THE late anniversary of the American Board of

Foreign Missions held in Boston, was one of much significance, completing as it does three quar ters of a century of faithful labor among people whose low condition calls for all the help which they unwillingly receive. Yet through discouragements and adversities, many devoted men and women have labored on to accomplish the one end, the conversion of the heathen to a belief in the evangelical Christian faith. While our religious views do not accord with much that is promulgated by these missionaries, we cannot withhold our admiration for their patient and faithful endeavor, nor hesitate to rejoice in any triumph of civilization over ignorance and vice. A good man, let his belief be what it may on doctrinal points, cannot fail to exert a good influence on those around him; and the example of a pure and upright life, an honest and God-loving Christian, even though he be but one among hundreds who think and act differently, must modify and in course of time elevate those who are daily witnesses of the better way of living. An honor then is due to those who go forth in the self-sacrificing spirit which seeks to animate the benighted with noble impulses, and to carry the glad tidings of God's love to the ignorant and darkened minds in heathen lands.

The attendance at the meetings was very large, it being estimated that between four and five thousand strangers were in Boston, and as many more of the residents of that place made up the gathering. The secretary's report gives an idea of the extent of the work; an item or two will suffice for us. There are 2,605 laborers in the missions, and over twenty-three thousand church members, also more than 35,000 pupils in the schools and colleges. The total amount expended in this vast work for the past year was $657,000.

Since the inception of this work there has been a marked change in the theological beliefs of the churches, even though creeds and confessions of faith still declare what the people have outgrown. What a comment it would be upon the intelligence of Americans were not this the case, yet some of the speakers labored to prove that no essential change had taken place in the seventy-five years just past, and that those who have not received the evangelical idea of God and of Jesus Christ stand in the same light in the Church that they did long ago. This we can hadly believe, for it surely cannot be thought that God's mercy and love are to be bounded by the lines which enclose the Christian Church, nor can it be that those favored to be born where Christian influences abound, feel that all outside of these bounds are lost for ever. A broader view must exist, and we believe the view is more liberal than the expression of it, for the doctrine of eternal punishment has so long been, most curiously, one of the goads to drive people to accept God's love, that much of the teaching in the churches would need careful revising were this belief openly abandoned. So far then as missionary work is intended to teach special dogmas we cannot sympathize with it, but we honor all the grand civilizing and helpful influences which it carries with it, and the brotherly love which moves its great army of workers. Numberless instances of most unselfish devotion on the part of those who have embarked in this work have been given to the public, and we are sure that such illustrations of the beauty of Christian character must open a way for the acceptance of a gospel which is indeed glad tidings to all who receive it.

STUMBLING BLOCKS.

THERE will be found in the celebrated epistles of the eminent apostle Paul, many a terse maxim that it would be wisdom for mankind of to-day to endorse and put into practice. No one of these perhaps, is of greater value than this, "that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way," or the one wherein we are forbidden to do "anything whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is of fended, or is made weak.”

If we were all so watchful over ourselves as to become infused with the spirit of these texts we could not but hasten the time when peace and prosperity will abound, and all shall rejoice in an equality of happiness. But the growth towards such a millennium is very slow,and many continue to be as stumbling blocks" to the multitude whose highest ambition is to be imitators of such as personify the low ideal they have formed of what is manly and great.

We still continue to "sow to the flesh" in very many things in our own lives, while we by precept

strive to uplift to a higher level. Many a commissioned preacher of the Gospel of Christ (sometimes inadvertently) undoes the good effect of precious utterances, by the exhibition of a weakness, that may not be accounted as sin to him, except in the danger of luring others to overstep the prudential line and thus fall from grace. And even when the offence is small and does not imperil anyone, there is the loss of reverence felt for the high ideal that will always couple nobility of character with ability to express grand truths, and picture highly the life of a Christian.

Alas! that the "stumbling blocks" of ambition, of avarice, indeed of all forms of selfishness, must continually retard the growth of Christianity,because christian professors so often exhibit these in their daily walks in life. Religious societies too, fail to live up to their own high standard and do not gather to them as they should the humble and honest, because these see "the spoils of the wicked" are received to enrich the treasury of the church, and they “stumble” and fail to get inside the enclosure where the good should be gathered and therein work for the salvation of others.

Let us all watch, not only ourselves as individuals, but over our own organization lest we too be found wanting in that perfectness that will lead us to reject the ill gotten gain, or other " cause of offence," not casting off the sinner, but condemning the sin and laboring for his salvation, so the church can stand free in her uprightness.

We do not lack in any generation bright examples of good Christian men and women, and we fully believe as the ages grow the numbers of these increase and multiply, and as the fragrance from their unspotted lives sweetens our to-day, so let this stimulate us to struggle to overcome all “ stumbling blocks," that the future may be enriched,and inspire to better living by our example as individuals and as members

of a christian Church.

CONSIDERABLE space is occupied with the report of the proceedings of Baltimore Yearly Meeting. It was, we are assured by a number who were present, a very interesting meeting, and was marked by numerous evidences of earnest awakening.

We have been obliged to decline some communications in reference to the medical properties of lobelia, our desire being to close the discussion.

MARRIAGES.

BOOZ-KNIGHT.-Tenth month 28th, at the residence of Hillborn Knight, by Friends' ceremony, Jesse L. Booz, of Bristol township, Bucks county, Pa., son of the late Joseph L. and Anna Booz, and Margaret, daughter of the late Charles and Jane Knight, of Byberry, Philadelphia Co., Pa.

DEATHS.

COOK.-At the residence of her daughter, Anna Mary Slaughter, Labette county, Kansas, on the 23d of Ninth month last, Rachel K. Cook, widow of Allen Cook, of Lancaster county, Penna., in the 76th year of her age; a member of Benjaminville Monthly Meeting, Illinois. During the past year she had several severe attacks of heart disease which she bore with patience and resignation, often expressing her desire to be released from the shackles of mortality. Her end was peace. L. K. B.

DIXON.-On the 22d of Ninth month, 1885, at her residence, Bloomfield, Talbot county, Md., Mary Ann Bartlett, wife of James Dixon, in the 76th year of her age; a useful and valued member of Third Haven Meeting. She served in the capacity of clerk for both quarterly and monthly meetings; the latter office, for a period of twenty years. She was a devoted wife, a faithful and affectionate mother, a friend to the poor and needy. For more than three years she suffered greatly, and her earnest prayers to be released being answered, she passed away like one falling gently to sleep. Her remains were interred at Third Haven, near the old meeting-house, where her ancestors had worshipped for two hundred years. Darlington Hoopes made impressive remarks, and the large and solemn meeting assembled gave evidence of the love and esteem in which she was held by all who knew her.

DUNWOODY.-Tenth month 29th, in Chicago, Ill., Jane E. Dunwoody. Interment at Friends' ground, Newtown Square, Pa.

PARRY.-At the old Parry mansion, New Hope borough, Pa., Tenth month 28th, Ruth Parry, in her 89th year, daughter of the late Benjamin Parry.

PIKE.—Tenth month 30th, at his residence, near Yardley, Pa., Thornton Pike, in his 64th year, son of Henry and the late Mary Pike, of Philadelphia; a member of Green street Monthly Meeting.

STAPLER.-Tenth month 30th, at Yardley, Pa., Mary M., widow of Joseph B. Stapler, in her 64th year. TATNALL.—Suddenly, Tenth month 28th, in Wilmington, Del., William Tatnall, in his 64th year.

For Friends' Intelligencer and Journal. THE WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEMPERANCE UNION.

THE most important event in our city during the past ten days has been the 12th Annual Meeting of the National Women's Christian Temperance Union, which was held in Association Hall, 15th and Chestnut streets, beginnig on Sixth-day the 30th ult., and closing on Fourth-day following.

Our women's branch of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting calls together every year in this city a large concourse of thoughtful, earnest women, and our citizens are thus accustomed to such assemblies, yet the aim and scope of the Yearly Meeting is denominational, and in a sense local, while this Temperance organization reaches out to the farthest limits of our national domain, and embraces in christian fellowship women of all shades of sectarian belief, banded together for the common good. Some years ago, Philadelphia was chosen as the place of meeting of the "Association for the Advancement of Women," and eminent scholars, scientists and philanthropists of our nation, were welcomed, with hearty appreciation of

the privilege afforded the women of this city to meet and mingle with the women of our land who are foremost in all that enobles and dignifies true womanhood. Yet the present gathering comes nearer the heart of women and appeals to all those tender thoughts of love and duty that cluster about the domestic altar. Not alone the well-born and cultured, but the lowliest and the humblest find common cause and common sympathy with these sister, in the work they have undertaken.

A large number of the women of our Society are enrolled among them, and are doing good service in many places, both near and more remote, where it is difficult, on account of the few that can get together, to sustain organizations of their own.

The delegates in attendance numbered nearly 300, and embraced strong, brave, earnest, temperance workers from every part of our nation. On Seventhday afternoon, twenty-two church organizations of our city offered their pulpits to the delegates for Firstday services. Many were accepted, and it was perhaps the first time in the history of the city of Penn, that such equality was accorded to woman, outside the Society of Friends.

The address of welcome delivered by the President, Frances E. Willard, at the opening of the first session, was worthy of the occasion, and the dignity with which she conducted the meetings as presiding officer was a vindication, if any were needed in the city where Lucretia Mott was honored and beloved, of woman's right to occupy any post of honor or confidence to which her talent or ability called her.

Surely there is no truer, nobler, or more needed christian work in which the mothers and daughters of a nation can unite, than the overthrow of an evil whose serpent-trail has defiled the sanctuary of multitudes of homes, and sent to untimely graves the hope and promise of unnumbered households. Let us bid "good cheer" to these brave hearts, and by our sympathy encourage their work, and where it can be done without compromising our principles and testimonies help it forward to completion.

A few extracts from the long and very interesting Annual Report will give a brief summary of some of the work undertaken by this Union, and the success that has been gained:

The magic number seven represents the heroic band of women who have been so vigorously carrying the war into Africa" all through the year. They have more than fulfilled my expectations, having borne our white flag of peace into every outlying state and territory, save Indian and Idaho, besides doing thorough work in the South and on the Pacific coast. They have met their own expenses lacking about $100. What other society sends out its missionaries, and tells them to burn their bridges behind them, for no supplies will ever come across? But while this is a heroic method of service, these things ought not so to be. Our organizers cannot accomplish so much for us in this way. Oftentimes by remaining several days in a place they could change an evanescent into a permanent society. Our system of finance ought to enable them, under such circumstances, to stay. Can we not fix a moderate salary this year for this valiant group of workers, leaving them free to do their utmost in urging the people to give liberally at collection time, and also to take shares of stock in

our Society at ten dollars each, payable at a dollar per year, thus removing our organizers from embarrassment in asking for funds, and insuring to them their current income? No more important question will be asked of our Committee on Finance.

Idaho, Utah and Indian Territory are to-day the least responsive points in all the nation. What woman here is ready to devote one year of missionary labor to these three untilled vineyards of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union?

Our work among colored people should be greatly strengthened. Mrs. Chapin has pioneered in this field, never visiting a town without calling them together, and enlisting pastors and people to stand by prohibition. The good thus wrought is incalculable. But what is one woman, gifted and heroic as she may be, among so many? The movement to send literature to these ignorant but, as a class, well-meaning people, should receive, each year, a ten-cent donation from every member of our society. This is all that is asked, and will yield a larger heavenly per cent. than any other possible form of investment.

Perhaps the chief advance, this year, is in the fraternizing of representative Catholic temperance workers with Protestants. I earnestly wish that a gifted Catholic woman might be found, who would devote herself to enlisting those of her own faith to make common cause with us against our common enemy.

This has been the best year on record for our Department of Scientific Instruction, nine States having adopted laws introducing temperance text-books into the system of public education. These are of various degrees of stringency, that of Pennsylvania being the best.

We all deplore the failure of our methods to reach boys in that debatable period of their chronology known as "those dreadful teens." If we could reach the lads and lassies too, in schools of higher education, perhaps we might apply the method with success to a wider circle of young people later on.

But it was feared that some phases of the contemplated work might unduly infringe on the Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction. Hence, after consultation it was decided that no Superintendents should be appointed in the States, but meantime our National Superintendent made a careful study of the situation, and is prepared to report results to the Convention.

This weakest link in the glittering chain of our methods, demands attention, and it is my duty to urge its consideration upon your most careful thought. Can we not make of it a separate Department so carefully defined as not to encroach upon the domain of any other? There is, as we all know by sad remembrance, a gainsaying period in every young life, when, most of all, we need the guidance of a strong and steady hand. Shall not our Union stretch it forth and be an elder sister and a cherishing mother to these tempted lives? If we would have temperance voters we must educate them, and between the Band of Hope and twenty-first birthday, the enemy will sow not only wild oats but tares, unless the ground is already leased and put under cultivation. I have thought of "Young Patriots" as a good name for these societies, and the study of how we are governed and the relation of parties to principles as a good place for their lessons to begin.

The tobacco habit is continually receiving more attention as the abomination of its desolation becomes more apparent. I believe each State should have a Superintendent to show the people by voice and pen the ruin wrought by the use of tobacco. New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Nebraska, have enacted laws to protect boys from the temptation of its sale. May these laws become universal, and,

ere many years are past, may thus afford equal protection to the children of a larger growth.

Under the leadership of Miss Lucy Holmes, of New Hampshire, that State has passed a law for the suppression of impure literature, which is earnestly commended to your attention and should be brought before the Solons of every commonwealth at their next session.

THE INDIAN QUESTION" AMONG THE
SIOUX.

[From a letter to the Boston Advertiser, by Elaine Goodale, dated at Crow Creek Agency, on the 13th of Ninth month, we make free extracts, below, her descriptions of the situation of the Sioux of the Northwest being animated and interesting.]

|\HERE seems an inevitable lack of sympathy be

THE

tween the minds of the two races, and, even where their interests are identical, the shrewd,aggressive Anglo-Saxon looks with impatience on the essentially slow, conservative Indian nature. It is this invisible mental variance and no mere material separation, which makes a drama of the long conflict between irreconcilable elements. The most indifferent will acknowledge that, in this instance, the caution and suspicion of the Indians are only too well justified. It may as well be acknowledged, also, that the intense reluctance to part with their land is something to be gradually and patiently overcome, Superior numbers are no longer a match for superior rights.

The position of the Sioux nation to-day has some great strategic advantages. A man has something which he doesn't want to sell, but which his neighbor is anxious to buy. He is able to make his own terms. He will make them high in proportion to his own indifference or reluctance, and his neighbor's need.

These Dakota people want communication with the Black Hills. The future of this country depends upon the opening of the reservation which blocks the highways of traffic. The land along the lines of the two great railroads,-the Chicago & Northwestern and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul,-possosses a value which its owners are unable to appreciate, and of which they will not command the full benefit. On the other hand, the old idea of the advantage to the Indians of contact with civilization is not to be overlooked. The results of such contact are likely, indeed, to prove complicated, and, in many instances, disastrous, to the weaker people. Nevertheless, this sort of heroic treatment is the only method probably effective to work an heroic cure. The evil is deep and of long standing, and the remedy must be a powerful one. Our real hope lies far back in the stubborn virtue and tenacity of Indian character, and it is a significant fact that the educated Indian, as represented here by a strong body of native clergy, earnestly advocated the change.

Mr. Welsh held to-night a meeting of these men for discussion of the Dawes bill, which furnished in itself a striking illustration of progress. They spoke deliberately, openly and to the point, and their words carried peculiar weight. It is reasonable to suppose that they are thoroughly familiar with the workings of the old Indian mind, and their sympa

thy with advanced views of Indian civilization is almost startingly strong. Philip Deloria, hereditary chief among the Yanktons, a few years ago a wild youth in paint and blankets, now risen to a wise, responsible, devoted manhood, spoke substantially like this: He admitted that the reservation must sooner or later be opened to white settlement, and that its opening under the provisions of the Dawes bill was wise and just. He felt that this measure should be carried through, but thought there were great difficulties in the way of getting the consent of the Indians. The minds of the Indians are broken up into a thousand different opinions. They are suspicious, because of the recent attempts to deceive and rob them of their lands. He thought the true way would be to have principal men appointed as representatives to meet their friends in the East, and there arrive at an understanding of the whole matter. Upon their return these men could fully inform their people of the nature of the measure, and use their influence to obtain a general consent. This opinion was strongly supported by all the Dakota clergy and by Agent Gasmann. Mr. Deloria thought that the influence of the old chiefs was against the best interests of his people, and emphasized the importance of bringing forward the young progressive men. He made one or two practical points which deserve notice. In the proposed compensation of 1000 bulls and 25,000 cows, their value, he urged, should be definitely stated. Copies of the bill should be translated into Dakotan by the missionaries or other responsible men, and by them carefully explained to the people. This would be an important step toward preparing their minds for the proposition which is to be brought before them.

Major J. G. Gasmann, Indian agent at Crow Creek, is a man of large intelligence and kindly nature. He is a good talker, has studied the question broadly and thoroughly, and his views on the subject of Indian self support are of immediate and very material force. He urges that, when the size of reservations has been lessened by this contemplated measure, and the Indians are placed in competition with white settlers, they will find it exceedingly difficult to maintain themselves. Much of the land on the west side of the river is valuable neither for agriculture nor grazing. Eastern radicals on the Indian question, whose ideas outrun their experience, are prone to overlook the stringent need of protection for the Indian during the transition stage from barbarism to civilization. Treaty law provides for it, to a certain extent, and justice and humanity demand that such temporary safeguards be not rashly or prematurely set aside.

The gradual reduction of rations to the Sioux is a step contemplated by the treaty of 1868 and favored by the more conservative, as well as by the “advanced” friends of the Indians. The letter of this law is, in this instance, an absurdity, since it provides that the rations shall cease as soon as the Indians become selfsupporting! While the government is diminishing the rations of certain tribes in proportion to their supposed capacity for self support, there is very likely to be hardship and injustice in individual cases. It may be said that greater pains should be taken to

ascertain the actual amount of crops raised each year by stated Indians, as the government farmers' report has been known to be made entirely a matter of conjecture. There is no doubt, however, that the more progressive Indians at the progressive agencies favor the reduction of rations, and the experiment has been tried with signal success. The Santee Sioux and those at Sisseton agency receive no rations except for the old and infirm and for school children. They hold their lands in severalty and are self supporting.

It is possible that an improvement may be made in the system of distributing annuity goods in part payment for lands which have been sold by the Indians. Why not, it is asked, make these payments in money? The payment should not be annual, but a small sum should go to each head of a family at the beginning of every month. It is argued that the Indian would then know exactly what he was receiving, and there would be no room nor reason for dissatisfaction in regard to the actual worth of articles of clothing. The coat may be a shoddy coat, the calico may be rotten; but a dollar is a dollar and one dollar as good as another. It is well known that the Indian is usually ignorant of values, and will exchange an article of which he has no immediate need for another which he does happen to need at almost any sacrifice. His entire lack of money stands him in great disadvantage. Without money as a circulating medium there can be no considerable prosperity. We want to change the condition on the reservation, to establish industries, to create a genuine demand for the products of industrial labor; and to do this the Indian must have money in his pocket to pay for what he wants. The boy who has learned his trade at Hampton or Carlisle finds it practically useless for lack of a market for his wares. It is of no use to make tins, or harnesses, or shoes; the government supplies all these articles, the Indians have no money to pay for mending them, and when they are worn out the government renews the supply. Let the Indians bring their hides to be tanned; let the Indian shoemakers make and repair the shoes, and let the Indians buy them with their own money.

That was a pathetic request of White Ghost's that some boundary might be defined within which the Indians would be safe. How natural a wish, and yet how hopeless! It is, perhaps, too much to expect that the old chief, with his pure patriarchal notions, should see now that the title of the individual Indian to his individual farm is his sole permanent protection. Allotments of land in severalty are to be made, under the terms of the Dawes bill, to all who desire them. Would it not be well to anticipate future legislation on this point by fixing a term of years, within which allotments must be made to all Indians and surplus lands disposed of for the benefit of the tribe? The Indian cannot always remain at once a beggar and a monopolist.

PERSONALITIES are the bane of familiar discourse. If conversation must turn upon idle report, and talk degenerate into idle tattle,rather than submit to this drying up process of the brain let us set a seal upon the lips.-Selected.

"THE GROUNDS OF CHRISTIAN UNITY." [The following is the address of Canon F. W. Farrar, of Westminister, London, before the "Church Congress "at New Haven, Conn., a few days ago. It will be read, we think, with pleasure, as indicating the breadth and liberality of the speaker's views, and as testifying to the simple and practical nature of the Christian relsgion.]

THE first ground of Christian unity-unity in heart

and soul amid divergences of opinion and variations of practice-is the many-sidedness of truth.

We must draw a deep distinction between unity and uniformity. Unity is essential and obligatory ; uniformity is impossible and even, I will venture to say, undesirable. Infinite truth has manifold aspects for finite understandings. To use the splendid expression of St. Paul, it is polupoikilos sophis a manycolored," a "richly variegated wisdom." The church, to use the ancient phrase, is "circumamicta varietatibus" clothed in raiment of divers colors; and the truth she teaches does not shine in a single light only, but is like a gem of which no eye can see at once the glories of each separate facet. We see the separate colors of the divine rainbow; we cannot see the sevenfold perfection of its undivided light.

Truth, in theology no less than in science, has been revealed to us, as we are told in the Epistle to the Hebrews, polumeros kai polutropos, "fragmentarily and multifariously," "in many parts and in many manners; nor is it possible for us, with our human limitations, to see it steadily and see it whole. And this a priori certainty is confirmed by experience. As an historic fact, there never has been, in the Christian church, a complete absence of different schools of thought; there never has been an absolute uniformity of belief and of practice. If it did not exist in the Church of Jerusalem, why should we expect it to exist in the churches of Europe? If in the first century there were the schools of Jerusalem, of Antioch and of Alexandria, is it likely that there will be no wide differences of views and ritual amid the immense complexities of modern Christendom?

If this fact had been duly apprehended, churches and their rulers might have been saved from their disastrous attempts to secure what is impossible, which attempts in many an age have not only marred the beauty and maimed the force of Christian life, but they have lead to the darkest and deadliest crimes which have ever disgraced the corporate action of the church of God: to Albigensian Crusades, to Smithfield martyrdoms, to the infamies of the Inquisition, to the desperate iniquities which have been committed by religious tyranny in its endeavor to storm that conscience of man which is the very citadel of Heaven. And this error of invincible ignorance, so far from being successful even at the hideous cost of Moloch-sacrifice, has only produced, at the most, a nominal, a Laodicean, a stupid and uninquiring uniformity-a uniformity which warred against all freedom and all progress--a silence of terror, a torpor of assurance, a drugged sleep of unnatural acquiescence; the uniformity of stagnation, ignorance and death. If diversity without unity be discord, on the other hand, unity without diversity is death.