A Korean Tale Concerning the God Chang Ja. are bo led and kept underground for months and years before being brought to the table in a sort of sweet pickle, as a luxury. They are as black as mud, and it required all our nerve to undertake those. Dorothy summoned the bravery that she calls up for the dentist, closed her eyes, held her breath, and nobly made her bite. To my astonishment and relief she kept it in her mouth. I cannot say that any of our party liked the preserved eggs, but their flavor was not so disagreeable as their appearance. After that Dorothy hesitated at nothing. Shark's fins, sheep's eyes, antique eggs-she devoured all. Fortunately for her enjoyment she did not know what she was eating. Long afterward she learned just how heroic she had bee. There was one notable exception to the array of unknown dishes. We all recognized the edible bird's nests; if we had not known what they were, we should have believed we were eating a very delicious vermicelli soup. Silver fish were good little things fried whole like whitebait; pigeons' eggs were beauties, gleaming through a smooth coat of pink jelly; the lotus seeds looked like boiled chestnuts stewed in sugar, and tasted as chestnuts might taste treated in the same way. As for the fowl," "undercut," and tame duck," they were disguised beyond recoguition. 46 The viands, take them for all in all, were not suited to our palates. In our hungriest moments we shall never think longingly of our Chinese dinner. After the feast we were invited into the opium smoking room-not to smoke, but to look on. Evidently it was the pet room of the mandarin's friends. It was luxurious in hangings, low couches, tables, and smoking utensils. Jugglers were brought in to entertain us when we returned to the dining room. They produced immense bowls of water as if from vacant air, flowers grew up and blossomed before our bewildered eyes, and there were marvelous acrobatic feats by very small boys. Poor little creatures! They worked desperately hard and made painful contortions. Soon a wizard-looking Chinaman informed us, in a jovial manner, that his head was full of wooden toothpicks. Taking it for granted that we doubted his statement, he proccede to convince us. He winked vigorously, and toothpicks seemed to stick out from the corners of his eyes. He pushed them back again with his thumb, sneezed one partly out of his nose, and then sniffed it back again. This was a mere preliminary. Presently he sneezed at frequent intervals, and each sneeze sent from his nostrils first from one side, then fron the other. the half length of a toothpick. Drawing it out with his long-nailed fingers, he would exhibit it triumphantly. In this deliberate manner he sneezed and pulled out ten or twelve toothpicks from each nostril. Pity Dorothy. She had gone through the dinner with fortitude, but the toothpicks were too 427 much. She said that never, never could she use a wooden toothpick again. The juggling was followed by a grand display of fireworks in the courtyard, and in this blaze of glory we departed. On reaching our house in the settlement, we sat down with relish to a banquet of cold roast beef and bread and butter.-Messenger. A Korean Tale Concerning the God Chang Ja. As the god was walking along the road one day he saw a woman sitting by a newly made grave, weeping. He drew near and asked her what the matter was. She replied that this was her husband's grave, and that she desired to marry again but could not until the grass grew on her husband's grave, and she was watering it with her tears to make the grass grow. Chang Ja pitied the woman, but could do nothing for her, and so passed on. When he reached his home he told his wife about the woman, at which the goddess became very angry and blamed the woman for desiring to marry again. Chang Ja listened to her abuse until his anger was somewhat aroused, and he decided to test whether his wife would practice what she preached. So one day he feigned death, and was laid out for burial, but at the same time he prepared a very beautiful young man who appeared at his house on the day he died and asked the woman where her husband was. She replied that he had died that day. The young man appeared to be deeply moved at this, and said that her husband had been a very dear friend of his. The woman asked him to come in, which he did, and before two days had passed she was thoroughly fascinated by his beauty and grace and had entirely forgotten her dead husband. She wanted to have the marriage ceremony at once, but they had to bury the dead man first. According to custom a certain period must elapse between death and burial, but she ignored this and was about to have him interred when he suddenly revived and the young man disappeared. The goddess was so chagrined that she went straight to the well and threw herself in and was drowned. The gist of this story hangs on the fact that in Korea a second marriage on the part of a woman is considered of all things the most degrading. In Korean eyes it is not marriage, but concubinage. GOSPEL POWER.-A Scotch schoolmaster, examining a class of boys, asked the question, "If an irresistible force were to come in contact with an immovable body what would be the consequence?" and one bright boy answered, "Please, sir, something would go to shivereens." Heathenism has sometimes been called immovable, but the power of the Gospel can set it in motion and disintegrate and destroy it. GENERAL NOTES AND COMMENTS. OUR readers will doubtless be interested in reading on another page "A Defense of Japanese Faiths," by a Japanese who has no sympathy with Christianity and who places in the best possible light the faiths which Christianity is seeking to overcome and supplant. The Japanese should not be ranked as "ignoraut, unthinking, and superstitious idolaters." A missionary party of our Church is expected to sail from San Francisco, per steamer China, September 12. It will consist of the Rev. W. T. Hobart and family, Mrs. Charlotte M. Jewell, Miss Anna D. Gloss, M.D., and Miss Edna G. Terry, M.D., returning to their field in North China; the Rev. J. F. Hayner and wife, going to the same field; Miss May E. Carleton, M.D., returning to Foo-Chow; Miss Florence Brown, going out to West China; and the Rev. H. B. Hulbert and family, to enter our work in Korea. Bishop Newman returned last month from an official visit to our missions in South America after an absence of five months. The missions in Brazil and Chili, previously known as Bishop Taylor Missions, have been incorporated into our work, and there are now six districts in our South American Conference, with Dr. C. W. Drees as superintendent. The districts and their presiding elders are as follows: Argentine, C. W. Drees; Brazil, J. H. Nelson; Chili, I. H. La Fetra; Paraguay, C. W. Miller; Peru, T. B. Wood; Uruguay, A. W. Greenman. The difference between the members in a Christian church was lately illustrated by an account of a gentleman who in the north of England was puzzled as he was getting into an omnibus by seeing that there were first, second, and third class compartments, with corresponding difference in fare, but with no apparent difference in comfort. The mystery was presently solved when, coming to a steep hill, the conductor called out, "First-class passengers, keep your seats; second-class passengers, get out and walk; third-class passengers, get out and shove." We need members willing to be third-class passengers. The receipts of the Missionary Society for the nine months closing with July 31 were $696,800.42. This is an advance of $35,389.42. The year closes with the last of October, and we look to the two months before us with anxiety and prayer. We greatly need from the Western Conferences enlarged contributions, and these we fear, because of the depressed condition of business, will be difficult to secure. We ask from our pastors earnest efforts in making their collections. Our missionary operations, because of their success, are enlarging in every foreign mission field, and if there is to be retrenchment anywhere, do not let it begin with our missionary treasury. Bishop Joyce announces that two men are wanted for our work in Bulgaria. "They must be of good education, spiritual, and wholly given to God and the work of the ministry. It is also desired that they be men who have had some experience in the pastorate. Address Rev. J. O. Peck, D.D., care of the Mission Rooms, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York city." The adoption of the principle of Christian stewardship, so clearly taught in Holy Writ, makes all we possess sacred to God. It regulates our personal and household expenses, our pleasures, our expenditures in every direction. We allow no charges against the fund which we cannot justify when the final accounting is rendered to Him whose trustees we are.-Christian Steward. Dr. George Smith, the Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Free Church of Scotland, will deliver six lectures on Missions in October next, before the Reformed Church Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, N. J. These lectures have been provided through the liberality of Hon. N. F. Graves, of Syracuse, N. Y. The subject of Dr. Smith's lectures will be "Protestant Missions in India." Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, writes: "God delights in spiritual spontaneity. The penny pushed from the open hand by the impulse of the Holy Ghost is worth more to him than the pound wrung from the reluctant grip by the dunning of church beggars. I am so much impressed with the importance which God attaches to sweet voluntariness in Scripture, that I am often tempted to resolve never to beg a cent for God again, but rather spend my energy in getting Christians spiritualized, assured that they will certainly become liberalized. As I was reading my Greek testament the other day, I was delighted with the discovery concerning a well-known text: 'God loveth a cheerful giver.' The word cheerful is our word for hilarious.' And I have to imagine the word put into action. 'Will you give me a thousand dollars for missions?' 'Ha! ha! ha! F should be delighted to, since God has so wonderfully blessed and prospered me.' 'Will you contribute a hundred dollars toward our evangelistic work this winter?' 'Ha! ha! ha! I am only too glad for the opportunity to give, since I have so abundantly received.' How much better that sounds than the doleful 'O, dear; I am tired with the never-ending calls of money, money, money.' But this hilarious giving is not possible except the spirit is dwelling richly within it. For only the spirit shows the greatness of that salvation which we received through Christ, and the greatness of our consequent obligation." General Notes and Comments. Rev. H. H. McCreery, of Utah, states the essential principles of Mormonism as follows: "We have here a religious system with things in it which hold people. In the fundamental of unquestioning obedience, inflexible; in doctrine, eclectic with a counterfeit for every truth, and a place for every lie, on such familiar footing with the Lord that any essential principle may be suspended for the sake of policy." The Congress of Missions to be held in Chicago will commence the last week in September, and the request has been made by the managers, and seconded by many others, that Sunday, October 1, be observed as a Missionary Sunday throughout the world. We trust it will be made a day in which special sermons on Missions shall be preached, and earnest prayers offered for the success of our missionary work in all lands. The Arabian Mission of the Reformed Church, located at Busrah, Northeast Arabia, is calling for additional missionaries to aid in carrying the Gospel to the perishing, and a boat for medical and missionary work. Busrah is at the mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers; and through these rivers and their tributaries, and along the coast of the Persian Gulf, there is a direct water communication with large and densely populated regions, wholly destitute of the preaching of the Gospel. City mission work has largely increased its scope in recent years, and methods and agencies for reaching the masses are now freely employed that were undreamed of a generation ago. Among the hopeful signs are: 1. The consecration of wealth, time, and social influence to the task of reaching and uplifting the lapsed classes; 2. A thorough study of great social questions-labor, poverty, pauperism, crime the application of Gospel principles; 3. Cooperation among churches and charitable organizations, whereby waste is prevented, imposture detected, and the deserving are promptly relieved; 4. The building of large and comfortable "people's churches," instead of small and dingy mission chapels, which latter only emphasize the contrast between the rich and the poor; 5. The multiplication of agencies, so as to reach all classes and conditions of people; and, 6. A more general recognition of the fact that "man shall not live by bread alone," that he has needs on the spiritual as well as the temporal side, and that it becomes the Church to adapt her methods and agencies so as to meet these various needs.-Rev. A. Sutherland, D.D. The Missionary Herald, of the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, in its issue of July last gives the following summary of Protestant mission work in Italy: "During the past year the Waldensian Church in its mission stations received into church fellowship 591 persons, the Evangelical Italian Church, 275that is, the Presbyterian Churches together add 866. 429 The two Methodist Churches (English Wesleyan and American Episcopal) show a net gain of 207 members. The Union of Baptist Churches is represented by a similar gain of 165. The total admissions for the year may be safely set down at 1,500 members, if we add to the above the additions made to the military church. Another encouraging fact relates to the number that are under catechetical instruction. Four of the five churches give returns under this head, and show 1,732 as the total number of catechumens. If we make proportionate allowance for the Union of Baptist Churches, which makes no return under this head, the entire number of catechumens may be set down at 2,000. Although only four of the Churches occupy themselves with day schools, the number of children in attendance, including those of the Waldensian Valleys, is 10,471, while those frequenting the Sunday schools are 9,979. These figures leave entirely out of account all those schools, both day schools and Sunday schools, that are on an independent basis. So that the number of young people under distinct evangelical training approaches more nearly to 12,000 than to 10,000. Besides this systematic school agency, there are connected with several of the churches medical missions, which are doing a most important work among the poorer classes. No fewer than twenty-one Bible women are employed in going from house to house." TIDINGS FROM OUR MISSIONS. THE Kaukab-i-Hind, of Lucknow, reports an interesting baptism at Pithoragarh, in Eastern Kumaon, of a Sikh mahant named Jiwan Singh. This man has been the leader of three hundred disciples, and it is earnestly hoped that many, if not all, of these will follow his example. Many "Hindu and Bhotiya" brethren were present on the occasion. Pithoragarh is one of the most remote mission stations in India, and has an outstation among the Bhotiya people who make yearly journeys into Thibet. Misses Budden and Sheldon are now making a very interesting tour among these people, and it is quite possible that a branch mission, under the auspices of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, will be opened in that remote uplaud region at a place named Darchula. Thus the good work pushes on and on, ever extending its own frontier, and ever marching from victory to victory. Missionaries in India, says a daily paper, in common with the European population generally, are feeling the effects of the depreciated rupee. Last week a committee representing the Methodist Episcopal Missions in India, Burma, and the Straits Settlements met at Allahabad, to consult as to the desirability of applying to the parent societies for a higher rate of salary, consequent on the increased cost of living in the East. Bishop Thoburn presided, and the range of discussion took in the prospects of missionaries in China and Japan. It was eventually decided that the Missionary Board in New York should be asked to grant an increase of 25 per cent on all salaries.-Bombay Guardian. The Work of Methodism in Utah. BY REV. JAMES D. GILLILAN. UTAH may be among the small things of this world so far as figures on certain subjects will show, but not in some other regards. Possessing an area of more than 82,000 square miles, and a population of over 250,000 people, 50,000 of whom are nonMormons, it is worthy of consideration on account of size and worth alone. There are now being operated twenty separate charges, all of which are manned by men who, for the most part, are in the prime of vigor and manhood. Several new ones are added and are proving themselves men of valor. The late meeting of the Mission was held in Iliff Church, Salt Lake City, a new structure dedicated on Conference Sunday, and named for that valiant warhorse, Dr. T. C. Iliff, who is entering upon the second year of his pastorate of this congregation. Bishop Joyce was present, and though weary in labors abundant and duties many, appeared stimu lated to his very best condition, and preached wonderfully. O, that every man of us could preach a bishop's sermon! How like a feast they are when compared to what the best of us can do! Dr. Keen's keen, concise statements made for us all in the new experiences attained. He conducted pentecostal services every morning, afternoon, and evening during the whole session. Dr. N. A. Chamberlain's high grade of spirituality and happy mien made him welcome from the rugged fastnesses of beautiful Wyoming How happy his men must be under such a doughty leader! The tall, sturdy oak from Cheyenne, J. A. Johnson, need never go a-hunting for a pastorate; his presence is an inspiration. Then there were J. F. Harris and J. L. Vallow, Colorado men. The secretary went to Grand Junction to take a copy of the minutes to Brother Vallow, for the brine of Salt Lake does not agree with this Colorado pastor. Now, to the new men. There were introduced: George P. Fry (Ohio Conference), George W. Rich and George P. Miller (Northwest Kansas), George W. Conner (Philadelphia), Frank J. Bradley (South Kansas), Samuel Hooper (Colorado), John G. Clark (New Jersey), and the bishop remarked that he had never before run across such a collection from points so widely scattered. All these men take work among us, and expect to remain. Another (George M. Jeffrey, D.D.) returns to us after a year's absence in the East. He takes the charge at Park City. Statistics denote an increase almost everywhere except in the matter of missionary collections, and that is partially accounted for in the fact that the silver depression came just at the time when we could not best afford it, and found many of our best people unable to do what they desired. Since then the people are harder pressed than ever, and the financial question assumes a form of intense seriousness. Our staples are wool and silver. Wool is quoted at from five to seven cents per pound, while last year and previously it had been easily marketed at fifteen to eighteen cents. Silver is a drug at seventyfive cents, whereas its real worth is one dollar and twenty-nine cents per ounce. The one shuts up the mines, the other starves the men. When the base of supplies is transferable and transferred, the army sometimes suffers: so with our army of Christian supporters and sympathizers in Utah. Still, new work is projected and a new campaign ordered two new chapels are to be opened, and missions conducted in Salt Lake City. Grady C. Waynick does one, and George E. Jayue another. The Educational Committee reported in favor of an institution of higher learning; appointed a commission to look after the founding and opening of such Institution; recommended that the Ogden affair be Mission Notes from Western China. shorn of its disgrace; and declared in favor of opening the schools abandoned by the Mission, as the time is not yet ripe for our withdrawal from any field. "Better abandon the preaching than the teaching," if one must go. This is the uniquest field in the jurisdiction of the Missionary Society. Mission Notes from Western China. BY REV. J. F. PEAT. 431 A PARTY of missionaries sailed from San Francisco on January 4, 1893. Two of the party were ap pointed to Chen-tu, Mrs. Peat and myself. We arrived here May 10, after four and a half months of almost continual travel. The University Commission has Bishop Newman as its chairman, and T. C. Iliff, W. D. Mabry, M. L. Ritchie, of Salt Lake, and Dr. F. H. Simmons, of Provo, the other members. The schools are manned or principaled as follows: Salt Lake Seminary, Lewis M. Gillilan; Iliff Academy, Payson, John Telfer; Nephi Seminary, A. W. Hartshorn; Grantsville, Mattie E. Dinock; Murray, Edith Smith; Grass Valley, Benson, and Cannon, to be supplied. These last four are Mormon communities, where the public schools do not do what they are supposed to do. The Church is making full proof of her ministry although our towing ropes broke twice. through the various authorized agencies, the pulpit, pastorate, Epworth League, Sunday school, mission school, etc., in Utah; but at the same time very, very few adult Mormons are taken into any church of any denomination. It looks as if a new generation must be educated, and perhaps it is yet to be born, before the word will have free and widespread access to the people. The devil of indifferentism is the supreme imp now showing his head, horns, and hoofs. The lower part of the Yang-tse River is traveled by steamboats, but above Ichang, which is a thousand miles from here, native boats are the only means of travel. Above Ichang we were pulled by men, sometimes having as many as one hundred and fifty. The upper Yang-tse has some of the grandest scenery of the world. We navigated about fifty rapids the first mouth, and met with practically no accidents, We believe, however, that we have a class of men never so devoted, whose first and sole aim is "to know nothing among the people save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." They are heroes born. One brother, a doctor of divinity, says to his people: "Board me and my family, and pay my house rent, and I will refuse the tempting offer of one thousand six hundred dollars a year at a point outside of Utah." The occasion is the industries of the place are so crippled that the people do not know where their bread is to come from. Another lost every book and change of clothing in a fire, but the Lord sent him, and he will stay until the Lord calls him away. Another in a new place has no membership, no church, no parsonage, no prospect but his missionary checks, but says: "I'll like the place." The report of the Committee on the State of Affairs in Utah affirms that while they are not able to report the Utah pentecost, Mormonism is not the Mormonism of the days of Brigham Young. The Deseret News, Mormonism's official organ, says in comment: "Mormonism is the same as it was in the days of Brigham Young," while at the same time it has been always trying to beat into the heads of the public, especially the public sentiment of the United States, that things are no longer in Utah what they formerly were, that "all things have become new." To be sure there is change, and the ones honored for the bringing about a great measure of it are the missionaries of the great denominations. We say, "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?" Chen-tu, sometimes spelled Ching-too, is about two thousand miles from Shanghai and only three hundred miles from the border of Thibet. It is the provin cial capital of Se-Chnen, the largest of the eighteen provinces. Best authorities estimate the population at 750,000, including suburbs. We have a good location for our work, which has been in progress since July, 1891, under the supervision of Rev. H. O. Cady. Our school is well under way, and the medical work will at once be opened by Dr. H. L. Canright who has lately arrived here from Chung-king. Our buildings are all Chinese, but have been somewhat remodeled and are quite comfortable. At this, our entering upon the work, we especially ask the prayers of God's people that leaders among the Chinese may be raised up and developed for his service. Chen-tu, June 7, 1893. Mission Notes from Malaysia. REV. R. W. MUNSON writes from Singapore, June 7, 1893: "We have suffered in our working staff more lcsses this year than in any previous year of our history, yet we have had some reinforcements, so we are getting along far better than we expected. Dr. West and family left us in April, going by way of HongKong and Yokohama to their home, in Crawfordsville, Ind. The same month B. H. Balderston, former Principal of Penang Anglo-Chinese School, also sailed eastward to his home, in Charlotteville, Prince Edward's Island. On May 3 Brother Shellabear and wife sailed for England on account of Sister Shellabear's broken state of health. "A recent letter from Penang brings the tidings that Brother Moore and wife had been imperatively ordered up to the health resort on the top of the mountain which is on the island, and which rises three thousand feet above sea level. The past three |