THE CONGO MISSION REPORT. The report of the Belgian Congo Commission, even in the blue-penciled form in which it has appeared, proves completely that many of the worst atrocities with which the leaders in the state were charged were truly reported, but no attempt is apparently made to bring the real culprits to justice. The commissioners find that the natives have been robbed of land and subjected to nameless cruelties in the enforcement of labor, and that "punitive" expeditions have been conducted by irresponsible commercial companies in a ruthless and vindictive manner; while the charges of mutilation by native soldiers have been fully proved. If the

other governments which have a secondary responsibility for the Congo State do not bring international pressure of a real kind to bear on King Leopold and his representatives in West Africa, probably little or no good will come out of this inquiry. Let action take the place of apathy, that we may rescue the perishing. The London Daily Chronicle is to be commended for exposing the false report of a bogus "missionary society," whose business seems to be to minimize the horrors with which the world is familiar. The charges have been proved, and the hour has come for the chastisement of the offenders, the cessation of the crimes, and the introduction of true reforms.

The great city of London has honored itself by honoring General Booth, who was presented with the freedom of the city a day or two after I despatched my last budget of notes. Time has evidently advanced a considerable way, and much water has flowed by, since the days when, as the General reminded the City Council in his speech after receiving the honor, he and his followers were surrounded by howling mobs as they marched through the streets, were pelted with stones and mud, and were the butt of ribald horseplay and indecent ridicule.

Surely not often in his own lifetime has it been granted to a man to see such a remarkable swinging-round of public opinion concerning himself and his cause. And perhaps even yet, one may say, it is not the more purely religious work of the General and his "Army" that commends him to public esteem and wins for them public honor, but the "enthusiasm of humanity," the devotion to the outcasts and pariahs of society, the wise-headed and stout-hearted attempts to deal with the large and crying problem of the "submerged tenth," which have been so prominent in General Booth's programme for some years past. But, be this as it may, it is none the less gratifying to see so earnest a servant of Jesus Christ and the world He came to save meeting in this life with so much honor. Everybody feels that General

Booth deserves it, and is glad that he has not had to wait till the time of the composition of his epitaph. It was a distinguished company that met to witness his being made a freeman of the great city. The ceremony took place, of course, in the Guildhall. The certificate of freedom was contained in a casket, usually made of gold for such occasions; but as the General had specially requested that the casket should not be an expensive affair, so that, if the Council were willing, the money that would otherwise have been spent on it might be given to the work of the Salvation Army, it was made from oak which had once been a beam in the roof of the Guildhall, and enclosed, besides the certificate, a cheque for £100. In celebration of the event, the General afterwards gave a dinner to 5,000 of the very poor of the city, gathered in companies in the "shelters" of the Army in different localities. He is now making a tour in Germany, preaching and teaching a gospel of salvation for both body and soul. So lives and works this youth of seventy-four!

But if some distinguished servants of Christ, with many years of service behind them, are still left to us, "trailing clouds of glory" where they come, others are taken from us, entering the brighter glory of the

spicuous degree. But Christian devotion has been his no less. It is still fresh in my own memory how, as a lad once visiting him in his office, I was impressed with the sight of a framed and illumined card hanging on the wall, the words upon it being, "God First." There is no reason to doubt, and indeed every reason to believe, that Sir George Williams carried this great maxim into his business life, and made Jesus Christ "head of the firm." One welcomes a career such as his, because it is a conclusive answer to the statement sometimes made, surely either from envy or from ignorance, that a man cannot achieve eminent success in the world of commerce, and yet be a loyal follower of the Christian ethics. But of course it was as the founder of the great Christian enterprise for the well-being of young men, which he lived to see attain almost world-wide dimensions, that his name is best known and will be longest borne in fragrant memory. There is no space here to tell the story of its inception and growth, but it will be universally allowed that it forins a magnificent and enduring memorial of one of the most notable Christian men of modern times.

As a concrete illustration of the manner in which the beneficent work founded by Sir George Williams has ramified, I may take the case of Young Men's Christian Associations in South Africa, where they were first introduced forty years ago. The general secretary to the South African Council, Mr. Gordon-Sprigg, happens to be now in this country, collecting funds to erect central premises in Johannesburg, where so many thousands of young men flock each year in search of fortune. King Edward has given a hundred guineas, and his Queen fifty. Fifty-five thousand pounds are required. As indicating the urgent need for the work of the Association in "the gold city," Mr. Sprigg says that there are at least 30,000 young men within a radius of two miles of the site for the proposed new building. The larger part of them know rothing of home life out there, with its sanctities and its safeguards. They unhappily drift, with comparatively few exceptions, to the saloon and the billiard room, when their day's work is done. It is as a counter-agent

to these unhallowed influences that the new institution for which Mr. Sprigg is raising money is of course intended. Recreation young men must have. The institution will provide them with recreation in an atmosphere morally clean. But winning the young men for Christ, and keeping for Him any of them who are already His, it need not be said, will be the crowning endeavor of all the work. Men like the late Mr. Cecil Rhodes, Lord Milner, and Lord Roberts have expressed the liveliest interest in the undertaking, of which they could see so manifest a need. South Africa, says Mr. Sprigg, will for many years to come be essentially a young man's country-the more urgent the necessity, then, that Christian influences should be there to surround the young men as they arrive to try their fortunes in a new world. There are already ten Young Men's Christian Associations in South Africa, with that in Johannesburg at the head.

A meeting of extraordinary interest was that which took place early in November at the Royal Albert Hall, when the British and Foreign Bible Society gave thanks to God for the successful completion of its Centenary Fund of £250,000, of which I said something at the time of its inauguration. Probably no more representative platform was ever got together. Every religious and missionary institution in the kingdom sent its delegates. I should not be surprised if the speaker who excited most interest and attention was the Rev. W. B. Rubusana, from Kaffirland, one of the trophies of the London Missionary Society, and the reviser of the Kaffir Bible. And this though he is not yet fifty years of age, first saw the light in a heathen kraal, and was bred as an ordinary Kaffir lad, employed in looking after cattle and goats. He is now an accomplished classical and theological scholar, besides being a devoted Christian. As to the meeting itself, it was as completely successful as the fund has been. The secretary of the society, who was told off to give the fund his special attention, had a most gratifying story to tell to an interviewer a day or two before. The money has arrived from all parts of the world, and in not a few instances tells a beautiful and touching tale of

the sacrifice that has gone to the raising of it. The lepers of Almora, North India, for example, having no money to give, but being eager to give something, saved portions of their allowance of food, which, when sold, brought in ten shillings. This instance of the spirit begotten and fostered by love of the Holy Book, may be linked with another of the same kind, in which a poor old woman, her whole living being six shillings a week, has collected £40 in an English country district, probably tramping hundreds of miles in her endeavors to raise the money. One can but ask, What other book in all the world excites the like worldwide devotion? How convincing a proof, whatever theory of inspiration Christians may severally hold, that a Book that can do this, and do it wherever it comes, must be the Book of God!

I have said nothing in recent months concerning temperance work in this country, for the sufficient reason that there has been nothing of any special interest to say. The drink evil, of course, is always with us, year in and year out, from January to December, and is as unceasingly being fought with varying success by all those who feel it to be the most subtle enemy of the country's progress and the hugest obstacle in the way of the kingdom of God. "There is no discharge in that war." Within the last few days, however, a new organization has been formed for the furtherance of temperance reform, and its sponsors are hoping great things from it. It is the work chiefly of Mr. T. P. Whittaker, a member of the British House of Commons, and a wellknown and active laborer in the good cause. It has been called "The League for the Promotion of Temperance Legislation," and its work is to lie, as the title indicates, chiefly along legislative lines. It has come into being at an opportune moment, since the advent of a new parliament cannot be long delayed; and its object is to formulate a temperance policy on which the overwhelming majority of temperance advocates of all political parties may reasonably be supposed likely to agree. The principle of "local control" is a prominent feature in its programme, both as regards the granting, the renewal, and the refusal of licenses, and the

MR. WILLIAM BAKER, M. A., LL. B., DR. BARNARDO'S SUCCESSOR.

hours and days of the sale of liquor. But this principle finds a remarkable and somewhat novel application in the proposal to acquire power to allow local authorities to place licensed premises in the hands of "disinterested" persons-that is, persons who will not push the sale of liquor for the sake of any personal gain, and who obviously will therefore be neither brewers nor publicans, but will, I take it, be salaried servants of the local authorities. This is a feature of the programme of the new League which has already called forth the strongest criticism from the more "out-andout" temperance workers of the country, who demand the abolition of the drink traffic, and regard any communal management or ownership of it as a weak-kneed compromise. Their watchword is, "Touch not, taste not, handle not!" They are denouncing Mr. Whittaker's proposal as "the latest political red herring," and Mr. Whittaker himself as a man in whom they have lost all confidence. He, on his part, allows that his programme is not exactly ideal, but still claims that it is practical. "Half a loaf is

better than no bread." It cannot be doubted that there are large numbers of temperance advocates who feel that a root-and-branch policy is impracticable, and that therefore the best way to deliver the land from the enormous evil of drink is rather to take what you can get in the way of reform, than to grasp at what you cannot.

The tens of thousands who have been sorrowfully interested in the lamented death of Dr. Barnardo, will be further interested in his will. It has recently been proved, and shows that the deceased philanthropist left estate valued at not far short of £11,000 net. As regards minor bequests, the only one worth noting is that of all his papers and private letters, bequeathed to Mrs. Barnardo, to be dealt with by her as she shall think fit. This is interesting in view of the biography of Dr. Barnardo, which one may

readily believe will sooner or later be given to the world. The one public bequest is that of a tenth part of his estate, to be given to his Homes for Waif and Orphan Children, "established by me, which I have directed during my life, and have loved to the last." He desired that his body be cremated, and the arrangements be carried out in the most inexpensive form, and his ashes placed in the grave "which I have already prepared in front of Cairns House at the Girls' Village Home, Barkingside, Ilford, in the county of Essex." Beautiful is his confession of faith: "Death and the grave are but temporary bonds; Christ has triumphed over them. I hope to die as I have lived, in the humble, but assured, faith of Jesus Christ, Whom I have so imperfectly served, and Whom I acknowledge to be my Saviour, my Master, and my King." There lies the hidden, ever-flowing, and abundant spring of Dr. Barnardo's philanthropy.