Powers is substantially completed; but the occupation and development of their respective spheres of influence are going on with even increased energy and upon a larger scale. Missionary societies are not slow to emulate the enterprise and eagerness of explorers, trading companies, and political agencies; and their stations multiply swiftly and march steadily toward the great, unreached populations in the vast interior of the continent. The movement is well calculated to challenge faith, to stir enthu-siasm, and to call out high courage and far-reaching plans; few missionary problems. are of wider dimensions or deeper import than the evangelization of this vast pagan world.

The three missions of the Board in Africa feel the quickening of all this wide stír, and report increased activity. A change of centre for the East African Mission is under contemplation, and a pioneer party of three missionaries and two native helpers is now in Gazaland, near Umzila's old kraal, selecting a site that shall combine Egreater advantages than that at Inhambane in point of healthfulness, accessible population, and freedom from political interference. This territory, while nominally under the rule of Gungunyana, Umzila's son and successor, is virtually within the jurisdiction of the British South Africa Company, and Hon. Cecil Rhodes, the president of the company, has assured the missionaries of a cordial welcome and of protection, and has promised to grant them a concession of 3,000 acres as soon as they determine upon a site. The work at Inhambane has been maintained, with the added! facility of portions of the New Testament in Sheetswa, in printed form, in the hands of the pupils in the mission schools.

The Zulu Mission has received a cheering reinforcement, including a missionary physician; has shared in the plans for the forward movement of the East African Mission to Gazaland, and sympathized deeply in the interest elicited by this movement; reports special revival influences at nearly half its stations, a larger accession of the membership to its churches than in any previous year of its history, and the native contributions more than twice as great as last year; and with rising courage and hope plans to extend its work to three new centres outside its present field. Large numbers. of the natives follow the steady drift of foreigners to the gold fields, and from these new centres opening the way for the influence of this mission to reach far beyond its present field. The native Christians are taking a deeper interest in all Christian work and are giving more liberally to its support. The schools of the mission, from the theological seminary down to the kraal schools and the kindergarten, are in a prosperous. condition, well manned, well attended, and receive the cordial endorsement of the Colonial inspector. An unusually large number of the pupils in the high schools for boys and for girls have entered upon the Christian life during the year.

The past year is marked in the West African Mission by the serious diminution of its numbers, and by the cheering progress of all its work. Three young women for the schools, two families to open a new station near Bailundu, and a physican for the mission, are called for this year, and are urgently needed. The work at every point, evangelistic, educational, literary, and medical, develops beyond the ability of the present force to overtake it, and was never in a more thriving condition. The churches at Bailundu and Kamondongo report an accession of members and growth in Christian knowledge and life. The young men share with the missionaries in evangelistic labors. in the nearer villages, and in some instances go out by themselves for this work. The schools have greatly increased in numbers and in regularity of attendance, and the pupils, both boys and girls, are making excellent progress. A class of advanced pupils. at Bailundu, under Mr. Stover's instruction, forms the germ of a training school for teachers and preachers. The mission has won its place in the confidence of the people, and is taking deep root, as we trust, for a long and fruitful life.

ASIATIC TURKEY.

Unusual internal activity in the study and revision of methods in all lines of missionary work, especially in the matter of providing an adequate native ministry; multiplied and vexatious governmental interference with missionary operations in all parts of the empire; and a more rapid spread of evangelical sentiment among the people and leaders of the old churches, constitute the salient features of the year's history in these three great missions. These all reveal the progress and widening influence of the work of the Board, and warrant heightened expectations for the future. Our government has exerted itself vigorously and effectively in the defence of the missionaries and of their rights, and we are permitted to record improved relations, which we trust may continue for some time to come.

In the Western Turkey field the churches are gaining in numbers and spiritual power, and some report special religious interest. There is a scarcity of native preachers, and no satisfactory prospect of an adequate increase in the near future. Touring among out-stations, bringing missionary and native brethren into closest relations, has been no inconsiderable part of the year's labor, and has been attended with even more than customary good results. Increased numbers and satisfactory work are reported in Anatolia College and the College for Girls at Constantinople; especial interest gathers about the new High School for Boys at Smyrna, and the kindergarten work at Smyrta and Cesarea; while in all the schools of the mission there is grateful evidence of faithful work and good results.

The Greek Evangelical Alliance, despite its serious loss in the death of Dr. Constan tine, maintains its organization and pursues its labors with unwearied ardor. Woman's work, always an important part of mission life, has been pursued with wonted fidelity. and additional work among women is planned for on nearly every station.

The attention of the Central Turkey Mission has been occupied to an unusual degree in the discussion of questions of internal management and methods, especially as related to the schools of the mission and the supply of a native ministry. As one of the results, the spirit and aims of all the work in the field have been purified and elevated; and the mission sets out on the coming year under happier auspices than ever.

The churches of this mission, with not a few exceptions, are suffering from the want of proper pastoral care and from internal dissensions. Better pastors and more of them; more constant and intimate supervision by missionary brethren, and above all a deeper consecration on the part of preachers and people, are obvious and urgent needs. The mission earnestly calls for reinforcements, in part to provide for these very needs. The Seminary at Marash continues to do good work, and is cheered by the promise of an unusually large class the coming year. The completion of the new college building, the enlargement of the girls' college building at Marash, and the organization of a successful academy at Marash are material additions to the educa tional appliances of the mission. The labors of the missionary women are varied and efficient, and are to be materially increased the coming year.

The transfer of Mosul and its field to the care of the Persian Mission of the Pres byterian Board diminishes the extent of the Eastern Turkey Mission, and withdraws from it one of the points first visited and occupied. Much as the change is regretted. the interests of the work seemed to require it. In spite of special efforts to trai the native agency, this mission suffers from the want of pastors and preaching; and no little time was given at the recent annual meeting to the study of this proble The field is thoroughly visited by the touring missionaries, and the churches generi are reported in a satisfactory condition. The native contributions are all maintained and in spite of poverty show a gain from year to year. The most striking and perhap the most encouraging fact is the large number of Gregorians who come to the misse

churches, and the frequency with which native evangelical preachers, and even missionaries, are invited to preach in the old churches.

The movement to America still draws away many of the most promising young men and drains the churches of their best blood. The Seminary suffers peculiarly from this emigration, and it is a serious question how to bring its work up to the demands of the field. Euphrates College flourishes and extends its bracing evangelical influence more widely each year. The high schools for both sexes gather large numbers of choice youths, give them the elements of a thorough Christian education under the constant personal influence of devoted teachers, and continue to be among the most fruitful evangelistic agencies in the mission. Woman's work in this mission is in competent hands, and deals with the very heart of the missionary problem and yields large results. Six single women are called for this year to fill vacancies and provide for the growing work.

As we thus survey these wide and varied fields, and mark the deeper flow of events, the impression grows upon us that this work is of the Lord. His smile is ever on it; it is "a field that the Lord hath blessed." The imperfect labors of men are continually supplemented by Almighty power, and carried resistlessly on against obstacles, in spite of defects, through all human opposition to glorious success. To Him be all the praise!

MISSIONS IN PAPAL LANDS, EUROPEAN TURKEY, INDIA,

AND JAPAN.

[Secretary Clark's Department.]

PAPAL LANDS.

THE three missions in Papal lands report returns for labor and money expended fully up to the average of other missions. They are not prosecuted in the hope of the eventual prevalence of Protestantism as a form of worship but as a means of introduc-. ing the leaven of a new Christian life. Our good intentions are not always appreciated, but our work is none the less important for the social and moral regeneration of the people among whom we labor. Our immediate object is to gather evangelical churches, that shall illustrate a purer faith and the transforming power of the gospel on the intellectual and social life of those who receive it. It is much that thirty-one churches, with a membership of nearly 1,500 souls, have been organized in Papal lands, and that the gospel is regularly preached each Lord's day in more than sixty different towns and

cities.

Two points of special interest should be noticed in connection with the work in Mexico: the erection and completion of two commodious church edifices to represent our work, one in Guadalajara and one in Chihuahua, erected largely through the efforts of missionaries in securing the necessary funds from personal friends in this country. It has long been felt that such church buildings would add much to the moral power of our work in those cities and throughout the country. The next point of interest is the establishment of a Training School for a native ministry, in which the New West Education Commission joins with the American Board. A suitable building has now been erected at El Paso which will conveniently serve to meet the wants of the New West Education Commission as well as those of our own mission.

The work begun in Austria twenty years ago is now confined almost wholly to Bohemia. The membership of the churches in this field has increased by more than twenty per cent. the past year. Besides supplying native laborers as preachers and evangelists for its own immediate work, this mission has contributed most generously to the aid of Bohemian work in the United States, and is worthy of being sustained vigorously, if for no other purpose than to raise up good and efficient workers for Cleveland and Chicago. This mission has been marked by steady progress, ever

widening in its influence, till it has become a power in Bohemia; and many who opposed it at first are compelled to recognize its value to the social and moral life of the country.

The Mission to Spain has just been made happy by the appointment of two more of our cultured women to take part in the Girls' School at San Sebastian. The success which has attended this enterprise is far beyond our most sanguine expectations. Each of the three mission fields has a type of work peculiar to itself. In Spain it is through the higher Christian education of women that the greatest influence has been gained. The public examination of pupils from this school, in which they carried off more than their full share of honors, in competition with young men of a government institute at San Sebastian, created a profound impression and was widely heralded by the newspaper press through the country. It is much to establish in Spain an institution which shall enlist the best energies of four graduates of Mount Holyoke and one from Wellesley College, and it seems wise to follow up vigorously what has already been begun with so much hope and promise.

EUROPEAN TURKEY.

The mission to the Bulgarians, better known as the mission to European Turkey, is planting Christian institutions in the region to the south of the Danube; glad to improve all opportunities secured to them by the jealousy of Russia. Every day for Christian effort thus gained is a day of hope for this branch of the Sclavonic race. All of the improved methods of missionary effort have here found ample scope: the press, Christian education, the preacher of the Word, not excepting the Bible-woman. The result for the year is a larger increase in the membership of the churches than ever before within a similar period, and is full of promise for the future. This mission is cheered and strengthened by the presence of Dr. Elias Riggs, now more than eighty years old, who is still at work preparing commentaries upon the Scriptures which he translated into the Bulgarian more than twenty years ago.

INDIA.

Great changes are in progress in India, affecting the intellectual and social life of its people. These result in part from the establishment of higher institutions of learning in the great centres; in part from the acquaintance of the leading men with Western civilization; and still more from the quiet, leavening influence of Christian missions. Until within a few years this influence has been mostly limited to the lower classes, but now it is making itself felt among the higher castes. This fact is noted by English and American travelers who become acquainted with the Christian work going on in the country, and who observe its influence upon the religious life and spirit of the people. Dr. Pentecost, in his recent utterances, confirms the representations of Dr. March, Rev. E. G. Porter, Bishop Thoburn, and others. He speaks of "hundreds, yes, thousands of converts who openly confess their faith in Christ, whose numbers are not returned in tables of missionary statistics because they have not received baptism: and of other thousands who are yet secretly cherishing a faith in Christ which will presently burst out into open confession." The unrest and dissatisfaction with old heathen doctrines and usages, which found expression a few years since in the Brahmo Somaj, and later in other societies of a like character, are now leading thoughtful men to consider the claims of Christ. In these circumstances it goes without saying that there is need of enlarged and most vigorous effort, conducted by men of the highest intellectual and spiritual qualifications, to meet the exigencies of the time.

The missionary force now in the field is quite inadequate to meet the changed condition of the popular mind. The Marathi Mission, for example, covers an area with a population of over 3,286,000, distributed in thirty towns and 3,570 villages. The

entire number of missionaries, men and women, from this country engaged in missionary effort in their behalf, is thirty-three, residing at eight different stations, while the number of native agents of all classes amounts to 351, residing at mission stations and 118 out-stations. But what are they among so many? The return of Rev. Dr. Allen Hazen, after nearly twenty years of absence, was heartily welcomed by the missionaries and by old acquaintances among the native Christians. His fine command of the language enabled him at once to engage in active work, to the relief of the mission suffering from the recent loss of Dr. Bissell.

Within a little over a year the three missions have lost by death five of their oldest members, honored and beloved for their work's sake: Dr. Bissell, of the Marathi Mission; Mrs. J. E. Chandler and Rev. J. T. Noyes, of the Madura Mission; Dr. Hastings and Rev. W. W. Howland, of Ceylon, - each after a service of more than forty years, and all leaving children to follow in their steps to the number of eighteen, fifteen of whom have given their lives to India, one to Mexico, one to Japan, and one in the Hawaiian Islands. This record indicates at once the healthfulness of the climate, and the satisfaction of parents and children in the opportunities of Christian work offered in mission service.

The Madura Mission began the year 1891 under great depression. Less than one half of the stations were occupied, and thus the work of those remaining in the field I was doubled, while funds for the support of schools and of the native agency were greatly reduced. Through the untiring efforts of the missionaries and the fidelity of native pastors and preachers, the results were less disastrous than might have been expected. Special contributions from friends, Sabbath-schools, and Young People's Societies furnished invaluable aid in continuing the support of schools and of native preachers. Relief from these sources was supplemented by a grant-in-aid from the treasury of the Board. Before the year closed the mission was further cheered and encouraged by the return of Messrs. Tracy and Jones, with their families, and by four new missionaries.

The event of the present year occurred a few weeks ago in the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Pasumalai College and Seminary. This institution has grown to be one of the most important in the entire mission field of the Board, where over 400 young men are found in attendance in its different departments. Its value to the Madura Mission and the high esteem in which it is held could have no better illustration than the generous offerings of native preachers and pastors of a month's salary for its kendowment the present year. When we consider that most of these salaries range from $40 to $100 a year, for men with families to support, the extent of their selfdenial for an institution they love will be better appreciated. At a time when whole villages are renouncing heathenism and begging for Christian instruction, the enlargement of an institution like this, intended to supply the needed preachers and teachers, s most timely, and marks a new era in the history of the mission.

The special point of interest to be noted in Ceylon the past year is the religious interest which has centred in Jaffna College, through which a large number of choice young men have been led to consecrate themselves to Christ and to the welfare of their native land. This mission is now greatly reduced in numbers, and must be speedily einforced if the work sustained there so long, and so dear to our churches by the nemories of Scudder, Poor, and Spaulding, is to be brought to full fruition.

JAPAN.

It is with great regret that we are obliged to report a loss rather than a gain to the nissionary force in this field, notwithstanding the remarkable opportunities for enarged effort on every hand and the repeated appeals from the mission. The hopes herished ten and fifteen years ago of the early evangelization of Japan are not to be