worship of his host, whatever we might think of his courtesy, we should respect his conscience, even though perverted by bigotry. But for an officer of the police to intrude upon domestic worship, to interrupt the hymn, the prayer, the reading of the Bible, to awe the little company by threats and disperse them by violence, this is a sacrilegious invasion of the most sacred places on earth, — the home and the altar, — and for this there is no name but persecution. Thus far the narrative is confined to the city of Prague, and the facts here summarized will be found in detail and with proper attestation in the memorial No. I. But there is a second memorial of more tender and thrilling interest, concerning persecution in the neighboring villages of Stupitz and Sebrin. This memorial it is impossible to condense. Every member of the Alliance should read it for himself, and none can read it without being moved with the profoundest sympathy for those poor people suffering for the name of Christ, and with an earnest desire to do something for their relief. These sufferers are representatives of the faith of this Evangelical Alliance in contrast to the teachings of the Roman Catholic church, and their transition from the dogmas of the Church of Rome to the simple faith of the gospel, was manifestly a direct work of God. A plain farmer of Stupitz goes into a bookstore in Prague, buys a few religious books, and finally a Bible; by degrees his eyes are opened, he invites his neighbors to come and hear of a religion so different from that taught and exhibited in the church to which they belong. The interest spreads; by the simple reading of the Bible many are emancipated from the superstitions and errors of the religion in which they had been trained; and in order that they may be free for the exercise and enjoyment of their new faith, they take the proper legal steps for withdrawing from the Roman Catholic church. Infuriated at this, the Roman Catholic priest instigates the police to forbid the assembling of these converts, even in private houses, for the study of the Word of God. The police intrude upon their assemblies and order them to disperse. The sanctity of domestic worship is invaded by gens d'armes, who resort to threats and violence against servants and guests who may be present. The converts are fined, imprisoned, and threatened with severe penalties if they shall persist in manifesting their faith. On one occasion, at a funeral, in the family of a native convert, as a prayer was about to be offered by one of the brethren, the gens d'armes rudely interrupted and forbade it. These persecuted people have kept closely within the limits of the law, for as we have already seen, the fundamental law of Austria assures them of freedom of conscience, and the right of private worship, and surely, the supreme government of Austria cannot be cognizant of such violations of every right of conscience and of faith, As already said, these must be due to the misguided zeal of the local police. Hitherto, however, these persecuted brethren have appealed in vain to the higher authorities for redress; and they look now to this Alliance of Christians from every land, for that moral influence of the Christian world against which no religious persecution can prevail.

This right of appeal the Alliance has already given them in its own character and history. For the Evangelical Alliance was first made famous as an organization and first felt as a power, through its appeals for religious.

liberty in Tuscany and in Turkey, which rang throughout the world. And surely, this last appeal in the same cause will not be in vain. Not only must we feel for these oppressed and persecuted souls, but they shall know that we feel for them and be comforted. Not only shall we desire their deliverance, but we shall work and pray for their deliverance till by God's blessing it shall be effected. Their cause is the cause of Christ and his Church, and it must succeed.

In the assurance of this faith, I appear before you with their plea, in the name of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, one of the most venerable, honored, and successful of Missionary societies. It was their duty to take up the case, since these persecutions are largely within the field of their work, and involve their missionaries personally, and the helpers, and the converts gathered through their instrumentality. The appeal of this Board will be received with respect in this great body of believers united in the faith and the service of Christ; and I feel myself honored as its representative, in bringing to your notice facts which appeal so strongly to both faith and service in our common Lord.

A LIST OF BOOKS.

Marsh's "Man and Nature."
Butler's "Analogy."
Butler's "Sermons."

THE purchasing agent at the Missionary Rooms has recently received an order for books, of which the following is a copy : "The Reign of Law." Duke of Argyl. "Lessons from Nature." St. George Mivart. Porter's "Human Intellect." Two copies. Hamilton's "Metaphysics." Two copies. Kant's "Critique of the Pure Reason." Hopkins' "Outline Study of Man."

Abbott's "Notes on John."
McCosh's "Intuitions of Mind."
McCosh's "Divine Government."

Whence comes the call for such books as these? Is there not a mistake here? One might be pardoned for a suspicion that possibly some aged and drowsy metaphysician had grown so unpractical that he had forgotten where to direct his order for books. Could it be supposed that graduates of the past year from Andover or New Haven or Chicago, would prepare such a list as the above for their private libraries? They must be strong men intellectually who truly want such strong meat.

But this order comes to the Mission Rooms in good faith, and from a foreign land. It comes not from missionaries but from those who have been taught by missionaries. It comes from persons who speak another language than the English, and who, ten years ago, had no knowledge of the gospel of Christ, or of the civilization of the western world. It comes from Japan. The recent graduates of the Kioto Training School, whose faces may be seen represented on another page, as they go out to various forms of Christian labor in the Empire, go to meet not ignorance or stupidity, but intellectual activity in an intense form. And they have sent for these books as part of their furnishing for the work before them.

This list of books strikes us as profoundly suggestive. It furnishes many

hints of what Japan is to-day, of what stuff these young theological graduates at Kioto are made of, and of the task now before the missionaries of the cross in that land. Who thinks that any one can make a missionary? Let him but name over these volumes now called for by those who have just left the daily instructions of our missionaries in Japan, and it will be strange if he does not have some new ideas. The men who go to nations teeming with new life and intellectual energy, must be men of superior talent and the best training. Much may be hoped for is hoped for from these native Japanese young men, who, having finished their course in the schools, have evidently no thought of discontinuing their studies. With the needed intellectual armor which they are seeking, may they have also "the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left."

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

[DR. EDWARD CHESTER, of the Madura Mission, has forwarded a paper which was presented by him at the Bangalore Missionary Conference, June 11. A brief extract from this paper, referring to the value of medical missions, is here given.]

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THE medical work in a mission is one part of the general missionary. work in the same sense as is that of education, both lower and higher; establishing and sustaining congregations; the itineracy; preaching in the bazaars and at heathen feasts, and work for Hindoo girls and women. institute a comparison between the value of these different adjuncts of the missionary work is as unnecessary as it is unwise. One depends upon another, and each helps the other. And, excepting that special mission educational work of the higher grade, which is so successfully carried on in many of the large cities of India by certain missionary societies, those will be the most successful missions where equal attention and interest is given to each of the forms of work just enumerated.

Need I speak of the value of this medical mission work, how it opens the doors of almost every Hindoo or Mahommedan dwelling to the free entrance of the medical missionary; how it gains the affection and disarms the prejudice of the village people, who, from 500 and more different villages, every year come in twos and fives and tens at a time, to the dispensary; how it thereby gives to the workers on the itineracy quiet and attentive audiences; how it brings hearers by the twenty or thirty thousand each year to the dispensary to hear the gospel again and again, and then carry it back to repeat in their own villages; how it tends to check superstition and batters away at heathenism; how it helps to rescue thousands of the poor people from the murderous grasp of their miserable native quacks ; how useful when new stations are to be opened, and a church, a schoolhouse, and a dispensary building are seen going up at the same time? Need I refer to the countless instances of our blessed Saviour's gifts of healing or attempt to show why he thought best to make this special work. so prominent?

In my own mission I am looking forward to the day when each missionary

can have, as a part of his force of native helpers, two trained native medical men, to act as medical catechists, one to be at the station center, where the missionary resides, and one to live in one of the villages in the station, and work among the native Christians in the village congregations.

I magnify and glorify the medical mission work, but I dare not compare it, as to its relative importance, with any other of the branches of our common mission work. All mission work for Christ is one, and all may be happy and full of joy and glory in the honor and dignity of the noble work, if only Christ is all and in all.

AN OLD FRIEND DISAPPOINTS US.

FOR a long period August, the closing month of our fiscal year, an old and tried friend, has been the preeminently fruitful month in donations, both from churches and individuals. This year we had peculiar reason to be expectant in this direction, as it had been announced that the ordinary receipts for the first eleven months were behind those of the same period the preceding year to the amount of over $42,000, and that, in order to meet only the reduced appropriations made at the commencement of the year, we needed to receive during the closing month over $130,000. We have also hoped that extra thank offerings, in addition to regular donations, on account of the extraordinary bequest entrusted to us, would indicate a unanimous desire that the entire bequest should be set apart for missionary enlargement.

We are disappointed. The total receipts of the month of August, instead of being $130,000, are only $55,170.23, and of this amount only $41,689.22 are from donations. This is over $25,000 less from donations than was received in August last year, over $26,000 less than the average August donations for several years.

We hardly know what to write lest we should do injustice to some of the warm supporters of this great and good work. We are trying to think that there has been only an unfortunate neglect or forgetfulness, and that the months of September and October will come laden with the tardy gifts which have somehow unintentionally failed to be reported in August. We will not yet believe that what has been hinted at in some quarters as imminent, has actually come upon us, and that the constituency of the Ameriean Board is to prove itself unworthy of the illustrious providence of the year by making it an excuse for diminished contributions. We shall suspend judgment, certainly, until after the annual meeting, before we accept this conclusion. In the meanwhile, we are not a little pained that our present financial year, unique in our missionary history, has lost its one splendid opportunity for a golden sunset. May we not hope that the disappointment is to be more than compensated by unusually large donations at the dawn of the new year?

LETTERS FROM THE MISSIONS.