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knowledge to the mind, no new motives to the heart. Worship in China is one vast spirit seance where the man of to-day sacrifices to the ghosts of yesterday. This is the background on which Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism are embroidered. There a people, whose respect for learning and whose genius for commerce are unparalleled, either believes in the agnosticism of Confucius, if intelligent, or in a coarse and modified Buddhism which teaches that the souls of men are braying in the ass, chattering in the monkey, screeching in the parrot, or grunting in the hog, in painful efforts toward a higher life; or else holds that in the Taoist purgatory souls are being pounded under trip-hammers, lifted by devils, or fed with ordure by pig-headed fiends. To such the gods and demons are in every tree, fountain, and mountain-top. For such the spirits are barred out by walls and protecting pagodas. No settled rule of life, no unity of divine operation or law, dawns on their minds. With eyes turned only to the ghostly past they resist the only power which can cause the blind to see. Why in China? We should lose our souls if we were not in a land where the birth of a girl brings no joy, where womanhood is not counted in the family, and where disease is treated with exorcisms and the bones and filth of beasts; where governmental corruption is so much a matter of course that excessive stealing among magistrates alone finds condemnation, and where the conceit of forty centuries of national life bars out young and soulsaving truth.

We are in India because we cannot leave that marvelous peninsula to be saved by England alone. Though she has drawn her gains for a century from India, and has given security and law instead of war and tyranny, England alone cannot save India. Hastings and Clive have been there as well as Havelock. England is the bloody conqueror, in Indian thought, of the entire country, from its southern cape to Pamir," the roof of the world." No Hindu, Mahratta, Sikh, Punjabi, or Parsee ever looks into the face of an Englishman without seeing a master. The Church of England, which conceived Methodism, begotten of the Holy Ghost while she was asleep, is the Church of the conqueror, still too stately, too much allied to the aristocratic forces and expressive of them, though much more awake than formerly, through the activities of her unacknowledged child, to humble herself to the level of the lower castes. The conqueror can prepare the way, can impose Christian laws, break caste by modern methods of communication and commerce, but can never fasten his Church upon the masses of the Indian population. The honor of Christianizing India may belong in good part to America, and largely to our Church. No true religion or great reform has ever been handed downward from a governing class. God has done his work through the common people and by them. The Nazarene, the carpenter's son, must regenerate the world. Christianity, imposed on nations by the political interests of a monarch, has aborted into the Byzantine, the Greek, the Roman forms, needing reformation to express clearly the way of the Lord. Our own Church, under the lead of Dr. Butler and Bishop Thoburn, not despising the Brahman, but asserting the value of human souls, is following the true Gospel by saving the common people. India will never be redeemed by her higher classes. The leaven, placed at the bottom, will work upward until the whole is leavened.

The results of our mission work are glorious! With Conferences covering India we have thousands bowing at our altar in a single year. At Foo-Chow, in China, five thousand communicants represent the winnowed wheat of faithful toil. Along the riotous Yang-tse God calms and conquers by his Son. In North China three thousand members own our labors and whole villages offer themselves as catechumens. In Japan God has raised up a knightly ministry from the old-time Samurai, whose weapon is now the sword of the Spirit, and these minister to nearly three thousand members.

Korea, our latest field, shows deep foundations and a hundred living stones built into the Master's temple in the last year. Nowhere does the work falter or fail. Bulgaria, the child of slow birth and starveling growth, has now reached health and rising

stature.

I name as one of the Christian delights of to-day the activity of our Church among Bohemians, Hungarians, and other unchurched and anti-Christian emigrants, who have flooded our mining and manufacturing centers, and who, won to God, are to give us among those people fruits of our toil, even as we see them now in Scandinavia, Germany, and Switzerland. They will return to their homes carrying the Evangel with them, and American Christianity will bring the breath of God to the valley of dry bones.

And why in Africa? Surely a land which our forefathers robbed of men and women for gain, whose descendants were kept in bondage with the consent of nearly our entire population until national and military exigencies compelled emancipation; a land which has known only the worst side of Christian nations in commerce in alcoholic liquors, guns, powder, and trinkets-surely such a land ought to receive the best return we can give in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Church of 1892 met and passed the appropriations of 1891. Let the Church of 1893 meet and exceed the asking of 1892. So shall we step up toward God and on to victory.

THE PEKING UNIVERSITY.

BY REV. ISAAC T. HEADLAND,

Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Peking University.

EKING UNIVERSITY was originally established as a boys' school in 1871. A few years later the Boys' Boarding School was organized. This in a short time was developed into the Wiley Institute, and in June, 1890, it was incorporated according to the laws of the State of New York as the Peking

University, under the control of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Through the gifts of various friends in America a fund amounting to more than five thousand dollars was raised for the purchase of property on which to erect suitable buildings, and last year this fund was more than doubled by a liberal donation from James II. Taft, Esq. With this money a property of several acres was purchased in one of the most desirable parts of Peking. On this property, by a liberal donation from the Missionary Society, has been erected "Durbin Hall,” a dormitory with a front of two hundred and five feet, and capable of accommodating one hundred students, with ample room for additions when necessity requires.

Last year we sent out our first graduates. No better class of boys could be sent into the Master's work. Four of them entered the ministry at once; the other, Mr. Wang Shen, accepted a position in the customs service. His salary there was more than three times that which we could pay the others as preachers, but he at once took a class in Sunday school, offered to preach once a week in the street chapel, and gave money enough out of his salary to support another boy in school.

Mr. Liu Ma Ke was appointed as preacher in our street chapel here in Peking, and has preached several times in Asbury Chapel, where all the foreigners were present. His sermons are said by the older missionaries to be good ones. At the time of his graduation he married Miss Sarah Wang, a teacher in the girls' school, a charming woman of the most sterling character.

Mr. Ch'in Lung Chang was employed at once as teacher in the preparatory school. During all his course he had stood out among the students, not as a brilliant scholar, but as a faithful student, one whom the younger students were always willing to confide in.

Mr. T'sui Wan Fu was at once sent out into the work. He married a young lady who was formerly a teacher in the girls' school at Tsun-hua, and whose brother, as well as his own brother, are both studying in the theological class. I received a letter from him a few days ago in which he said he is "doing the Lord's holy work in Shantung."

The last of the five is Mr. Ch'en Heng Te, who was supported during his whole course by the late John Rhein, Esq., Secretary of the Dutch Legation. He was appointed to work in the southern city of Peking. His zeal for the salvation of his people and for a self-supporting church make me think of Paul. He is one of those men whom a mission finds it difficult to appoint anywhere-because he is wanted everywhere. His wife, Sai Na, for a long time a teacher in the girls' school at Tientsin, is one of those sweet, good, motherly little women, whom everybody loves.

We have just started a theological class of six young men, the most reliable and able ones we have in the whole school. Each one seems filled with that spirit which the study of the Bible imparts to all who pursue that study with earnestness and prayer. Shall we endow to professorships?

I shall be able to answer this question in the affirmative, I hope, before a year has passed. I will never answer it in the negative. The subscription has been started. By last mail we sent Dr. S. L. Baldwin, Recording Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, a subscription of one. thousand dollars to begin it; by this mail we send him another thousand to second that one, and we are in a fair way to have a third thousand before long. That is right here on the field. We intend to keep this up if it takes ten years to answer the question. But we believe it will not take that long.

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Country and People of Ecuador.

Let me tell you why we want this. Here is a great school which a prominent Congregationalist said a few days ago ought to be the "Dooshisha" of China, referring to the success of the great Dooshisha school of Japan. The Missionary Society has seen the need of it, and has brought it thus far on its course. She has been very generous, and we are very grateful. But we want to use all the money the society can give us in preaching the Gospel rather than in teaching it. Now one of four things must happen, either

1. The Missionary Society must suffer if it gives us all we need, or

2. The school must suffer if it does not receive what it needs, or

3. The country work must suffer for want of funds, and the workers which this school can educate, or

4. You, reader, must help me raise this $60,000.

Which shall it be?

I will give a year and a half salary. What will you give?

Please pray and then send whatever you can to Mr. Charles H. Taft, 78 Williams Street, New York, N. Y., or Dr. S. L. Baldwin, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York.

Here is the first answer to my appeal, and it is from a missionary :

Dear Mr. Headland: Appreciating the urgency of your proposition to raise $60,000 for the establishment of two professorships, you may put me down for $1,000, U. S. gold.

Wishing you great success, I am yours sincerely,

MARCUS L. TAFT.

Peking, November 19, 1892.

COUNTRY AND PEOPLE OF ECUADOR.

BY HON. N. F. GRAVES.

CUADOR is a republic of South America, lying under the equator. The United States of Colombia lies at the north, and Peru at the south. It was taken from the great American Free States, and organized by Simon Bolivar, the great liberator. The boundaries on the north as well as the south are not settled. The country claims two hundred and forty-eight thousand square miles, but nearly half of it is claimed by the adjoining states. The country is a unique one and is divided into seventeen provinces. The government is molded after our own country in many respects. The executive is vested in a president and vice president, who are elected for four years. The legislature is divided into two houses. None but Roman Catholics can vote or hold any office.

It is a very mountainous country. Three great mountain ranges extend north and south. These mountains form the most remarkable group of volcanoes in the world. There are fifteen points that are each more than twelve thousand feet high, and some are higher still. Many of these are active volcanoes. This country embraces every variety of climate. The coast and low grounds are very hot. The temperate regions are in the mountains six thousand to nine thousand feet above the sea, and the cold regions are about nine thousand feet. The cultivated land lies in the valleys of Quito and Ambolo. These valleys are from seven thousand to ten thousand feet high. In these fertile valleys may be cultivated all kinds of grain. There are small valleys at a lower level where all tropical vegetables and fruits are cultivated. The little valley of Chota is only about five thousand feet above the sea and is one of the most fertile vales in the country.

The slopes of the Andes on both sides are covered with wild forests, that have hardly been explored. These forests and the parts covered with snow compose the

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greater part of the country. The Incas formerly occupied many of these heights. The great causeways and temples now in ruins were constructed of free stone; when these structures were made is hid in the dim ages of the past. The vast amount of gold which they collected was chiefly from the beds of rivers.

The lower slopes of the mountains are frequented with wild animals. The tapir is one of the largest, and the jaguar the fiercest and most formidable animal of the New World. The jaguar, like the tiger of India, is powerful enough to carry away a bullock or a horse. These forests are filled with birds and serpents, and the rivers are filled with alligators which are more dangerous than the wild animals. These vast forests of valuable timber, and the abundance of tropical fruits at the foot of the Andes add very little to the wealth of the state, but only operate as a shelter and support of a few tribes of wild Indians, who roam uncontrolled over these vast forests.

The half civilized Indians do all the work-cultivate the land, weave cotton cloth, make carpets which are finely colored and very serviceable. They manufacture some pottery which is everywhere used.

These Indians are said to keep faith with each other. They say the Spaniards took all they had and they think it right to take all they can from the Spaniards. The work is all done in the most primitive manner. They have no plows nor any laborsaving machine. They plant their seeds by making a hole in the ground. They thrash their grain by driving their oxen or horses over it.

Ecuador is an old country, and most of it is still a desert. It is rich but undeveloped. It is perhaps the richest in resources of all the South American republics, and yet the poorest and most backward of them all. It is often said that seventy-five per cent of children born of Indian mothers are illegitimate. There is a very good reason why they do not marry. The priests charge six dollars for each marriage, and it is very seldom that an Indian can raise that sum. They are very poor and live together without being married.

The Spaniards are generally very proud and very poor, but they are the governing class. They are polite, and offer you a graceful hospitality, and apparently welcome you with hearty kindness. The females of this class are noted for their beauty and are said to have the finest complexion of any in South America, with large and expressive dark eyes, with black and abundant hair. They are graceful, with small hands and feet. They mature early and fade quickly. They are said to be indolently superstitious, but faithful. They all wear the mantu, for in this country there is no bonnet or female hat. The hideous women, the descendants of the conquered Incas, wear no color but black, deeming that color most suitable for those who have lost all, and have become a mere beast of burden. The brave spirits of their powerful ancestors seem to have been completely crushed out of them.

It was on the island of Puna, below the city of Guayaquil, that Pizarro the conqueror landed, and made his first conquest. He found the Incas at war with each other. It is said it was the first war between the Incas. The Spaniards took side with one and easily conquered the other. The other Inca was soon conquered and made a prisoner. The last of the Incas offered to the Spaniards to fill his rooms with gold if they would relieve him, which Pizarro agreed to do. The Inca sent his miners all over the country to bring in gold. Pizarro, thinking the country was full of gold, wearied with waiting, had the Inca strangled. The miners, hearing of the death of their chief, buried the gold, and it is supposed that most of it is buried now.

Pizzaro seized the Indian reserve, but he found that no persuasion, no threat nor torture could make them discover the buried gold.

Guayaquil is a city of about twenty-six thousand people, being the capital of Guayas