smaller towns in the surrounding valley, in which small churches were established and two or three missionaries are now at work. But the central school at Logan has outgrown the capacity of its building. For the last two years the present pastor and the teachers have been begging for larger buildings. The home missionary committee of the presbytery have endorsed their wish, and within a few months one of the secretaries of the Board has visited the field, and is quite emphatic that better accommodations for school purposes have become indispensable. These four cases, where success has made enlargement a necessity, are all in Utah, the darkest spot in our broad land, where it is most important that we should not lose the advantage already gained. But there are other cases in other places which we hardly dare call less important. There is Gainesville, Texas, where we are establishing a school for Chickasaw girls just over the border, where $10,000 are needed at once. Ten thousand dollars are also needed to complete the arrangements at our new school in Asheville, N. C. In the Indian Territory, at the Sisseton agency, among the Sioux in South Dakota, at Sitka, Alaska, growing schools make enlarged or new buildings a necessity. If, in an emergency, the apostle was constrained to cry out," Help those women," is it not appropriate, without claiming inspiration, for us to say at the present time, "HELP THOSE WOMEN"? THE RETROSPECT. We have closed the fiscal year-have made our report to the General Assemblyhave had our 66 field day"-the work and affairs of the Board have been discussedthe Woman's Executive Committee have called their friends together, including missionaries and teachers-have celebrated the good hand of the Lord upon them with devout thankfulness and songs of praise. It has been a year of success far beyond our fears. We began it with an earnest call for 200 additional missionaries, but could [July, not see where we could put our hands on more than 25. But comparing the last with the previous year's report, we find that the number of missionaries the last year was 1592, 106 more than that of the previous year, which had 23 in New Jersey, all omitted in the last report—an actual gain of 129 over the previous year. The whole number of teachers the last year was 318, a gain of 54 over the previous year. Our working force consisted of 1810 laborers, and they were so distributed that in every state and territory, except Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina, we had one or more, while in Iowa, Kansas and New York we had more than 100 each. This demonstrates most clearly that the Board of Home Missions is a national institution. Other facts show an encouraging advance. The baptisms of the last year surpassed those of the previous year by 1109. But in nothing was the advance more marked than in Sabbath-school work; a work in which our missionaries were greatly aided by the Board of Publication in its Sabbath-school department work. Our missionaries report the organization of 849 Sabbath-schools the last year, an advance of 478 over the previous year, and an increase in the membership of Sabbath-schools of nearly 11,000 children. As to the school work carried on by the Woman's Executive Committee, in addition to the 54 new teachers there has been a great increase in the number of pupils, namely, 6785, as against 4008 the previous year. And when we remember that these schools are all among the "exceptional populations "-the Indians, the Mormons, the Mexicans and the uneducated of the South, the hardest and most difficult to reach-we may safely call it a great advance and a great work done. Our receipts show similar growth and encouragement. Our total receipts for the past year have been $832,647.56, an advance over all past years, over the previous year of $49,020.26. The Woman's Executive Committee received $320,640.66-making, through the favor of God, the unprecedented advance of $94,573.42 over the receipts of the previous year. For all these tabulated, and all other favors, we cannot but "thank God and take courage." After the General Assembly there comes a little respite in our work. Our accounts for the past year are closed up. The young men from the theological seminaries have chosen their fields, and most of them are on the way to their chosen work. It is now a good time for the Board, the secretaries, the presbyteries, the synodical and all other missionaries, to pause and lay plans for work for the coming year. Let us consider 1. That the great object we all have in view is the conversion of souls and the upbuilding of the Church of Christ. We need to pray for and cherish a holy enthusiasm for souls. Of Francis Xavier it is said that he was found at one time on his couch in tears, crying, "Lord, more! Lord, more! Lord, more!" Paul said he could wish himself accursed from Christ if he might thereby win souls to Christ. To save souls is not the only thing a minister has to do; but it is the great thing, and it ought to be as a constant and consuming passion. 17 of preachers, exhorted the presbyteries to give more diligent attention to the grouping of feeble churches, so that the gospel may be statedly preached to the greatest possible number. We cannot find the men, nor, if we could, have we the means to support a missionary in every church. We hope every presbytery will kindly and patiently labor. to secure such groupings as will furnish the widest possible proclamation of the gospel in all the feeble churches. The church that has no preaching is almost sure to die, and this is the reason why so many are growing feeble or have already died. They live and grow by the gospel. Give them this, and but few of them will die. 4. We wish to suggest to every one of our missionaries to reach out into the surrounding waste places and carry the gospei from house to house, and wherever it is possible have stated appointments for preaching at school-houses or private halls, and thus extend the range of Christian influence on every hand, holding that every district or neighborhood that is not adequately cared for by some other minister is legitimately his field. If you have no congregation, make one in this way; if you have a small one, enlarge it in this way. 5. Arrange to help one another. There 2. The demands for men and money may be promise of great good from a proincreasingly exceed the supply. As successful as we were last year in increasing our number of missionaries by nearly one hundred and thirty, yet we needed two hundred; and we need more than that number this year. Four states organized in a single day and ten presbyteries in a single year are very suggestive facts as to the demands of the present year. The willingness of the people to hear the gospel, the call for churches and missionaries, are on the increase. 3. Still there are multitudes who are indifferent and unconcerned, and they must be searched out and cared for. The General Assembly, aware of the insufficient supply tracted meeting, where the pastor would be glad of the help of a presbyterial missionary or evangelist; but such cannot always be had when they are needed, oftentimes the church cannot pay for their services. Why then should not neighboring pastors arrange to help each other; arrange beforehand to do it, and great good may be expected to follow. 6. Let us all pray that God will give us a fruitful year in winning souls to Christ. Let us pray for each other? pray earnestly; let us carry all our difficulties to the Lord, who can remove them, and beg of him that he will pour out his Spirit abundantly, and make this a year of the right hand of the Most High. 2 CONCERT OF PRAYER. ROMAN CATHOLICS IN OUR LAND. Many good people, otherwise in sympathy with all evangelistic work, seem at least doubtful whether the force of home missionary effort ought or need to be expended in this direction. While not denying that Romanists might well have more saving light and knowledge than their own Church affords them, these persons incline to the belief that all our care and pains might better be bestowed on the vast multitudes in our land who are still more destitute of the means of grace than the adherents of Rome. But the true principle here is that we should do the one and yet not leave the other undone; that we should ply the utterly irreligious with all gospel influences, and at the same time not fail to press on the darkened followers of a corrupt and formal Christianity the offer of a purer and better faith. The ten millions or so of Rome's adherents form too large a part of our population to be left out of view in the vast and comprehensive enterprise which aims to establish and perfect in our land an all-pervading and dominant Christian society and civilization. If there is anything in the influence of the Romish Church which is unfriendly to this aim, as few will deny there is, then Romanists should receive their share of Protestant interest and evangelistic effort. And then, again, the Romish faith has various phases among us. The popery of Rome itself is nowadays a vastly different thing from what it was in the days before Victor Emanuel and Garibaldi drove the pope out of the Eternal City. To outward view, at least, it is greatly chastened and restrained, if not really improved and purified. Just so the Romanism in our great cities, and indeed throughout most of the land, is greatly checked and modified by the wholesome environment of a free and enlightened Protestant atmosphere. On the other hand, the popery of New Mexico, like that of old Mexico, to which it belonged and with which it still sympathizes, with its ignorant and profligate priests and its blinded, bigoted, besotted people, is as utterly corrupt and dark and dead as the popery of medieval Spain or Italy, and needs a Protestant reformation at least as much as Germany did before Luther's day. We can give no better illustration and proof of this than the following letter from Rev. James Fraser, of Las Vegas, N. M., who has labored long and faithfully in that trying field, and gives here a vivid sketch of its needs and prospects: Our mission work in and about Las Vegas is in a most prosperous condition. I have just returned from extended mission trips from the different parts of this wide and interesting field, and at every point we find the most encouraging tokens of the progress of the gospel to the hearts of the people of this much-neglected part of our country. Shortly after the new year I visited Wagon Mound, sixty miles north of Las Vegas, and preached to a houseful of people eager to hear the gospel, and received one member; and since that time I have been urged to visit the place again, to receive a number of people into church membership who are desirous of leaving the Church of Rome. Soon after returning from Wagon Mound I visited the Mora region. We had a communion service at El Rito, where four were received into church membership—all from Romanism. One of the four was a young man twenty-four years of age. He was introduced to me before the church service; and as we sat silently in the room together, he broke the silence by saying in his own language, "La Biblia es candida en Nuevo Mexico" (the Bible is hidden in New Mexico). Then followed a conversation, from which I learned the facts of his history. He was more than twenty-three years of age before he ever saw the Bible; but in due time he found the Bible, and seemed to take peculiar pleasure in turning to Ephesians 5:23 "Christ is the head of the Church, and 1889.] Roman Catholics in our Land. he is the Saviour of the body." This he said was joyful news. He had been taught that the pope was the head of the Church. This man and his infant son, a month old, were baptized with three others. At Agua Negra we also had a communion service. We had the largest congregation ever seen at this point present, and a very interesting meeting, but no additions. This disappointed me, for the interest of the people seemed intense. Still the work is most hopeful, and we are certainly reaching the people with the gospel as never before. The week following we were at Mora. The meetings here were large and interesting, and fifteen joined in church membership. Eleven of these were pupils from the school, and four were outsiders, but all Mexican. Our experience at Mora was very unusual. We were told on our arrival that the Roman sentiment was unusually strong in the school this winter. This was discouraging, but still we had come to present the gospel. That evening I preached. The interest seemed very marked, and I felt as if the word was reaching my audience. The evening passed, and we retired; but next morning one of the teachers came to my room and asked if I heard any music in the school-room. I said no. The teacher said, "We feel discouraged. The leaders of Romanism among the pupils were up early, and had their own Romish meeting to counteract the service of last night." This seemed to me very discouraging indeed; but we had two special services during the day. I preached a short sermon each time; and when we called for those who wished to meet the session, in view of the communion in the evening, to the surprise of all the teachers and to the joy of all the Christian workers, Gabino Sanchez, the leader of the Romish sentiment, was among the first to step into the ante-room to meet the session. This of course filled our hearts with joy. The week following I visited Tecolote, and I find the work going on at this point to be remarkably interesting. Mr. Candelario is our teacher here, and the Lord has honored this young man as an instrument for good. The WO at this point would sound almost incredib.e to English ears, but it is nevertheless true. The same remarks may be used of Golondrinas under Gabino Rendon. Two more intensely Romish points could not be found perhaps in New Mexico, and yet our school work and the truths of the gospel everywhere prevail. At Buena Vista Miss Bloom is doing excellent work and winning the hearts of the people. 19 Here of course we have a strong Presbyterian sentiment and a large school. We should really have a second teacher in this school. Bad roads and heavy snows detained me from visiting Las Valles longer than I expected, but two weeks ago I was able to visit this field, and great was our joy in meeting with the people. As we expected, the field was ripe unto the harvest. As the meeting convened in the evening, every one was surprised to see perhaps the oldest man in the village come to the meeting. He was probably between seventy and eighty, and the mayor domo (chief superintendent) of the Romish church. I preached from the text "What shall I do to be saved?" The sermon was in Spanish, as I have always preached in this language from about the new year. At the close of the sermon we called for those who wished to meet with the session, and to the surprise of every one, the mayor domo came with seven other men. The old man said that he had been taught that purgatory would take away his sins and save him; but now he learned from the Bible that Jesus took away his sins and saved him; and he wished to accept the Bible plan of salvation. He with the other seven was examined and baptized, after which we had the communion. In the morning we found it necessary to have another meeting. As the men who were received on the previous night went to their homes and talked over the matter in their families, their wives were ready in the morning. We had a service and received seven women, one of which was the wife of the old domo. This made fifteen in all received at Las Valles. The first leaven of this work came from our school in Las Vegas, through some of our faithful pupils. We drove from Las Valles to Chaparito. This point is about thirty-five miles south of Las Vegas. Here we had the most enthusiastic meeting I have yet seen in New Mexico. The house was crowded to overflowing. I preached the same sermon that I gave the night before at Las Valles. The interest appeared to me during the sermon to be intense; and yet when we called for any who wished to meet the session (through volunteer service an elder accompanied Mr. Whitlock and myself, and so we had a session), not one moved. You can imagine my disappointment. I got up a second time to explain that we only wished their good; that we were not after their sheep or their property, but solely wished their good spiritually; and if we failed to win their interest we would bring our services to a close, and might 20 Roman Catholics in our Land. be able to return at some other time if we could help them in any way. We were then preparing to sing a closing hymn in Spanish, when an energetic man (a lawyer) stepped out in front of the people and said, in a clear, firm voice, that we need not wait for another visit; that he, for one, was ready now; he was with us in heart, in intellect and in conscience; and with these words stepped forward to meet with the session. Eleven others followed, all men. They were all examined and baptized, after which we had a communion service. Thus closed one of the most interesting meetings I ever saw in New Mexico. Next morning, as at Las Valles, we had to hold a second meeting and received the women who wished to come. We received eight, making twenty in all at Chaparito. The people here have already laid off a plot for a graveyard and a site for a church, and we can say of Chaparito in Scripture language, "There is great joy in that city." The chief interest that attaches to this work at Chaparito and Las Valles is the class of members that we received. At Mora we have not in the town one leading male member; and this, in one sense, is true of Las Vegas. But at Las Valles we received the oldest and most influential man in the village, and with him the magistrate of the place. At Chaparito we received the only lawyer in the place, the public school teacher adjoining the town, and a number of the most energetic men in the town, a place of about ten or twelve hundred people. This to me is the most hopeful mission work I have yet seen in New Mexico; and if I had my way in this matter I would send a teacher at once to Chaparito. This point ought not to be neglected by us. Last Saturday I visited Los Alamos and find the work in excellent form. Miss Colville is doing all that we could expect at this point. We shall have good news from Los Alamos soon. I preached to them on Saturday evening. Yesterday we had communion in the Home Spanish Church in Las Vegas and received seven members. This is seventeen from our school here since the new year, and seventyfour, including one at Wagon Mound, that I have received this year. We present another phase of Romanism among us in the following extract of a letter from Rev. M. N. Adams, missionary pastor at Goodwill Mission, among the Dakotas of the Sisseton agency. It is one of a dozen instances which might be given of resolute and persistent Romish aggression, to the [July, hindrance and detriment of Protestant missionary work. This characteristic Romish policy has of late years been repeatedly and largely successful in obtaining grants and privileges from the government, often at the expense of Presbyterian enterprises. The danger of these encroachments arises mainly from the fact that Christian people are so careless and indifferent in regard to it: The time for my quarterly report having fully come, it affords me pleasure to submit the following statement of facts relative to the work in this the field of my labor, viz.: The seven native Dakota churches under my general supervision as your missionary are for the most part in good faith and hope, and in the unity of the Spirit, in the bonds of peace, working on for the honor of Christ the Master. All but two of them, viz., Buffalo Lakes and Brown Earth, are supplied with good, faithful and devoted pastors, who love their work and who are greatly cheered and encouraged in it, God having owned and blessed their labors to the good of their people and the salvation of some souls. They report an increased interest in the reading and study of the Holy Scriptures, and in the preached word and the ordinances of the Church. The pastors, as also the people of their respective charges, have been called upon to openly express their minds upon a practical subject, submitted to them by the department at Washington, D. C., which has been a great trial to some of them. The facts in the case are briefly these: Very early in the spring the Roman Catholics, having made application to the Department of the Interior, at Washington, for one hundred and sixty acres of land on this the Lake Traverse reservation for their use, and for authority to locate and open and sustain a Roman Catholic school thereon, it was referred to the United States Indian agent, Major James D. Jenkins, here at the Sisseton agency, with instructions to call a council of the Sisseton and Wahppeton bands of Dakota Indians, and ascertain by a vote in open council, and the record of the name of each one voting "yes" or "no" to the question whether or not they want the Roman Catholics to come and take one hundred and sixty acres of their land and establish and maintain a school on this reservation. Accordingly, Major Jenkins called the council on the 20th day of March, 1889. The vote was taken of those present at the time appointed, of which previous notice had been given, which |