W BY THE REVEREND D. T. HUNTINGTON EST of Ichang, in the Province of Hupeh, there is a district about two hundred miles long by one hundred broad. It is mountainous and not very fertile, but supports what would be a dense population for America and is not very sparse even for China. There is no mission work in it. except by the Romanists, and, so far as I know, there are only three or four priests in the whole region. About seven years ago some men from the western part came to the Rev. Mr. Taylor, an English clergyman working under Bishop Cassels at Wanhsien, in Szchuan. Later the Rev. Montagu Beauchamp went there from Kweichan Fu, and great interest was manifested. Unfortunately, a serious riot against the Roman Catholics occurred, in which a bishop and two priests were killed, and some of the enquirers were implicated. Mr. Beauchamp went home on furlough, and for lack of men the work was dropped. Bishop Cassels was always very anxious that Bishop Roots should take it up, it being in this province and rightly coming under the District of Hankow. He was unable to do so from lack of workers, but since the summer of 1907 we have been able to send evangelists on several visits. Some time ago I received this letter from two of the men sent there. "Honorable Pastors Huntington and Tseng:* "Peace of the way be with you. "Since leaving Ichang for Sznan on this trip we have abundantly received the blessing of the Holy Spirit, and the friends who received us joyfully were not few, so that each time we preached The Rev. T. F. Tseng is Mr. Huntington's Chinese associate in the Ichang work. A PRIMITIVE FERRY SUCH AS MUST BE FREQUENTLY USED ON TRIPS INTO THE INTERIOR there were those who received benefit. Some stopped being vegetarians, others perceived the uselessness of idols, and others were awakened from various superstitions. "When we left Ichang last month and went to Yie San Kwan we spent ten days on the road." (It is only a four days' journey. They spent the rest of the time preaching.-D. T. H.) "From Yie San Kwan we went to Wu Yang Kwan, in Hofung, spending seven days on the way." (It is only two days' journey.-D. T. H.) "Then we spent twenty days in Hofung and Chienez. The people whom we met here who came to talk about the doctrine were so many that they quarrelled about where we should go first and where afterwards. "On the fifth of this month we went to Sznan, arriving on the eleventh. Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, in The Yangtze and Beyond, of Valley says the ethnic faiths: "There is no resurrection power in and to the men of them, one who any here and there are athirst for righteousand Him ness, 'who is groping after are not far from every one of us,' they offer neither guidance nor help. That there are such seekers is certain. Among the many 'secret societies' of China, a good few' are mainly religious, and a great number of the Christian converts in North China have been in their membership. An attempt to attain righteousness is their characteristic, and something may be learned from them of self-denial and aspiration. Their efforts all take more or less of an ascetic direction. Among them are 'Vegetarians' who abstain from meat with the object of 'rectifying the heart, accumulating merit, and thus avoiding calamities in this world and retributive pains in the next.'" There we met Tsou Tou Kwang, the leader of the former work. He gladly told us about the former matters and about the house which the people had bought for a chapel. He was most anxious to have us come and meet all the former enquirers and to discuss whether the Church would come and open work. "We would also mention that Hwang Chin Tang accompanied us and was of the greatest use, because he knows all the former enquirers. "We ask that you will, on our behalf, render thanks to God for His grace. "The last ones, Pen Tsang Yuin and Yang Sao Fu, bow their heads. Their companion, Hwang Chin Tang, sends enquiries. "May your Excellencies enjoy peace." It is most important to take up an opportunity of this kind. No doubt these men are coming from all sorts of motives, but the fact that so many of them have survived five years of neglect is a great appeal. Furthermore, if this is to be done, it must be done thoroughly. The two men who are there now are untrained catechists. They are good men, but have neither great knowledge nor wide experience. If it is confided to their hands all sorts of troubles are liable to ensue. We ought to have two or more foreigners and several experienced Chinese to send at once. WHERE FRIENDLY HELP COUNTS W BY ARCHDEACON ATWOOD HEN Bishop Kendrick was consecrated Bishop of Arizona and New Mexico, he said, in answer to a question from a brother bishop, that he did not want to build a cathedral, nor establish schools, but he did want to start a hospital where the lives of some young men, and especially young clergymen, might be saved to the Church. Within recent years it has been generally recognized that no climate in all the world is so helpful for those afflicted with pulmonary diseases as the winter climate of Arizona, and especially that of the Salt River Valley, where Phoenix is situated. There is an old legend that everyone who has come to Phoenix has come either broken in health or in reputation. However partially true this may have been in the early pioneer days, one has but to look into the faces of the healthy and law-abiding citizens of Phoenix to-day to recognize the falsity of the tradition. Yet it is estimated that four or five thousand people come every winter to Phoenix and its neighborhood suffering from tuberculosis. They are generally poor or in very moderate circumstances, as the wealthier healthseeking class and tourists go to Colorado and California, where, if the climate is less good, there is more to attract and amuse and also better accommodations to be found in comfortable hotels and boarding-houses. The desolation of the surroundings and the discomforts to be endured by health seekers were forcibly impressed upon my mind when in the winter of 1904-5 I first came to Arizona. I recall how a young clergyman had almost lost courage and faith as he was driven from place to place seeking health and with no helping hand stretched out to aid. There was another young fellow, a graduate of an eastern college, of good family, who told me that he had lost all of his ambition and did not care whether he ever returned to take up his work of a civil engineer, as he had been associating with a class of people he never thought of knowing at home. The chances of getting well were carelessly thrown away by many who could not afford to pay for medical care, who lived in wretched and unsanitary rooms, eating at cheap restaurants where proper food could not be obtained. To my door there came one day, two years ago, a young man whose case was typical of many. He was the son of a Canadian clergyman who had died. He had educated his sister, saved a little money, which had all gone during a prolonged sickness in the hospital in consequence of an operation. Unable to take up his profession of a civil engineer, as tuberculosis had then developed, he had come to Phoenix. He had been two nights in the streets, unwilling to seek assistance, but finally was compelled by hunger to do so. In the summer of 1907 there was given between five and six thousand dollars for the establishment of a tent sanitarium. By January, 1908, three and one-half acres of land had been bought on the desert two miles from Phoenix. A small administration building, with rooms for the superintendent, a bath, a kitchen, a large dining and living room, with a wide screened porch, had been built. Eleven tent houses had been bought secondhand, thoroughly renovated and furnished. Mr., now the Rev. Bertrand R. Cocks, who had been obliged to give up his theological studies on account of his wife's health and who had come to Phoenix at this time, entered heart and soul into the enterprise, bringing a practical experience acquired some years before in the establishment of a similar in THE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING AND TENT CABINS AT ST. LUKE'S HOME, PHOENIX, ARIZONA stitution, and he became the first superintendent. Three or four of the leading physicians of the city gave their services free, visiting the sanitarium daily. Seven of the leading residents of the territory, with Bishop Kendrick as president, and including the Chief Justice, accepted the positions of trustees. Sixteen ladies, resident in Phoenix, were appointed a board of visitors, and an advisory council of eastern Churchmen was elected. Our first patient was the wife of a clergyman formerly connected with a large eastern parish. In less than three weeks all the tent houses were filled. At the dedication of St. Luke's Home, the bishop said that in his travels about Arizona and New Mexico he found the Roman Catholic Church respected and admired, largely on account of the hospitals which it maintained, and he hailed with joy the founding of this home. While St. Luke's has been conducted on strictly sanitary principles, yet it has been sought to throw the atmosphere of a Christian home about it all. No religious restriction has been made, but more than one has asked for baptism. The Holy Communion has been administered to the dying, and Christian burial given to the poor and homeless. The maximum price of board and tent house, including medical care, has been $12 per week. But this in most cases has of necessity been reduced, and some have been cared for entirely free. But we are crippled in this respect by the small contributions that thus far have been given to the work. As not a single resident of Arizona so far has been admitted to the home, the patients coming mainly from the East, but also in certain proportions from the South and the Pacific coast, it is justly felt that the heavy burden should not be thrown more than possible on those living in Arizona, where the Church is poor and is entirely a missionary field, receiving little support from the Church at large. Upward of $15,000 have been given so far. Nearly half of this has gone into the equipment; $5,000 has been invested as an endow ment for a free bungalow or tent house, the hospitality of which it is intended to extend in the first place to a clergyman, if any desires it. All the money given has gone directly to the support of the work. None has been spent in collecting or administering the funds. Five thousand dollars endows a free bungalow; $200 builds and furnishes a bungalow; $100 makes any person, church or guild a life member; $25 an associate member, and $5 an annual member. During times of serious illness trained nurses have been employed, but there is need of one or more regular nurses to live all the time at the home. There are accommodations now for less than twenty patients at the outside, which means in some cases two sharing a bungalow together. Eventually it is hoped that the incurable cases may be separated from those who are in the early stages of the disease. More land ought to be obtained, where a garden can be planted and our own vegetables raised, as well as poultry and eggs. A horse has been given already and a cow promised, and some day we hope to provide all the milk and cream that we need. Alibrary has been started by friends, and this is a great boon to the patients, while a number of boxes of useful articles have been given or promised for our manifold needs. Perhaps the thought that comes most frequently to one who is working among those afflicted with this most pathetic of all diseases is the fearful and unnecessary waste of useful lives. There died the other day at St. Luke's a young woman who had just completed her course as a trained nurse, when three years ago she came down with tuberculosis. If she could have had proper care and nourishment in the beginning, if in the incipient stages of the disease she had come to us, her valuable life very likely would have been saved. But it is wrong for eastern physicians and friends to send here to die in loneliness and desolation those in advanced stages. While we have preferred to take only those in the incipient stages of the disease, or where there is a fair chance to arrest the disease, yet we have been compelled as it were by sad circumstances to take some who were in a hopeless condition. A WOMAN'S DAY IN JAPAN Missionary life, like life at home, is made up of a multitude of details, some of them apparently trivial, yet all having the possibility of furthering the great cause. One of our Japan staff writes: among the Gentiles; and in The "Heroes" include: "The First A.D. |