the quickening of that unity of purpose from which alone our unity of operation can proceed.

Much interest is felt at present in the forthcoming World Baptist Congress to be held in London, July 10-18, 1905. That Congress gives promise of being a memorable gathering. It will promote acquaintance and in so doing will tend to mutual respect and esteem and tolerance. It will emphasize our essential oneness as Baptists, and by the elbow-touch of comradeship will furnish inspiration to fresh achievement. It will give a new sense of "the goodly fellowship" of which each forms a part.

Still more interesting in some respects is the proposal to bring together the Baptists of the United States for mutual conference and inspiration, as indicated in the call issued by the Executive Board of the American Baptist Home Mission Society. This Board has simply taken the initiative. It is committed to no plan; it recognizes a need and invites free conference and mature deliberation. Baptists in the United States constitute the majority of the Baptists in the world. We are one in lineage, in fundamental principles and aims. We are animated by the common purpose of bringing our land in the obedience of faith to the feet of our Master, Christ. In addition to the local problems of each church or association or convention, we have our larger problems which are not sectional but national. We have much to learn from each other. Each contingent of our Baptist host can impart inspiration to the other. If a World Baptist Congress is desirable, equally so, if not more so, is a gathering of American Baptists. Such a gathering will not interfere in the slightest degree with existing organizations. Baptists may be trusted to guard with jealous care their

independence, and Baptist organizations to preserve their autonomy. But fellowship, counsel, coöperation within. the lines of independence, these are things devoutly to be desired. And these are the things aimed at.

Happy New Year

Hope is the mainspring of humanity that keeps it going. A hopeless man is as useless as a watch with broken mainspring. This is perhaps a good thought to have in mind when one remembers that another year has passed, and asks himself concerning its accomplishments, its fulfilment of purposes, and its general character. Things have not gone as expected. The unforeseen has happened and disarranged plans, disappointed hopes. Sickness has been a factor. Bereavement perhaps has caused a readjustment of life. Spiritual development has not been satisfactory. There is always so much to cause regret to a sincere, progressive and purposeful soul, that no old year can be reviewed without a sense of sorrow and loss.

Yet the new year is to be entered with hope. God is in His world, and however wrong things are and appear to be, evil is not going to get the upper hand and triumph ultimately, either in North. America or in any part of the globe which God keeps swinging through space. The optimist-made an optimist. by his Christian faith, and made an observer of all phases of life through the Christian breadth of vision-sees everywhere the upward tendency. He sees it in the church, though when the church is mentioned many give themselves to lamentations instead of activity and inspiration. The church has not lost its power, though it needs more. power. To a certain man who declared

that the churches didn't amount to much nowadays and might as well close their doors, the chief of police of one of our greatest cities replied, "Why, my dear sir, if all the churches of this city were to close up, you couldn't get building sites enough for the station. houses you would have to build, nor citizens enough to make up the necessary police force. You don't know what you are talking about." And that was true. The church is not on the

down grade, and is still the mightiest factor on earth for righteousness. Never were the missionary activities of the church so large or its services to the world so great.

The optimist sees the upward tendency in commerce also. This is contrary to the popular notion, which takes into account the reported rascalities, the money power and oppression, the greed for speculation, and all that marks commerce as corrupt. But there is another side, and a bright one. The standards of honesty and honor have not been lowered but elevated. A man's word was never so good as now, nor accepted for so much. The swift roads to riches are seen to be swift roads to ruin as well. The view beneath the surface reveals much to confirm the Christian optimist in his belief that there is a distinct advance in civilization and especially in the line of ethics. Men are intolerant of professional religion, but they never respected so highly the Christianity that shows its faith by its good works and proves its creed by its character product.

Happy New Year to you, brother worker. Let us make 1905 a better year than any we have lived in influence, in service, in appreciation of opportunity, in generosity, zeal and devotion to the cause of Christ, which is forever the cause of humanity. And in order to do

it, let us live in the spirit of Christian faith, love, and hope.

Missionary Interlinkings

We have spoken of John M. Peck and his pioneer work. We trust that thousands of our young people will, during the coming winter, study his life. They will find his career as interesting as it was remarkable.

It is certainly a striking coincidence that Adoniram Judson, who was to summon American Baptists to Foreign Mission enterprises, and John M. Peck,

who was to arouse the same denomination to Home Mission needs, should both have been brought up in the same sister denomination. When the Louisiana Purchase was made, Judson was a Massachusetts boy of fifteen; Peck was a Connecticut boy of fourteen. were led by study of the Scriptures to become Baptists. When this change occurred Judson was on the other side of the world from Peck. Yet how strangely, providentially, the one life was to touch the other.

Judson's change of conviction and denomination led to the coming of Luther Rice from India to America to stir up the churches to missionary effort and enthusiasm. Peck, who had become pastor of the little church at Amenia, in the Harlem valley of New York, heard Rice, and instantly responded to the missionary call. He was willing to go wherever God would have him go. It was at Rice's suggestion that he gave himself to mission work. in the western section of the home land.

Here is the interlinking of Home and Foreign Missions, which indeed, like the American Union, are one and indivisible. Judson, a foreign missionary, inspired Peck, a home missionary. And as Judson was the inspirer, and so,

in a true sense the founder of the Missionary Union, so Peck was in like manner the inspirer of the Home Mission interest that resulted in the Home Mission Society. And it is from the churches founded and fostered by the Home Mission Society that the Missionary Union receives a very large part of its income.

This is the thought with which to move forward-the cause of missions, one and indivisible, as the means of extending the kingdom of God throughout the world. In study, sympathy, praying, giving, let there be no divided feeling, but an all-inclusive and abounding interest in the great work at home and abroad.

T

HE condition of the Society's treasury in relation to the work of the year ending March 31st, is cause for considerable anxiety. According to the Treasurer's statement, on December 1, the amount borrowed was $120,833.10, being $27,109.17 more than at the same date last year. Most of this increase has been for enlargement in missionary work proper. Receipts for general purposes for the eight months ending Dec. 1 were $207,499.15 as against $207,985.04 for the corresponding period last year. In case receipts for the remaining four months should merely equal those of the same period last year, there would be a deficit of about $65,000. To meet the Society's present obligations and those maturing on or before April 1st, 1905, $350,000 are needed. THESE FIGURES IN THEMSELVES CONSTITUTE THE STRONGEST APPEAL THAT CAN BE MADE FOR MOST LIBERAL OFFERINGS BY INDIVIDUALS AND CHURCHES FOR THE SOCIETY'S WORK.

We have had so much trouble through careless wrapping and mailing of THE MONTHLY, in spite of efforts to correct it, that we invite all friends who receive the magazine in unfit condition to report the fact, so that w: may send a good copy. After making an attractive number, it is too bad to have it spoiled in mailing, and we shall try to remedy this defect in future.

That was a very stupid printer's mistakecorrected, too, with special instructions—that made the writer on the Chinese in the December number say it would be a good idea "to

live like American Christians and give like Chinese Christmas." Chinese "Christians," of course, makes sense and the antithesis, while "Chinese Christmas" creates a mild suspicion of the writer's sanity. It requires patience even to be an editor.

The latest booklet issued by Rev. Gideon Aubin, our French missionary in Fall River, is in many respects the best he has written. It shows in clear and convincing manner the distinction between the gospel doctrines and the man-invented doctrines and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church. The spirit of it is excellent. The author wisely lets the facts speak for themselves. "Les Ouvrages de Rome," or The Works of Rome, is the title.

THE MONTHLY for 1905 will furnish articles of value and interest to every class of readers. Three capital stories are already assured. There will be a full treatment of Mormonism in all its phases and bearings. The Italians and mission work among them will receive special attention, with the aid of our Italian superintendent, Rev. Mr. Mangano. Men's Classes in various large cities will be described, as one of the newer and effective methods of church work. The State Conventions will be studied along the lines of coöperation. The program for the year is alluring.

We have been embarrassed by the unexpected delay in the publication of our new Home Mission book, "Heroes of the Cross in America." The failure of a printing house to do the work agreed upon in satisfactory manner has caused a long and tedious wait

ing, with unfilled orders in hand and letters of inquiry coming thick and fast. We hope our friends will exercise some of the patience in which we at the Rooms must possess our souls under such circumstances. The book is worth waiting for, and classes can take up the study course early in the new year.

We call particular attention to the needs of the Church Edifice Gift fund. Unusually large grants have been necessary for the erection of chapels in Cuba and Porto Rico. At the last Board meeting the aggregate gifts were over $16,000. The outstanding appropriations exceed the amount in the treasury by about $22,000. It should be remembered that only such offerings as are designated for Church Edifice purposes are thus applied. Remember this important department of the Society's work in your gifts and in your will.

Friends are advised that it is not desirable to send gifts of any kind to the mission fields in Cuba and Porto Rico. The customs duties are so high as to make such gifts unprofitable, and the difficulties owing to the necessity to open and inspect every package, however small, render such donations undesirable. In our own country it is different and donations are always acceptable.

¶Every church that observes the Week of Prayer should do it in no perfunctory spirit, but enter earnestly into the meetings for spiritual quickening. The Evangelical Alliance has fixed the general topics for the week beginning Sunday, Jan. 1, 1905. The program is: Sunday, Worship; Monday, the Kingdom of God on Earth; Tuesday, the Visible Church of Christ; Wednesday, All Peoples and Nations; Thursday, Missions, Home and Foreign; Friday, the Family and School; Saturday, Our Own Country. Mission day should be made one of the most interesting. The Family is one of the topics of vital concern. There are few meetings on Saturday, so that our Country will receive practically only the attention given to it through Home Missions on Thursday.

The Statehood bill providing for the admission of Oklahoma and Indian Territory into the Union as the State of Oklahoma has been favorably reported by the Senate Committee on Territories. We are glad to see that in the House bill a clause has been inserted prohibiting the liquor traffic for ten

years in that part of the new State comprising Indian Territory. It is sincerely to be hoped that this clause may be retained. This is the only hope the Indians have for protection against this enemy. Write to your Congressman and Senator on this point. Let us try to save the poor Indian from this fatal liquor traffic.

Commander Booth-Tucker, of the Salvation Army, has rendered a service out of the ordinary by coining a new word-"Domicide." As homicide means the killing of a man, so domicide means the killing of a home. The word calls attention to one of the chief perils in American life, and is therefore to be welcomed, if it will aid in emphasizing an evil that is making startling headway, and that, too, under the protection of easy divorce laws, scandalous oftentimes in their administration. An influential body of the Episcopalians, by the way, under lead of Dr. Dix, of New York, have resolved not to marry divorced persons under any circumstances, and will endeavor to make this the rule, even though the extremists were defeated at the Boston convention. There is a right stand which all ministers should unite in taking on this matter, which involves the home life and hence the foundations of our Christian civilization.

According to the official organ of the United Hebrew Charities of New York, the Jewish population is growing rapidly, both by immigration and natural increase. From 1884 to May 1, 1904, the Jewish immigration to the port of New York numbered above 690,000. So great a part of this number remained in New York that the present Jewish population of the metropolis is estimated at 672,776. A yearly increase of 50,000 is regarded as probable, and this would give New York a million Jews by the next census in 1910. If the extent to which they have taken possession of the mercantile business of the great cities could be ascertained, it would be a revelation to many. It would also be most interesting to know how large a proportion of this population holds with anything like strictness to the authority of the Jewish religion, and what inroads the reformed or advanced wing is making upon the ancient faith.

No wellspent to-morrow can atone for a misspent to-day.

W

ITH this number THE HOME MISSION MONTHLY enters upon its twenty-seventh year. To look back through the volumes is to note the development of the work of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, to gain a good general idea of the religious progress of the quarter century, and to appreciate what a large amount of useful information has been given to the denomination through this periodical. The religious historian, and especially the Baptist historian, will here find a rich mine of facts. such a magazine could have been edited so well by the busy Corresponding Secretary of the Society, with such office assistance as was available, is a surprise. With the last volume-the twenty-sixth-THE MONTHLY took upon itself the features of the twentieth century magazine, embodying in its general make-up and illustrations the modern ideas that have made the American magazines world famous. Our denomination has rea

That

son for congratulation in the fact that its great missionary enterprises at home and abroad are represented to-day by periodicals which hold the first rank and are worthy of the cause they are set to promote. Alive, attractive, instructive, they are no small factor in creating missionary spirit and interest.

To indicate some of the steps in the evolution of THE MONTHLY we give herewith the various changes in the covers that have been made from time to time. The progress in illustration is shown by the wood-cut of the earlier time and the half-tone of to-day. When the first number of THE MONTHLY was issued the modern' processes of illustration were unknown. The developments in this line have been wonderful. Very likely the colored plates will be as common and cheap a quarter century hence as half-tones are now. Some genius will perfect the invention of colored photography, and reproduction in print will surely follow. As it is, through the camera and the methods of re