was promulgated in Japan inflicting death on any one who should use any of the rites of the Christian religion in Japan. That law is still unrepealed, and yet have I boldly and openly done the very acts that the Japanese law punishes so severely.

What is my protection? The American name alone. That name, so powerful and potent now, cannot be said to have had an existence then, for in all the wide lands that now form the United States there were not at that time five thousand men of Anglo-Saxon origin.

The first blow is now struck against the cruel persecution of Christianity by the Japanese, and, by the blessing of God, if I succeed in establishing negotiations at this time with the Japanese, I mean to boldly demand for the Americans the free exercise of their religion in Japan, with the right to build churches, and I will also demand the abolition of the custom of trampling on the cross or crucifix, which the Dutch have basely witnessed for two hundred and thirty years without a word of remonstrance. This custom has been confined to Nagasaki; had it been attempted at Shimoda, I should have remonstrated in a manner that would have compelled the Japanese to listen to me. I shall be both proud and happy, if I can be the humble means of once more opening Japan to the blessed rule of Christianity.

My Bible and Prayer Book are priceless mementoes of this event, and when, after many or few years, Japan shall be once more opened to Christianity, the events of this day at Yedo will ever be of interest.

Sunday, December 13th, 1857. The Third Sunday in Advent; read the service with Mr. Heusken. I have told the Japanese that I performed my religious worship in order that they might not say they had no knowledge of it.

Sunday, December 20th, 1857. The last Sunday in Advent; read service as usual.

ELECTRIC LIGHT IN

SHANGHAI

877

portunity offered to equip St. John's N July it was announced that the opUniversity, Shanghai, with electric lights and so end forever the reign of the antiquated oil lamp.

Of the estimated cost of $2,000 one layman guaranteed $1,000, provided the other $1,000 were quickly given. This fact was laid before a number of friends of St. John's, for the most part laymen, who responded quickly and generously. The $2,000 has been forwarded to Shanghai, and the work of installing the electric fixtures has been begun.

So much for the way in which one need has been met. A good many others are pressing upon Dr. Pott's attention.

The most urgent is that for funds to meet accruing payments upon the new building now being erected as a memorial to the late Rev. Arthur S. Mann, for three years one of the professors at St. John's. Dr. Pott in his last letter says:

"The new building comes on well. We will be ready for the laying of the corner-stone in a short time. I have made the first payment on it, and see my way to manage the second and third. I trust by that time something will have come from the United States."

No money has yet gone from the United States, though the Board of Missions stands ready to act as forwarding agent for people in the United States, who may not know just how to send money to China. Fully $10,000 will be needed from this country. In the meantime the St. John's Alumni Association has been at work and has secured subscriptions of about $3,000. About $2,000 has been given by the officials of the province and the parents of some of the students. But the approaching fourth payment is weighing on Dr. Pott's mind. He is wondering what will happen if at least half of the missing $10,000 does not appear by January 1st.

REGRET exceedingly that the pressure of public affairs in Nanking prevents my presence in person on the occasion of the opening of St. James's Hospital in Anking. I have the honor, however, to appoint H. E. Wu Ming Nieh as my representative, to communicate to Dr. Woodward and the hospital staff my heartiest congratulations on so notable an occasion, and to voice for me the following sentiments:

Medicine and surgery have always been recognized in every country, the world over, ancient or modern, eastern or western, as intimately associated with benevolence. In Europe and America they also have been regarded as subjects worthy of inexhaustible study and research. Vast labor and funds have been spent to attain the most perfect types of hospital buildings, and to secure the most efficient administration of the same. The high standards which have resulted, as well as the unbounded philanthropy which has prompted them, call for universal admiration.

But this philanthropy has not been limited to the borders of the home land. Since the opening of our ports to the outside world, western hospitals have been established in China. Through their ministry countless lives of our people have been saved. In return our grateful people proclaim incessantly their usefulness. Such benevolent ministry to the suffering is as admirable as it is world-wide.

I have the highest appreciation of the excellent work done by the smaller St. James's Hospital during the past seven years. Its record of having treated about 100,000 patients during that time is an evidence of the incalculable benefits it has conferred. I feel also profoundly grateful to the thousands of American friends of China, from whose gifts the

splendid new hospital has been erected in order to multiply its benefits to the people of Anhui Province in the future.

In conclusion, let me venture to make a suggestion to the staff of the hospital. Opium smoking among our people has brought them ruin in no small degree. Imperial decrees have recently been issued strenuously prohibiting this evil, and the authorities of various provinces are endeavoring to conform with the imperial wishes. May not the skill of the staff of St. James's Hospital be directed to the preparation of an efficacious cure for the opium habit among our people? Then I am sure the great usefulness of the hospital would be extended to all parts of the empire, and not limited to the Province of Anhui only.

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T. PAUL'S CHAPEL, Trinity Parish, New York, is one of the comparatively few Church congregations in any part of the country that is undertaking systematic work among Chinese in the United States. It has a Chinese Sunday-school of about fifty members, four of whom have recently been baptized and five confirmed. That these Chinese appreciate the opportunity for Christian instruction and desire that their own countrymen shall have the same privilege, is clearly evidenced by their recent assurance that they will give $50 a year toward the support of Boone College, Wuchang.

Maska

Ο

NE who had seen St. John's-inthe-Wilderness only in the winter would hardly recognize us now. Both of our garden plots are fenced, sound and flourishing -lettuce, radishes, peas, beans, parsley, beets, turnips, are all up. On the point of land east of Leon's all of our Koyukuks are camped except Alfred, whose tent is pitched near where he is preparing to build his cabin-on the east edge of the mission ground and in line with our cabin. The Kobuks are all camped on the mission river bank a little west of us. The improved conditions due to the work we have been able to give the men has resulted in a healthier camp than has been known in many years. If these people could only be supplied with the work they are always so anxiously seeking, we should soon have a thriving settlement.

T

In front of the cabin Miss Heintz has a play-ground which gives a great deal

of pleasure: A swing, a couple of seesaws, a turning bar, a jumping board and jumping bar and pole, a hammock made out of barrel staves. Just now we have between forty and fifty Indians here. I wish our friends could see them all at play.

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The mission is thriving. Chief Moses spent last Sunday with us and was so pleased that he is to come up this evening with a number of others to spend the Fourth of July-a number have come down from Onion City, and several from Coldfoot, who tell us that most of the Coldfoot Indians say that they are coming here to live.

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The summer has slipped away from us and looks only like a few days now that it has gone. The Alatna country has been swept by a dreadful fire this summer. It travelled toward us until last Friday, when it reached the back of the

cliffs oppose us. Our deliverance has been a miracle for another fire which was started this summer at Red Mountain worked its way up, until Saturday it met the Alatna fire. At times the roar of the burning, crashing timber was fearful. Sometimes between the force of the wind and the draft created by the fire itself, burning trees are hurled through the air for fully half a mile. They look like flying demons, and when the flames would burst through the ravines the sight, though awful beyond words, was fascinating and weirdly beautiful. At times, however, the smoke was so dense that we could not see across the river. But the wind died down, a heavy fog settled and finally rain came, and now all danger is passed. How near our Heavenly Father seems in this Arctic wilderness! We knew the Hand that could control the fire, and we turned to Him and felt no fear. If it had reached us our little fire-brigade would have worked bravely!

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The phonograph has come! It is the sweetest-toned one I have ever heard, and gives untold pleasure. This winter. it will be a greater help to us than people "outside" can know. We laughed until our sides ached over "The Preacher and the Bun," and the imitation of the steamboat leaving the wharf is wonderful. Indeed all the records are fine.

The water has been so low and so clear that the natives have caught almost no fish. If possible, I will have to get word to Archdeacon Stuck to bring salmon from the Yukon for his dogs, for he will not be able to get any here the way things are going now.

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Just now our Indians are scattered along the two rivers at their various fishing camps-we have not more than sixteen or twenty remaining here though the others are coming and going. The outlook for the work generally is most encouraging; many new people have de

881

Mayodan is a mill town in North Carolina. Under the leadership of the Rev. A. R. Berkeley the Church is rendering valuable service to the community. A recent visitor writes:

HE work in Mayodan is growing

THE

wonderfully, and the Church is taking fast hold upon the community. I was there four days last week and in that time there were sixteen baptisms and thirty-one confirmations among the mill people. On Sunday there were 202 at Sunday-school, one class composed of twenty-five men and another of twenty-five women-some of them with babies in their arms. When you remember that it is a small mill town with about 1,000 inhabitants you will see what a very large proportion to the population. is getting Church teaching.