over to see us. The government officials were very thorough in searching our passports, but several made very friendly visits, some of which I returned.

In every direction we saw growth in the work. There is urgent necessity enlarging the chapel. The brethren cheerfully consented to increase their

THE ROMAN BRIDGE OVER THE TIGRIS, WITH DIARBEKIR BEYOND.

share of the expenses of the work by assuming part of the preacher's salary. They have a good boys' school and offer sixty piasters a month if we will only send them a teacher for a girls' school. Work is opening in neighboring villages, with continual appeals for preachers. Farkin is the natural and political center of this whole region, therefore the need of making our spiritual and educational work there strong and aggressive.

We could not stay in Farkin over the Sabbath, as they besought us to, but were obliged to push on next day toward the town of Haine, riding all day in the pouring rain, the monotony of which was varied by hail and thunder and lightning. Again a Koordish village was our welcome shelter for the night. It was a clean, convenient room into which we were ushered, the pegs on the walls for hanging up our wraps, and the open fireplace with its big logs, being the conveniences. A big flock of lambs and kids, rushing into the yard at sunset, bleating and crying, and each hunting for its mother,

was our amusement.

An early start the next morning brought us to Haine in good season, where we had the warmest welcome possible. For thirteen years no missionary lady had been able to visit them, so the women were especially glad of our coming. The massacres at Haine were terrible; large numbers of houses were destroyed; our fine stone chapel was used, for a time, as a mosque; the deceased pastor's body was exhumed and fired into, and his parsonage razed to the ground and its stones rolled down the hill, to be used in building a big house for a Koord. So our coming was like spring to winter-bound hearts. It was apparent at the first meeting with the men that all hearts were moved. The room was packed, and, as I spoke, the Holy Spirit was manifestly present in power. For ten days there were two daily meetings, one at suurise, the other an hour before sunset, and every evening with inquirers, aside from the women's meetings twice in the week and one each Sabbath. The church committee had many sessions to examine candidates for membership.

Saturday morning, the one after Good Friday, at dawn, we were interested to see women with little lighted tapers, going from grave to grave in the cemetery by the Gregorian church, in remembrance of the women of old who sought "the living among the dead." The Easter Sabbath closed our visit, with the communion, at which nine women and eighteen men united with the church, and "there was great joy in that city."

The next morning, at sunrise, I was called upon to perform a marriage service, and after that and a hurried breakfast we bade good-by to our friends. The women crowded on to the roofs to watch our departure, while the men and boys, in four companies, went far out of the town, turning back at different points, the last company going with us at least half an hour. It was a lovely morning; the sun shone aslant the fair, green plain and wellkept vineyards, and on gleaming waters and lofty mountain-tops, in all the splendor of the fresh, young spring. Three stalwart brethren from Dibne accompanied us on the three hours' ride to that village, having come over to Haine for the communion service. It was a religious feast day at Dibne, and the whole village poured out to see us. We remained an hour to talk with men and women.

Two men from Dibne went with us as far as the Tigris to lead us over the swollen river in safety. Our zaptieh steadied himself by taking hold of a horse's tail, while one of the Dibne men carried the zaptieh's gun high and dry over his head. There was a fierce wind to contend with, as well as the deep and rushing waters. We emerged safely, only to see Miss Bush attacked by two fierce shepherd dogs, which were soon driven off by our kind Dibne friends. We traveled from here in ease to the village of Peran, in a little valley surrounded by vineyards. Here there are 500 Turkish houses and only fifty Armenian. The latter have no priest and no schools and are wholly given up to the world. We enjoyed the hospitality of the chief

Gregorian, but our hearts ached over the thought of the many towns and villages just like this, where people hearing the name of Christ know nothing of his love or salvation.

MASSACRE.

We have not space to tell here of our visits at Arghuni, Chermook, and Choonkoosh, or of our return to Harpoot over the lofty Taurus mountains, whose peaks, as we climbed higher and higher, still towered above us crowned with snow. Oh, the sparkling streams of water, the green grass, the wild flowers, the stillness and restfulness! We spent the night in the heart of the mountains, in a Koordish village of only four houses. As we descended the mountains on the next day, toward the Harpoot Plain, the eye took in a sweep of twenty miles in every direction. Our welcome home and the remembrance of our weeks of Christian labor made us sincerely grateful to God for the wonderful way in which he had led us. The results of the work done we leave to his all-wise care.

THE

MISSIONARY HERALD.

The Czar's
Proposal.

P. INOX AND
FOUNDATION

WITHOUT Stopping to discuss motives or methods, we join heartily in the acclaim with which the Christian world has received the proposal of Nicholas II for an international conference looking toward disarmament. The nations have groaned long and loud under the burdens which militarism has created, and yet these burdens are becoming more and more intolerable. Still, no one could see any way to effect reform. Where should a reform begin, and how should it be carried out? It is a great point gained, therefore, when the Czar of all the Russias comes before the world with a clear and vigorous statement concerning the folly and wickedness of the present system which strikes at the very root of public prosperity. So far from ensuring peace these armaments are calculated sooner or later to bring on a most destructive war. Relief can come only by international agreement, and the confessed difficulties in the way of securing such an agreement should not stand in the way of the attempt. May the Prince of Peace rule in the hearts of the sovereigns to whom this proposal in the interests of peace has been made.

Gifts for Foreign Missions.

A MOST Suggestive article appeared in The Congregationalist of September 1, from the pen of Rev. J. R. Thurston, in reference to the contributions to the American Board in the past and at the present. We wish that the figures there presented could be carefully studied. by the members of our churches. Mr. Thurston has taken three periods for comparison, and shows that for foreign missions the contributions per member have greatly fallen off, while for other benevolent objects sustained by our churches the gifts have largely increased. During the period of five years, from 1869 to 1873, inclusive, the donations to the American Board and the Woman's Boards from churches and individuals, excluding legacies, averaged annually one dollar and seven cents per member, while during the five years from 1893 to 1897, the average gifts were not quite eighty-seven cents or a falling off of a fraction over twenty cents per member. Had the rate of giving, per member, during the last year equalled that of a generation ago, the treasury of the American Board would be $125,000 better off than it is, and our vast and hopeful missionary work would not be hampered. Twenty-five years ago the rate of giving averaged slightly less than two cents a week per member, and with all our growing wealth we have now fallen much behind even that low rate. Is there any reason for such a decrease on the foreign missionary side? Surely a foreign missionary revival is needed in our churches. Shall we not look for one and pray hopefully for one?

THE Committee of Arrangements at Grand Rapids reports that applications for entertainment at the approaching Annual Meeting of the Board indicate a large attendance. The meeting promises to be one of The Annual unusual interest, and it is earnestly hoped that the friends of foreign missions will be there in such numbers as to give inspiration for a new forward movement. Let this approaching assembly be devoutly remembered in the prayers of Christians both in their homes and their churches. Further notice as to reaching Grand Rapids will be found on the fourth page of our cover.

Meeting.

Revolt in the
Carolines.

JUST as we go to press somewhat vague reports are coming, via Honolulu, concerning a revolt by the natives of the Caroline Islands against the Spaniards. The reports are confused, and are evidently erroneous in many particulars, yet it seems probable that the only Spanish garrison in the Eastern Carolines, that at Ponape, has been driven within its intrenchments by the natives, and it is not to be supposed that it could long resist such an attack without reinforcements and unsupported by a gunboat. These Spaniards, cut off from communication with the world, did not know that Guam, in the Ladrone Islands, had been taken possession of by the United States, and they sent thither their gunboat for aid, which, of course, it did not obtain. The inference, therefore, is that Spanish rule on Ponape has been overthrown, but since no direct word has been received from the island we must await further tidings before knowing what has actually occurred. There are no American missionaries on Ponape, for the Spaniards drove them out years ago, and if they have in turn been driven into the sea we can only look upon it as a divine Nemesis upon their crime.

A Misstatement
Corrected.

DR. J. D. DAVIS, of Japan, writes of a statement which has gained currency in regard to the faith of the Kumi-ai churches in reference to the divinity of Christ, which is wholly incorrect. The error first appeared in a pastoral letter of Bishop Bickersteth, in 1892, where it was stated that the Kumi-ai churches had rejected a proposed creed which affirmed the divinity of Christ. This assertion, based on Bishop Bickersteth's misapprehension, reappears in Cobbold's "Religions of Japan" and in a volume on "Yankees of the East." The facts are, as stated by Dr. Davis, that the creed which was adopted, and the only one proposed by the Kumi-ai churches at their annual conference in 1892, while brief and on many points incomplete, is yet very explicit in reference to the divinity of Christ. The following is its statement on this point: "We believe in one infinite and perfect God, who is revealed in the Bible as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: we believe in Jesus Christ, who, being God, became man, and for the sake of saving a world of sinners endured agony, died, and rose again." It is only of late that the attention of our missionaries has been called to the misstatements as to the faith of the Kumi-ai churches which, it seems, have been widely published without their knowledge. Dr. Davis. speaks of the Kumi-ai churches of Japan as standing "as a body today loyal to Christ and his truth, notwithstanding the lapses and vagaries of a very few of the leaders."