and sermon there was a celebration, with about twenty-five communicants.

At Culebra many met us at the station. At the service the crowd could not be counted. The chapel on the hillside stood on a platform, this and the chapel being packed so tight that entrance was difficult. Surely the hymns could be heard miles away. Hot as it was, all and listened eagerly to the sermon watched intently the confirmation. Sixteen men and fourteen women knelt for the gift. By some mistake some candidates from Bas Obispo (Low Bishop) did not come.

A Crowded Service

The evening service at St. Paul's, Panama, cannot well be described, nor could it be photographed. Probably there were less than a thousand at it, but they looked more. The big church was solid, the choir squeezing in one by one, the mass opening to let each one in and closing at once behind him. The utmost respect for the "Lord Bishop"-and their respect is very great-could only secure him ten inches of gangway to reach his chair. Windows, doors, churchyard, street, the shining earnest faces above the white garments and black coats made a billowy sea, and a sea that at boiling heat was hushed to perfect stillness to hear the message brought by the bishop from America. I shall not forget the sight. Twenty-two were confirmed. It was impossible to take the throngs by the hand, but I was glad to find in the congregation a brother of David Jonathan Lee, a candidate for Holy Orders in my diocese. The wife and daughter were there also.

A short train ride on Monday brought us to Bas Obispo, where on a hillside we found a neat little church surrounded by tropical trees, with a congregation of thirty awaiting us with the four who had missed their confirmation on Sunday.

A Pressing Need

I hope Archdeacon Bryan may find someone to help him, some of the altar

IT

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me to

The

A clergyman from one of the missionary districts who has been temporarily holding services in an important parish, has experienced a decided shock in making this discovery: was an astonishment to meet a vestry of ten prominent business men and to hear them all disclaim any knowledge of an Apportionment Plan for General Missions, etc. name of George C. Thomas was entirely This seems to me strange to them. appalling in a parish of this sort. No one has any recollection at all of ever having been asked to give for foreign and domestic work outside of the diocese. This is again astonishing. But I have found a number of clergy who never give their people any chance to make an offering. I have made the Apportionment Plan plain to them and put the whole matter of missionary work to them first of all in a business way, and then appealed to them as Christian men to redeem themselves from the dry rot of selfishness for their own sakes as well as that of the parish. On the strength of that the vestry decided to appeal to the parish for an Easter offering sufficient to cover the whole amount of the apportionment for the year.

I

Tanana, February 19th.

ARRIVED here yesterday. To-morrow I leave for "St. John's-in-theWilderness." The Rev. A. R. Hoare and "Kobuk" Peter accompany me. We will have a team of seven dogs, for we shall have a heavy load, having to carry supplies for a month in addition to our "sleeping bags," etc. So far my trip has been easy and pleasant and most interesting. Everywhere I have met old friends and encouragement. With the exception of a "side trip" to Neenana of 100 miles, which was "mushed" with dogs, I have journeyed by stage. To travel from Valdez to Tanana by stage, a distance of about 600 miles, through a wilderness, has seemed wonderful to me, who a few years ago would have thought such a thing impossible. I have taken advantage of this convenience, because I realize that I am getting older and cannot rise to the physical demands as in previous years. I might do so, could I keep in "form," but, with the improved conveniences of travel. since 1896, that is not possible. From here to the Koyukuk, however, I have now to face a pretty severe test. The journey has to be made on foot, dogs carrying our blankets and supplies. It means heading still north until the Arctic Circle is crossed.

From Fairbanks I visited Chenoa Indian village and confirmed thirty-five Indians, prepared by Mr. Betticher. The latter has, in addition to his work at Fairbanks, done most successful work among the scattered Indians along the Tanana.

On Monday, February 10th, Indians met us with their dogs in Fairbanks, and we left for Neenana, seventy-five miles away, which we made in two days. Here the Indians had come back from their hunt and met us. We had very inspiring services. Mr. Betticher presented fifty

Indians for confirmation. Blind Moses is aiding the work very acceptably, while Miss Farthing is, as usual, ministering to the Indians in all ways with a devotion and faithfulness most heroic and satisfactory.

Here I left Mr. Betticher and Miss Farthing, travelled north thirty miles, where I connected with the stage and made "Hot Springs" on Saturday evening, February 15th.

"Hot Springs" is a wonderful spot in this northland. Hot water springs exist here of 160 degrees temperature. A successful mining man has built a hotel, heated from the springs, with swimming tank, baths, etc., making a resort the most attractive in the North. It is also the centre of a promising mining region. Here I met many old friends, and through the baths eliminated the lameness which I had contracted. I held services, having eighty-five for a congregation, and an offering of $27.25. We must place a clergyman at this point as soon as possible.

In looking around for dogs I consulted an Indian in regard to one, and he said: "Too much long time dog-no good." I did not buy him.

"A PECULIAR PARISH'

CON

ONDITIONS in this town are peculiar and exceptional in regard to religion in general and foreign mission work in particular. THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS would not sell at any price. After over seven years as rector of the parish, I have succeeded in securing but one subscriber to THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS, and he is a young lad yet in his teens. He is paying for it out of his pocket. money. He has the making of a man and a Churchman. He is interested in it and in mission work.

T

HERE need no longer be any doubt about the civilization of Central China. Hankow has dropped into line with all the other cities of the world; it has held a conference! Delegates to this conference have come from four different provinces, travelling distances varying from 100 to 400 miles in all directions, and by all sorts of conveyances, from train and modern steamboat to sedan chair, sampan and wheelbarrow. To be sure, the Hankow shops have not sought its patronage with tempting signs, nor the theatres with glaring play-bills, while the local paper has completely ignored its existence. And yet, some day, what that handful of men accomplished may be of more moment to China than any other of that week's doings in this "Hub of the Empire," for it laid the foundation stones of Self-Government, Self-Support and Self-Propagation in the structure which will soon, we hope, be the Chinese Church in Central China.

But there have been conferences in Hankow before. How did this one differ from the others? And what did it accomplish?

A Distinguishing Characteristic

Former conferences have represented only one order-as, for instance, the clergy of the district, or the catechists, or the teachers. Or they have been only for Chinese, or only for foreigners. In this conference there were delegates of both races and all orders. The Chinese lay delegates, who made up nearly half the total number, had been elected by their peers. As one of the delegates (a Chinese), speaking at the conference, said: "The Church has gotten ahead of

the nation, for the nation has been looking forward to a representative assembly for two years, and has not even made a beginning, while the Church has talked of it for only a year, and already has it!"

The subjects discussed were also representative of the whole Mission, having been submitted during the preceding weeks by delegates from all parts of the district. The committee in charge of the programme, however, had followed the very wholesome rule of selecting for discussion such subjects as represented weak points in the work, not parts of it on which we already felt sure of our ground.

An Anxious Question

Besides all this preparatory work, a committee on hospitality had arranged that the delegate's inner man should not suffer while his mind was busy. But the question still remained: Would the mechanism work? Or would the wheels merely go around with a buzz and a bang, while the great machine remained stationary? There were those who remembered the first conference held in the district, when the assembly sat, hour after

hour, while its members in order of age,

in speeches of not less than half an hour each, discussed all theology and ethics, but could not be induced to say one word of all the anxieties and difficulties that were filling their hearts. Would this be the case again?

It was soon plain that the years had brought development. The first day of the conference had been set apart for devotional services, beginning with a corporate celebration of the Holy Communion. These services, with their emphasis on the mutual as well as the in

dividual duties of the members of the one Body, helped draw the members together, and by the time of the first business session, they were full of good-will. Foreigners and Chinese alike had a difficult task before them in the attempt at using parliamentary language in Chinese, for many actually new terms had to be coined to meet the ecclesiastical requirements of the conference.

re

The work of the week falls under two heads-that upon the constitution and canons for a future synod, and the discussion of papers presented on the programme proper. The former occupied fully half the time, and, whether in committee or in meetings of the conference, the unappetizing morsel was attacked in a manly and statesman-like way which gave good hope for China in the days when she shall be governed by constitutional assemblies. As someone marked: "The delegates showed good, sturdy common sense. If someone did happen to make a foolish motion it seldom found even a seconder." As finally adopted, subject, of course, to ratification by the American House of Bishops, the constitution declares that the Church in Hankow is in communion with the Church in America and "subject to the bishop of that Church appointed for Hankow." It provides that the synod shall consist of clerical and lay deputies, the latter to be elected according to the canons, and meeting at least every three years. It orders that the synod shall elect a Standing Committee whose racial composition is not determined, but which must consist of four clergymen and four laymen. And at the first election of such a committee, which took place before the conference adjourned, two foreign and two Chinese clergymen were elected, and three Chinese laymen to the one foreigner. Before the passage of this canon several of the foreigners had pointed out to the meeting the fact that the interests of the Mother Church were fully safeguarded by the requirement that a missionary bishop must appoint a Council of Advice, on which he was, of course, free

to secure only foreigners as advisers. And since the constitution also provides that no act of the synod shall take effect without the consent of the bishop, it seems that the infant Church is sufficiently assured of parental guidance, while still strongly encouraged to walk alone. The synod is also to name delegates to national synods of the Anglican Communion, and its chief duty is "to take counsel in matters that concern the welfare and progress of the Church in the district, and to establish and control a missionary society."

No Representation without
Taxation

One of the most lively discussions was elicited by the presentation of the canon which decides the manner of electing delegates to the synod. As finally passed, it provides that any parish or group of parishes consisting of fifty or more communicants may elect one delegate to the synod, but that "no such deputies shall have a vote unless such congregation or group of congregations contribute, apart from school and hospital fees, sufficient money to pay all its current expenses except the salaries of clergy and catechists and Bible-women, and also contribute twenty-five cents each year for every communicant to a fund for the salaries of clergy and catechists, or to funds for other objects directed by the bishop."

It was during this debate that one aged delegate remarked sadly (he was a substantial layman, and a communicant of many years standing from one of the outstations) that we had been all these years gathering a few sheep into the fold, and now, when shearing time was come, the sheep wanted to run away! He was a bit pessimistic. A few years hence, when more "sheep" shall have been gathered in, and when the new organization of the Church shall have developed their self-respect and self-reliance, we hope that a much larger assessment may be possible. Meanwhile a beginning has been made.

The discussion on constitution and