EVERY branch of the church, and indeed every individual Christian, needs a publication devoted strictly to missions. It is a hopeful sign that the religious and secular newspapers are constantly giving items of missionary intelligence, and the valuable service rendered by these papers is cordially recognized by all missionary societies. But it is a sad mistake to suppose that these occasional columns of missionary news will suffice to make Christians intelligent as to the progress of Christ's kingdom, or will stimulate the church to full missionary activity. On this point a recent editorial in the New York Independent has some forcible words: "The editors of the weeklies print promptly what is sent them; but they will admit that no adequate idea of what is being done by the church in foreign lands is or can be given in these slips. The notion that a monthly missionary periodical must either give information which has already been printed in the weeklies, or that the weeklies must be content to print matter which has already been read in the monthly — that either the monthly or the missionary column in the weeklies must be stale reading, is a ridiculous one. There is no competition between them. There are some who are satisfied with the items, bald statements of fact; but many will desire an understanding of the whole subject of missions, their difficulties, their successes, their methods, their influences and the like, and the monthly is just what they need."

FOLLOWING close upon the tidings of Dr. Mullen's death comes the telegraphic report that Rev. Mr. Dodgshun, of the London Missionary Society, whose safe arrival at Ujiji had just been announced, has also fallen. What costly sacrifices are called for in the work of exploring and civilizing Africa! The leaders fall but the work remains, and He ever lives who is yet to give the victory to his followers as they enter "The Dark Continent."

THREE of the recent graduates of the Kioto Training School are not represented in the picture on the next page. The class has had a remarkable history, and high hopes are entertained of their usefulness. Four of them remain as teachers in Kioto, six go directly to evangelistic work, while four may perhaps remain for another year's study. Let this interesting band of young men be remembered in the petitions of all who pray for Japan.

THE REV. Narayan Sheshadri, the converted Brahmin who visited America in connection with the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance in 1873, is still well remembered in this country. Recent reports from India speak of a vigorous and successful missionary work carried on by Mr. Sheshadri at Buldara, a former station of the English Church Missionary Society, which has been made over to him. Under his supervision are thirteen villages, and quite a list of catechists and Biblewomen. Mr. Sheshadri says: "Our endeavor all along has been to see our indigenous churches become vigorous, self-supporting churches, and should we be spared for half a dozen years, we hope to see the longing in a great measure realized."

SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION IN JAPAN.

BY MR. S. T. YAMASAKI, KIOTO TRAINING SCHOOL.

[At the recent graduation exercises of the Kioto Training School, Japan, two out of the seventeen addresses were given in English, one on the "Secret of Paul's Life," and the other the paper here presented. Both of them are remarkable productions, when all the circumstances are considered, and save only a change of two or three words, they were written without suggestion or help from any one. Did space permit both papers would be here given. This one is chosen because of the information it contains concerning what may be well called the crisis in Japan. Mr. Yamasaki is to remain as teacher of Science in the Kioto Training School.]

WHAT kind of an age is this? It is not a heroic age, nor that of faith. It is an age of science, of materialism. It is an age of economy and machinery, in which railroads and telegraphs, steam-ships and factories, chemical crucibles and physical balances, are the things men are occupied with. Men who lead the world and to whom mankind look up for precept and for example, are no longer Platos and Socrateses, Pauls and Augustins, Luthers and Calvins, but their places have been usurped by Voltaires and Goethes, Benthams and Mills, Tyndalls and Spencers, whose skeptical doctrines, dangerous theories, and impossible speculations absorb nearly the whole attention of the thinking world. The age of faith is well-nigh gone, and that of materialism has succeeded. The sacred chairs of the pious Newtons and Boyles and Faradays have been impiously seized upon by their successors, and the glorious philanthropy of Howard and Wilberforce has been supplanted by the communism of to-day. Science and Christianity have parted company, and the breach between them is widening and widening from day to day. What is the cause of all this? Are science and Christianity, really antagonistic? By no means. Both science and Christianity came from one and the same God the Creator and Governor of heaven and earth. They cannot be and are not antagonistic. No; the real cause lies not in science but in the scientists, not in Christianity but in the Christian theologians. The tendency of modern education is to produce in every department of knowledge specialists, men, one set of whose faculties is highly and exclusively cultivated to the disparagement and utter neglect of others, men who are strong in one point, but weak in others, -men who are perfectly trustworthy in matters pertaining to their own. special department, but who are apt to despise, misunderstand, and misrepresent things belonging to other departments. Such has been the case with many Christian theologians and with most of the scientific men. Christians despised and ignored science, and scientists despised and ignored Christianity. Christians insisted upon applying their standards and their way of thinking to science, and scientists in turn insisted upon seeing God with their eye, hearing him with their ear, and measuring spiritual things by material instruments. It is a maxim capable of rigid demonstration, that parts are only known by knowing the whole. Christianity and science are the two components of a grand whole, and their relation and the nature of that relation, can only be known to those liberally educated, broad-minded, full-orbed men, who are alike at home in science and in Christianity.

Few men have studied the relation between science and Christianity, and what is the result? Why, science and Christianity have been declared to be antagonistic, and the tendency of Europe to-day is to fall down into the dark abyss of modern materialism. Such has been the past history of Europe. The lesson it inculcates is too weighty to be lightly passed over, especially for us who are to take an important part in the formation of the future career and destiny of Japan. Let us profit by this example. Science will be cultivated in Japan, and thousands of biased, skeptical, one-sided scientific men will soon swarm in every part of the country. Their influence on the politics, education, and social questions of this nation will be very great. Yielding to human infirmity, they will see beyond the domain of their favorite science nothing but ignorance, superstition, and imposture. Vanity and interest will prompt them to attack Christianity, and "conflicts between science and Christianity" will be loudly proclaimed. Indeed, it has already been proclaimed, and that proclamation is destined to become louder and more general as years glide by. Neither Buddhism nor Shintooism nor Confucianism will be able to resist this irresistible march of modern materialism. There is but one power on earth able to crush it. That power is Christianity.

THE CRISIS IN JAPAN.

Brethren and sisters, this is a great crisis in Japanese history. Is this nation of 35,000,000 of people to be utterly lost in the dark, fatal abyss of total skepticism? It must not be. No, it is our sacred duty and grand privilege to exert every nerve and muscle to the uttermost, and defend this nation from falling into the cold grasp of fatal materialism. We must fight for her. The battle that has been fought in Europe, ever since the days of Hobbes and Voltaire, must be fought afresh on the soil of Japan. Let us then beware how we fight with our enemy. The old-fashioned weapons furnished by tradition, scholasticism, and medieval theology, will not avail

us.

Shall we shut our eyes to science, and, following the example of the Gallic clergy, before the French Revolution, simply cling to the Bible, blindly, dogmatically, and obstinately? No; that is cowardice. Let us adopt a nobler and manlier course. The strength of our enemy is in science, and why should we be so much afraid of science? Rather let us boldly confront them on their own favorite ground, and attack them dexterously with their own weapons. Let science as well as the Bible be studied. Let us be liberally educated, broad-minded students of nature and Providence, as well as of Revelation. Let us demonstrate before the eyes of the world, that science without Christianity is misleading and pernicious, while Christianity without science is weak and superstitious, and that by their combination alone can the greatest and best results be obtained. Let scientists acknowledge all this. Let them know, moreover, that there is, after all, a world of mind, an unseen universe of transcendental spiritual things, quite distinct from, and far higher and nobler than that material world which their telescope and microscope reveal.

Let us not be misunderstood. We do not here advocate that all Christians must be profoundly educated in science, for that is simply impossible.

What we insist upon is that all educated Christians, especially those who are studying the Bible in schools and colleges, should, at the same time, study science. We do not wish them to become, and they cannot afford to become, specialists in science, but we do wish that their education in this direction be so far carried out as will enable them to grasp all the grand, underlying principles of science, so that they may use science, and not be used and misled by it. Moreover, they must, at any rate, in the progress of their scientific knowledge, pass over the Mount of Pride and advance at least as far as the Valley of Humility; for the humble, devotional spirit of a Newton is far more important than his scientific attainments.

THE ADVANCE OF SKEPTICISM.

Perhaps you may think that we have too much magnified the danger Japan is in from skepticism. True, skepticism is as yet confined to the educated few, but their band is increasing from day to day; and though it be as yet but a little cloud not larger than a man's hand, yet its black, malignant, and frowning aspect already threatens to cover the whole heaven, extinguishing, for the time being, even the heavenly lights of the sun, moon, and stars, and filling the air with terrible storms, thunders, and lightnings, to the utter amazement and horror of all inhabitants below. Movements of this kind usually take their rise first among the educated classes, and though they may take scores of years to penetrate to the very lowest stratum of society, yet their advance is always steady and sure, if unobstructed. You have only to look into history, and there see, for the confirmation of what we say, Rosseaus, Voltaires, and Diderots, active in the propagation of their pernicious theories and doctrines, and preparing the French people for the French revolution.

The present condition of Japan seems especially inviting to such skeptical work. The press is free and speech is free. Education is rapidly spreading among the people. The aged, time-worn religions of old Japan. are tottling to their fall, and its priests and believers are everywhere despised and laughed at. The people are unsettled and dissatisfied with the old state of things, and they are ready to reject every belief, however reasonable, if it be only old, and to embrace every doctrine, however absurd, if it be only new. There is then every facility for our skeptical philosophers to propagate their skepticism.

HOW TO MEET THIS SKEPTICISM.

With these facts and possibilities in view, we cannot but think that the skepticism of Japan, though now confined to the educated few, is yet an undeveloped giant, and must either be crushed while young, or else it will crush us. How are we to crush it? A good example is at hand. When the Puritans came to America two hundred and fifty years ago, Christianity and education were the two forces they relied on, and wherever they went, churches and schools sprang up among them, side by side. Look at Yale and Harvard, Amherst and Williams, Andover and Dartmouth, with their steady streams of Christian teachers and ministers that have issued forth from them! What a mighty influence have they exerted over the prosperity, welfare, and hap