifested by the Koreans in religion. This is not difficult to understand. The Koreans have no national religion to which they are bound, as the Japanese to Shintoism and the Chinese to Confucianism. The teachings of Confucius and the religion of Buddha have a following, but are not established in the affections of the people as a whole. It is perfectly easy for a Korean to become a Christian without incurring suspicion of disloyalty to the government, as in Japan, or the hostility of his family, as in China. The leap of Korea from the rear to the front rank of Asiatic nations in its reception of the gospel is one of the most noteworthy of the recent stirring events in the far East.

A Judicial Murder" is the verdict pronounced by a committee of influential Russian Jews on the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. They have been carefully reviewing the character and claims of Jesus, and have come to the conclusion that he was the "Lord's Anointed," and that their forefathers made a mistake in his condemnation. This remarkable decision is but one of the many indications of a movement of the Jewish people toward the acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. Their hopes of his coming have been so long deferred, and the power of Jesus as the Christ has become so manifest in the world, that intelligent Jews are more and more impressed with the thought that the rulers at Jerusalem may have been in error, and that Jesus should have been recognized by their people as the Messiah foretold by the prophets. The wide circulation of Hebrew New Testaments, the gospel tracts of Rabinowitz and the labors of Rabbi Lichtenstein are having a powerful influence in this direction. Nearly one-half of the ten or twelve million Jews in the world are in Russia. It is necessary to remember that Jews who accept Jesus as the Messiah do not thereby become members of any existing branch of the Christian Church. We watch with absorbing interest to see in what lines the religious life and thought of these Jews who are passing from the old to the new dispensation will run. It takes us back to the beginning of the Christian era, and suggests the question: "Suppose the Jews had accepted Jesus as the Messiah. What would have been the religious history of the world, and what would be its condition today?"

Missionaries of the Union when sending to parties in America an order for goods for which the Treasurer of the Union is expected to pay, should in every case also notify Mr. Coleman, the Treasurer, and authorize him to pay the bill.

NEW MOVEMENTS IN CHINA

REV. WILLIAM ASHMORE, D.D., SWATOW