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American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions

Mission Rooms, Congregational House, Boston, Mass.

Rev. N. G. CLARK, D.D.
Rev. E. K. ALDEN, D.D.
Rev. JUDSON SMITH, D.D.

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Corresponding Secretaries.

LANGDON S. WARD, Treasurer.

Rev. CHARLES C. CREEGAN, D.D., Field Secretary.
Rev. E. E. STRONG, D.D., Editorial Secretary.
CHARLES E. SWETT, Publishing and Purchasing Agent.

Letters for the above-mentioned persons should be addressed CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE, No. 1 Somerset Street, Boston, Mass.

Communications relating to the pecuniary affairs of the Board should be sent to the Treasurer; subscriptions and remittances for the MISSIONARY HERALD, to the Publishing Agent.

Mrs. ELIZA H. WALKER, Auburndale, Mass., or, Mrs. SARAH C. LITTLE, Oberlin, Ohio, may be addressed in reference to the care of Missionary children.

District Secretaries.

New York, the Middle and South Atlantic States, Connecticut, and Ohio.
Rev. Charles H. Daniels, D.D., No. 121 Bible House, New York City.
States of the Interior.

Rev. A. N. Hitchcock, Ph.D., Room 24, No. 151 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill.
Rev. Dr. S. J. Humphrey, who still renders partial service, may be addressed at the same office

Office of Rev. Walter Frear, Agent of the Board on the Pacific Coast, is at No. 7 Montgomery Avenue, San Francisco, Cal.

Woman's Boards of Missions.

W. B. M., ROSTON. Miss ABBIE B. CHILD, Secretary. Miss ELLEN CARRUTH, Treasurer. No. 1 Congregational House, Beacon Street, Boston.

W. B. M. OF THE INTERIOR. Miss M. D. WINGATE, No. 59 Dearborn Street, Chicago, Secretary. Mrs. J. B. LEAVE, No. 59 Dearborn Street, Chicago, Treasurer.

W. B. M. FOR THE PACIFIC. Mrs. J. H. WARREN, Secretary, 1316 Mason Street, San Francisco, Oal Mrs. R. E. COLE, Treasurer, Oakland, Cal.

Letters relating to "LIFE AND LIGHT" should be addressed Secretary“ Life and Light, No. I Congregational House, Boston, Mass.

Legacies.

In making devises and legacies, the entire corporate name of the particular Board which

the testator has in mind should be used as follows:

"The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, incorporated in Massachusetts in 1812."

"The Woman's Board of Missions, incorporated in Massachusetts in 1869." "The Woman's Board of Missions of the Interior, incorporated in Illinois in 1873.”

Honorary Members.

The payment of $50 at one time constitutes a minister, and the payment of $100 at on time constitutes any other person, an Honorary Member of the Board.

Publications.

The MISSIONARY HERALD, published monthly at $1.00 per year. Pamphlet Sketches of the several Missions of the Board, 35 cents for the set. "Concert Exercises" and leaflets for free distribution may be obtained at the Mission Rooms.

THE MISSION DAYSPRING, for children, published monthly by the American Board a the Woman's Boards of Missions at $3.00 for 25 copies; $1.50 for 10 copies; single copies.

20 cents.

THE AMERICAN BOARD ALMANAC, annually. Price, 10 cents; $6.00 per hundred. WALL MAPS, including Map of the World. Set of seven. Price on cloth, $10.00; paper, $6.00.

THE

MISSIONARY HERALD.

VOL. LXXXVIII. - DECEMBER, 1892. - No. XII.

THE receipts for the first two months of the new financial year from donations are about $800 less than those of the corresponding months last year, and from legacies nearly $27,000 less, making a total decline of $27,794.45. As we can hardly expect that the unusually large receipts from legacies reported last year can be repeated this year, the missions must look for unusually large receipts from donations during the present year, or they must seriously suffer. We commend this consideration to pastors and officers of churches in their plans for contributions at the beginning of the new year. Let them aim for an

advance in regular donations of not less than fifty per cent.

COPIES of the excellent sermon preached by Rev. Dr. March at the Annual Meeting of the Board in Chicago car be obtained on application at the Rooms of the Board, 1 Somerset Street. The Annual Report also will soon be issued.

WE would call the attention of those friends who desire to distribute the American Board Almanac, or to canvass for its sale, to the fact that it will be issued early in December. Special pains have been taken to secure full and exact missionary information in regard to world-wide missions, and we trust it will be found that the forthcoming number equals, if it does not surpass, any of the previous issues. The Almanac is now well recognized both in this country and in Europe as giving the latest statistical information in reference to the work of foreign missions.

A CALL of special urgency and importance comes from the missionaries at Harpoot, in Eastern Turkey, in behalf of Choonkoosh, one of their out-stations, forty-five miles south of Harpoot, among the Taurus Mountains. An excellent pastor, a goodly church and congregation, and thriving schools for boys and girls have for some years been greatly hindered in their work for want of any suitable or even decent buildings. Lately a house and lot, centrally located and convenient for these uses, have been thrown upon the market, and can now be bought for $1,760. The people are poor but will do their utmost to secure the property if they can receive aid to the amount of $660. The missionaries unite heartily in asking aid to this amount, and the Prudential Committee has agreed to make the grant as soon as any friend or friends will pledge this sum in addition to regular contributions, as a special gift. Why should not this people and the evangelical work in their midst be promptly relieved?

AN interesting incident, illustrating the fact that a good man's life is long remembered, comes from a village near Cesarea, in Turkey. Dr. Dodd, of Cesarea, was called to attend the child of a wealthy man, and in the home was an old lady nearly eighty years of age, who evidently knew little of the Protestant missionary work going on about her. But on learning that Dr. Dodd was an American, this old lady said she once knew an American who died at her house sixty-five years ago. She called his name "Mr. Gitley." She referred to the Rev. Elnathan Gridley, a missionary of the American Board, who died September 27, 1827. This old lady gave many reminiscences of that excellent man and of his noble service. The family had kept some memorials of Mr. Gridley for these more than threescore years, and evidently his character and his good work had made a strong impression in that home.

THE affairs at Uganda occupy an unusual amount of space in the British newspapers. Evidently the situation in that interior portion of Africa has awakened the deepest interest. Captain Lugard has returned to England, and has most satisfactorily disposed of the charges made against his administration of affairs by the French priests, and he has clearly pointed out to the British public the disasters which will follow the evacuation of Uganda by the British Company. It is evident that such a withdrawal will be a breaking of faith with the tribes in the interior who had come to rely upon British protection. Captain Lugard affirms that Uganda is the key to the countries lying around it, and he agrees with General Gordon that it is the natural route by which the Soudan should be administered. Knowing better than any one else what would be the effect of British withdrawal, he says: "Such a state of war and anarchy as I have indicated would undoubtedly furnish large numbers for the slave markets, more especially if the Mohammedans finally remained in the ascendant. Meanwhile Kabarega of Unyoro would resume possession of the Toru and Ruwenzori dis tricts, and the wretched natives of those countries, who have no guns to oppose to his armies, and who, relying on the Company's pledges of protection, have come from the countries of their exile (to which return is not now open to them), would be massacred, I think, without doubt, since Kabarega, who pours out human blood like water, is bitterly incensed against them for accepting the Company's rule. Lastly the hordes of Manyema from the Congo State frontier, who have already raided across the Semliki, and whose profession is slaveraiding, would have no longer any boundary placed to their incursions and would be able to gain a footing in Usongola, from which it would be hard to dislodge them." As to the best method for retaining possession of Uganda, Captain Lugard believes that the building of the railroad, at least halfway, up to Kikuyu, would so enormously facilitate communication that there would be no difficulty in retaining the present hold. Whatever plan may be adopted, Captain Lugard believes that the cost of maintaining an effective hold upon Uganda need not exceed $200,000 annually, and possibly might be less, or not more than one hali of that amount. Such a sum as this seems petty compared with the advantages to be secured; and in view of the obligations the British government has entered into in the Brussels Treaty, for the suppression of the slave-trade, it would seem that for this purpose alone, were nothing else to be gained, it might make this outlay.

Ar the great car-drawing festival in Madura city, in May last, while fifty Christians were daily employed in preaching the gospel, the crowds attending the heathen ceremonies were smaller than usual. Mr. John S. Chandler reports that the great car of the idol stuck fast in the street, and could only be moved by getting a jackscrew from the railway shop. Another accident dampened the zeal of the worshipers. A famous idol which had been brought from a temple twelve miles distant was insecurely fastened to its frame and tumbled off, with its priest. The priest was wounded and one of the pullers was fatally injured. The devotees at the great temple were much disturbed over these disasters.

THE sincerity and devotion of the Christian converts in China are sometimes questioned, but let all doubters consider a fact reported in The North China Daily News of August last, that during a riot in the province of Sz'chuen, when one of the missionaries, Mr. Turner, was seized with his wife and children, and were taken to the yamen, the order being to beat them, two native Christians volunteered to be beaten in their places. This substitution was accepted, and the converts bore the beating, while the missionaries were sent from the place. It is easy to make a slur about "rice Christians," but there are numberless instances of self-sacrificing devotion like this we have named which make the sarcasm rebound upon those who uttered it.

It seems that the path of Mr. Bartlett, of Smyrna, is not to be a smooth one. Our readers are aware of the burning of his house at Bourdour and the political complications arising therefrom, culminating in payment by the Turkish government of 600 liras indemnity. Mr. Bartlett now writes from Afion Kara Hissar, which is some seventy miles north of Bourdour, that he finds there a small body of Protestants enduring severe persecution, which he himself was permitted to share. This interior town is the largest Armenian centre in that field outside of Smyrna, having more than a thousand Armenian families, all of whom “are greatly in need of the gospel." Special persecutions began soon after the Bourlour affair, and there seems to be a combined effort, upon the part of the Deople and the local government, to crush out the work. The Protestants are nsulted and stoned upon the streets, and their Sabbath worship interfered with. The first night after the arrival of Mr. Bartlett with his daughter, Miss Nellie Bartlett, her windows were stoned; and two nights later his own were broken vith stones. The local governor promised protection, in fact everything that vas asked of him, but the promises did not materialize, and Mr. Bartlett was bout to appeal to the Legation at Constantinople. As evidence that a missionry does not regard persecution as an entirely discouraging element, Mr. Bartlett 3 proposing to remain at Afion Kara Hissar during the winter, and, by the help of the Lord, so establish the work that the persecutors will become disheartned. It will be remembered that, of the 600 liras indemnity paid over by the Turkish government, 250 liras were for Mr. Bartlett personally. He is planning ɔ use 200 liras ($880) of this sum to purchase a site and build a place of worhip where he now is. This sum will not be sufficient to complete the work, nd the balance must be made up in some other way.

We have little further news in regard to the annexation of the Gilbert Islands by the British. Some of our friends at the Hawaiian Islands regard the sentiments we expressed in our October number in regard to this annexation as somewhat rose-colored. Time alone can tell what the effect of the British occupation will be. Without hesitation, we should prefer British to Spanish or even German occupation. A report by way of Sydney states that the British flag was hoisted on all the principal islands of the Gilbert group, and that the officers on her majesty's steamship Royalist had suppressed one native war, and had arrested and executed a Gilbert Islander for the murder of a Chinaman.

THE question has frequently been asked how it has happened that for several years the American Board, with annual expenditures amounting to several hundred thousands of dollars, has reported so uniformly at the end of each year a small balance of a few hundred dollars in the treasury. The question is a natural one, and the answer is easy to give. At the beginning of each year the Prudential Committee makes an estimate of what may reasonably be expected from the churches and from legacies for the year to come, basing this estimate upon the average receipts of preceding years and pledges for the year to come. This anticipated amount, always much smaller than the Committee desires to make it, is then divided among the missions, and to each one is sent a statement as to the limit within which it must bring its regular estimates. But the missions are informed that, while the sum named is all that they can depend upon, they may present other estimates which are called "contingents," first and second, and that, if as the year advances the condition of the treasury should warrant, these contingents will be granted in the order of their importance. At the same time the churches at home are told that whatever money they give shall be appropriated for the work abroad. Accordingly, additional appropriations are made along through the year, if the receipts warrant so doing. At the close of the year, when the account of expenditures and receipts is completed, the Prudential Committee, keeping faith with the churches to appropriate all that is given, and with the missions to give them all that is received, appropriates substantially whatever balance is found in the treasury. In this way, at the last meeting of the Prudential Committee for the year just closed, it was found that there would be a balance of a little over $21,000, which was most gladly appropriated to meet a part of the pressing calls from the missions. Had there been an additional fifty or one hundred thousand dollars in the treasury, it would all have been appropriated to meet a part of the "contingent estimates," already presented from the missions for work sorely needed. The reason, therefore, for the yearly close balance of accounts is that all that is received is appropriated, and no more. Acting on the principle thus indicated, it will be seen that there can be neither surplus nor deficit of any large amount, except as the receipts fall below the average of preceding years, in which case not only must a debt be reported, but the missions will be sadly crippled. What gladness and what a grand advance would there be among the missions if, over and above the low limit of regular estimates, immediate additional pledges could be forwarded of not less than $150,000 to meet the more pressing items on the "contingent list"!

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