p. 9 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 14. (4/4/1900)

IS THE PRESENT EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM A SUCCESS AS A CHARACTER BUILDER?

By Editor

This is a serious question, worthy of serious consideration. Many educators believe that it is. Others frankly confess its defects. Measured by what State schools alone should seek to do,—develop good citizens,—increasing crime, lawlessness, and vice among the youth do not warrant the claim. Measured by a Christian standard, it can not be otherwise than failure, for Christian education is not, nor can it be, the work of the State. The object of this writing, however, is to let others speak rather than the writer. First of all, we can do but little better than to call attention to an article entitled "A National Crime at the Feet of American Parents," by Mr. Edward Bok, in the Ladies' Home Journal for January, 1900. The whole article should be read; we have not space for it here.

In Mr. Bok's arraignment of the system, he makes, he says,

"no attack on the teachers of this country, for I yield to no one in my admiration of the work which these noble men and women are doing. And from no class, I venture to say, will these words elicit a stronger approval."

"Special systems of 'marks,' which amount to prizes, are started, serving only to overstimulate the preternaturally bright child, who needs relaxation most of all, and to discourage the child who happens to be below the average of intelligence. It is cramming, cramming, cramming! A certain amount of 'ground must be gone over,' as it is usually called. Whether the child is physically able to work the 'ground,' does not enter into the question. And we do not stop even there; the poor children are compelled to carry home a pile of books to study, usually after supper, and just before going to bed. And that is about the most barbarous part of the whole system."

Some of the results of the system he gives in his first paragraph, as follows:—

"Do American men and women realize that in five cities of our country alone there were during the last school term over sixteen thousand children between the ages of eight and fourteen taken out of the public schools because their nervous systems were wrecked, and their minds were incapable of going on any further in the infernal cramming system which exists to-day in our schools? And these sixteen thousand helpless little wrecks are simply the children we know about. Conservative medical men who have given their lives to the study of children, place the number whose health is shattered by overstudy at more than fifty thousand each year. It is putting the truth mildly to state that of all American institutions that which deals with the public education of our children is at once the most faulty, the most unintelligent, and the most cruel."

Here is another word on the moral side, the result of a popular education, quoted by Dr. Lyman Abbott, in a sermon delivered before Harvard University students:—

"I was brought up in an orthodox circle. My mother was a devout believer. I learned from her the Christian creed and the Christian Bible. I learned to pray; I had no doubts. I began my studies, and soon came to the conclusion that the world was not made in six days. Presently I discovered that man had been on the earth more than six thousand years. Then I reached the conclusion that he had come from the lower order of animals. Then I discovered that language was not broken up at the tower of Babel. I found reason to doubt one after another of the so-called miracles of the Bible, until, at last, my faith is all gone. I do not know what I believe about the Bible, about myself. I do not even know whether I am immortal, or whether there is a God. O, that I could go back to the simple faith of my childhood! But I can not."

There are thousands of others making the same wreck of faith to-day in religious as well as State schools.

WILL THE PEOPLE BE ADMONISHED.

By G.

REFERRING to the new United Christian party and its proposition to place none but Christians into political office, a New York exchange says:—

"There are Christians who know very little about the business of running civil government, and non-Christians who are well qualified in this respect. The only result of the success of this 'United Christian' political scheme would be that politicians would have forced upon them a strong inducement to profess Christianity and stand well with the church. Hypocrisy would flourish, and the church would be more and more leavened with the spirit of worldliness. The ideal state of the church is that described in the book of Acts [chapter 5:1-14], where the hypocritical class were all afraid to join the church, having the fate of Ananias before their eyes, and only the sincere believers were added to it, and these in great numbers."

There is another fact in this connection that should be emphasized, and that is, there is no mention of these "sincere believers" seeking office, or in any way manifesting a disposition to control civil affairs. Therefore there was no inducement for men to join the church for political purposes. It was not until after the apostles and their contemporaries had passed away, that the "mystery of iniquity" (2 Thess. 2:7) gained sufficient foothold to aspire to anything like a Christian political party. And when such a condition became predominant in the church, and she was able to wield, and showed the disposition to wield, a powerful political influence, even the emperor (Constantine) and the senate deemed it expedient to profess Christianity in behalf of the whole people. This was certainly a "United Christian party," as far as politics could possibly pose as Christianity, but it was far from being a party of

united Christians. This was so clearly demonstrated by the consequent and logical descent into the Dark Ages that it is surprising to see professed Christians deliberately taking a step which, if successful, must inevitably produce a like result.

With all the boasted enlightenment of the nineteenth century, it is just as impossible to nurture the "mystery of iniquity" (Church-and-State union) to-day without corrupting both as it was in those earlier days. A man can no more drink intoxicating liquors to-day without getting drunk than he could in any other age of the world. Neither can a nation drink the wine of a corrupt, place-seeking church without becoming drunken (Rev. 18: 1-4), and therefore unfitted for its legitimate sphere. Will the people of the United States be admonished by the history of the past and the prophecy of the future? or will they go blindly on, regardless of the things which Inspiration has "written for our learning"?

DECLARED A DIVIDEND.

ON March 15 the Standard Oil Company paid a dividend of $21,500,000. Of that tremendous sum, $20,000,000 was paid out as a quarterly dividend of the company, and the remaining $1,500,000 was paid by them for the Amalgamated Copper Company, which is controlled by the Standard Oil monopoly. That is an immense sum for just a quarterly dividend. It is almost four times as much as the interest on the United States national debt for the same length of time. Very little of the Standard Oil stock finds its way into the market, but such of it as was for sale, sold readily, after the announcement of that dividend, at 540 or 440 per cent above par. With the foregoing facts before you, please read carefully the following scripture:—

"Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days." James 5:1-3.

You should be particular to note that the apostle says that this heaping together of treasure is to be "for the last days." And the Revised Version translates it "in the last days." Such figures as the Standard Oil Company presents, certainly show a heaping together of treasure that is not only remarkable but wholly unprecedented; for such dividends as that were never before declared by any corporation. And this heaping together of treasure by the Standard Oil Company represents only a part of what is going on in the world in this line. And the heaping together of wealth is only one of the signs which show that we are in the last days. The great array of evidence that we are in the last days is simply overwhelming in its strength and clearness. Every one should hasten to get ready; for the day is right at hand.

Modern Weapons and the Spirit of War

A FEW days since the United States Government let the contract for 50 six-pounder guns of a new semi-automatic type. The gun has a capacity for firing 75 of these six-pound shells a minute. This is more than double the best record that has ever been made on any similar gun. We have been told that these terrible weapons of death would finally become so destructive that war would come to an end because no one would face them. But the facts are all to the contrary. The training of the soldier is that he must face death at any time that he is called upon to do so. And the greater the danger the greater hero he becomes. Such a training as this is calculated for nothing else than to prepare men to face anything—even to the most terrible instrument of death that this inventive age can produce. And, aside from all this, the prophecies tell us that the end of time is to be marked by a fearful spirit of war that will be stirred up in all the earth. One of these prophetic utterances is in the following graphic language: "My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I can not hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled; suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment." Jer. 4: 19, 20. The context of the foregoing scripture plainly shows that the divine seer was viewing the scenes of war that would mark these last days in which we live when he received the inspiration that caused him to pen such thrilling words. It is inexpressibly sublime to be living in the very times and viewing the very scenes that the Lord caused to pass before the prophets so many hundred years ago.

A DESPATCH from San Jacinto dated March 19 states that it had just been discovered that a part of Mount San Jacinto had slipped into a subterranean cavern. An earthquake on last Christmas day dislodged a territory covering 600 acres, at an elevation of 4,000 feet, and it slipped 150 feet lower than it had previously stood. The face of this newly-formed valley is thickly traversed with fissures and cracks, varying in width from an inch to six feet across, and it is not possible to see the bottom nor to sound the depth by throwing in stones. A young man was lowered 40 feet into one crevasse, and the bottom could not be seen by the venturesome youth. The great earthquake of December 25 has been succeeded by dozens of lighter ones, quite a severe shock having been felt there on the date of this despatch. Things like the foregoing are but the beginnings of the fulfilment of such words of the prophets as the following, "I behold the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly." Jer. 4: 24. And if men are terrified as they see these things now, what will it be when they reach that near day that Isaiah describes as a time when "the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage"? But, amid it all, every one that trusts in the Lord will have a sure foundation. The promise is: "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." Ps. 91: 5-7.

IN diplomatic circles the suggestion has been thrown out that the Hague Peace Congress has resulted so far in failure, and that even the limited program agreed upon will never be carried out. The basis for this view is the fact that up to this time it is not known officially that a single one of the powers represented in the conference has ratified the three conventions agreed upon there. The treaties themselves require that each of the participants in the conference shall be notified whenever the other parties ratify the conventions. No such notice has yet reached this country, and, so far as this government is concerned, only one of the treaties has been ratified by the Senate, and even in that case the formalities have not been carried to completion.

THE dowager empress of China is still making the strongest resistance she knows how to put forth against the encroachments of any foreign influences that are out of harmony with Chinese civilization. She is conferring honors upon her most active supporters that have not been conferred before for eighty years, and men who have been dismissed from office out of deference to foreign powers are being recalled. There is an intensity taking hold of the very weakest and most crumbling powers of earth that is truly phenomenal. God has revealed the meaning of it all in His Word. You should be studying the inspired Book closely, for momentous issues are before the world to-day.

DESPATCHES under date of March 14 state that another death from bubonic plague has occurred at Sydney, N. S. W., and two new cases of the disease have developed. And there have been twenty-three deaths from the plague in Buenos Ayres during the last two months.

THE British war loan is said to be very popular among the Britons who have some ready money to them, and already £335,500,000 have been subscribed.

THE labor organizations of Chicago propose to enforce the placing of the union label on all the coffins that are used in the cemeteries of that city. It is proposed to organize the grave-diggers and place them under the labor unions, and to require that they shall absolutely enforce this rule or decree. The grasping greed of wealth on the one hand, and the despotic rule of the labor organizations on the other, will soon place this world in a condition where it will be very difficult to live in it. Then how earnestly should every follower of Christ work and pray for the time to soon come when the Lord shall come to redeem the world from every form of tyranny and oppression!

NOTWITHSTANDING the evil has been going on for a number of years, it still seems strange, from the standpoint of the Federal Constitution, that men should be made criminals in the United States on account of their faith. But it is so. Brethren Rodney S. Owen and R. T. Nash have been arrested again at Amory, Miss., ostensibly for violating the Sunday law, but really because they observe the seventh day, the "Sabbath of the Lord." Were it not for the latter fact they would not have been arrested, the charges being the same on which they were previously arrested and acquitted.

A ST. PETERSBURG correspondent of a Berlin paper states that Russia is favoring the champions of Bulgarian independence so that she can the more effectually bring pressure to bear upon Turkey, to give the Russian Government exclusive railroad privileges in Asia Minor. The great effort that Russia is making to build railroads all through Asia is significant. It should be watched with interest by every one who is a close student of the events of these times.

MORE than $100,000,000 worth of paper is produced in the United States annually. A third of this is used by the newspapers, and the wrapping paper used amounts to two-thirds as much as that consumed by the newspapers. About half as much is used to manufacture books as to print newspapers. Paper boards amount to 300,000 tons a year. Builders use 60,000 tons of paper, and 45,000 tons of wall paper is produced annually.

A REVOLUTION has broken out in Entre Rios, Argentine. The insurgents have already occupied three of the principal towns of the province. This is the field of Brother F. H. Westphal's labors, as will be seen by an illustrated article that will appear from him in our Missions department soon. In these trying times he, with all his associate laborers, will need our earnest prayers.

THE HOUSE Committee on Appropriations has reported a bill favoring the appropriation of $7,093,488 for the purpose of carrying forward the plans of sea-coast defenses begun in this country in 1888. The report of the committee says that the scheme when finished will have cost $112,197,267, and of this sum, $46,971,013 have already been appropriated.

EXPERIMENTS are now being made at Sandy Hook proving grounds with a shell that is to do away with the necessity of the search-light. The shell is made to explode at a given distance and produce a great light, thus enabling objects to be seen without disclosing the exact location of the one discharging the shell.

PRESIDENT KRUGER, notwithstanding the many recent British victories, announces that the Boers will fight to the death. They will not yield, so he says, but must have their absolute independence or they will die in the struggle.

A CABLE despatch to the Sun says: "The distress caused by the famine [in India] is increasing in extent and severity. . . . There are now employed on the relief works in the famine-stricken districts, 4,810,000 persons."

THE Filipinos are reorganizing to renew their attacks on the United States authorities, and the indications are quite strong that there is some very serious trouble ahead there.

THE annual reports of the Indian agents show that there were more deaths than births among these aborigines of America for the past year.

ROME'S INTEREST IN THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.

By G.

THE appointment of Monsignor Sbarretti, of Washington, D. C., as bishop of Havana, is said to have been on account of his knowledge of the United States Constitution. This Constitution is just now an object of special interest to Rome; not that she loves its principles, for Rome is essentially monarchical in principle. Where it is expedient for her to appear favorable to republican government, there is the outward show of appreciation of republican principles. But any republic in which Roman principles are dominant, can be a republic only in name.

The benefit to the Roman cause of having a representative in Cuba well versed in the United States Constitution is not in having the principles of that Constitution inculcated in Cuba, but just the reverse. That was demonstrated at the commencement of the late war, when the papal blessing was given to Spanish troops and the cause of monarchy in Cuba. Her real interest in having a bishop in Havana acquainted with the U. S. Constitution is that of a client who employs an attorney well versed in the law, because his success demands a shrewd evasion of the law.

Rome has always opposed the public-school system of the United States; but, being unable to overthrow it, she is not averse to controlling the schools wherever possible, and does so to a much greater extent in many places than most people would suppose. So when she can manipulate a republic in the advancement of Roman interests, she finds it very convenient to appear favorable to the nominal principles of a republic. But just as a republic departs from republican principles, in the same proportion Roman principles gain the ascendancy. And vice versa: as the persistent, untiring spirit of Rome insidiously invades and pervades the councils of State in a republic—albeit the medium may be professedly Protestant—in just that ratio republican principles give way to monarchical principles. This is just what makes it possible for the "beast" with "two horns like a lamb" to eventually speak as a "dragon;" that is, to become entirely changed in character. That is how the people of the once lamb-like republican nation of the New World are finally induced to make an "image" to the "beast," or Church-and-State monarchical régime which the "dragon" had anciently set up in the Old World. See Revelation 13. "Can ye not discern the signs of the times?" G.

STATUS OF THE CHINESE IN HAWAII.

By W. E. Howell

WHAT is the status of the Chinese in Hawaii? This question may be divided into two parts: (1) What was their status prior to the annexation of Hawaii to the United States? (2) What is their present status?

To answer the first question in general terms, and in the language of the Hawaiian Chinese themselves, I will quote from a little document prepared by them in August, 1898, entitled "Memorial and Accompanying Data Presented to the United States Commissioners by Chinese, Resident in the Hawaiian Islands." The commissioners referred to were Senators Cullom and Morgan and Representative Hitt, of the United States, and President Dole and Judge Frear, of Hawaii, who were appointed by President McKinley to recommend legislation for the Hawaiian Islands. The memorial was printed five days after the raising of the American flag in taking formal possession of Hawaii for the United States, Aug. 12, 1898. Concerning the status of the Chinese in Hawaii, as viewed by themselves, it says:—

"Your memorialists would respectfully assert that under the laws of Hawaii they have, notwithstanding the fact that there never have existed treaty relations between the empire of China and Hawaii, fully and freely enjoyed the same rights and privileges in regard to person and property as the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation having treaty relations with Hawaii, with the exception that they have not enjoyed the privilege of political representation in the conduct of the affairs of the country."

In Hawaii the Chinaman is a welcome factor of the community. His person is guarded as sacredly by the courts of justice as is that of any other nationality. Compared with the Chinese in San Francisco, those in Hawaii are a very different people. "Their best race traits have had freer scope. They have had better opportunity to enter into the life of the people among whom they came, and into the civilization which surrounded them, and they have done so. The Chinese in Hawaii are an integral part of the population, and suddenly to banish them or to deprive them of the position they occupy, would be a severe blow to the community life of the population."

They enjoy the same immunities in the holding of property as other races on the islands. According to the census of 1896, 195 Chinese owned real estate, and 758 owned the house they lived in, it being the custom among the Chinese, as well as among other nationalities in Hawaii, including the American, to build on lands held under long lease. The total assessment of Chinese property was $125,274.31.

Tho not permitted to exercise the right of suffrage, they have been admitted to citizenship by naturalization. Since 1845, 722 applications for naturalization have been granted. Of these there are probably not more than 300 in the country at the present time. There have been about 1,600 children, out of a total of 2,234, registered at the foreign office as born in the Hawaiian Islands.

Socially the Chinese in Hawaii enjoy a freedom and exhibit an aggressiveness that are surprising to one who has been accustomed to look at them from this side of the Pacific. While the home and family life is conservative when measured by the American standard, and while it is not so widely established nor so well developed as that of other races, partially because of the limited number of women in the country, its privileges and progress are considerable. Tho it is not usual to see a Chinese man in company with his wife and children in public, yet women and girls move about upon the streets with measurable freedom, the poor on foot, the wealthier in carriages. On all state and on certain other public occasions, respect and courtesy to the Chinese are not wanting. At such times whites mingle freely with them, as they do on ordinary occasions in their places of business and assembly. There is a Chinatown in Honolulu, but many of their stores face or are adjacent to principal places of business among the whites; and one does not experience that social reserve in passing through the Chinese Colony of Honolulu that chills him in the Chinese quarters of San Francisco.

Morally, considerable advancement beyond that of which the Chinese are popularly supposed to be capable, has been made. Out of a population of 21,616 are 953 professed Christians (837 Protestants, 67 Roman Catholics, 49 Mormons)—nearly 1 in 20. There are 2 Chinese churches, 1 American, 1 English, supported by the Chinese; a Chinese Y. M. C. A., the first of its kind in the world; a well-constructed hospital, prepared to treat patients in either the occidental or oriental systems of medicine; with a number of clubs and societies having special aims, some philanthropic, some social, some educational.

As to education, 9,364 (nearly half) are able to read and write; 527 (about 1 in 40) read and write English; 226 (about 1 in 100) read and write Hawaiian. Under the Hawaiian law education is compulsory between 6 and 15 years of age, tho attendance upon government schools is not required. About 200 Chinese children attend government school, and 475 independent schools.

As to occupation, 10,941 (about half the total population) are unskilled laborers, and have employment chiefly upon rice and sugar plantations. Others are rice, coffee, and sugar planters, fishermen, mechanics, drivers and teamsters, merchants, salesmen, doctors, law, bank, and government clerks, etc., to the number of 5,769. Thus it will be seen that out of a total of 21,616, 16,710 are engaged in some definite occupation.

From these statistics it is apparent that, with the exception of political suffrage and some minor privileges, such as admittance to certain docks or to go aboard oriental steamers, the Chinese in Hawaii are extended equal privileges with other races. That they have made intelligent and effectual use of these privileges is also apparent.

What is the present status of the Chinese as affected by the annexation of Hawaii to the United States? The operation of the "Chinese Exclusion Act," passed by the United States in 1892, has been extended to Hawaii, and is rigidly enforced through a special agent sent down to the islands by the Treasury Department. Some restrictions were placed on Chinese immigration prior to annexation, but that is interpreted by some as a mere pandering to the American sentiment on the question, and a courting of Congress to hasten the acceptance of Hawaii's proffered hand. The Treasury's agent began his work by excluding even those Chinese who had received return permits from the Hawaiian Government prior to annexation. His action was not sustained by the Treasury, tho it worked a great amount of hardship before a decision on the matter could be secured from Washington. Quite a number entitled to land, and who had business interests in the islands, were sent back to China; others were held at the quarantine station for weeks, awaiting a decision on their cases; and cases like the following, which came under the writer's personal observation, were not uncommon. The wife of a leading merchant, who had returned with properly-accredited papers, was compelled to sit on the wharf for one or two hours, being made a gazing stock and an object of comment to the motley crowd gathered on the dock, and was finally put back aboard the steamer on which she came, and carried on to San Francisco, expecting to be returned to China.

Contracts with the plantation laborers are of three years' duration, and as many of these

men return to China at the expiration of their contracts, and as no more contract laborers can be brought in, one or two years more will suffice to put an end to Chinese contract labor service. In time this must affect the merchant class more or less, for many of the merchants handle Chinese goods only, and depend quite largely on the numerous laboring class for the consumption of their stuffs.

It remains to be seen whether the United States will in any way modify her legislation for Hawaii on the Chinese question. From all present prospects there is little hope that she will. But, altho the Chinese in Hawaii can not increase their numbers by immigration under the present law, they will ever remain an important factor in Hawaiian community life. Honolulu, Hawaii. W. E. HOWELL.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GREETING.

By J. H. V. B.

[J. H. V. B., in Western Christian Advocate.]

THE floweret standing by thy path, And brushing 'gainst thy feet, It is, if it doth touch thy heart, From God a greeting sweet.

And if the bird in tree-top sings, And makes thy joy complete, So is that song which clearly rings From God a greeting sweet.

The morning glow, the evening shine, The river's silvery wave— These all can be, my child, for thee, A greeting which God gave,

In blossom's fragrance, zephyr's breath, He greeteth thee alway. Who greeteth us we always thank, So thank your God each day.

NO SMOKING IN ABYSSINIA.

THREE travelers, one of whom is an American, were in Abyssinia recently. One afternoon, after their midday coffee, they lit cigars. Hardly had they done so when an official, who was passing, informed them through an interpreter that smoking was prohibited in that country, and that it would be well for them not to indulge in the practise in public. The travelers took the hint. The use of tobacco, they learned afterward, had been prohibited in Abyssinia since the year 1642. At that time priests were in the habit of smoking in churches, and the main object of the law then passed was to stop this practise. After a few years, however, the law was made applicable to all classes of the people, and to-day strangers in Abyssinia are politely informed that if they want to smoke they must go where none of the natives can see them or smell the seductive weed.—San Francisco Chronicle.

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OUR WORK AND WORKERS.

By Editor

An addition of five to our ranks is a partial result of Bible-readings given in Camden, N. J., by Sister M. A. Neale.

Three persons have recently accepted the truth under the labors of Sister R. F. Mead, at East Galway, N. Y.

On the 11th ult., Brother L. W. Felter and wife, of Missouri Conference, left Kansas City for Guadalajara, Mexico, to engage in labor.

Drs. D. W. and Eva A. Read, lately connected with the Nebraska Sanitarium at College View, have gone to Salt Lake City to engage in sanitarium work.

The brethren at Roseau, Minn., assisted by Brother J. C. Christenson, are finishing up the house of worship that has stood for several years in an unfinished condition.

Twenty-eight States and countries are represented in Union College, College View, Neb. So says Brother H. F. Phelps, in Minnesota Worker. The college has an enrolment of 475 students.

Lintonia is a suburb of Yazoo City, Miss. Here the Southern Missionary Society have a school for colored children, which is proving a real success. The Gospel Herald for February reports an average attendance of 140, and the school is gaining a good reputation for order and efficiency.

On the evening of February 22, Brother A. T. Jones, editor of the Review and Herald, addressed an audience of about four hundred people in Philadelphia, on the subject of "The Bible and the Ages." One object of the address was to raise funds to assist the Helping Hand Mission of that city.

A report in Echoes from the Field from Brother W. Zeigler says that at Greeley, Colo., "the Lord has abundantly blessed the work, enabling us to gather together a number of scattered Sabbath-keepers, with some new ones. On January 7 we organized a church of forty-six members."

It is estimated that about $100,000 will be on the pay-roll of the Foreign Mission Board at the coming annual settlement. It must not be understood, however, that this pay-roll covers all the foreign mission work that is done by the denomination. It does not take into account the self-supporting class of laborers.

Eight tent companies will operate in Kansas this season, one being for German work, and one in the interest of the Swedes. Plans have also been laid for five camp-meetings, as follows: The State meeting to be at Emporia, September 20-30; the others, for districts, to be held at Great Bend, May 31 to June 20; Wellington, July 12-22; Stockton, July 26 to August 5; Clay Center, August 9-19.

At the recent district conference held at Kansas City, Mo., it was resolved to do "more work in the distribution of our literature, especially the Signs of the Times." Also, that "renewed efforts be put forth in the circulation of the American Sentinel, that the world may be educated in the right principles of religious liberty."

A canvassers' institute is being held at the Woodland, Wis., Academy. Apropos of the academy, the Reporter says: "A new sewing-machine has just been added to the equipment of the school, and the experiment of making men's every-day shirts and overalls for market will be tried. A market has already been found."

At a recent meeting of the directors of the Southern Missionary Society, the following officers were elected: President, J. E. White; vice-president, E. A. Sutherland; secretary, F. M. Kellogg; treasurer, F. W. Halladay. The society is now erecting necessary buildings at Vicksburg and Yazoo City, Miss., for the conduct of its important work among the colored people. Those who desire to help in this educational and Gospel work can address Southern Missionary Society, Battle Creek, Mich., College Building, and be assured that they are helping a worthy enterprise.

FROM THE PRESS COMMITTEE OF THE ECUMENICAL CONFERENCE.

ONE of the special features of the Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Missions to be held in New York in April 21 to May 1, will be a missionary exhibit. Material is being gathered from every mission land in order to vividly present, through the eye, the social and moral conditions of the peoples among whom the missionaries are laboring. It will be the endeavor also to make it as far as possible a progressive exhibit, showing the results of a hundred years of missionary effort. It will combine a library and a museum, and will comprise publications of all kinds,—books, Bibles, and magazines from the field, in English and many other languages; maps and charts, pictures, models, curios in dress and workmanship, and objects of religious worship, such as idols and fetishes, all intended to illustrate the actual surroundings of the missionary in his work.

Germany and England already have very complete museums, but America is as yet deficient in this respect. In England these exhibits have proved not only helpful in arousing intelligent interest in missionary fields and work, but popular as well. Thus the Church Missionary Society has fine collections, which are sent about from city to city, where they are publicly displayed for a number of days, attracting in some cases as many as 50,000 visitors.

In order to secure the continuance of the exhibit of the coming conference as a permanent illustration of missionary endeavor, and also to furnish an opportunity for additions in years to come, a corporation has been formed, including Alexander Maitland, Esq., a member of the board of foreign missions of the Presbyterian Church and manager of the New York Library; the Rev. Edwin M. Bliss, D.D., of the New York Independent; Harlan Page Beach, Esq., of the Student Volunteer movement; the Rev. W. I. Haven, D.D., of the American Bible Society; Luther D. Wishard, Esq., representing the "forward movement" in the American board, and the Rev. H. Allen Tupper, D.D.

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