F EBRUARY brings the birthday celebrations of the two greatest of America's God-given leaders-Washington and Lincoln. Washington by his own single personality elevated citizenship, gave new dignity to office, new meaning to manhood. "The value of a truly great man consists in his increasing the value of all mankind." This was true alike of Washington and Lincoln. Both were essential factors, the one in the creation, the other in the salvation, of the nation-with all that means for human liberty. Lincoln, laid low by an assassin's bullet forty years ago, looms larger with the lapse of years. The negroes can never cancel their debt of gratitude to him, as the emancipator and defender of their race. It was at nineteen, when employed on a flatboat on the Mississippi, that at New Orleans the angular and awkward “Abe,” as he was commonly called, saw those terrible sights of the slave pen and auction block which made him an abolitionist. There he made his promise to God that, to quote his words, "If I live, and as I do live, I will use all the strength of my mind to the best advantage for the abolishment of this withering, damnable curse." It was at forty-five, when lawyer and congressman, that the moral crisis of his life came, and over this same question of slavery. "Shall the institution of slavery be extended?" Yes, meant a United States senatorship and political advancement. No, meant probably political oblivion. Silence was easy and sufficient. Lincoln spoke out against slavery, lost the senatorship, but in God's providence gained the presidency and the opportunity to write the Emancipation Proclamation. It is moral greatness which the world reveres in both Washington and Lincoln- this that makes them enduring example and inspiration to the American people. To quote the fine phrase which some French liberals sent Mrs. Lincoln on a medal, Lincoln "Saved the Republic without veiling the Statue of Liberty." He freed the slaves and saved the Union. His were the homespun virtues of honesty, truthfulness, tenderheartedness, integrity and charity. He was in deep and lasting sense what Lowell calls him : Our children shall behold his fame. EDITORIAL Missionary Features of Our Educational Work IN N the minds of some, doubtless, there is a question whether the large educational work of the American Baptist Home Mission Society is, in any proper sense, missionary work. We endeavor, briefly, to answer in the affirmative. 1. These schools, largely, were born of the missionary spirit in Northern Baptists, who had compassion on millions of illiterate people, for whose Christian education there was no proper provision; and in the same spirit they have been maintained with new adjustments to changing conditions. The necessity for them as factors in the elevation of these peoples, was never greater than now. 2. The missionary spirit has been dominant in those who have given themselves to this work. Scores of men and women have gone from Northern homes and separated themselves from the things that are cherished by most of us, to live almost aloof from congenial associations, practically shut up with those for whom they labor; with a zeal, devotion and self-abnegation worthy of missionaries to foreign lands. A vast amount of Christian service has been rendered by many of these teachers apart from their duties in classrooms. When the record of missionary heroes shall be rightly written, some of the most lustrous names will be found among these. 3. As to the Society itself: On no department of its work have more earnest thought, strenuous effort and generous aid been bestowed than on this, in order that the appalling needs of millions for capable Christian leaders should be met. The weight of responsibility and care upon the chief executive officers of the Society can hardly be comprehended by those unfamiliar with the difficulties of the task. The missionary motive and aim pervades the entire educational policy of the Society. 4. The supreme object in these schools is soul culture; not merely intellectual training like that given in high schools, academies and colleges generally, with some incidental formal religious services. As a rule regular instruction in the Word of God is given daily; Christian students are instructed in the way of the Lord more perfectly; emphasis is put upon the ethics of Christianity; Bible schools and prayer meetings are essential features of institutional life; special efforts are made yearly for the unconverted students, resulting usually in several hundred conversions annually. Thousands of students unaccustomed to such things, dwelling in this warm, vitalizing Christian atmosphere for even two or three years, have been transformed into noble men and women who have become incalculable blessings to their people. The production and cultivation of Christian character is the uppermost idea in this work. 5. Furthermore, constantly and emphatically students are enjoined to consider education not merely as an accomplishment, or to be used for selfish ends, but rather as the means whereby more effective service can be rendered others; and they are charged to consider that they have a mission to their own struggling people, for which they should fit themselves as best they can. This missionary spirit is further fostered by students' missionary societies in most if not all the schools. The result is that thousands have gone forth other than they came, to apply themselves heroically to their providential tasks, often under most painful limitations, and unobtrusively and almost unknown to the bustling world, have wrought superbly for Christ. This is the best kind of missionary work, to kindle in aspiring young souls that true spirit of Christian service that shall make the whole life, in the home, in the social circle, in the church, in the public schools, where so many are teachers, tell strongly for Christ. 6. The volume of this great missionary dynamic during these forty years has been immense. It is sometimes said that the moral and religious condition of the large mass of the negroes is still deplorable. But who can depict what it would have been had these Christian institutions never been founded; had no man or woman in the compassionate spirit of Christ ever gone to them with words of encouragement, sympathy, and counsel; had The Home Mission Society never expended a dollar, instead of nearly four millions, for the uplift of a race; had they been left to shift for themselves with their limited financial resources in matter of Christian education for their neglected children? Darker, inexpressibly darker would be the picture. Were every one of these and other Christian schools now suddenly to be closed or blotted out forever, American civilization would shudder at the consequences in even the next decade. Surely, every thoughtful, candid man must admit that such work as this is missionary indeed and that here at least educational and missionary work are not unrelated enterprises, but merge their activities for the production of richer results than would be possible otherwise. The Pastor's Responsibility THE extent to which the development of a church depends upon the personality and leadership of the pastor is often pathetic. If the pastor has the missionary spirit the church will catch it and become missionary. If he has it not, the church will be local and narrow, dwarfed not only in its benevolences, but in its spiritual life. The pastor cannot escape the responsibilities of leadership. churches would be much stronger if they would learn to place a proper dependence and no more upon the pastor, and assume their own fair share of service and development. But as things are, the dependence is placed almost wholly upon the pastor, and as he leads the people follow. The The pastor of a church in Massachusetts developed the missionary spirit to an amazing degree. The benevolences doubled, quadrupled, enlisted the attention and participation of nearly every member. Systematic giving took the place of spasmodic collections. Result: a church spiritually quickened and active; conversions and baptisms; consecrated giving and consecrated living; home expenses easily raised, and mission work undertaken. How was this done? By an intelligent enthusiastic presentation of the mission work, by keeping at it, by making the missionary, evangelizing character of Christianity a predominant note of the preaching. Many pastors fear to press the missionary interests upon their people. This is a fear that makes for weakness. What account can a pastor render of his stewardship if his church makes no offering to home or foreign missions? We should like to hear from such pastors, and gladly offer them our columns for explanation and discussion. I Putting It Right N an editorial which will, we believe, be heartily approved by the denomination at large, The Standard puts the matter of evangelism so straight and square that we quote it entire. "The views of THE STANDARD have been in harmony with those of many others in the denomination that it would be unwise to organize another society for the purpose of conducting a Baptist evangelistic campaign. We are glad to notice in the communication from the committee appointed last summer at Northfield, published last week, the statement that the committee now believes that there is no need for another organization provided existing societies will give to evangelism the place in their policy which its importance demands. As originally suggested by the call for a convention at St. Louis next May, a call made by the Baptists present at Northfield last summer, it was evident that a new organization was contemplated. We are sure that the later view of the committee is the wiser one and one which will commend itself to the great majority of the denomination. Existing societies, almost without exception, were formed in order to evangelize those to whom their efforts were specially directed the Home Mission Society to the people in North America, the Missionary Union to the heathen people, the State Conventions to the people of the several States, and so on down the list. That these organizations have been carrying on the work for which they were formed is proved by the results they have achieved. They have been quick, too, to adapt their methods to new exigencies. The Home Mission Society has inspired the whole North to new consideration of evangelism. Whole States have been influenced. New effort in behalf of sinful men has been made and that not for a season, but month after month. A sample T of evangelistic seed-sowing is described in our Wisconsin letter this week. What is needed is not so much the inspiration of a new society, but the use of organizations already at work; not more societies, but more men aflame with love for Christ and a compassion for the lost." NOTE AND COMMENT HE AMOUNT REQUIRED BY THE MATE, IS $343,449.50. THIS IS AN UNUSUALLY LARGE SUM, AND UNLESS OFFERINGS EXCEED THOSE OF THE SAME PERIOD LAST YEAR, THERE IS PROSPECT OF A TROUBLESOME DEBT OF ABOUT $60,000. THIS STATEMENT SURELY CONSTITUTES A SUFFICIENT APPEAL TO AMERICAN BAPTISTS. This is an educational number of THE MONTHLY, with reports from practically all of the Home Mission schools among the Negroes and Indians. Growth is the report all along the line. Never were our schools better managed and manned than now, and they are producing leaders of the right character. ¶ We are glad to announce the publication in a neat booklet of Miss Lucy G. Whitwell's helpful and interesting story, “God Helps them that Help We expect more stories from the same gifted and consecrated pen. Prevented by ill health from engaging directly in missionary work, Miss Whitwell contributes in this way to the cause she loves. the gentleman in the bit from the story, which was quoted as from THE BAPTIST HOME MISSION MONTHLY, that when he reached New York next morning, before going to the steamship wharf whence he was that day to sail, he hunted up the Home Mission Rooms, to see if he could get a copy of the story complete, to take home with him. So the home mission sketch goes over the ocean. Moreover, when the pastor heard of the result of his quotation, he at once knew the source of the strange $20 gold certificate which had occasioned surprise in the home mission collection of that Sunday morning. The moral is obvious. The Standard, of Chicago, is to be credited with a fine piece of journalistic enterprise and doing the denomination a real service by gathering the facts concerning Baptist progress from all parts of the world, and placing them in comprehensive form before the public. By the way, if our people realized more fully the debt they owe to our excellent denominational newspapers, the result would be greatly increased subscription lists and incomes. The cause of missions, like every other good cause, finds its strong allies in these papers, which deserve the best things of Baptists. ¶ For the black and white drawings on other pages in this issue, illustrating Mormonism and its political balance, with the accompanying words, we are indebted to Mr. J. B. Upham, of Boston, who has closely followed the developments in Utah. Referring to the illustration of the octopus -for which also we were indebted to him showing one of the tentacles reaching to Washington, he says: "Very few of our American people realize the grip the Mormon hierarchy is exerting upon the govern |