S. L. Gulick. The following is a literal copy of his brief address: "Mr. Atkinson, Miss Barrows, and Mr. Gulick: Thank you very much that you come here to celebrate our anniversary. We present our hearty gratitude to you as the representatives of our blessed Christian friends in the United States of America. All the memory of the history of the past ten years of our church make us to recollect of your constant care and brotherly sympathy towards us. We are now on the way of gradual progress. We owe our present happy condition entirely to your care and sympathy. My poor English cannot express even a part of our full thankfulness to you. No one will know our thankful hearts except Him who deigns to hear our humble thanksgiving. We hope you will present our gratitude to your beloved friends in your country. Blessed be your work in the future in Japan. Blessed be the Lord. Amen." The three services on that Sabbath occupied eight hours: three in the forenoon, two in the afternoon, and three at night. Dr. Atkinson refers to the presence of the chief judge of the Prefectural Court in Kochi, who was present at some of the services. This man was a member of a class of judges and government advocates which a few years since Mr. Atkinson conducted, and, though he has not yet made a profession of religion, he reads the Bible and Christian literature and prays daily. Of these services at Kochi, Dr. Atkinson says: "The evangelical character of all the services and addresses was distinctly marked. There was not in any address, prayer, or conversation a single remark that could be interpreted as unevangelical or non-evangelical. I believe that this represents the general intellectual position of the workers in the Hyogo and Kochi provinces, and it is very gratifying to be able to say this." NOT A BAD RECORD. "On October 20 the members of the Tamon church, of Kōbe, held a service in their church building . . . and cele - brated the twentieth anniversary of their existence as a Christian body. The church was packed full with a sympathetic and attentive audience. The services consisted of singing, scripture reading, prayer, and historical review of the twenty years, an address by the pastor, the Rev. Mr. Osada, who is now in the eleventh year of his service to the church, and a sermon by the Rev. T. Harada, of Kyōtō. The statistics of the twenty years are, in brief, as follows: Members at the time of organization, eighteen. Present membership, 419. Total number received to membership during the twenty years, 886. Children baptized, 125. Money contributed for carrying on the work from the beginning, including $3,000 for their church building, a little over 16,000 yen. There are no wealthy men in the church, hence this amount of money represents a great deal of self-sacrificing interest on the part of the membership. Besides paying their pastor a good salary, the church provides him with two assistants, a young man and a woman of mature years. All three of the workers are of the Samurai class. "This brief notice indicates pretty clearly that the Japanese Christians have a good deal of heart in their faith, and that they cannot be said to become believers in order that they may receive something from others." STREET PREACHING IN KYŌTō. Mr. Cary writes from Kyōtō, November 23: "I have commenced a work which is quite in the line of what I enjoy. We were able with the beginning of this month to hire a small building where, at the junction of two prominent streets, there is something of an open space. Here Mr. Curtis carries on his night school, and I have been going nearly every afternoon for a preaching service. The room in which I preach is small and very few people come in; but numbers stop before the building, and as its front is open, it amounts to about the same as street preaching. Street preaching does not seem wise here, as it would lead to objections from the police; but where the street is so wide that there is no interference with passing, no objection is made if people stop to listen to what is being said within the building. Some only listen a minute or two before passing on; but at the end of my talk, which lasts perhaps three quarters of an hour, I think that I have at least fifty persons who have listened for half an hour or more; while the whole audience at the close is considerably over 100. It is a scattering of seed wherever it may chance to fall, and the results may never be known to us here. But I believe that some of the words will find lodgment in the minds of the hearers. If nothing else is accomplished, these addresses may have a part in the movement by which Christian truths are gradually being taught to the people and giving the new ideas. "There seem to be several indications that point towards brighter days than we have recently known. The sifting process has gone so far that it would seem to be nearly finished. The desire for better things, and readiness to work for them, are increasing. I doubt whether the immediate future is to see what will be recognized as a great movement; I could almost write that I hope there will not be anything of the kind. Perhaps that would be too strong a way to put it; but my hopes for permanent results would be from quieter methods. It is steady, plodding work and individual effort for souls that are now needed. Perhaps the falling away of many who were prominent leaders and eloquent preachers will bring forward into more activity those whose gifts, though less striking, may prove as useful. It is not for us, however, to determine what God's method of saving this land shall be. Enough for us if by using us or others he builds up his kingdom here." MAEBASHI.- A REACTION. Mr. and Mrs. Albrecht, on returning to Japan after their furlough in the United States, have been located at Maebashi, and Mr. Albrecht writes from that place under date of December 7: — "We are fairly weli settled and the work opens hopefully. Certainly there is room for any man's full strength and time in this field, the only discouraging feature being the manifest impossibility of one man's meeting all the demands which the field in its present condition makes. The four churches in the northern part of the field are all pastorless, and three of them have scarcely more than a name. All the other churches are but shadows of their former selves; in some of them only one or two Christians are left. How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! "But the outlook is hopeful. The Lord has not forgotten his Zion here; with great mercies will he gather it. In Him is our trust. The antagonism to missionaries and to evangelical Christianity has run its course. The few who are still its advocates are like the rubbish caught in Niagara's whirlpool, swirling around and around, while the noble stream of God's truth flows on in serene grandeur and power. I know I have here in my field some men of liberal thought, but they are bent, together with the rest, upon spiritual life and soul-stirring work. There is a remnant in these devastated churches. In almost every place there is at least one praying soul; and I have more faith in those prayers than in much of the preaching we have had here. The churches here have been preached to death. Last week, in connection with our Welcome Meeting here, we had three days of meetings, and it has seldom been my privilege to share in such rich blessings. Two hours were occupied, every minute thereof in earnest prayer and brief testimony or exhortation. Delegates from nearly all the churches were present, and it was evident that there were those in the churches of Joshu who had not bent their knees before Baal. One dear old brother, the only one remaining of a once flourishing church, shaking for some minutes like an aspen leaf, broke out: O Lord! thy spirit is upon me, and my soul rejoices.' The need and the blessedness of prayer, both secret and family prayer, were urged again and again. The workers in this field are heartily united and bent upon earnest work. They have formed a Missionary Union,' whose object it is to help especially the pastorless churches, but also to visit in turn each church for a series of spiritual meetings. They have now decided to meet once every three months for two or three days of Bible study and for consideration of practical topics with the resident missionary. "All the Christians, especially the evangelists, have given the new-coming missionary as hearty a welcome as any one could ever wish for. The kindly words spoken at the Welcome Meeting, to which nearly thirty delegates from almost all the churches had come, were evidently sincere. "Of course the rebuilding of the waste places will not be done in a day nor in a year. It will be slow work, requiring patience and tact; but the Lord's work will again prosper. It will, I believe, be built up on a firmer foundation than at first. The stones will not be held together by the popularity of Christianity and of Western civilization, but by true repentance and loyalty to the Lord Jesus. Opposition to Christianity is by no means past. Dr. Kato, formerly of the Imperial University, thinks that Christianity cannot altogether claim the privilege of being left undisturbed, as its teachings and practice are in some respects antagonistic to the national welfare. The public peace and our duties as subjects are not to be sacrificed on the altar of religious liberty. The Shintoists also proclaim anew that Christianity is injurious to State interests, and must therefore be opposed. So the Lord's cause will have to work its way with the power of its truth and the blessing of Almighty God, and we are satisfied that it should do so." TOTTORI AND OUT-STATIONS. Mr. Bartlett, writing from Tottori in November last, gives some account of the plans made by himself and the native evangelist at Tottori for the visitation of the regions round about them. Of the actual carrying out of their plans in Inaba he writes: 66 'Mrs. Bartlett and I have been for some weeks making occasional raids into the hills on our wheels, and preaching the true God to the crowd that early gathers in such villages at high noon. That is a kind of work little done in Japan, and rather discouraged by the evangelists and others who used to be our advisers, so that it was with rather bashful faces and beating hearts that we began our day by saying to a group in a most squalid village, 'We are going to speak to you of Christ now,' and began. We soon had an earnest group of men, women, and children, upwards of seventy strong, drinking in the words of cheer for the downtrodden, of a God, one God, who loves his children and hears their prayers, and is jealous of foolish worship elsewhere, and of forgiven hearts so light that misery was turned to joy. They thanked us over and over again. We afterwards learned that we had spoken to a village of the despised Eta class. us. "The next time proved harder still, as the village was more well-to-do and sophisticated, and did not gather to examine We had to begin with one man, who did not seem to like to have a formal speech on religion made to him. However, our faith was only tried a few minutes. After that the people began to gather, and we had a most sympathetic and inspiring congregation who nodded approval of the promises and shook their heads at the warnings, and could not go away when I said I would stop unless they wanted to listen a little while longer on a somewhat new subject. This made us bold to believe that God would prepare hearers if we were trustful, not in proba bilities, but in him. "On our first night at Iwai we had a small meeting in the hotel, arranged for as a mere matter of business by the landlady. We announced a meeting for the next night and spent the next day, first, in hunting up those of our auditors whose names we have learned; second, in boldly calling at a large number of houses and leaving reading matter, with an invitation to attend the meeting; next, in visiting two neighboring villages where we called on a large number of people, preaching several minute sermons at some houses, and in all cases urging attendance on the meeting, and lastly, at noon, preaching nearly an hour in the middle of one village. There was a temple dedication that day, and so passers-by were numerous. Some gave us their names and promised to come to hear us. Then we went back to the hotel and waited and prayed, not knowing whether to expect absolute preconcerted desertion or a crowd, whether a quiet or a noisy crowd. Night came and the sake began to work. Of those who had promised to attend, some came to our room and told more than they would have done had they been sober. One man said seven or eight of his neighbors were too bashful to come, though very eager. He had no use for Christianity because he believed it merely a way of deceiving the unwary. "We went downstairs and found only a group of children. We began and soon had a large crowd. There was a good deal of liquor but not a syllable of disturbance, even when several priests came. Suddenly we had a number of earnest callers in our rooms, and, having arranged for a bigger meeting that evening, were pleased with an audience such as Iwai is not used to. The bashful ones came and went home reluctantly afterwards. Quite a number of people gave their names, and some promised to study the Bible faithfully and welcome us next time, both of which promises are usually as hard to extract in this region as full-grown and sound molars." declined. He was mightily different from the shriveled old woman who heard from me to-day, for the first time, that God is one, an approver of faithfulness in the humblest service, one who loves her, would hear her prayer, too, from that day, little as she knew of him, if she prayed with a child's love in her heart. She put her hands together and bowed down, half crying, half laughing, and said over and over again, Thank you for bringing me face to face with God. I can know God now.' She carefully pared two big luscious persimmons from her tiny shop and gave them to me without taking anything, because I had paid her already by bringing her face to face with God. Her old husband, too, said, 'You can see it's so when you hear it, but you'll never know it without.' That old couple live in a hovel by the roadside, at a lonely dismal place where travelers are willing to rest a bit, even in such a house. "Mr. Tanaka and I now propose to get our hands in by one or two more such trips as this, and then go about five miles out of the city and tramp around through the hills, keeping about that far off, visiting every village and nearly every house in the orbit, and spend the night where sunset find us. We have so much to do here and in Tajima and East Hoki that we can't think of taking time at one stretch to do it. We may be disappointed in the execution of these human plans, as we have been before, but with all the disappointments concerning reinforcements God has kept us happier and happier and busier and busier." Western Turkey Mission. BAFRA AND ALACHAM. MR. RIGGS, of Marsovan, in reporting his work for the last summer, refers to two hopeful out-stations in the Marsovan field: "Bafra is a large town on the Halys River, near its mouth. One Sabbath here, and the next in Alacham, six hours distance farther to the northwest, gave us leisurely and very pleasant visits with all our friends in both places. In both we were welcomed with a royal hospitality, and were encouraged by the signs of spiritual life and growth. In Bafra the brethren have for many years been trying in vain to secure permission to build a little place for worship. Just now, in an unexpected way, the obstacles have been removed, and they are at work putting up an unobtrusive structure, which we hope may serve a very useful purpose. Alacham continues to be one of the most encouraging spots in our field. For years the gospel has been faithfully and successfully preached there without a single cent of aid from the Board. This is largely due to the devotion of a single individual, Nicolaki Agha Kouzoujakoghlou, a largehearted man of strong faith and deep convictions. He has built up about him a little community of kindred spirits, though not possessing the means that he enjoys. They number now about twentyfive church members. They not only support their preacher, and maintain weekly services and a constant daily prayer-meeting, but they have adopted it as their mission to evangelize the surrounding villages, and go two and two, on Sundays and at other times, to preach the gospel and distribute the Scriptures. They also send liberal sums from time to time to outside charitable and evangelistic objects. "Bafra and Alacham are situated on the borders of the vast delta of the Halys, a region of wonderful fertility and beauty. The roads wind in and out through grove and wood, over meadow and stream, with most charming glimpses of scenery at every turn, making the journeys a constant delight. The sea adds its charms, and a delightful sea bath at Kumenez (ancient Cumanos), the port of Alacham, capped the climax of our physical enjoyment. On our return we spent a hot but enjoyable day among the brethren and sisters at Samsoun." "The work in Marsovan, both in college and in the city, is now very encouraging. Those who are weary with years of effort may see much that is deplorable; but to one who returns after several years in America, the signs of progress are very striking. "Our working force was never before so great as now. In the station meetings we have a circle of fifteen active workers and seven children. Once, in the past, our numbers were just the same as now, but the proportion of the children to the grown persons was reversed. This year two foreign teachers have entered the service of the college, and we have welcomed the new missionary physician and his wife, Dr. and Mrs. Carrington. The coming of these helpers is the great event of the year, because it is the opening of a new and vast possibility of influence, which has for years been desired, but with little hope. The report of the arrival of the medical missionary has already reached neighboring towns, and cases from outside are being treated in the doctor's office and in the hospital. "This missionary hospital is one of the new features of the year's work. Miss Taylor, who came from England to care for the sick poor, has had the hospital in charge; but she has been hindered by a long illness. The chief desire of our station now is her complete recovery. With our doctor to give directions, and Miss Taylor to see that they are obeyed, the medical department must be a success. Plans are being made for a good hospital building as soon as the necessary funds are assured; but for the present a house is rented in the city, near our principal gate. All the rooms are occupied, and the applicants for admission are numerous enough to fill a much larger building than we shall ever put up. The cases received are those of extreme poverty and suffering. Lately a villager was found lying rigid with acute rheumatism on the cold floor of a room in a wretched inn. He was taken in a bread trough to the Turkish 66 |