Honoring the Month of Muharram. MUHARRAM means sacred, and designates the first month of the Mohammedan year. In this month it is held unlawful to make war. Among the Shiah Mohammedans this month is held in peculiar veneration as being the one in which Hasan and Husain, the sons of Ali, were killed. Their deaths are the subject of public mourning during the first ten days, when fasting and self-denial are also enjoined. The educated of the Sunni Mohammedans also regard these days as times for solemn thoughts, while the uneducated regard the period as a time for a carnival. In Bhopal, India, the Mohammedans honor the month by great processions and loud rejoicings.

Mandalay as a Buddhist Center. FOREIGNERS say that Mandalay is noted for three things-phoongyees, pagodas, and pariah dogs-and there is more than mere alliteration in the saying. It expresses a prominent fact, and a fact which goes far to point out Upper Burma as one of the chief centers of Buddhism.

Phoongyees are Buddhist monks. They abound everywhere. In Mandalay they are to be seen by thousands, in their yellow robes, with shaven heads, especially early in the morning, when, according to the rule and immemorial custom of the order, they are out begging their daily food. It must needs be that they are numerous, for every Burman is made a monk

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for some part of his life, if only for a week or two; otherwise he would never acquire grace to accumulate merit enough to improve his lot in the many future births that await him. Many remain monks for months or years, not a few for life, for though there is no vow of continued celibacy to bind them to the monastic life, yet it is a situation in which they are well provided for, and they are held in great reverence by the people.

Pagodas are the pretty, bell-shaped, solid brick buildings which are so numerously erected all over the country as works of merit by the Buddhists. They vary much in size, are neatly finished in white plaster, usually with abundance of ornament, ending in a spire with a gilt umbrella surmounting it, and sometimes gilt from top to bottom. They are to be seen in immense numbers all over the country, not only in the towns and villages, but even in the open country, especially on the sides and summits of hills. To build a pagoda is the greatest of all works of merit, and is supposed to bring one well on toward Nirvana, that coveted state of eternal cessation from existence and from all the sorrow and trouble supposed to be necessarily associated with existence.

The pariah dog is an animal well known to every resident in the East; but of all oriental countries, surely no other is so overrun with this pest as Upper Burma is. Homeless, lean, mangy, and forlorn, he belongs to nobody, but roams over the city with troops of others like himself, picking up a precarious living as he can, habituated to eating the vilest of refuse, until at last he lies down to die, and the vultures make short work of him. "Why not put him out of his misery?" Well, yes, you could do that, and it would be a real mercy, but then this is a Buddhist country, and the law, "Thou shalt not kill," is applied as much to the lower animals as to man. The doctrine of transmigration makes all human and animal life of the same nature and interchangeable, so that if you kill a dog you don't know but you may have put to death your deceased grandfather who has reappeared in the flesh in this form. - Wesleyan Methodist Church Record.

A Hopeful Movement in North India.

BY J. J. LUCAS, D.D., OF ALLAHABAD. FOR a few years past there has been a movement of the lower castes in North India toward the Church. In some districts thousands of Mehtars and Chuhras have been baptized, and thousands more are ready to take the same step. The Mehtars, or Bhangis, in the Northwest Provinces and the Chuhras in the Punjab are at the bottom of the social scale. They are the lowest of the low castes, greatly despised by both Hindus and Mohammedans. They usually live on the outskirts of villages, separate from the Hindus and Mohammedans. In cities and large towns

they live in settlements by themselves. They are not allowed to draw water from the public wells, nor bathe in the public tanks. Again and again have riots been caused by attempts on their part, even after their baptism, to draw water from wells used in common by the higher castes. The presence of a Mehtar boy in a public school would soon empty it. As a consequence only one here and there is able to read.

They are very poor, the average income of an able-bodied man rarely reaching more than twenty dollars a year. In many places they are practically the serfs of the Zamindar, or land proprietor. They are the scavengers of the cities and towns. The Hindus of caste would not for the very highest remuneration take away the bodies of dead animals and the sewerage of the towns. This work falls to the Melitars and Chuhras, and many of them have no scruples as to eating these dead animals. Nor have they scruples against strong drink. They are idolators, with many superstitious beliefs and prac tices.

This is one side of the picture. The other is that as a class they are industrious, healthy, contented, lovers of their homes and families. They have no zenana system, their wives working in the streets and fields as do their husbands. While child marriage is common among them, the widows are allowed to marry. Although they are far behind the Brahmans in intelligence and natural capacity, still many of them are quick to learn, and in some instances have shown that they need only a fair field, a little favor, and time to lift themselves out of the low estate into which they have fallen.

We are now prepared to answer the question, "What has led to their baptism by the thousands, sometimes hundreds in a day or within a few days?" First, neither Hinduism or Mohammedanism has done anything to lift up these poor people. On the contrary, the stability of Hinduism depends on keeping them in the position of menials. Were the Meltars to refuse to do the work they have been doing for centuries the whole caste system would be dislocated, and the higher castes compelled to do those things which their religious teachers have ever taught them would be death to their caste and death to their souls. Hinduism can offer nothing better to these lower castes than the place of the most menial servant. And Mohammedanism in India has become so infected by the caste spirit that it has no word of hope for those at the bottom. The Mehtars and Chuhras are coming to see this. Again and again have they been told it. But what has made a deeper impression on them than words is the sight of one and another of their number entering the Church and watching the change which has thus been wrought.

With few exceptions missionaries agree that this movement is of God; that it is full of promise; that

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if wisely guided it will do much to break down caste and build up the Church. Some urge that the wisest course is to baptize all who are willing to be baptized, that we should not require "inward grace, but outward separation," that "the test should be separation from heathen practices and associations, and submission to Christian rules" (Mr. B. Aitken, in Indian Witness, August 6, 1892). Mr. Aitken approves of what he calls mass baptisms." Speaking of such baptisms, he says: "I have been intimately familiar with Indian missions most of my life . . . and have personally studied the character of the Christians in four of the missions named above. . . . I can think of five missionaries of from fourteen to twenty years' service who told me openly that their converts were not converted when they were baptized, and many of them never at all. And that the most interesting part of their work was watching the reception of light and the gradual submission to Christ of these unconverted converts. I am far from saying that all the members of those missions would have spoken so boldly; but that they all purposely and habitually baptized people simply on their renouncing idolatry and submitting to Christianity, cannot be disputed. One missionary, full of sanctified common sense and unwavering love for souls, said to me that it meant a spiritual revolution for a heathen to abandon intoxicating drink, polyg amy, witchcraft, and superstition; and that as for lying, quarreling, and overreaching, he could only be brought to see the evil of these things by slow and patient teaching. Personally I agree with this view of the matter."

With this view of the question some of the most experienced missionaries in India agree. They urge that thus whole villages are brought under Christian influences and discipline; that thus the children are weaned from idolatry and can be trained as Christians; that thus quickly caste can be struck a death blow; that when the Mehtars in large numbers seek other employment, this will force the higher castes to do work which all agree destroys caste; and, this especially, that again and again the Holy Spirit has been poured out on gatherings composed chiefly of those baptized to secure their outward separation and allegiance, many of them at such gatherings passing from death unto life, and in this way God has put the seal of his approval to the work.

On the other hand, missionaries of equal experience and spiritual judgment have not approved these mass baptisms," urging that there should be evidence of inward grace" before baptism is administered; that in the end the Church will suffer, the Hindus and Mohammedans seeing church after church filled with one caste only, and that the lowest, will be repelled; that the Church is in danger of being filled chiefly with those who have no love for her save as she can enrich and lift them up in social life; that apostasies on a large scale will follow, as

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they have in at least four places in North India; that the Roman Catholics are sure to come in and carry off such converts in large numbers, as they have in a number of places, making work in such places tenfold more difficult; that so long as only one convert here and there can read it is impossible to organize them into churches, impossible to get teachers and preachers from among them, and so there is little hope of their spiritual growth.

Much more might be said on both sides of this question. Enough has here been suggested to show that this movement is full of hope. I myself am thoroughly persuaded that the Spirit of God is working quietly in the hearts of these poor people and is turning them in many ways to the Church. Not to recognize the movement as from God, and work with him in it, would be spiritual blindness indeed. To speak of it as a repetition of the day of Pentecost, even though hundreds and thousands be baptized in a day, is misleading. To compare missions according to the number of baptisms reported, ignoring the conditions of baptism and the policy pursued for years in each mission, is unfair.

The movement is beset with difficulties. It calls for much prayer that those in the field may have understanding of the times, to know what to do;" that on the one hand they may not yield to the temptation to baptize hundreds at a time without evidence of "inward grace," and on the other hand they may ever bear in mind that in the spiritual world, as in the natural, it is "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."

The movement calls for many more laborers, foreign and native, and to obtain these of the right kind the first step is plain, "The harvest truly is plen teous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest." It calls for large gifts, that special efforts may be put forth, and that at once, to make the most of this tide now setting in so strongly toward the Church. If here and in India we give ourselves to prayer and effort we shall in due time reap and rejoice together, and perhaps speedily. That depends, in large measure, on our united efforts. The brethren in the field are greatly encouraged by the outlook. May the Church at home know the opportunity, sending out her sons and daughters, and giv ing with an open, liberal hand.-The Church at Home and Abroad.

AN interesting incident is reported from India, showing the faith of a secret believer: "A short time ago a woman at one of the stations, whose husband would not permit her to be baptized, asked him upon her deathbed to bring her water. When it was brought she dipped her fingers into it, and with great pain raised her arm to her head and said, 'I baptize myself in the name of the Lord Jesus.'"

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The Confession of a Stingy Man.

BY S. J. SMITH.

THERE is no doubt about it; I was a stingy man. I lived in a mean house, had it poorly furnished, paid my servant the lowest possible wages, and ate the cheapest food that could be found in the market. I gave little to the church, nothing to the needy, and was amassing a fortune for the mere pleasure of its possession. I held mortgages on half the houses in our village, and showed no mercy for the poor creatures who failed to have ready the interest.

Otherwise I was an upright man. I never was known to lie or steal; I refrained from running in debt, kept the Sabbath day holy and was even deacon of the church which I attended with a regularity that was indeed praiseworthy. I did not understand how I came to be chosen for that office-I presume there was a scarcity of male workers in the church -but I know that I was faithful to all the duties which did not interfere with my own pocketbook.

Our church building was large and grand, having been erected only a year or two previous to my advent in the place; but the Sabbath school was held in a little old structure adjoining the church, one in which our people had formerly worshiped. This was not large enough to comfortably seat all the children, and they were packed in there every Sunday like sardines in a box. Besides, the ceiling was very low, and on warm days the room was almost unendurable. Of course, it was out of the question to have the chil dren meet in the church, and our pastor was making strenuous efforts to collect sufficient money to build a chapel for the little ones. But it was uphill work. Several of our well-to-do families had moved out of the neighborhood, and the few that remained in the church did not feel like bearing all the expenses of the new building. The people in moderate circumstances had been so lately taxed for the church edifice that they were unable just then to give anything extra.

Yet our pastor would not relinquish the idea of having a comfortable room for the children. Notice after notice was read that a meeting would be held to talk the matter over, but the people were discouraged and 80 few attended that nothing could be done. At last he hit on a new plan. He invited the congregation to a sociable to be held in the Sunday school room. Then they came out in full force, and the pastor took this opportunity to plead the case with them. Crowded and uncomfortable as were the people that night, they knew it was far worse for the children, for they numbered many more than the grown folks. It was readily agreed that a new building was necessary, but no one could decide how to get the wherewithal for the same. As to my helping in the matter, the idea never occurred to me; my money belonged to me and not to the church. Therefore, I was highly indignant when I heard this remark from one of the

brothers: "What is the matter with Deacon Storrs? Isn't he the stingy man? He might build the room himself; he's able."

I was too much insulted to remain longer with the others. I slipped away from the meeting and went unnoticed through a side door into the church. The gas in there had not been lighted, but the moon beaming through the colored glass of the windows lent a soft radiance to the holy edifice. I took a seat in a side pew directly opposite a large window which was the pride of our people. It was of stained glass and of beautiful design. In the center was a lifesize picture of our Saviour with a little lamb in his bosom. Lit up as it was, it seemed almost like a living person standing there, and the Saviour appeared to be regarding me with a tender, pitying gaze. The longer I looked the more lifelike the figure became, and I grew so used to the idea that I was not at all surprised when it slowly descended from the window and stood before me, the little lamb being now transformed into a living child. Laying his unoccupied hand gently on my head, he looked kindly, but reproachfully, into my face, and said in a sweet voice that I shall never forget: "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven."

Then gradually the form floated back toward the window, and in a moment everything was as it had been-that is, all excepting my self-I felt that I was a changed man; my eyes had at last been opened, and I could see my grievous fault in all its enormity. The words, "Suffer the little children," had told me that I had been instrumental in hindering them.

Persons to whom I have since related this wonderful occurrence have declared it was all a dream. Perhaps they were right, but I was not conscious of a going to sleep or even of an awakening; things seemed to slowly change as I sat there in that pew with my eyes wide open. I believe it was a vision sent by God to turn my eyes toward my own shortcomings. However, I remained there for a long time and pondered deeply, honestly, seriously, on myself and my duty. At last I slipped away home without stopping to speak to any person.

About a week later I met one of the deacons, who thus accosted me:

"Brother Storrs, the strangest thing is happening. Ground is being broken for the new chapel for the Sunday school. No one knows who is having it done, not even the pastor, and the contractor won't tell."

"It does look strange," I answered, and being in somewhat of a hurry, passed on my way.

The following month I surprised myself, my serv ant, and my friends, by moving into a house more in keeping with my means. I furnished it comfortably, nearly knocked my servant down with astonishment by doubling her wages, and altogether began to live like other people.