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at the superficial and trifling character of his utterances. So, doubtless, would every right-minded man feel if some disciple of the phonographic school were always with us plying his pencil whenever we speak. But there is a recording angel by our side. Every word is written, though not by any visible agency. Our conversation exercises a power for good or evil on the mental and moral life of others, and no word as the vehicle of a thought can pause in its relative effect. The Quiver.

NEWS OF FRIENDS.

tistical table shows the whole number of members of the Yearly Meeting as 3,809. The number of births during the year was 33, and of deaths 67. The usual attendance at the meetings held on First-day mornings is given as 2,817, and at those on week-days, 669. The principal of the Murray Fund, derived from the bequest of the residuary estate of Lindley Murray, the grammarian, who died at York, England, is now $51,700. The income is used in the circulation of books and tracts, and in promoting various educational and benevolent objects, according to the judgment of the Trustees.

The following "advice" was added, at the recent -Our friend, Jonathan W. Plummer, of Chicago, session, to the Discipline of New York Yearly Meetreturned from his western trip on the 21st ult., having: "All our members are affectionately advised to

ing been absent seven weeks. His travels extended into Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, over 2,000 miles in all. 62 meetings were attended and 210 families and parts of families visited.

-The sub-committee for Concord Quarter of the Yearly Meeting's (Philadelphia), Visiting Committee, proposes to attend the Quarterly Meeting, at Concord, on the 28th inst., with the view of laying the concern before that body, and asking the appointment of a committee to give assistance in the work. -It is stated that Friends at Abington, (Montgomery Co., Pa.), have decided to go on with the projected boarding school at that place, and estimates have been invited. The subscriptions amount to ten thousand dollars.

ORTHODOX FRIENDS.

-Rufus P. King, in a letter, to a friend in this city, bearing date Fourth month 30th, writes that he has been visiting families and holding meetings in Sydney, Australia, and at a business meeting held just before he left there were 13 received into membership. He finds encouragement in the service in which he is engaged.

-It is stated that the legacy left to Haverford College by the late Jacob P. Jones, of this city (payable after the decease of his widow), will probably amount to $750,000. This is a very handsome endowment, and will place that institution in an exceptionally favorable position.

The Western Friend (Quakervale, Kansas), reports some increase amongst the "smaller bodies" in the West. Flat Creek Monthly Meeting, Kansas, has received one adult member this year, and Spring River Monthly Meeting "has received five requests from the larger body, and three members by con

vincement."

abstain from the use of tobacco, and to avoid the use of opium in any of its preparations, except in cases of medical necessity."

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-The Interchange, a monthly publication of Orthodox Friends in Baltimore, deprecates the tendency toward a settled and compensated ministry. It says: "We believe in the honesty of purpose of those who are upholding these methods for reviving dead meetings, but we do not admit that the remedy reaches the seat of the disease. The apparent failure of the because of the absence of spiritual life and power. old methods was not because they were at fault, but We do not bring these matters up in the spirit of judgment, but of earnest desire that none of us should close our eyes to these facts in the present history of our Society, and in order that we should carefully consider the direction in which we are drifting. The current is strongly setting towards the rocks of a regularly trained and ordained ministry, and we venture to say that the good ship Quakerism will go to pieces on them unless by the grace of God she is skillfully steered past.”

-Friends' Review, commenting upon the recent deliverances of Indiana and New York Yearly Meetings against participation in the outward "ordinances by Friends' ministers, proceeds thus: "Better would it be, not only for the peace of the body, but for its evangelizing work in the world, to which we fully believe it to be called, to lose several of its most conspicuous and active revivalist preachers, than to let fall and trail in the dust one of those glorious spiritual testimonies.committed to it to bear as banners in the warfare of Christ's army against the principalities and powers of error and evil upon earth. The Society of Friends, as a church, has survived, though not unscathed, some severe trials. It is passing through one now; by which it will be decided, whether it shall still live, and grow stronger for service for its Lord, or fall, as a house divided against itself; its beams and rafters being then scattered amongst other buildings, or else becoming disintegrated in mere confusion and oblivion."

-New York Yearly Meeting, recently held at Glen's Falls, declined, after examination of the case by a committee, to read the minute of a minister from another Yearly Meeting, because he held views of doctrine not in accordance with their discipline. The report of the committee stated: "This decision is based upon the well-understood principle that we cannot accord to ministers who come among us from other Yearly Meetings a greater liberty in matters of doctrine than we allow our own, whatever may be their endorsement by their meetings." The sta- | Lutheran.

THE best things are nearest; breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things of life.—The

ENGLISH FRIENDS.

-The Friend (Glasgow), of Seventh month 1st, announces the issue of new editions of " Barclay's Apology" and "George Fox's Journal." It says: The "Apology" is already in the press; and it is expected arrangements will be made whereby this may shortly be followed by a new and complete edition of the "Journal of George Fox." It is now sixteen years since the last edition of the first-named work appeared, and twice that period has elapsed since a reprint of the latter took place. In one or two recent numbers, the propriety and necessity of undertaking a re-issue of both works has been urged on the consideration of Friends by some of our correspondents. The subject had also engaged the attention of one or two Friends privately; and a likely opening appearing through which the desired object might be accomplished, several Friends who were in London during the recent Yearly Meeting conferred together, and the result was that a guarantee fund was subscribed and the publication of "Barclay's Apology" resolved The work of publishing is to be undertaken in this city, and will be carried on under the care of a committee of Friends resident here.

on.

-The Conference of members of London Yearly Meeting, on the subject of correspondence with the American Yearly Meetings, has been appointed to be held in London on the 4th of Second month, 1886. -The local authorities at Lincoln desire to purchase the Friends' Meeting-house, in order to remove it, and improve a street. "It is one of the few meeting-houses now standing with a road from the gallery by which escape could be made when the meeting was disturbed by soldiery." A subscription which has been raised for the erection of a new meetinghouse at Kilmarnock, Scotland, has so far progressed that orders have been given to begin the building.

-The annual meeting of the Friends' First-day School Association was held at Ackworth on the 24th of Sixth month. There were reported to be 155 schools, in 98 places, having 1,645 teachers and 32,379 scholars; the adult schools having 687 teachers, and the "junior," 958. This is an increase over last year of 3 schools, 11 teachers, and 1,031 scholars, the increase being, however, entirely in the adult schools, as there was a small falling off of children. The total number of scholars has slightly more than doubled during the last ten years; the number in 1875 having been 16,117, as compared with 32,379 at the present time. There are 24 more schools and 442 more teachers than at that period. [Our readers will understand, of course, that these schools are not generally composed of Friends; they are largely mission" schools.]

Some details of particular schools may be of interest. At Hull the adult classes had the large number of 825 members. The school in Liverpool was closed at the end of Tenth month, 1884, after a useful existence of thirty-one years. Two or three of the teachers, however, carry on their classes privately. The closing of the school was considered necessary chiefly on account of the difficulty of securing a sufficient number of teachers. At Barnsley open-air

and in-door "Gospel meetings" are held after the First-day evening meetings for worship.

ANTI-SLAVERY WORK AMONG FRIENDS in the
SOUTH.

Francis T. King, of Baltimore, has contributed to The Interchange,-a monthly publication issued by Orthodox Friends in that city,—an interesting paper on the above subject. He says:

In investigating the abolition of slavery in the three southern Yearly Meetings of Friends, we have found a mine of historical wealth in a large collection of the original records of Virginia Yearly Meeting and its subordinate meetings, sent recently by Richmond Monthly Meeting to Baltimore Yearly Meeting. There being also in existence well preserved records of Baltimore and North Carolina Yearly Meetings, I trust that the history of the abolition of slavery in the Society of Friends at the South, a century ago, will now be written.

In 1790 the population of the Northern States was 1,968,154, of whom 40,370 were slaves, and of the Southern States, 1,842,804, of whom 645,392 were slaves. Very few slaves were held by Friends at the North, but at the South, where they were planters and farmers, they generally held or hired slaves. It was a wonderful anticipation of modern views of slavery, that a community of 25,000 persons, in the heart of a slave country, and dependent on slave labor, should have emancipated their own slaves, and ceased to hire those of others. Nothing short of the power of the Lord could have enabled them to do this. Their action deserves alike the careful attention of the student of history, and of our Society, which has always held a quiet leadership in spiritual and humane thought.

The Virginia records above referred to consist of in 1702, with but few breaks until it was united to the minutes of Virginia Yearly Meeting from its rise, Baltimore Yearly Meeting in 1844; also minutes of Monthly, Quarterly and Select Meetings, most of them going back over 100 years. There are also old disciplines and copies of Epistles sent to and received from other Yearly Meetings, which are interesting, in throwing light on the prevailing thought and feeling of Friends of that day, especially on slavery. The most valuable of all the records is one beginning thus: "This book began in the year 1673, by the motion and order of George Fox, the servant of God." Wherein is a register of the nativity of Friends' children according as their parents did give in in writing." "Herein is also to register all Friends' children that shall be born hereafter, and also all marriages and burials that shall hereafter happen among them." "Here follows the copy of a letter as it was given forth by George Fox and sent from Elizabeth River to Friends in Nansemond in the 10th mo. 1672." "Friends above mentioned to hold a men's meeting once a quarter to see that all that profess God's name may not dishonor it, and to see that nothing be lacking amongst Friends, as the men's meeting was to do, spoken of in Acts, of which Stephen was one." He then gives directions for the registration of births, deaths and burials, about the

use of thee and thou, marriage, giving a form of and that they desire to see the Society's walls rebuilt, marriage certificate, and concludes thus: "Many is evidence that they are acting from no light and other things I might write unto you, but these things unsubstantial motive. The additional question for in short may be read amongst you when ye meet them must be simply whether they are conscious of together, which (in) after time ye may have more at the internal conviction that they are proceeding large from Maryland, which are practised amongst rightly. Friends in England and elsewhere." There is then added in different ink, the "things" referred to, being 18 rules of discipline; also a copy of a paper sent by the Meeting in Barbadoes to George Fox and other Friends, who had lately been there, acknowledging the goodness of God through his servants in establishing Friends' meetings, and expressing their entire submission to the body of Friends, and readiness to receive their advice and direction. There are several letters from George Fox, one from Isaac Penington, and epistles from meetings in England to Friends in Virginia.

IS ACTIVITY RIGHT?

There is faith, and there are Works which are the evidence of Faith. The Society of Friends to which we are attached is at the point where it is asked to determine whether activity is right for it—whether it should show, by religious works, the proof of its religious conviction.

Practically, this is the question of the hour for Friends. If we will attentively observe the discussion now going on in our Society, it comes to this form. It is proposed by some to arouse our religious body, to awaken it, to endeavor to give it fresh life. But the substance of the argument against this is that no awakening can be needful, that we shall sit and patiently wait, that if it be the Divine desire to have the Society aroused, He will awaken it in His own time and way.

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It seems to us that Friends are in danger of being involved in a maze of metaphysics. They are asked to carry to a fatal conclusion, without qualification, the apparent logic of their own principles. We say apparent" logic, for we believe it not to be real. The principle of the Light Within does not necessarily imply that inaction and consequent decay, while waiting for a supernatural sign or interposition, must be the rule. It does not necessarily imply that individuals or religious bodies shall avoid all active endeavor, and sit forever "in the quiet," listening for a Voice. The very fact that their numbers diminish, their powers fail, their usefulness declines, their share in the improvement of the world decreases, is an evidence that they are wrong.

The principle of a divine inward presence certainly does not forbid religious action. It does forbid such action, unless there be an inward conviction of its being right. This is the test In the Society of Friends, at the present time, there are very many who are unwilling to see it, with its principles, its testimonies and its strength for good, disappear. Their conviction as to the undesireableness of this is very strong. It has, moreover, the proof of sincerity, for many of them, engaged daily in occupations that bring them in contact with the great body of their fellow men and women, not Friends, would find it easy and convenient to fall into other religious bodies. That they do not do this, that they remain Friends,

The Light Within shines, we cannot doubt, for those who are actively engaged. We call it, alternatively, a Still small Voice. But does any one doubt that it may be a blazing light or a great voice, upon occasion? Saul, on his way to Damascus, fresh from the stoning of Stephen, and full of harsh purpose for the further persecution of the Christians, declared that as he rode a great light from Heaven shone about him, and a loud Voice spoke to him out of it. Can we doubt, accepting the Scripture account in any sense, that the measure of the Light or of the Voice is proportioned to the occasion when it descends? We must be falling victims to a wrong logic if we believe that to see or to hear at all we must look or listen so intently as never to stir at all.

The example of Fox and of all his associates teaches the duty of active work. They were emphatically doers. They felt it right to do. They felt it right to do. The sole question for Friends, now, is whether they feel the monition within directing them to do also, in their day and generation, the work which presents itself. And of this they must judge, in the beginning, for themselves; in the end their results will be the witness for them. If they have no authority of Truth, they will accomplish nothing; but if, in their labors, the Voice Within prompts them, they cannot fail in their effort of rebuilding and restoring. H. M. J.

SAVE THE BIRDS.

There have been frequent and eloquent protests from many sources against the slaughter of our native birds for the purpose of adorning ladies' hats. We are quite sure that the ladies do not appreciate the cruelty involved, or they would never wear hats adorned with a dead bird. There is more than cruelty involved. The birds are insect destroyers, and are the guardians of the field and woods against many varieties of noxious vermin. The destruction of the birds is a menace to agriculture which should not be permitted. The time for sentiment has passed. It is time to act. Let the bird killers be hunted down, and punished to the full extent of the law. Farmers and gardeners and the owners of city fruit plots have a vital interest in the preservation of our native birds. Let them watch for the bird-killers, and immediately get warrants for their arrest under the laws of the State. Make quick work with the vandals. This is the only safety now. Some parties in this country are buying bird skins to send to Paris; and, so long as there is a demand, cruel boys and men will be found to hunt down the poor birds. Down with the bird-killers!—Rochester Democrat.

RELIGION cannot pass away. The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky; but the stars are there, and will reappear.- Carlyle.

CHILDREN have more need of models than of critics.-Joseph Joubert.

INDIAN LIFE AND GROWTH AT HAMPTON.

The wonderful thing about Hampton as a school is that the scholars do not merely exist here for a purpose; they really live and really grow. And the new growth and the new life go on from Hampton, as well as at Hampton. Power is not added, but developed, and development must go on.

At first sight the size and beauty of the place is impressive. May is its most beautiful month. The waters of Hampton Roads, and of its little inlet running back into pine and cedar clad coves; the somewhat stately grounds sloping to the water-side, dense with shade, and rich in solid buildings of red brick; all is vivid, striking, picturesque. The life of the great school begins to affect us powerfully. Its unity strikes us first oneness of action, sentiment, spirit; then its individual scope and freedom, the power of its many personalities. Each worker here makes his own place; the position doesn't make the teacher. A certain elasticity of the whole system admits of the strongest possible pressure of the right influence at any given point.

The four or five hundred colored students-for whom the mass of the school's work is done-serve our present purpose as foundation for and background to the work for one hundred and twenty Indians. We cannot justly compare Carlisle with Hampton; we must compare it, if at all, with the Indian school at Hampton. And yet the inevitable advantages of broader influences and associations cannot be overlooked.

One word as to the practical basis. Carlisle, as is well known, is a Government school. Hampton relies broadly on the support of the people, and receives an insufficient allowance from Government for one hundred and twenty Indians. These fine buildings are the people's gift. An admirable charity has lately provided a growing number of small but complete cottages, and inaugurated the "Hampton experiment" of educating a home sentiment and a better home life with young married Indian couples. This is a decidedly characteristic feature, and a growing success. The attractive interior of these $300 cottages, and the charm of family life, as it is engrafted upon institution life, cannot but create new conditions. An Indian pater familias, of established Christian character, came to Hampton this spring, with his wife and two small children. He had already two bright little boys as his representatives here; and this interesting family seems to take strong root in a hopeful future.

The noticeable thing about the Indian girls' training. in their pleasant home in Winona (Elder Sisters' Lodge), is its development of a sense of personal responsibility. Each girl does her own washing, ironing, mending (subject to weekly inspection); makes and often selects her own dresses; really lives and plays and entertains in her pretty room; and there are no severe restraints felt outside of school hours. The social intercourse among the girls and boys is natural and pleasant. Not that they meet and talk at discretion, by any means; but it is evident that they have frequent and wholesome opportunities to enjoy and learn to regulate their enjoyment of one another's society.

The home pleasures and associations of the boys in their own cottage center in its cozily arranged reading-room, where they learn, with wonderful quickness, to appreciate the refinements of life through contact with their teachers, and, more slowly, to enjoy the society of good books. Our respect for these vigorous, if crude minds, increases on a visit to one of their Saturday evening meetings, conducted by themselves, in English and Dakota. One needs to blush for his unnecessary, yet natural surprise, when the beginner in English, who is not the child he seems, gets up and delivers himself of sound sense and humor in his native tongue.

It will be seen that allowance is made at Hampton for the immediate value to the Indian learner and teacher of an Indian language. Its use is discouraged, but not entirely discountenanced. This is especially the case in religious teaching. The Christian life must be made intelligible to the pathetically earnest, utterly ignorant young Indian, even at the possible sacrifice of consistent effort toward English speaking. It has also been pointed out that missionary work among the Dakotas must, for some time to come, rest upon that monument of missionary labor, the Dakota Bible, and that the young Indian teacher and preacher of the present generation needs to read and write his own language. easily, and to interpret freely from English into Dakota, and from Dakota into English. The practice which he gets here will be of service to him.

It has been said that Hampton has the largest facilities for general industrial training of any school in the country. General Armstrong was the apostle of industrial education at a time when it was comparatively unpopular; and he still leads the modern progressive movement in this direction. The Indian training-shops seem to leave nothing to be desired in the way of improved machinery and method. The half-day system employed is identical with that at Carlisle.

With all this supremacy of the trades, the arts are not neglected. They are not only taught in the schools, but they flourish in daily life. The things which grace existence, and idealize the struggle, are everywhere regarded. Everywhere the appeal is made to the eye and to the heart. The girls' May party was the prettiest spectacle of the year. The symbolic charm of white dresses, lights and flowers, the perfect panorama of the youth, freshness and beauty of the "despised races," set in lovely dissolving tableaux, brought smiles which were close to tears.

May 21st was the morning of Hampton's anniversary. In the class-rooms we found two distinct phases of the work; the higher opportunities offered by the normal classes, of which about twenty Indians have this year availed themselves; and the exceedingly practical and interesting elementary work done in the "Indian Department." These preparatory classes cover rather less ground than Captain Pratt's five years' course; the regular Normal school course, possible to Indians, covers more. The association with another great English-speaking race seems to benefit the Indian. Starting at a disadvantage in the matter of language, and of temperament as well, he holds his own with the negro better than might have been expected.

We are struck with the comparative smallness of the Indian classes, and with a degree of vivacity and even brilliancy in much of the teaching. We feel at once that individual study and attention are found possible with so small a number; and we note how the spirited action of these enthusiastic young women works a great change in the naturally inert and unresponsive Indian. We follow him from the first English class; the class who "stand up," "sit down," "put the book on the table," and "shut the door." where he seems to the stranger awkward and ill at ease; we follow him to the advanced room in United States History, and hear him eagerly dwelling on his favorite hero; we study the turns of his unique English, the changes on his expressive face. He likes arithmetic, but dreads analysis. His reading is his weakest point. Geography, or the "earthbook," deals with tangible facts. He seizes upon it with avidity. The order in the school-room might, perhaps, be more exact; but it would be at the sacrifice of that spontaneity so urgently and successfully sought.

Two young Indians, graduating with honor, speak for themselves and for their people; indirectly for themselves, by showing what has been accomplished in their training; openly and directly for the need, the demand, which they represent. A Sac and Fox, from Indian Territory, made a straightforward and effective plea for Indian citizenship, and more, for Indian manhood. "He says: "I want to see my race like other races in this land which you call land of the free! Why should not the Indian become a citizen? He is a man, like one of yourselves, with a mind which God did not intend should remain idle. He has been crowded apart on reservations, outside of civilization and Christianity. He cannot remain thus. Set him on his feet, give him a fair chance, thus. Set him on his feet, give him a fair chance, and see what will come of it! Look at what American citizenship has done for the negro! It will do as much for the Indian. His slavery is as real in its way as was the other. I recognize the change that is taking place in our Indian policy, and I realize that the Indian is meeting it fully half way. Send us teachers instead of soldiers, and plows instead of rations, and you will find the Indian helping to support the laws which he did not help to make."

A young Sioux girl comes forward in a perfectly self-possessed manner, and says many witty and truthful things. "Why did we not accept civilization before? If one small boy feeds a cat while another is beating it, do you think the cat will stay to enjoy its food? The Indian distrusts the white man's way. And no wonder! Yet I know of great changes in Dakota; and the failure to follow these changes is sometimes misunderstood. I have an uncle, of whom many of you would be afraid, because he wears full Indian dress. I once asked him, 'Uncle, why don't you wear citizen's clothes?' He said: 'I would if I had them, or if I had any means of getting them.' As for savages, there are savages of all colors; and I think that, if you were to come out to Dakota, you would be more afraid of some of the white savages there than of the red.'"

The woman makes society. The Indian woman will make the future of the Indian. Educate just as many girls as boys. The Indian woman of the past

hoed her corn and watched her lodge fire day and night, because she thought it was her duty. She is capable of doing a different duty as soon as she is taught to see it.

The "past, present, and future of the Indian "is represented by seven of the students in a striking tableau. A young man and woman, whose remarkable beauty is set off by the barbaric splendor of full Indian dress and decoration, stand for the "past glory of a race." Two others, in the motley attire of the Indian of to-day, speak through an interpreter for the despised, unhappy Indian of the present. The appearance of the Indians of the future, hardly to be distinguished from the rest of us, unless by greater earnestness of face and bearing, completes the suggestive contrast, and points the moral of the day. This moral is yet further enforced by the singing of our familiar "Missionary hymn," in the musical Dakota language, by the whole Indian school, the audience rising to join in the last verse with grand effect.

The thrilling question rests with each one of us to answer, and we wish that it were in us to answer it as Hampton answers it to-day.-Elaine Goodale in the Independent.

THE poorest reason that can be offered for doing a that reason is never given when it is the truth. In the first place, thing is, that "every body does it." There are very few things in this world that everycluded in an excuse for doing a thing that has been body does do; and none of these are likely to be incalled in question. But even if it is only the great majority that is intended by "everybody," the probability is the presumption fairly may be-that that majority is in the wrong; for the highest standard of doing is rarely with the majority. In order to do right, one must be willing to be in a minority; unless, indeed, he counts himself in the majority by being all alone with God, on the side of God's choice.-S.

S. Times.

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