St. Paul's College, Tokyo

itself in Japanese life it is now confronted with a serious situation. It is overcrowded; it is inadequately equipped; it has no room for further growth, although the number of prospective students steadily increases. Unless St. Paul's is to be permanently crippled and the educational work of the Church in Japan held back, the college must be transferred from its present site in the Foreign Concession to a part of Tokyo where land is cheaper and where more of it can be secured. For years Bishop McKim and President Tucker have been resorting to all kinds of ingenious expedients to keep St. Paul's abreast of its opportunities. Even their ingenuity has now reached its limit. The truth is St. Paul's must either move and secure proper equipment or give up its claim to be a college. There was never greater need for the work that St. Paul's is doing. True, Japan has a remarkably well-developed and wellsupported system of public education. Even if this were sufficient to meet all demands, St. Paul's would be justified. because of its unquestioned influence as an evangelistic agency and because of

the indispensable work it does in training future clergy and lay leaders of the Japanese Church. Moreover, Japan's relation to the rest of Asia makes it an important field for Christian effort. It has been called the 203-Meter Hill of Asia, as China is said to be Asia's Port Arthur. The "hill" must be taken by the Christian forces before the "port" surrenders.

How Signalize 1909

Nothing that the Church in the United States is likely to do in 1909 would be more significant or make a greater contribution to the progress of the Kingdom in the world than the equipment of St. Paul's College on an adequate and permanent basis. For this $200,000 are needed-$95,000 for land, the rest for the most important buildings. The Board of Missions has been informed of the possibility of securing about ten acres of land in a Tokyo suburb, where everything points to the kind of development that would help to make the college work most successful. Land values in Tokyo at the present time are low. A purchase now means the saving of thousands of dollars as compared with a purchase two or three years from now. The reasons that make it desirable to buy this year make it

equally undesirable to sell the present St. Paul's property. Moreover, that property can be used to great advantage for some years for the St. Paul's middle school. When the college is firmly established on the new site, and the time comes to transfer the preparatory department the present property can be sold for an amount which will supply a handsome endowment, either for the college or the general enterprises of the District of Tokyo.

The suggestion is sometimes made that one reason why the Church's work fails to enlist the co-operation of more men of affairs is that it is planned on too small a scale. Here is an enterprise worth the time and thought of men who are accustomed "to think in empires and talk in millions." The Board of Missions is about to put this matter before the Church. Who will give the first $50,000?

OR most of us "Illinois" spells

FOR prairies dotted with waving corn

Pioneering in Southern Illinois

fields. But there are parts of Illinois where there is more wealth underground than above ground. To-day Southern Illinois is largely a mining region. It is good to find from Bishop Osborne's article in this issue that the Church in the Diocese of Springfield is endeavoring to minister to people who-however little we may all appreciate the fact are rendering an important social service to the rest of us. Doubtless it would be well if more of us would ask the question put by Bishop Osborne concerning one of the places visited, "What must it be in the winter, seventeen miles from anywhere, 400 people out on the plains and no amusement, nothing to do except to mine coal and exist!" Much of the good work which the Rev. Mr. Purce is doing as general missionary among these mining towns is made possible by the appropriation of the Board of Missions. But he is only one

where three men might well find abundant work in shepherding and instructing the people and trying to help them to understand that the Church at large cares enough for them to send someone to offer them unexpected and perhaps only faintly desired Christian privileges. It is somewhat disconcerting to be told that in Ziegler there is no church of any kind though the moving picture business seems to flourish. Things can hardly be right when a moving picture show can outstrip the Church. No wonder there is "very little interest in religion." But even here two Church people were found. Doubtless they entered the Church elsewhere. They have some right, therefore, to expect that in new and more difficult circumstances the Church shall still endeavor to minister to them, at least occasionally, even though for the time being it may be necessary to celebrate the Holy Communion in a moving picture theatre. Aside from this, however, it is evident that Southern Illinois represents to a considerable extent a foreign mission field at home. As such it needs and deserves the sympathetic co-operation of Churchmen in all parts of the country.

IN

The Anking Mutiny

N November, a few days after the death of China's emperor and of the empress-dowager had been announced, the cable news from Shanghai told told of the outbreak of a mutiny among the Chinese troops at Anking. Here, in the capital of the Province of Anhui, the Church has one of its strong centres of work. As no further word of the trouble came by cable, it was assumed to be an unimportant incident. From one point of view this was true enough, but information now at hand shows that for a time the situation embodied elements of great seriousness. The middle of November had been appointed as the time for a series of army maneuvers to be held near Taihu, a small inland city

about sixty miles from Anking. Nearly 25,000 troops were gathered there. Just why this remote and inaccessible point was chosen does not appear. There has been no suggestion that the choice was made with a view to the events which followed, but speculation is inevitable, especially in view of the fact that no explanation has been given as to why the climate of Peking should have been so unhealthy last autumn. A few days after the announcement of the death of the emperor and empress-dowager, a battalion of artillery stationed at Anking mutinied, killed its officers, and attempted to burn the city. The mutineers persuaded some other troops to join them, but fortunately the great body of the soldiers refused to take part in the uprising. The Governor of Anhui acted with a promptness and vigor all too rare among Chinese officials in similar circumstances. Although the mutineers were speedily forced to retire, the local officials urged the removal of foreigners, especially the women and children. The members of our mission staff, with the exception of Dr. H. B. Taylor and Mr. W. McCarthy, were given safe escort to the British gunboat Flora and taken to Hankow, where they were immediately pressed into service in the various under-staffed enterprises centring at Hankow and Wuchang. Dr. Taylor and Mr. McCarthy determined to remain to safeguard the Chinese Christians if occasion should arise, and to protect the mission property. By November 26th, the date of the last mail advices, the trouble was rapidly subsiding and it was expected that the staff would return to Anking before the middle of December. There can be no doubt that nothing but the loyalty, possibly the unexpected loyalty, of the great body of troops returning from the Taihu maneuvers prevented an uprising which would have become general throughout China and which might have had serious consequences for the present dynasty.

NE of the most stimulating and

Suggestive subjects for present day

study is the change being wrought in national and international life and relationships by what to some may seem to be purely political readjustments

International Politics and the Kingdom's Progress

or diplomatic agreeNineteen

ments.

I. The Congo and China hundred and eight will long be remembered for four events bearing on the progress of the Kingdom of God, though. not of a distinctively missionary character. First, though not necessarily first in importance, we may remind ourselves of the annexation by Belgium of the Congo Free State. Unfortunately, this act does not absolutely insure the end of all the horrors that have devastated that region during the last quarter of a century. It is at least a long step toward better things, for it means that the Congo is removed from the category of King Leopold's private possessions. He can no longer do with it and its people as he likes. He can no longer snap his fingers in the face of an outraged Christian conscience when it protests against the most inhuman cruelties ever practised on a large scale. It means that the Congo as Belgium's dependency can be made the subject of diplomatic representations. It means that enlightened governments can now assert, as Sir Edward Grey, Great Britain's foreign secretary, has recently done, and, if necessary, maintain, the rights of the Congo people. This in turn means an immense service to Africa and the world.

The decision of the United States to return to China a large part of the indemnity exacted after the Boxer outbreak of 1900 is an act of righteousness which all right-thinking people applaud. It is not only a significant event in international politics, it is full of possibilities for the progress of civilization in the Chinese empire and for all that makes possible any civilization worth the

name. China is using some of the money thus restored to send some of her brightest young men to study at American and European universities. Many of these students are graduates of mission schools and colleges. Among them are young men trained at our own St. John's University and Boone College. Some of them are Christians. Before them lie great possibilities of usefulness and influence. It behooves the people of this land to see to it that these young men do not return to their own country with the conviction that the Christian Gospel is a spent force, so far as influence on American national life is concerned.

International Politics and the Kingdom's Progress II. Turkey and China

The practically peaceful revolution in Turkey, with its assurance of a constitutional government for what has been the most despotically governed nation on earth, is an event of the deepest significance. Not even the most sanguine seer would have ventured to proclaim it a twelvemonth ago. Within and without the Sultan's dominions the forces of God have been at work. Now we see that one of the most formidable barriers to the progress of the Kingdom, although not by any means removed, has at least been set somewhat aside. During the next few years we may expect to see in steadily increasing degree the influence of the work done for these many years by devoted Congregationalist missionaries in Robert College, Constantinople.

And, finally, the recently contracted agreement between the United States and Japan is another link in the chain that is binding East and West together. It is an event which should make more effective the lesson of human brotherhood which the Christian herald goes to teach and to practise. It is all the more gratifying after the effort of the

sensational press and certain alarmists to embitter the people of the two countries against each other. Undoubtedly much of the international politics of the twentieth century will have the Pacific Ocean for its stage. It is of the highest importance that the two great nations which face each other across that highway of the nations should be united in a common effort to remove national prejudice and error and to promote the peace and welfare of the world.

SING

The Children's Number

INCE 1902 the appearance of the annual Children's Number of THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS has been an event anticipated by a host of kind friends. Next month the Children's Number for 1909 will be published. We bespeak for it the same kindly consideration shown in the past. The editors are proud of the loyal support given to their efforts by thousands of Sunday-school pupils all over the country. Without their aid it would have been impossible to circulate, as was done last year, 140,000 copies of this special issue. We count upon that same unfailing help again. Will the 1909 Children's Number justify special effort? perhaps someone asks. Even editors are sometimes conservative in their statements. So we prefer to make no promises, but we venture the opinion that "Ramona" will be welcomed as eagerly as was "Mercedes" last year; that the children of Brazil will have a warmer place in our regard after reading Mr. Thomas's article; that the account of Didi the Chinese boy, who stopped turning somersaults in the mud long enough to tell how his blind grandfather might get his sight back, will make some of us see things we never saw before, and that the glimpse of the black children to whom St. Agnes's Hospital, Raleigh, N. C., ministers will lead us all to do something to hasten the completion of the

new building. These are only a few of the good things the number is to contain.

While this number will be interesting to the younger people of the Church, it is not prepared especially for them. Its aim is to tell older people about the Church's world-wide work of helpfulness and to win their co-operation because of what is being done for children. Many people who think they "don't believe in missions," do believe in children. It will be a kindness to let them see that they cannot really love children without "believing in missions."

So we ask every regular reader of THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS to help circulate the Children's Number. We want to print 150,000 copies this year. How can help be given? Send twentyfive cents and the names and addresses of three friends. We will do the rest. No one is limited to one order for three copies; he may send an hundred orders if he will. Only it were well to act quickly. All orders should be in by February 1st.

is

ANN HALL, the new building at

approaching

A Great Man and a Great Work

University, Shanghai,

completion. The amount needed to pay for it is far from complete. Dr. Pott, in addition to his normal load of responsibility, is carrying an altogether unreasonable burden of anxiety. Of course the Church at home does not mean to be unmindful of a great need. If all her members realized the quality of the man who is leading the work at St. John's in their name, there would be no question about money. People in the Far East who know St. John's and the quality of its work do not hesitate to speak of its president as one of the greatest men any land has ever sent to the Orient. As an educator his influence is being felt throughout the empire; as an ex

ecutive he inspires his associates with something of his own zeal and courage; as a constructor he achieves remarkable results with a comparatively small outlay. Will the Church allow such a man to wear himself out with anxiety about a few thousand dollars? We do not believe it. Ten dollars from each of one thousand readers of THE SPIRIT OF MISSIONS will provide what is needed to supplement the $6,000 already given in China by officials, parents, merchants and other Chinese friends who know St. John's and value its work.

St. John's University Needs Men

The

identification of St. John's, in all that does not compromise its Christian character, with the life of China is illustrated by the observances at the time of the emperor's death. A holiday was given. Dr. Pott says: "It was remarkable how quiet the students kept. One might have thought it was Good Friday. The following Sunday we held an impressive memorial service. In the general assembly hall we have the portrait of the late emperor draped in black. Our autumn field sports and all festivities were abandoned. The students have been allowed to let their hair grow for twenty-seven days, the period of special mourning. In these ways the students have proved their patriotism. All this has been greatly appreciated outside." St. John's University, so far from denationalizing its students, is turning out a young generation of the most enlightened patriots China has ever known. The American professors at St. John's thus have a unique opportunity for contributing to the welfare of nearly one-quarter of the world's population. But the faculty is altogether too small. Two men are needed at once. They must be college graduates, unmarried, not over thirty-five, and preferably, though not necessarily, laymen. Full particulars can be obtained from the Corre