WE are glad to give herewith a photo engraving of the pastors and delegates present at the Annual Conference of Evangelical Christian workers in Austria, with our present sole missionary in Austria in the center of the group. The Conference was held at Pilsen in May last, and was a meeting of great interest

Evangelical Workers in Austria.

and power.

No one can look upon these faces without being impressed by the wonderful work being accomplished by our Board in Austria. Here is a fine body of men who are thoroughly engaged in labors for the spiritual elevation of people amid surrounding superstition and infidelity. We cannot

The

name all the persons in the group, but some of them are known here. three sitting upon the ground, beginning at the reader's right, are Pastor M. Kovar, of the Tabor church, Mr. Skarda, an elder of the Prague church, and Pastor J. Kovar, who is now transferred to the Pilsen church. Those sitting in the next row are, at the right, Pastor Kostomlatsky, of Bystrei, Pastor Chorvat, whom the Home Missionary Society of America has repeatedly sought to secure for work in America, and Pastor Adlof, of Prague. In the center of the group is our missionary, Dr. A. W. Clark, and at his right, Rev. Mr. Giddings, delegate from the Congregational churches of England and Wales. The other two in the row are Pastor Wolf, of Budweiss, and Pastor Melachar, of Skalitz. Of those standing many are pastors and the others evangelists or elders. These representatives of living faith in Christ as understood by Congregationalists need the prayers and help of their more favored brethren in America. In sending the photograph from which the engraving is made the special request is, "Remember us at the Throne of Grace."

THE following brief report of the fifteenth Annual Meeting of the International Missionary Union has been handed to us by Rev. J. W. Baird

International

Missionary Union.

of the European Turkey Mission: "The meeting was held at Clifton Springs, June 8-14. The arrangements were the best possible and the program excellent. The spiritual tone was deep and clear. Of 129 missionaries present more than one-half were ladies. They represented eighteen different missionary societies and eighteen different countries, China having the largest representation. Veterans and recruits united with those just home on furlough in exchanging views on practical questions connected with foreign missions, one of which was selfsupport on the part of native churches. The discussions were marked by the heartiest good feeling, and, though the speakers were from different societies, different lands, and from fields in different stages of development, their conclusions were remarkably similar. The loud call for more workers, the encouraging growth in almost all the fields, and the enthusiasm of the missionaries for their work made a deep impression on the large audiences that filled the tabernacle. The few words of farewell from each of those expecting soon to return to his field or to enter it for the first time closed this feast of souls. It was good to be there." This Missionary Union is composed of all missionaries of every denomination, whether in the active service or retired. It is, in a way, an annual festival for foreign missionaries, where they can with utmost freedom meet for the discussion of practical problems in missionary work. All reports from these gatherings give weight to Mr. Baird's remark as to their spiritual power.

THE British and Foreign Bible Society reports for the year prior to April 1 that it had distributed 4,387,152 copies, which is more than 180,000 beyond the circulation in any previous year. In China alone 567,012 copies of Scriptures and portions were sold, which is 200,000 more than during the previous year. The versions of eleven of the great languages of India and Ceylon are now undergoing careful revision.

The Bible in China.

SAMUEL BACON FAIRBANK, D.D.*

BY REV. ROBERT A. HUME, D.D., AHMEDNAGAR, INDIA.

AT the time of his death Rev. Samuel Bacon Fairbank, D.D., was, in length of service, the senior male Protestant missionary in India. One or two Baptist missionaries in Burmah, who are still on the lists, came out before him.

Dr. Fairbank was a lovable man, straightforward, sympathetic, cheery, capable, and most fond of nature. In private and in public, in religion. and in everything, he showed himself and expressed himself with. simple genuineness. His intense love for nature and for all things that live and grow was, perhaps, his most striking characteristic. This had influence on all his work. It made him a very careful observer and an exact speaker. It made him appreciative, hopeful, resourceful, and attractive. Everyone enjoyed his society because he had so much fresh and attractive information to give, and because he gave it with so much youthful delight. Eight days before his death he took a long walk in search of some small orchids. He had ex

amined hundreds of trees in vain. At last he found the little treasures on a tree, and when he saw them the young-old man of seventy-five clapped his hands like a boy and called "Eureka." This fondness for nature gave him valuable materials for his religious work. His sermons always had some figures or analogies from the vegetable and animal life which were striking,

*Born in Stamford, Conn., Dec. 14, 1822; graduate of Illinois College, 1842, and Andover Theological Seminary, 1845; ordained in Jacksonville, Ill., in 1845; reached India Sept. 20, 1846; died suddenly of heat apoplexy at the village of Tungabhadra, May 31.

and which were not only remembered themselves, but also made the points illustrated by them stand out in memory. Probably Dr. Fairbank did more than any man of this generation to teach Indian farmers in his district wiser methods of agriculture. This not only did the people temporal good; it brought many into direct spiritual relations with Dr. Fairbank. In his district he was the chief spiritual authority for many Hindus, as well as for Christians.

In his earlier missionary days he was in charge of a mission press in Bombay. Forty years afterward Dosabhai Franji, C. S. I., an honored Parsi magistrate, said to a missionary, "I shall never forget Mr. Fairbank. When I was a young man I started a paper in Bombay and went to buy type from the American Mission Press. A Parsi, who pretended to be my friend, told me to buy a certain kind of type, and I invested about 2,000 rupees in buying what was suitable for printing books, but not for a newspaper. When I found I had been deceived, I supposed I was ruined, for I had invested all my capital in the venture. But I went and told all to Mr. Fairbank. He kindly tapped my shoulder and said, 'Never mind; send back the type. You need not pay for it.' No one but a Christian would have done that. I shall never forget Mr. Fairbank." And on the semi-centennial of Dr. Fairbank's landing this Parsi gentleman, with other friends, sent about 700 rupees to help build a memorial well in the town where he had spent most of his missionary life. Dr. Fairbank was much interested in music, and he composed and translated many hymns in Marathi, and also prepared the first book of musical notation for western India.

The district, in part of the Ahmednagar field, which Dr. Fairbank worked for over thirty years has been the most fruitful missionary district in western India. He and his wife lived in a small village twenty-six miles from all Europeans and Americans. They had schools for boys and girls, preachers and colporters and medicines, and a Christian home, and sympathy and love for all who could come. The result has come in numerous churches, Christian communities, changed lives, and a general uplift all around.

When growing years made continuous work difficult he went to the hills in South India, whence he held himself ready to fill vacancies temporarily in any station. Here his regular mission work was preparing Sunday school notes in Marathi for all Christian workers in western India. He was always. acceptable as a preacher, and was always willing to serve. His last sermon was at 5 P.M. on Sunday, at Sholapur, and in a little more than a day he had gone to higher service.

Dr. Fairbank leaves nine children, of whom four, Mrs. T. S. Smith, of Ceylon, Mrs. R. A. Hume, of India, and Revs. Henry and Edward Fairbank, of India are missionaries now in active service. One other daughter is now preparing for medical missionary work.

Every one who knew him was his interested friend. We know he has received the welcome, "Well done, good and faithful servant." We shall miss him here.

COMMENCEMENT IN NORTH CHINA COLLEGE,
THROUGH THE EYES OF A NEW-COMER.

BY REV. HENRY KINGMAN, TUNG-CHO.

THIS Commencement of the North China College at Tung-cho was 3 ferent enough from any of the well-remembered college Commencements at Some, and yet in many respects strangely familiar. There was the broad campus with willow trees waving in the hot wind, and students gathered here and there in clusters. But no gay parasols or muslin dresses to tell of the omnipresent lady friends," nor band-stand, nor sound of strings. The friends who gathered for the public exercises of graduation, aside from the teregner in his so-called "garb of civilization," were Chinese teachers, sober's dressed and slowly moving, with Christian converts from country and erv, representing widely separated districts: some of them alumni of the cel ege or seminary, others obviously of the local peasantry, with features. banned brick-red, and wearing always a look of fixed astonishment at the serge scenes before them. The conventional adjuncts of a Commencement were largely present. The nervous essayist in his best raiment, the irrepressoe 'paerclass men, the glee club, the college chapel with its palms and potted plants and heavy fragrance of flowers, the crowded audience, patiently endaring the many speeches, and the crowning solemnity of the delivery of te diplomas. None of these were lacking, and yet the whole effect of the exercises was unexpected and surprising.

At the North China College the closing exercises of the year continue for four days. The first two are given to public examinations in the whole range of college and academic studies,- that is, the whole range needed for a liberal education in the far East. No foreign languages are in evidence, but m then place is a multiplicity of classes in Chinese literature, covering not only the ancient classics, but a considerable field outside. Both Western and Chinese history were well represented. The science classes, in number and variety, were much what they would be in Western lands, a well-equipped Laboratory and physical science department, with fairly stocked cabinets, turnishing the necessary apparatus for illustration and experiment. Mathematics, the crux of the Chinese intellect, had climbed up painfully as high as spherical trigonometry, but the examinations in the higher branches were unexpectedly creditable. The usual studies of the senior year were represented this term by political economy and moral philosophy, in which, though most interesting, one could detect something of the same national Lack of a close logical faculty that makes of mathematics a thorny but muchneeded road. In addition to the above, Biblical studies formed a conspicuous fame. They reached from Adam to St. Paul, and were carried to a pitch of thoroughness unapproached, so far as we have observed, in Western lands. The whole impression of the two days was one of the unlooked-for fullness of the curriculum, and of the solidity of the education, literary, Biblical, and ientific, which it was made to furnish.

The graduating exercises of the academy and college followed on the