SOME several months since the request of a missionary in Japan for a stereopticon was mentioned in these pages. The request was soon met by a generous friend, and now comes a call for a magic lantern for the use of the students of the Theological Seminary at Pasumalai in their itinerating tours. . The work of these itinerating students was described in an article by Dr. Jones in the Missionary Herald for July last. If any one has a magic lantern to give for this purpose it will be most joyfully received. A Magic Lantern An Anti-FootBinding Society. IT is a sign of the times in China that there is now a vigorous society laboring to introduce reform in the matter of foot binding. The number of members of the society is increasing, and in response to an offer of prizes for essays in Chinese against this evil, no less than 107 essays have been presented, some of which, Dr. Sheffield declares, are very fine, and will doubtless have much influence in extending the work of reformation. May the good work go on! Desire for It is an astonishing fact that before the Armenians of Turkey have recovered from the disasters that befell them at the time of the massacres, they have turned their thoughts strongly to the education of their children; instead of devoting all their energies to rebuilding their homes or opening trade, they are seeking to open schools and to obtain enough to meet the tuition of their children. One of our missionaries writes: "People beg for education as they beg for bread. Ragged schools for the thousands of waifs about the streets, who find no place in the Protestant or Gregorian schools, would offer a fine opportunity for a class as yet unreached." MR. GODDARD, of Foochow, sends us two photographs representing two households, in each of which are shown four generations of Christian Chinese. Chinese. One of these photographs we are able to reproduce on the adjoining Christian page. The one here represented is the family of Mr. Ding, of Foochow, who is the pastor of the Ha-puo-ga church in Foochow, and is the oldest and most respected of the pastors connected with our Foochow Mission. Between himself and his wife, in the engraving, is seated Mrs. Ding's mother; behind him is the pastor's oldest son, Dr. Ding, who is also a preacher at the Kai-nguong church, Foochow. The other son, standing in the rear, is Ming Wong, who is an assistant in the theological seminary, and last year he was in America, representing China at the International Convention of the College Y. M. C. A. His wife is at the extreme left of the picture. The four older children belong to Pastor Ding, and the others are his grandchildren and are of the fourth generation of Christians in this family. Mrs. Ding, senior, is a most energetic woman, and is said to be a better speaker than are half of the preachers. Her aged mother is still an active and faithful Christian. Remarkable as this family is, it is well matched by that of Dr. Ling, a native physician, now about eighty years of age, who is a pillar in the Chong-ha church. His son, while never uniting with the church, yet gave up the worship of idols, and was favorably disposed toward Christianity; but Dr. Ling's grandson has been a deacon in the Chong-ha church. Dr. Ling has also a nephew who is a preacher, and a grandson who is a teacher in the Foochow PASTOR DING AND FAMILY, OF FOOCHOW. FOUR CHRISTIAN GENERATIONS. College. These Christian families are being multiplied in China and are mighty forces for its evangelization. THE MISSIONARY OUTLOOK IN CHINA. BY REV. JUDSON SMITH, D.D., FOREIGN SECRETARY. [A paper from the Prudential Committee, presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Board at Grand Rapids, Mich., October 5, 1898.] CHINA has been the desire and the despair of the Christian world from the beginning of the century. The London Missionary Society, in the person of Robert Morrison, ninety years ago began the evangelization of the Celestial Empire. Twenty-one years later the American Board, first of all American societies, in the person of Elijah C. Bridgman, assumed its share in the work. And, one by one, other societies came to the field, all finding a place of entrance rather than a field inviting their presence. In 1842, when the five treaty ports were opened, there was a considerable increase in the volume of missionary effort, but China as a whole was not opened to missionaries until the close of the war of 1860. From that time onward the number of laborers has steadily increased, until at the present time about fifty different societies are represented, and every one of the provinces of China has been entered and work begun. It has been the sense of the greatness of the problem rather than the assurance of immediate and large results which has maintained this steady interest in the evangelization of the empire. For the first fifty years after Morrison set foot in China the results were so meager that, viewed by themselves, they would have discouraged all further attempt to introduce the gospel. But a few hundred converts had been made, the mission schools were small, and at no point was there any distinct promise of immediate advance. But when the first Shanghai Conference gathered in 1877, nearly seventy years after the beginning, a change had taken place and 13,000 Protestant communicants were reported, with schools of a high order in several of the missions and a Christian literature of goodly proportions. From this time onward the gains have been steady, constantly accelerating and full of cheer. In 1890, when the second Shanghai Conference gathered, the communicants had nearly trebled in number, educational work had made a marked advance, the number of missionaries was well-nigh doubled, and the presence of the missionary, hitherto confined almost exclusively to a narrow border along the sea coast, had by this time reached to the farthest inland points, and seemed like a formal occupation of the empire. But all the gains that had been reported at this Conference of 1890 were slight compared with the prodigious advance that has been made since that date, and particularly during the last few years. Whether we consider the openness of the field, the accessibility of the people, the numbers seeking admission. to churches, the number and quality of those employed in the native agency as pastors and teachers, the thronged condition of mission schools and the high order of ability that is trained in them, or the new spirit that is abroad in the empire inquir ing after the knowledge and arts and machinery and methods of Western life, it is plain that a crisis has been reached, that China is entering upon a new era which promises the best things for the growth of the missionary work as well as for the reformation of the government and the improvement of the conditions of the people. The opportunity to observe the missionary work of the Board in China afforded by the recent visit of the Deputation, warrants a fresh study of the situation and a somewhat careful statement of the results which have been gained and of the encouraging features as we look toward the future. In the first place, then, the customary and approved forms of missionary work, which are found in China as in other mission fields, have been so thoroughly tested under such a variety of circumstances as to make it clear that no material change in these is required. Indeed, wherever new fields are entered, however far we may press the work in fields already occupied, we must labor for the establishment of the Kingdom along evangelistic, or educational, or medical, or literary lines. It is no mere adherence to the past to follow these lines of work. It is only a wise regard to the lessons of experience and to the unchanging forces with which we deal. Missionary work in every country must begin and continue by preaching the gospel, and to the end it must place emphasis upon evangelistic work. The gospel is the one precious treasure which we bear to the lands that know not God, its proclamation is the supreme duty and means of power, and nothing can ever avail to change this relation. But the proclamation of the gospel, which at first must of necessity engross a principal part of the time and effort of the foreign laborer, comes at length to be the special privilege and duty of the native convert. The rising Christian communities need native leadership and pastoral care, and the multiplication of these centers makes still more emphatic the call for a native agency, thoroughly trained and fitted for its high tasks. Thus the necessity and reason for educational work are made evident. There is the same reason why Christian communities in unevangelized lands should be provided with an educated native ministry that exists for an educated native ministry in Christian lands, and the work of the missionary can never be complete until he has trained chosen men for these posts of responsibility and power among their own people. It is his duty to make his own services unnecessary by raising up men who can do all that he has done and who can carry on the work to larger results when he and all his associates are withdrawn. The primary aim of education in missionary work is not at all to diffuse knowledge generally among the people, but to provide an educated native leadership for the Christian church. Unquestionably with this will come the wider and more general results of Christian education shared by not a few who render Christian service otherwise than as preachers or teachers. There may be differences of opinion as to the variety of schools which are needful on the mission field, but it would be difficult to show satisfactory reasons why there should not be the kindergarten wherever it can be gathered, the day school for the multitude of children in the Christian communities, the boarding schools for boys and girls of promise, the college for the more thorough training of men and women, and the theological seminary for the preparation of the native ministry; and these are the very schools which are found in our missions in China. Medical work justifies itself to the thought of every one who observes its auxiliary relation to the evangelistic work, and who notes how powerful an influence it is all the time exerting in drawing the attention of the people to Christian truth and in predisposing them to a favorable reception thereof. Probably no more active evangelizing agencies can be found in China than the hospitals and dispensaries connected with the several missions, where more than a hundred thousand every year are taught the Christian faith, and become in turn the disseminators of that faith in hundreds of towns and villages beyond the reach of the missionary or native preacher. The importance of literary work in missions is almost as apparent as that of mission schools, and it rests upon very much the same grounds. The Bible must be translated into the vernacular, comments upon the Bible are needful, text-books for the use of mission schools cannot be had except by the labors of the missionary, and in these lines of work as direct a missionary service is rendered as by the preaching or medical laborer. The man who translates the Bible into Chinese is rendering to that country the identical service which those revered men, at an early date, brought to the English-speaking people who first made the oracles of God speak in the English tongue. We all feel that to these worthies we owe a debt that nothing can repay. This supreme service our missionaries in turn are rendering as they perfect the translation of the Bible intò the languages of the people of China, and provide them helps to its right understanding. The methods of missionary work which are in use in our missions in China are those which have been put thoroughly to the test, which have been approved by long experience, about which there is no question among the great body of missionaries in that country. There is not perfect agreement upon all points, but there is substantial agreement upon the essential points, and a healthful spirit of progress which welcomes every real improvement and which clings to nothing which is old and customary merely for that reason. Undoubtedly the lapse of time will suggest still other changes of methods, but upon the whole it is clear that our missionary work in China is carried on upon wise and approved methods, and that changes, if wisely made, must be suggested by the Board or by the missionaries as the result of experience and observation rather than by those who study the whole question from the outside without personal experience. Different methods are employed by a few of the societies at work in China, and are greatly commended by some; but we see nothing in their experience or success which would warrant us in substituting their ways in place of our own. It is beyond the power of words worthily to characterize the missionaries of the Board in China; and yet it is only justice to speak of them and their deeds. They are known and honored in all our churches, and abundantly deserve all the love and confidence we give them. Human infirmities are not escaped by going to the mission field, and it would be rash to affirm that none exist. But these do not constitute the whole story; they are an insignificant part of the record. Scholarly, devoted, of high thoughts and aims, yet without illusions, laborious, patient, wise in plans and in administration, careful in the use of missionary funds, self-sacrificing to a man, interested and informed in matters of importance in all the earth, yet supremely given to China's evangelization—it is a privilege to meet these men and women in their homes and to see them in their work; and the closer one comes to them the more he finds to love and admire. If there are privileges of Christian intercourse richer or more sacred than were found in these Christian homes in China they are yet to be discovered and enjoyed. Breadth of view, a large way of dealing with important questions, elevation of sentiment and intercourse in daily life, serenity of spirit and steadfastness of faith- these are the common characteristics; they make the prevailing atmosphere of these homes and stations. Majestic as is the task they attempt, exacting as the demand is upon intellectual gifts and spiritual power, severe as the strain must be upon patience and faith and devotion, they are equal to the call, and are serving God and their generation as did the bishops and monks, the martyrs and saints of the early church and of mediæval days, the men whom all the world reveres. The present state of our missions in China is an admirable proof that wise methods are in use and that effective work is done. At every point where our missionary work was visited it was found well established, vigorously conducted, commanding the attention and respect of the people, winning a constantly increasing number of inquirers, and making itself felt more and more deeply in individual and |