IT is always the unexpected which happens in China.

After the disturb

ances of 1895 in West China it seemed that the course of missionary labors in all the Empire was open and easier than ever before. Better treatment by the local officials and a readier hearing from the people were the tenor of the general reports from missionaries in China. There were local troubles, but, on the whole, China seemed to be more open to the gospel than ever before. Even the strongholds of Hunan and Hupeh were giving way for the entrance of Christian missionaries. The reformatory edicts of the young Emperor, Kwangsu, raised the hopes of the friends of missions and the friends of China to the highest point. These hopes were clouded by the act of the Dowager Empress, Tsi Chi or Hsi Tsi or Tsi An, in setting aside the young Emperor, revoking his edicts, killing the leading advocates of reform and setting back the wheels of progress in China, but yet we looked for a change for the better. Then came the Boxers. This widely extended secret society has existed for about two hundred years. Originally formed for the laudable purposes of moral improvement and physical development, and at one time em ployed as police in an emergency, it became so powerful and turbulent that it was twice suppressed by imperial decree. It still continued with changes of name. Its purpose is robbery, and in the last outbreak its excuse was hatred of the foreigners. At first it was thought that the movements of the Boxers were encouraged by the Dowager Empress, but from the nature of later reports it appears that she opposed them. The spirits she had invoked would not down at her bidding, and apparently she is suffering the same fate she inflicted on the young Emperor. At this date Peking is in the hands of the rebels. Both the Empress Dowager and the young Emperor are prisoners, the Legations of the Foreign Powers are reported captured and their inmates massacred; the small forces of the foreigners are helpless be fore the Chinese army; hundreds of native Christians have been massacred, the lives of scores of missionaries and other foreigners are in peril, and all China is in a state of unrest.

The disturbances have not reached the mission fields of the American Baptist Missionary Union. At the date of this writing all the missionaries of the Union are well and safe so far as known. There is, of course, some cause for anxiety, particularly regarding missionaries in the interior. Let prayer be unceasing that all God's servants left in China may be preserved and that the present troubles may be soon ended and a brighter way opened in China for the gospel.

The Terrible Massacre of Foreigners has given Peking a place in history by the side of Calcutta and Cawnpore. We have the deepest sympathy with those missionary boards whose representatives were so ruthlessly, cruelly and wickedly slaughtered, and with the families and friends of all who were slain. Few events in recent history can be compared with this horrible tragedy. "The Massacre of Peking" will always stand as an illustration of supreme horror in war and of the extremity of human anguish.

MISSIONARIES

FROM the acknowledged unhealthfulness of tropical climates for white men it is the general impression that missionaries to heathen lands incur a larger risk to health and life than those who remain at home, and it has been customary for life insurance companies to charge an extra premium for insur ing the lives of missionaries. In the early stages of missionary work in any tropical land it is unquestionably true that there are special perils to be encountered, particularly from ignorance of the best conditions of living in health and comfort and from the unsettled state of affairs incident to the initial stages of a new work. This is strikingly illustrated in the early years of our Baptist mission in Japan, when the average term of service was shorter than in the less healthful but better understood climate of the older mission in Burma. It is beginning to be well understood that a better acquaintance with unhealthful climates enables residents to guard against their special perils, and that the safeguards now thrown around missionary life and the privileges of travel for health afforded have happily in a large degree removed the peculiar dangers which missionaries were formerly compelled to endure. In the American Baptist mission on the Congo the average death rate has been reduced onethird in recent years by good homes, an improved knowledge of the laws of health, greater care and better conditions of living. It is a surprise, however, to find that the death rate among missionaries is smaller than among selected life risks of the best insurance companies in this country. In twenty-eight American life insurance companies the death rate the last ten years was 13.5 per thousand. Among the missionaries of the American Baptist Missionary Union for the same time the death rate was 11.1 per thousand, and among missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions it was only 8.6, the advantage in the case of this society probably being due to the superior healthfulness of their mission fields. Some life insurance companies have removed all restrictions in regard to travel, recognizing that it is a means of health, even if it leads to short sojourns in tropical countries. The facts here noted show that special premiums for insuring the lives of missionaries are unnecessary, and also that no one who can pass a medical examination for life insurance need be deterred from entering the missionary service, and that missionaries have as good, if not a better, expectation of health and life as if they had remained in America. We rejoice that this is so. Missionaries in foreign lands have many peculiar trials to endure in separation from home and friends and families, and in the loss of the blessings of life in a civilized and Christian land. We are glad to bring them from a careful study of records the information that they have reason to expect as long lives on the average as their friends in the home land.

Remittances for the Baptist Missionary Magazine from all places except in Massachusetts and Rhode Island should be made by postal or express money orders. The Boston banks now make a charge of ten cents or more for collecting each check outside these two states. If you cannot get a money order and must remit by check, please add ten cents to the amount for cost of collection. The same suggestion holds good in regard to sending small amounts to the Missionary Union. For checks for large amounts a larger fee for collecting is charged, it being as much as twenty-five cents on a hundred dollars on Western checks.

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SEVERAL friends interested in systematic Christian beneficence have requested a fuller explanation of our reference in the April number of this MAGAZINE to the giving of the tenth as being inadequate to the requirements of Christian service and the teachings of the New Testament, and we therefore take this opportunity of presenting what seems to us the New Testament and Christian view of the matter.

The setting apart of the tenth for the Lord is no doubt advocated on the supposition that this was what the Jews were required to set apart for religious purposes. This, however, is a mistake, as the Jews devoted at least two-tenths or one-fifth of their increase to religious services and worship. Smith's Bible Dictionary says: "That there were two yearly tithes seems clear, both from the general tenor of the directions and from the Septuagint rendering of Deut. xxvi. 12." And to this other authorities agree. One of these tenths was devoted to the maintenance of the tribe of Levi, who cultivated no land, but devoted themselves to the Temple services. The Levites from their tenth were called upon to give one-tenth to the maintenance of the priests and the services of the Temple. The second tenth which the Jews were called upon to devote to the Lord was to be specially used in providing for their own religious festivals. There is some reason to believe that every third year a third tenth was given, which was to be devoted to the poor. Quoting Smith's Bible Dictionary again: "Josephus distinctly says that one-tenth was to be given to the priests and Levites, one-tenth was to be applied to feasts in the metropolis, and that a tenth besides these was every third year to be given to the poor." Although there are other authorities besides Josephus for this third tenth in the third year, yet it appears probable on the whole that this was rather a special use for a part of the second tithe. But there is no ground for doubting that the Jews were called upon to devote two-tenths of the produce of their land to religious purposes. In addition to the two-tenths the Jews also made thank offerings and free-will offerings according to the blessings they received.

There is nothing in the New Testament, however, which would lead any one to believe that the requirements imposed upon the Jews in this respect were carried over to Christians. The whole subject of offerings for the Lord seems rather, under the new dispensation, to be placed upon love and free will, and it is upon this basis that we believe it is going back to Judaism to place the requirement of one-fifth, or even one-tenth, of the income to be devoted to the Lord upon the followers of Christ. There is a principle much more in accordance with the flexible requirements of the gospel and much more reasonable in its general applications.

Take, for instance, two Christian young men, both of whom are laborers, and earn, say, an income of $600 a year. One is a single man, the other has a family of a wife and perhaps two or three children to support. The first can maintain himself easily and have a considerable amount to devote to pleasure or benevolence. The second would need to use nearly all his wages to provide a comfortable support for his family. According to what principle of reason or religion would the two men be expected to give the same amounts for religious purposes? Again, take two Christian men with equal family claims upon them, one having a salary of $2,000 and the other an income of $25,000, would there be any righteousness whatever in expecting the two to give the same proportionate amounts to religious purposes? And when we

come to Christian men with still larger incomes, how utterly inadequate onetenth, or even two-tenths, of the income would seem to be to the claims of the gospel upon them in comparison with the large excess of their income over their necessities.

Many Christians give far too little. Almost every Christian should be able to devote at least one-tenth of his income to the Lord, but a great mistake is made in emphasizing this too much, so that others who are able, and who ought to devote a much larger proportion of their income to religious objects, should think that they could be excused if they give one-tenth of their income to the Lord. It seems rather that the Lord Jesus Christ left this to the love and devotion of every Christian heart, and that the true Christian measure is, "as the Lord hath prospered," rather than any exact figure, as under the Jewish dispensation. Stewardship is the rule of the Christian dispensation. Not one-tenth or two-tenths belongs to the Lord, but ALL, and all is to be administered as in his sight and according to his will and for his glory.

Remarkable Change in public opinion has occurred in the popular estimate of the fighting qualities of the Chinese. After the war between China and Japan this estimate was very low. But since the foreign forces have had so much difficulty in their encounters with the Chinese about Peking and Tientsin, opinion of Chinese prowess has decidedly risen. The explanation lies in the fact that in the war with Japan the Chinese people were not interested. It was merely an official affair. That the Chinese can fight with the most desperate courage when aroused is shown by the Taiping Rebellion, in which between twenty and thirty million people perished, a larger loss of life than ever occurred in any other war in human history.

Encouraging News from India comes in the intelligence that good rains have fallen nearly all over the districts affected by famine. This gives relief by furnishing a supply of water, by providing food for the small proportion of animals which have survived the period of drought, and by lowering the prices of food, because of the prospect of a harvest. Aid must be continued, however. to many of the people until November, when, by the blessing of the Lord, a good harvest may be gathered, and the severest famine which ever visited famine-stricken India be at an end.

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A SRINING EXAMPLE

T gives me great pleasure to send twenty-four subscriptions to you for the BAPTIST MISSIONARY MAGAZINE. We are but an infant church of fiftyfive members, but we have gotten the fact of God that "the field is the world," into our hearts and heads, and we want to understand about and send the gospel of the grace of God to the whole world. Hence we want your magazine in as many of our homes as possible. We give three-tenths of all our receipts for mission work outside of our town, as a church, and pray God that the com ing of your magazine to us may increase our liberality yet more and more reach out into the far away darkness of heathenism.

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The BAPTIST MISSIONARY MAGAZINE has had a very large increase of circulation in the last two or three years, and it is desired that it shall reach a still larger circle of readers. This letter shows what has been done in one church and what can be done in others. Look at the remarkably easy terms on the second page of the cover, and see if you can beat the record of this little, but live missionary church.