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entirely through the charity of others and not taught to work for themselves, he opened an Industrial Department in September, 1890. The trades now taught are printing, farming, barbering, straw weaving, silk embroidery, the manufacture of matting, besides cooking, washing, and sewing. He plans soon to open match and soap manufactories and a training school for carpenters. The children work through the day and study in the evening. There is also a kindergarten for the very youngest, and an English class for seven of the most promising students.

Of many gifts to the Asylum from all parts of the world the past year has seen two of special magnitude, one from a Japanese, and one from abroad. A humble, devoted evangelist in Banshu has given his whole property, valued at some $1,800 to Mr. Ishii's work, and that estate is now used as the farm branch of the Asylum. One striking fact is that it has never been necessary during the four and a half years of this work to buy a single article of wearing apparel, save when the "earthquake branch" was first opened at Nagoya. Enough has always been contributed for the needs of the children by students of the Doshisha and other schools, or by churches and communities.

Two hundred and eighty-five boys and girls have been connected with the Home. Of these, twenty-five have died, seven run away, twenty been returned to their friends, and 233 may now be found in the three Homes. The children practically govern themselves, they being divided for this purpose and for their trades, like the old Israelites, into companies of tens, of fifties, and of hundreds. All elections are by ballot, weekly meetings are held about Asylum interests, the graver cases alone being referred to Mr. Ishii. The children print sermonettes and distribute them through the city, and are preparing to publish a small paper. They take great interest in their industries, are loyal to the Asylum, almost worship "Father Ishii," and soon catch his spirit of simple trust and practical piety.

The Asylum is preeminently a place of prayer. Founded in prayer, it is continued in the same spirit. The morning hour from six to seven is called the prayer hour. The children go singly to a shaded graveyard in the rear of the temple for private devotions. Also at nine o'clock on Friday evening a short meeting for those who desire it is held at the same sacred spot. This is the Bethel of the Asylum, and has witnessed several remarkable answers to the prayer of faith. After breakfast comes a half-hour of devotions in the temple, and again in the evening. On Sabbath afternoon the children march in military order, headed by their own buglers, to church, a mile and a half away. It is a stirring sight and has led more than one sightseer to send gifts to the Asylum and to inquire into the claims of the Christian religion.

To sum up the man and his work in a sentence: Ishii and his institution are a practical realization of his own favorite New Testament verse, "A new com. mandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." A love that 'works itself out in deeds; a life that is truly Christian; the spirit of the Bible worked into flesh and blood; simple loyalty worthy of a Christian Samurai; faith that feels, hope that, though always grave, is never despondent; love that counts no cost, if it may but save a few of "the least of these my brethren."

THE

MISSIONARY HERALD.

VOL. LXXXVIII. — SEPTEMBER, 1892. — No. IX.

THE receipts for July from donations were in advance of those of the corresponding month in 1891 by nearly $4,800, and from bequests by over $40,000, a total advance of $45,037.40. For the eleven months the advance from donations was over $9,500, and from legacies over $30,000, making the total advance $39,890.69. The month of August, which will complete the record for the year, should be the most fruitful month, particularly in donations. Let all pastors and officers of churches, as well as individual donors, do their best to send in all the offerings from churches and givers intended for the present fiscal year before the month ends. So shall the year close with thanksgiving.

We have received the prospectus of the "Cross-bearers' Missionary Reading Circle," of which Z. M. Williams, of St. Joseph, Missouri, is Secretary. The object of the Circle is to stimulate its members, old and young, to a thorough study of mission work in all lands. For this purpose it prescribes a three years' course of reading, and proposes to give a certificate of graduation on the completion of the course. The following is the course indicated for the present year: 1. Life of James Calvert. 2. Life of Mackay of Uganda. 3. Dr. Chapman's "Lands of the Orient." 4. Dr. Pierson's "Divine Enterprise of Missions." It also names as one of its textbooks The Missionary Review of the World. The membership fee of the Circle is fifty cents per annum. Further information can be obtained by addressing the Secretary, or Rev. M. L. Gray, President, Salisbury, Missouri.

On the last page of the cover of this number will be found the notice of the Annual Meeting of the Board to be held at Chicago, October 4-7. The first Tuesday in October is the time named in the By-laws of the Board for the commencement of the Annual Meeting, and though some suggestions as to a change have been made, circumstances seem to make any change impossible. The National Council of Congregational Churches is appointed for the next week at Minneapolis, and the week subsequent to that Chicago is to be engaged in celebrations incident to the opening of the buildings for the Columbian Exhibition. The friends at Chicago are anticipating a large and enthusiastic meeting of the Board, and they are making every preparation for the assembly, including, in their generosity, among those for whom entertainment will be provided, all home missionaries under commission and the officers of all the Congregational benevolent societies.

On the nineteenth of August, Rev. Dr. F. E. Clark, President of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, was to sail from San Francisco for a tour around the world in the interest of the Christian Endeavor movement. The sympathies and prayers of the million and a half members of that organization will go with him as he seeks to extend its principles and methods in other parts of the world. The movement has already had extraordinary success in Australia, to which continent Dr. Clark will first go. He will then visit Japan, China, India, Egypt, Turkey, and some sections of Europe, hoping to reach home in June of next year. In many of the countries he will visit he will be welcomed, not merely as the head of the Christian Endeavor movement, but as a member of the Prudential Committee of the American Board and cognizant of its work in many lands. Aside from the good which Dr. Clark may do by his personal presence and addresses in these distant lands, we look for a large increase in missionary zeal at home, especially among the young people who will follow him in his journey in their thoughts and with their prayers, and through their personal interest in him will have their attention called to the work of God among the unevangelized.

THE Missionary Herald has exchanges in almost all parts of the world, but it was a genuine surprise to receive from Domasi, in Central Africa, far up among the Shiré Highlands, a comely paper of eight pages with a cover, entitled Life and Work in British Central Africa, accompanied by a request for exchange. The paper is issued regularly by the mission of the Established Church of Scotland, at Blantyre, near Lake Nyasa, and is a notable sign of the progress of civilization in that formerly inacessible region. What surprises us most in the paper is an article on the labor question, revealing the fact that there is a great demand for laborers, especially in the cultivation of coffee. The traffic along the river has greatly increased, and more laborers are needed. The article affirms that the Angoni, the Atonga, and other tribes can supply men enough, if the means of communication are improved and the machinery used in civilized lands can be introduced. We shall watch with interest for the coming of this paper from Central Africa.

WE have received from Mr. Bunker, of the East Central African Mission, a letter dated Umzumbe, Natal, May 16, in which he says that the proposed expedition to Gazaland would probably be on its way during July and part of August. The party is to consist of Mr. Wilder, Dr. Thompson, and Mr. Bunker, who will go by sea to Beira with such provisions as may be needed for a stay of a year, the expectation being that by that time their families can follow them. They have received the written consent of King Gungunyana for settlement in his country. Mr. Bunker sends an interesting historical account of Matebele and Gazaland, which we shall hope to give in our next number.

IT is with great pleasure that we can report that the colony of Natal, South Africa, has at last come into the Postal Union, so that the rates of postage to our Zulu Mission, which have hitherto been exceptionally high, are now uniform with those of other missions, namely, five cents per half-ounce on letters.

ONLY two or three months since we noticed the issuing of the third edition of that standard treatise, "Medical Missions," by Dr. John Lowe, of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. It is with great regret that we have now to chronicle the death of this eminent man. Dr. Lowe in early life went to India under the London Society, but was compelled to return on account of the health of his wife. He then became Secretary of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society, and Superintendent of its Training Institution, which positions he has filled in a most admirable way for twenty-one years. He has trained a large number of medical missionaries, inspiring them with his own zeal and devotion. Aside from his deep interest in foreign missionary work he has done much for the poor of Edinburgh, organizing various efforts in their behalf, and often preaching among them with great power. He was a trusted adviser of the principal missionary societies of all denominations, and his loss will be deeply felt. A remarkable tribute to his character and worth was given by the crowds of mourners at his funeral in Edinburgh, large numbers coming from the slums of the city.

THE heated term which has continued for a few weeks throughout the United States will suggest to friends at home something of what our missionaries in India and in other torrid regions have to endure while prosecuting their work. There this heat continues day and night for months. Secretary Cobb, of the Board of Missions of the Reformed Church, is now visiting India, and in a letter to a denominational paper he says: One needs experience in order to realize the tremendous drain upon the strength, and on the spirits also, made by the extreme, unrelenting, and long-continued heat to which the missionaries are subjected." Dr. Cobb was writing from Madura City, March 21, and he adds: "Even in the cooler months, of which March may be considered one, the heat is hard to bear. Our constant thought and frequent exclamation was, 'What must it be in summer!''

We have before us the jubilee number of The Dnyanodaya, dated Bombay, June 30. The first number was issued in June, 1842, with Rev. Henry Ballantine as editor and Rev. Amos Abbott as manager. The paper is now the oldest Marathi paper in the Bombay Presidency save one. Dr. Allen Hazen, who was at one time its editor, says that when the paper was started there were probably not a hundred Christians speaking the Marathi language. It was originally a monthly paper, then semi-monthly, but for the last nineteen years it has been issued weekly. It has unquestionably been a great power for good in the section of India through which it has circulated, and it is a cause for devout thankfulness that it has been enabled to exert such wholesome Christian influence for a half-century.

A TELEGRAM has been received from Madras, dated August 6, giving the sad intelligence of the death of Rev. Joseph T. Noyes, of the Madura Mission. Mr. Noyes has been ill for many months, and fears have been entertained that he would not recover. Our last report, however, gave ground for hoping that he might live, at least till his daughter, who is now on the way to join the Madura Mission, should reach her home. But such, it seems, was not the will of God. A further notice of this valued man will be given next month.

By an oversight, which we much regret, the names of most of the subscribers for the Annual Report of the Japan Mission were not forwarded to Japan at the time they should have been. Those subscribers who fail to receive their copies in due season must wait patiently till the return mail from Japan shall bring them. This Report, which is a document of 150 pages, with a map, is of unusual interest and presents the work of this vigorous mission in a most attractive form.

It will be remembered that when the Morning Star passed through the Caroline Islands on her last voyage, Mr. and Mrs. Rand, Miss Foss, and Miss Fletcher decided to remain on the island of Mokil, inasmuch as the Spaniards would not allow them to resume missionary work on Ponape. By a chance vessel which touched at Mokil, Mr. Rand wrote, on April 11, that they had received a warm reception from the people. They expected a welcome but were not prepared for the royal kindness with which the natives of Mokil have treated them. Native food is abundant and the people have kept the missionaries well supplied; they also helped them in the building of a house, working willingly and without pay. At first the spiritual life of the people seemed at a low ebb, but Mr. Rand reports a great improvement, and he is hopeful that a strong working church can be built up. The tidings from Ponape are meagre, and though there had been no fighting, there was at last dates much excitement over the killing of a member of the Metalenim tribe by a Manila soldier. The natives were rebuilding their defences. Mr. Rand writes that all their missionary party are in good health and are finding an abundant field for work. We shall hope to hear good news from Mokil on the return of the Star.

THE work devolving upon the Prudential Committee and Executive Officers of the Board does not decrease either in amount or importance with the heat of summer. At its weekly session held on July 26, the Committee found on its table a docket covering fifty-four items relating to work in all parts of the world. Though the thermometer stood at 96° in the shade, the Committee was able at the session to pass upon thirty-two of the items brought before it.

THE world does indeed move when Africa opens an International Exposition. In this month of September, 1892, says L'Afrique, the South African Colonies invite European visitors to Kimberly, their diamond city, for this purpose, and the idea has received such a welcome that the plans of the exposition buildings have had to be enlarged to accommodate exhibitors. Machinery will play a great part, especially that employed in the two great industries of the country, the extraction of gold and of diamonds. English industries will be well represented, for England recognizes the growing importance of the openings afforded by Southern Africa, whose imports have risen, in the period between 1885 and 1890, from £8,500,000 to £13,780,000, a striking mark of the rapid progress of colonization in that part of Africa.

ACCORDING to the returns made to the Inspector-General of Customs at Shanghai, the total number of foreigners in China in 1890 was 8, 107, of whom 1,153 were American citizens. Nearly, if not quite, one half of these Americans in China are missionaries.

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