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*We propose to have the present "Volume" of the paper, (INTELLIGENCER, XLII), end with 1885, so that hereafter the volume will begin and end evenly with the calendar year,-1886 being XLIII; 1887, XLIV, and so on. This will be found more convenient, we think, for ourselves, and for our subscribers. It will not affect, of course, the payments of subscriptions. These can begin at any time, and the sum paid may be for a full year, credit being given in our books from the date when the last payment ended, to the corresponding date a year later. Or, if any prefer to do so, they can pay such sum as will make their account hereafter begin and end evenly with the calendar year.

PATIENCE.

OF the many wise utterances recorded of a great

poet of the past, none can excel this; "How poor are they that have not Patience," for amid all the Christian virtues it surely holds a most high place. It is one great need of our present age, as indeed it has been in all ages, for the imperfect work of imprudent haste of ambitious human nature is evidénced on many a page of history, and with our own boasted growth in all that tends to perfect life, we still sadly fail in this one particular, we are not a patient people.

But it is patience in connection with the many branches of humanitarian work in which we are engaged that is our present concern. We need to study more the Divine order of things, and see how "with patient steps and slow," we approach the great truths of God; how each century we come a little nearer to that high ideal of life, that He ever reveals to such as are ready to receive it.

In the work of teaching the unskilled hands to perform needful labor, or the even harder task of subduing the untrained appetites of such as we are wont to gather into our mission schools, or take into our homes for domestic service, we have indeed, need of large patience to qualify us for the task. We may be well skilled in our department of instruction be full of energy and enthusiasm, have loved charity and love of our work, yet lacking Patience we fail of success. It commends itself to us in every field of labor, but we desire to emphasize its need in our dealings with pauperism, for more and more this subject engrosses our thoughts and perplexes our minds, and it is the virtue of patience that must aid us in solving the knotty question of, how to remedy it. Possessing patience ourselves, we must impress upon the pauper, that only by patient self-helpfulness can

this incubus of poverty be removed, and in no other way can it be successfully dealt with. The spasmodic help, that induces the hope of speedy ease and luxurious comfort, and ignores the patient overcoming day by day of the hindrances, inherited or otherwise, that come from previous conditions, can only work harm to us and to them.

Patience then is the great lever in our work of reform, and if we cultivate a love for it, as such, we will be benefited by the reflex growth in ourselves of a virtue so fine that a beloved poet of our own time has clothed it in the image of an angel bringing quiet and rest to weary hearts, and under its influence, if all evils do not disappear, there is still comfort.

"For ills and woes he may not cure
He kindly trains us to endure."

THE WORK OF THE VISITING COMMITTEES.

THE appointment of committees, as recommended

by our last Yearly Meeting, to visit our members and to encourage them to a more faithful performance of their religious duties, has been undertaken by some monthly meetings. To those who are engaged in this service the labor looks very great; our members live far apart, much time must be occupied in making the visits, and some of the visited do not respond very earnestly to the invitation to be more helpful to the Society of which they are members. This spirit of indifference is chilling and discouraging to those who are spending valuable time and giving their strength in the hope that a renewal of religious life and a greater interest in our religious organization may result. But those so engaged must bear in mind that after they have fulfilled their part of the duty, the result must be left; it is not wise to carry this weight of indifference as a damper to the hopes of a revival amongst us. Just how the committee's part of the duty is to be performed, it is useless to try to say; but one qualification certainly is necessary, that of an earnest confidence in our Society as a means toward an advancement in religious life. If we possess this confidence ourselves it is safe to think that a convincing presentation of the Society's claims will be made to the persons visited.

The long established custom of birthright membership enrolls some who are not giving evidence of an interest in our principles and testimonies; this is one of the fields where much labor will be needed, for it is doubtless a great and important task “to look after the children as they are growing up to maturity, to manifest an interest in their welfare, thus endeavoring to aid parents in bringing their children to feel an increased interest in our religious Society and its important testimonies." Especially is it difficult

where parents to whom this "aid" is to be given, have not the concern of this interest themselves. Numbers of our young people are allowed by their parents to attend sabbath schools, where they receive instructions contrary to Friends' belief, and where they grow accustomed to services which, to their immature minds, seem much more attractive than the simplicity of worship practiced by us. We no longer are obliged to confess that we have nothing in our Society which is suited especially to the instruction of the children, and now the Yearly Meeting has recommended that these First-day schools shall receive the oversight and care of the meetings, they have the opportunity to help in making them so attractive that no “Friend's child shall be placed from among Friends."

If the children are really to be looked after, this one source of weakness must not be neglected, for it would be strange to expect a love for our Society and a devotion to its cause, to follow an education that familiarizes the tender mind of childhood with those things that our testimonies are against.

If our wisest Friends, those who have the concerns of our Society most nearly at heart, have counseled the labor which the monthly meetings are now laying upon these committees, they should go hopefully into the work, and most thankful would we be if any word of ours could help to open the way for their labors, or incline any mind to a sympathetic cooperation which will insure the fulfillment of the hope of an increase of interest and activity throughout the length and breadth of the religious Society of Friends.

MARRIAGES.

CORNELL-WING.-In Somerset, Niagara Co., N. Y., on the 24th of Eleventh month, 1885, by Friends' ceremony, Samuel P. Cornell, of Mendon, Monroe Co., N. Y., and Marcia Wing, of the former place.

DEATHS.

BURTON.-On the 16th of Eleventh month, 1885, at her residence, Randall Road, Niagara Co., N. Y., Esther, wife of William Burton, and daughter of the late Francis Ray, in the 75th year of her age; a member of Chatham Monthly Meeting.

GARRIGUES.-On the morning of Twelfth month 6th, Sarah Marshall Garrigues, daughter of the late Abraham M. and Esther M. Garrigues, in her 90th year; a member of the Monthly Meeting of Friends held at Green Street, Philadelphia.

ENGLE.-At Mullica Hill, N. Y., on the 24th of Eleventh month, 1885, Joshua Engle aged 81 years and 3 months; an Elder of Pilesgrove Monthly Meeting of Friends.

HAVILAND.—At Glencove, L. I., on First-day, Eleventh month 29th, Isaac E. Haviland, in his 83d year.

HILL.-On the evening of Twefth month 3d, at the residence of her daughter, Hannah H. Grubb, Philadelphia,

Mary Ann, widow of Joseph Hill, in her 86th year; a member of the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia ; formerly of Wilmington Del.

KERSEY.-On Twelfth month 6th, Sarah W., wife of John J. Kersey, and daughter of the late Lewis and Mary Walker; a member of the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia.

MOORE. Suddenly of heart disease, on the morning of Ninth month 25, 1885, Joseph Moore, a respected citizen of Union Bridge, Carroll Co., Md. He had a birthright in the Society of Friends, in whose burying-ground his remains were interred on his 83d birth-day.

THOMSON.—At her residence, Philadelphia, Eighth month 3d, 1885, Anna Thomson, daughter of the late John and Sarah L. Thomson.

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SCRIPTURE LESSON NO. 14.
TWELFTH MO. 13.

THE SUFFERING SAVIOUR.

READ: Isaiah, 53d chapter, verses 1 to 12 inclusive. Golden Text, The Lord hath lain on him the iniquity of us all.”—Isaiah 53 ; 6.

OUR lesson for to-day passes from the 1st to the 53d chapter of Isaiah, but in reality begins with the last three or four verses of the preceding chapter.

In the intervening portion of the book of Isaiah there is a blending of Jewish history and of prophecy. The fate of many of the neighboring peoples associated with Judah is shown, and at intervals the

remnant" of Israel that has continued faithful to the divine requirings, is encouraged with glimpses into the future, when the "servant" of Jehovah, upon whom he would put his " spirit," would be given "for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners, and them that sit in darkness out of the prisonhouse." As we read this wonderful picture found in the 42d chapter, our thought instinctively connects it with the scene recorded in Luke, 4th chapter, 16-22 verses inclusive.

Our lesson may well be considered one of the most wonderful chapters in prophetic history. Isaiah, under the inspiration of the Divine Being, looks down the ages yet to come,-covering a period of 700 years, and sees, passing before his spiritual vision, the scenes and incidents in the life of the blessed Jesus,-the suffer ing Saviour" of our lesson. In the story of his birth as told by Matthew, his biographer, and one of his disciples, we learn that he was called Jesus, which means Saviour, because his mission was to save his people from their sins."

Though he went about doing good to all, yet he was reviled and persecuted, but like a lamb about to be slaughtered he was patient and unresisting. All the sorrow and affliction heaped upon him could not turn him away from the truth which he bore witness to, the saving truth of the Divine in-dwelling, and its immanency in every rational soul, or make him forget his duty to his Father in heaven.

For more than 1800 years men and women and little children have heard the sweet story of Jesus, but only those who have learned of him obedience, and to be "meek and lowly in heart" have found "rest to their souls."

Read, in connection with the 3d verse, Matt. 26; 27; in connection with the 7th verse, Matt. 27; 12. The fulfillment of the 12th verse will be found in Mark, 15; 27.

This lesson teaches, First, Constancy and trust and patience under suffering. Second, That if we would be made better by the example of Jesus, we must in our every-day life carry out the principles of his teachings, be just to all, and willing to suffer, rather than turn aside from the path of duty. Third, That to be his disciples we must turn away from everything that the voice of God in our own souls tells us is harmful, and be loving and kind to one another. Fourth, If we are cruelly or unkindly treated, let us remember the "suffering Saviour" who, when reviled and persecuted, prayed for his enemies "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." Fifth, That Jesus, in accepting the cruel death of the cross, for the truth's sake, opened the way of obedience, even to death, for the whole human family.

FIRST-DAY SCHOOL NOTICE.

IN answer to numerous inquiries respecting the price of "15 cents per copy per year," appearing on the F. D. S. Lesson Leaves, we state that this does not affect any First-day or mission school within the limits of the General Conference, these being supplied free. The price named is simply to comply with outside requisitions.

NEWS OF FRIENDS.

WASHINGTON AND GOOSE CREEK.

THESE meetings, on the southern border of our

most southern Yearly Meeting, have, during and since the time of 'our late annual gathering, attracted the attention and deep interest of some of the ministers who attended that gathering. Amongst these are Isaac Hicks and Thomas Foulke, of New York Yearly Meeting.

The concern of the last named minister seemed to take hold of the minds of the visiting committee, and appointments were made of Friends to unite in the visit. The committee appointed meetings at Washington and Goose Creek, and all met at the former place, where we were cordially welcomed, every preparation having been made by the monthly meeting committee in charge of the property for a large assemblage; and considering it was Sixth-day evening, it was a large one, composed of the best class of people, including some Friends of the "Orthodox branch. Much satisfaction was expressed both in the meeting and afterwards with its labors.

Our friend Thomas Foulke stood forth in earnest and acceptable ministry. We remembered the time when four years ago he and Samuel M. Janney, in the last excursion of the latter from his home, stood in these galleries and opened the house to its uses of worship in earnest words. To the exertions of these two Friends are we greatly indebted for this comfortable and valuable meeting-house and school at the capital of this growing nation. This first meeting in the new house took place in 1880. It stands in the midst of its ample grounds, in the best part of the

city, a remembrance of the generosity and loyalty of Friends of the seven yearly meetings.

The cordial unity of Friends and others with the exercises was very encouraging, and the committee and their co-laborers, took the Washington and Ohio Railroad, on Seventh-day, for their two meetings at Goose Creek, to take place on First-day morning and afternoon. The company was met by Friends with comfortable conveyances at Hamilton and Purcellville stations in Loudoun county, Va.

The labors of our friend Thomas Foulke in this field, including those in our late Yearly Meeting, will be remembered with gratitude to the giver of all our blessings. When he alluded to the place where he was standing, and the seat so lately vacated by his much loved friend and co-laborer, Samuel M. Janney, in tender and eloquent words, the hearts of the people were touched. He told them of the sweet companionship of that eminently pious minister whom he had met in all the yearly meetings and many of the subordinate meetings in America, and the unity and love that pervaded. He reminded them of the pure doctrines he had preached, and the cautions given them to depend on nothing material, and he cited them to the chaste and truthful works which he had with much labor prepared and published to the world, for the hope of those who may come after him. He told them of the loyalty of his pure spirit to the society he loved so well; and those who would wander from one blessed teacher would wander from another, and falsify the doctrines of either.

The gentle ministration of Martha S. Townsend and Rebecca M. Thomas of the visiting committee entered into the hearts of the people, and these Friends remained a few days to make some visits in love.

Baltimore, Twelfth month 5, 1885.

H. J.

-The sub-committee for Burlington Quarter of the Yearly Meeting Committee, met in conference with Friends at Crosswicks, N. J., on the 30th ult., when it was arranged that after attending the Quarterly Meeting on the following day, they would proceed in attending other meetings, as follows: Mansfield, 4th day; Upper Springfield, 5th day; Mount, 6th day; and Old Springfield on 7th day, all at 2 o'clock P. M.; Mount Holly, 1st day at 10, and Rancocas at 2 in the afternoon; and visit the families of Friends as way opened during the time.

-The Quarterly Meeting on the 1st inst., though not large, was an interesting season,-in which much counsel was given. The various meetings composing the quarter are small, but the Friends who attend appear to be interested in maintaining them. The appointed meetings were pretty well attended, and the committee endeavored to encourage those present to faithfulness,-and they trust that some advantage will be the result of their labors.

-In Gwynedd Monthly Meeting, at its recent sitting at Plymouth, the report of a committee on the subject of the First-day schools, recommending that they be taken under the care of the meeting, was approved, and a committee to bring forward names of a com

mittee of care was appointed. At Gwynedd Particular Meeting, on the 6th inst., the exercises of the First-day school, which had for a year or so been suspended, were resumed, with encouraging evidences of interest.

-Speaking of the new meeting-house at Washington, D. C., a correspondent writes: "Recently, upon the death of the wife of our friend, Benjamin Butterworth, (Member of Congress from Ohio), in this city, the remains were brought to this house, and a meeting was held on the occasion." He also adds: “Friends at Washington informed us of the serious indisposition (paralysis), of Ann R. Seaman, a wellknown and valued member of that meeting. Sunderland P. Gardner has labored much of late in this part of the vineyard, and expects to be in Washington in the Second month."

—Our friend Isaiah Lightner, writes us from Santee Agency, Nebraska, on the 1st instant, on a matter of business, and adds as follows: "I expect to leave the Agency to-morrow. I have been here eight and a half years. Charles Hill, a member of our Society, has taken my place. I leave the work feeling thankful to the Master for his continued favors, in leading us into the higher walks of civilization."

COMMUNICATIONS.

MILTON'S PARADISE LOST.

Editors INTELLIGENCER AND JOURNAL:

I

HAVE thought for some time that this work has quite a strong hold on the minds of some Friends, and when the "Swarthmore Circle" proposed to take it up to read, I felt I should bear my testimony to its not being truth. A Friend, E. H., M. regrets my appearing to object to its being read by the “Circle,” which is because I fear the members may become imbued with its spirit. The Friend says: It is not necessary that we adopt the views of all writers with whose works we become familiar, and asks if "the Friend would restrict the reading of our members to works of our own--or those only in which our own views are taught?" To both of these I would answer, most certainly, no. And' also in reading the works of members of our Society, I think it would be all folly to adopt their views, only as it meets the witness in our own heart. I have read Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" with great delight, and I delight in reading of such reformers as Luther, Washington, Franklin, Lincoln, etc., but having "tasted of the good things of God," I turn from Milton. Quite likely it is desirable to become acquainted with the "various phases of human thought both in the present and past," but, in a word, beware of the spirit of the world. If the Society of Friends does not educate by the Spirit of God, then their schools avail nothing.

I would advise the Friend to be careful of how he "observes with pleasure and satisfaction that W. has himself read the great work referred to," because he has not. He looked over it a few years ago before he knew much of God, but since he has come to see what it is, and is glad he did not read more, as he might have been more perplexed and gone astray further than he has.

As in my first article, I say now, "Seek and ye shall find." It appears to me that the "Circle," is treading, as it were, "upon a sea of glass mingled with fire" in reading this work. W.

Centre Square, Pa., Eleventh month, 29.

THE LIBRARY.

MYRTILLA MINER. A MEMOIR. [Edited by Ellen M.
O'Connor.] Pp. 129. Boston, Houghton, Mifflin &
Co. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co.)
THIS beautifully-printed little volume is a tribute

to the memory of one of the first among the band of women who have devoted themselves to the work of teaching the colored people. Myrtilla Miner began her school for colored girls, at Washington, at the end of 1851, and died in that city thirteen years later. Since the war, the undertaking which she so heroically began has been developed, and the Miner Normal School is now one of the important educational institutions of the national capital, with a building erected in 1877, at a cost of $37,000, and a considerable fund for maintenance besides.

The details of her life given in the book are meagre, yet they furnish an interesting outline, and they afford, at the same time, the opportunity of reviewing the condition of things in the day, really so recent, but seemingly so remote, when Slavery existed in nearly one-half the country and fastened its shameful control upon the whole. She was born in Madison county, N. Y., in Fourth month 1815, a delicate child in a large family of brothers and sisters. Her opportunity of education was small, but extraordinary ambition and perseverance carried her over many obstacles, and at the age of fifteen she began to teach. The memoir does not dwell upon this period of her life, but she must have been engaged in teaching for fifteen years or more, (at Rochester, N. Y., Providence, R. I., and elsewhere), before she went, about 1849 or 1850, to Mississippi, and there, during an engagement of two years as instructress in a female seminary, became practically acquainted with the evils of the system of bondage. Up to that time, though by nature one who eagerly desired to make the world better, she had had no idea of entering the ranks of anti-slavery reform, but she came home from Mississippi entirely resolved to devote her life to the instruction of colored girls, and she promptly decided that the place where she would begin was the capital of the country, where there were many poor colored people totally without the means of education, and where the law did not forbid their receiving it. In 1851, with a hundred dollars contributed to her object by her friend "Mrs. Ednah Thomas, a member of the Society of Friends,” she opened her school, and at the end of two months was in charge of forty scholars.

Of her perils, difficulties, and trials—not nearly so great, it is true, as those of Prudence Crandall, in Connecticut a few years earlier, but still very serious and very painful, and heightened always by her frail health, the memoir gives us a view, but leaves much to be inferred. That she dedicated herself to the work, and leaned upon a Higher Power clearly ap

pears. In 1852, addressing a friend in Smethport, Pa., she wrote:

"I could not secure a good boarding-place near my school, for that is nearly out of town, the people having obliged us move twice to get out of their way, and now permitting us to have no better school-room than a private dwelling affords, and that very small. Many ladies refused to take me to board because I would teach colored girls, and much else of obloquy and contempt have I endured because I would be about my Master's business.

If God hath not sent me to this work, I hope he will raise up means to defeat me in all my purposes; and if it is his work, and he has permitted me to be the instrument of its commencement, no man or men can frustrate the design.”

And a little later she wrote:

"It is a hard thing I have attempted, and I often fear I have not the strength necessary to perform well the part assigned; but if I can prepare the way for some nobler spirit, my duty will be done.”

No doubt she did this; no doubt the influence of her example counted for much more than the apparent results of her school itself. Yet these were very valuable, and one of the most remarkable features of her success lies in the fact that the "Miner Fund," by which the present large institution is supported, is the direct outcome of her painful, unceasing exertion in the day of small things. She ventured to buy, for about $4,000, in 1853, a whole square of ground, in what was then the suburbs of the city, and this, by the great increase in value, was sold some ten years later for more than ten times what it cost.

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To the aid she received from Friends the memoir testifies in a number of places. "Friends rallied to aid and make the school permanent," it says: 'Members of the Society of Friends in Philadelphia and other places gave largely to its founder. Among these Thomas Williamson, Samuel Rhoads, Benjamin Tatham, Jasper Cope, and Catharine Morris were liberal donors. Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe gave $1,000 [out of her receipts from Uncle Tom's Cabin'] as well as hearty support and sympathy to the work.” (It must be understood, here, that many not named assisted her-Gerrit Smith, H. W. Bellows, J. F. Clarke, and others—so that the Friends simply shared the honor of her support. Among the trustees, in 1857, was Samuel M. Janney, of Virginia.)

The editor of the little volume is the present Secretary of the institution which Myrtilla Miner founded. Her task has been creditably performed, and aside from the act of justice in thus commemorating an unselfish and brave career, she adds a valuable chapter to the records of our authentic history. H. M. J.

FEELING is deep and still; and the word
that floats on the surface

Is as the tossing buoy, that betrays
where the anchor is hidden.

-Evangeline.

KEEP thine eye turned inward upon thyself and beware of judging others. In judging others, a man labors to no purpose, commonly errs, and easily sins; but, in examining and judging himself, he is always wisely and usefully employed.-Thomas à Kempis.

FRIENDS' CHARITY FUEL ASSOCIATION. Ar the annual meeting of Friends' Charity Fuel Association, held Eleventh month 21st, the auditors, Henry M. Laing and Alben T. Eavenson, reported the treasurer's accounts to be correct, with a balance on hand of $84.65. The investments, including a small house, amount to about $16,000. The annual summary showed that 507 half tons of coal were distributed gratuitously last winter, relieving the wants of about 1700 persons, of whom, so far as reported, 770 were minors. Of the families assisted 299 were given as American, 133 Irish, 28 German, 12 English, and the others of various nationalities. 358 were white, 135 colored, and 14 unreported. 37 were single, 257 widows, 6 widowers, 191 married, and 16 not stated. 211 of the heads of families appear to be over 50 years of age.

The committee on officers proposed T. Morris Perot, 314 Vine St., for treasurer and Jos. M. Truman, for clerk and recorder, who were approved, and Wm. Hawkins, Wm. J. Gillingham and Jos. M. Truman appointed to have the oversight of the order-book the present season.

An adjourned meeting to decide on the supply of fuel was appointed to be held on the evening of Twelfth month 11th. On Twelfth month 28th, the order book will be opened at Friends' Book Store, south-west corner of 15th and Race Sts., where contributions can be left prior to the New Year, or may be sent direct to the treasurer.

ORTHODOX FRIENDS.

-The venerable John J. Thomas, of Union Springs, N. Y., (one of the editors of the Country Gentleman), writes to Friends' Review opposing the course of the latter in regard to the observance of water baptism; and he adds: "I wish to state that of the few of our members who during the past forty years, within my personal knowledge, have become “entangled again with this yoke of bondage," and who previously gave promise of much usefulness, all or nearly all lost that usefulness, and most of them voluntarily left the Society."

-The Friend is publishing a series of letters, “A Ten Weeks Trip in England," in journal form. The following is part of the entry at Brighton, under date of Sixth month 7th: "Brighton meeting is quite a good sized one for England, and from my little observation I am led to believe that it contains a number of Friends who are not in unity with some of the modern methods of work in our Society. English Friends want, above all things, concerned, fearless elders; and also need to eliminate from their church transactions some of the worldly wisdom which I fear too much influences them. Their charity for one another is unusual and beautiful; and they are valuable to the world in philanthropic enterprises, and their moral influence in the community is great; but I fear that as sturdy upholders of important Christian principles as preached by Fox and Penn, they are slowly and surely weakening. One thing they would do well to divest themselves of; and that is the idea that they are competent judges of who are

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