tion. The work done by Miss Thackara has already produced a lasting impression on the Navajos and laid the foundation for a more aggressive work. The Hon. F. E. Leupp, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, at a recent Indian conference at Lake Mohonk, N. Y., said:

"The most successful mission among the Navajo Indians to-day is the Protestant Episcopal mission, which started with a hospital. The Indians discovered that if a man had broken his leg he could come there and have it set, or if it had to be amputated this would be done in a skilful way, and he would be furnished with a wooden leg that would help him out. And if he were sick, or if his children were sick, they could be brought there and treated, and treated successfully. Whenever an Indian has gone through such an experience, he begins to ask himself: 'Who are these people who are doing this? And why are they doing it? And then, of course, comes the very simple answer: 'These are some good people who love you. Their religion teaches them to love you and all mankind. This is their way of showing their

love for you.' Then the Indian says: 'This is "good medicine."""

From personal experience I know that this "good medicine" is having its effect on the minds of the Navajos, and they want to know more about it. As so many of them come to the hospital to visit their relatives and friends, and also go to the agency, which is close at hand, the wisdom of erecting the chapel at this time to supplement its work must be apparent to all. Most of the missionary effort by the other denominations has to be largely of an itinerant nature-taking long journeys to reach a few people. It is only within a decade that the churches have really begun work among the Navajos, and the field is by no means overcrowded.

But whatever else is done, it is my earnest hope that the hospital will be given that support to which it is entitled by the Church, in order that Miss Thackara may be saved the annoyance of "wearing herself out studying economy," and that her life may be prolonged many, many years for the sake of the spiritual and physical well-being of the Navajos, for whom she has given so much.

Ο

N my return to China from a year in America, I find at St. John's University students in crowds so great that we cannot begin to take them in. Young men of the best of this wonderful old civilization are clamoring eagerly at our doors to be taught the new civilization that we of the West have brought to such a great height.

And what can we do? We are 60 short-handed that each man on the faculty has to teach classes entirely too large for one man to handle. The freshman class numbers forty-eight. There are not men enough to teach so that it can be divided into two sections. There is every prospect that the freshman class next autumn will be still larger.

Mr. Harding's death has been a terrible blow. At present Professor Cooper is away on a well-earned furlough, and Dr. Pott must follow him during the coming summer. Cannot some young man be found to come out and help in this work? There is no work more inspiring anywhere in the world at the present time. Think what it means to be one of those who lead the young men, who are already becoming leading men, in the great changes that are taking place in China, or which are shortly to take place.

The Christian world has a very great responsibility at the present time. China had been getting on fairly well with an old system of laws and an old system of moral and spiritual ideals for many centuries, but within the last hundred years,

in spite of the fact that China did not want our civilization or our trade or our religion, we have forced all upon her notice. We have made her see that the world moves. We have defeated her in war, and forced her to treat with our commissioners, and to open her ports to our trade. We have shown her how vastly superior our civilization is to hers. For many years the Chinese would not believe we had anything that they wanted, but within the last decade all has been changed and now they have awakened to the realization that we have something, a civilization that they want and are bound to have. China now wants our education and the things that have made the western world great. How is she going to get them?

There are several ways.

1. By starting schools of her own. But she has no teachers, no text-books and no knowledge of how to run the new kind of school. She has started some, but so far they have amounted to but very little.

2. By sending men to Japan. She did so. Two or three years ago there were nearly 20,000 Chinese students in Japan. But they found to their sorrow that Japan could not give them what they wanted, and the number now is less than 5,000.

3. By sending men abroad to America and to Europe. She is doing this now, but it is slow and expensive.

2. The country is changing and the change is being brought about by the young men who get the new education. 3. The idea they get of our civilization now is the one they are going to use in the change. If they get the idea that our civilization has become great simply from the material advantages we enjoy, and from our knowledge of the sciences, they will change their country and make their civilization purely a material one. If, on the other hand, they can be made to realize that our civilization is great because it has a solid foundation, both spiritual and ethical, and that without this side our civilization would not be able to stand, or would not have been able to attain its present height, then they will get something that will affect the whole after history of China, and not only China, but the rest of the world.

4. The great opportunity to help China and to influence the change is an opportunity that must be seized at once. China will get our civilization, or the material side of it, in some way, whether through mission schools or not, and in a generation the great demand for education from the outsider will be gone. Then the new civilization will have received its western stamp, whether for good or for bad depends upon what the people of Christian lands, and especially America, do and do now. Could there be a greater call?

And why is it so important that we seize this great opportunity? There are several answers.

1. In our mission work up to this time we have never been able to get at the better class of Chinese. They would not come to our evangelistic meetings or preaching halls. Now that we are offering something they want, they will come.

The Board of Missions has no objection to other clergymen doing as the writer of this message has done. Every dollar for THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS means more money for missions:

T

HE mission of the Holy Trinity, Оахаса, Oax., has passed through great tribulations in the way of evictions and trying difficulties in finding a place for worship; and at times they have been discouraged to the verge of despair. But with the Rev. William Watson, the missionary priest-in-charge, there would seem to be no such word as despair. The story of his experience, as illustrating what consecrated pluck and perseverance will do, is worth repeating.

When Mr. Watson entered upon the work at Oaxaca, he was met with the frank avowal by some of the more influential Americans that it was useless for him to come there to try to start a church, for it had been tried and it could not be done. But Mr. Watson kept his own counsel and went to work. He succeeded in renting a room for services and a few attended. He asked for no salary, and worked to win the confidence of the people. He was soon notified that the room must be given up. He succeeded in renting another room and started a Sunday-school. Again he was ordered to vacate. After a time he managed to rent another room and began again. In the meantime one of the denominations that had a native mission at Oaxaca entered the English-speaking field, canvassed the city, and advertised regular services and Sunday-school in their own church building. Our missionary was again advised to give it up; that the odds were too great against him. But he had no thought of giving up. Soon after this I received word that the congregation had been once more ousted from their rented quarters, and I began to feel that the case was hopeless. When I met our missionary at Puebla a few days later, I asked anxiously what he thought could be done now at Oaxaca.

"Well," was the quiet reply, "I am starting to build a church at Oaxaca. I have just had made a $500 altar and am now having it shipped down there from Jalapa."

"What! A $500 altar for Oaxaca ? But I thought you had been turned out; that you had no place for services, and that the people were in despair and ready to quit."

"Yes," was the reply, "they are disheartened. What they need is that

altar."

"But where will you put it?"

"Oh, it will find a resting place somewhere, and if you will come to Oaxaca Sunday after next, we shall want you to consecrate it."

On meeting our missionary on my way down to Oaxaca the following week, my first inquiry was whether he had been able to secure a room for the Sunday services.

"Well, I don't know about the room," was the reply, "but I know that the altar is safe there."

Next day (Saturday) I was told that a room had been secured (but for the one day only), although the family living next door had protested vigorously with the landlord against such sacrilege.

On Sunday morning I was conducted to the extemporized chapel, a small, dimly-lighted room with bare brick floor; but there, transforming and dignifying it all, was the altar, an exquisitely artistic product in Mexican cedar that would grace a cathedral. When I remarked the beautiful flowers on the retable I was told, "Yes, they were brought in by the people next door who protested so strongly against our holding service here; the altar did it."

After the service many of the people lingered. It seemed good to be there. As some said, it was so like "home." And

MAGINE a huge building, looming up far into the sky, like some great fortification, or one of the enormous cathedrals, with its salient parts marked with arc lights, far above, over all, its watch-tower with the solitary watchman on the lookout for fires in the adjacent canefields, a whirl of steaming vapors, odorous with the sweetness of the cane juice, boiling molasses, and sulphur, half concealing the small locomotives at the base, and the long lines of oxen-drawn carretas laden with the cane for the grinding-and you have the setting of a recent service held by the Archdeacon of Havana.

It was held at the request of one of the great sugar companies of which there are more than a hundred in Cuba, representing hundreds of similar mills, and millions of dollars. The mills employ

hundreds of men, of all sorts and kinds, from the dumbest workman to the college graduate in the laboratory or at the desk.

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These men have practically no ligious opportunities while at this work, which lasts through all the winter months, and far into the spring of the year, and so several of these great companies, recognizing the peculiar fitness of our branch of the Church to minister to this shepherdless people, have requested that we hold services, offering to pay the salaries of the resident clergymen, and to erect chapels or churches for public worship.

In response to one such request, the Archdeacon of Havana made a trip of about 150 miles from Havana, to hold services at the Tinguara estates.

There were two services. At the first,