THE BOARD'S AUTHORS.

NO. I.

In the last number of THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD, attention was called to the octavo publications of the Board, their value as theological works, and the remarkably low price at which they are offered to the public.

It is thought that it will prove interesting

to our readers to have set before them the names of some of the distinguished authors that grace our catalogue, together with a brief mention of those of their works that we have been privileged to publish.

I. OLD EUROPEAN WRITERS.

Amongst the names of the old European writers we find those of Calvin, Daillé, Owen, Baxter, Flavel, Bunyan, Charnock, Matthew Henry, Boston and Scott.

Cf Calvin nothing need be said on these pages. To our readers he stands pre-eminent among theologians. The Board has published excellent translations of some of his most prominent works: The Institutes, in two volumes, his Letters, in four volumes, and his treatise On Reformation.

Jean Daillé, who flourished in the seventeenth century, was one of the most distinguished of the Reformed theologians of France. His commentaries on the Epistles to the Philippians and the Colossians are amongst the most valuable practical works of the kind that have ever been given to the Church, and his book on The Fathers is confessedly one of the ablest treatises that has ever been written on the right use of the works of those who have been styled "The Fathers of the Church." Age has not impaired the merit of this treatise; it is a thesaurus of sanctified learning from which many of the most valuable arguments of modern writers are drawn. Translations of all the works mentioned are published by us.

John Owen was probably the ablest and

most learned of the Puritan divines of England. He flourished during the greater part of the seventeenth century, throughout the period of the English Commonwealth. He was vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford, and was one of the most voluminous writers of his day. Amongst the most important and best known of his writings. are his works on The Holy Spirit, Indwell

ing Sin, Justification and Temptation, all which are published by the Board.

The name of Richard Baxter, another of the divines of the seventeenth century and of the period of the English Commonwealth, and one of the greatest preachers and writers that England ever knew, is a household word amongst English-speaking Christians. We publish his Call to the Unconverted, Converse with God, Reformed Pastor, Saint's Rest, and his tract entitled Save Souls. We also publish a French edition of the Saint's Rest.

Bunyan's Pilgrim has travelled in all lands and speaks to almost every man in the tongue wherein he was born. The Pilgrim's Progress, once despised as the work of an illiterate tinker, is now perhaps the most widely known classic of the English language. It has been translated into more tongues than any book except the Bible, and is read with equal delight by all classes -the prattling child and the gray-headed grandfather, the illiterate and the scholar, the peasant and the sage. This work and also The Holy War are amongst our most elegant publications.

Flavel and Charnock, with Owen, Baxter and Bunyan, were amongst the most eminent divines of the seventeenth century, flourishing with them throughout the period of the Commonwealth. Of the writings of the former we publish the treatises on the Mystery of Providence and Antinomianism; and of the latter, the works on Christ Crucified and Regeneration.

Matthew Henry, the great practical com

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mentator, also lived and labored in the seventeenth century; but in the latter part thereof and in the first part of the eighteenth. His works entitled Communicant's Companion and Method of Prayer, both of which are published by us, are replete with spiritual wisdom and instruction. They stand in the front rank of all the books that have ever been written on the important subjects of which they treat.

Thomas Boston, a Scotch divine of the

latter part of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, is a writer whose works are too little read in these modern days. The Fourfold State and The Marrow of Modern Divinity are theological classics, the latter being one of the most thorough, satisfactory, interesting presentations of our peculiar system of theology that has ever appeared.

By the Christians of a former generation there was no book more generally read and valued than Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. It has not lost its divine spirituality, its sweetness, or its instructing and sanctifying power. It, together with Family Religion, The Life of Colonel Gardiner and Scripture Lessons by the same author, are published by us.

The name of Thomas Scott is well known as that of the author of one of the most valuable practical commentaries on the Bible. Several of his minor works are offered to the Church by us, amongst others his Force of Truth and History of the Synod of Dort, the latter prefaced by a valuable contribution from the pen of the venerable Samuel Miller, D.D., the first professor of ecclesiastical history in the Princeton Theological Seminary.

EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT

OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON THE BOARD TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

The fields occupied by our Sabbath-school missionaries not only include the sod houses and dug-outs of Nebraska, Dakota, Montana and Utah, but our missionaries have taken the Bible-school, with its divine text-book, oral religious instruction and Christian literature, into the sunny South and planted its banner amid the cabins of the freedmen and the

[October,

humble homes of the poor whites. This department of the work is capable of indefinite extension and full of hopefulness. The impressible and confiding mind of the young is ready to receive the good seed of the word, to learn of Christ and his great salvation and to realize the uplift of the gospel, intellectually, socially and religiously. Every consideration of interest and duty, of patriotism and religion, touches the great loving heart of the Presbyterian Church and impels its Board in charge of the Sabbath-school work to push with energy, wisdom, faith, liberality and love its Sabbath

school operations, wherever the people sit in moral darkness and in the shadows of spiritual death.

Your committee consider the contributions of our Sabbath-schools in support of the Sabbath-school Missionary Department of vital importance, both in the education of our young people in the principles and practice of Christian beneficence and in the funds they contribute to sustain the work. We heartily approve of the methods adopted by the Board to connect by correspondence those that give and those that receive. Let the contributors know by communication with the missionary where the money has gone and how it is expended. The simple story of connecting the demand and the supply, establishing the school, the introduction of the library, the singing of the sweet gospel hymns and the study of the Holy Scriptures would interest the givers and deepen their purpose of ministering to the spiritual necessities of those who are famishing for the bread of life and those that would win to Christ, his service and his Church.

The increased interest in Children's Day and its observance indicates progress in the right direction. This will exalt the Sabbathschool in the estimation of the scholars, help to hold them under religious instruction and to hold on to the Church of their parents in loving confidence and intelligence.

FIVE MONTHS WORK.

It is with profound gratitude to Almighty God that the following facts are presented, showing the results of the labors of our Sabbath-school missionaries from April 1, 1889, to September 1, 1889. In those five months these faithful men have organized nine hundred and forty-eight Sabbath-schools. Into these they gathered three thousand seven hundred and fifty-two teachers and thirty-one

1889.]

thousand nine hundred and thirty-three scholars-in all thirty-five thousand six hundred and eighty-five persons.

In performing this work these missionaries had the help and presence of the Holy Spirit. With this blessed Agent working in them they wrought, travelling 180,328 miles, visiting 36,000 families and addressing 3801 meetings. While thus going out into the highways and hedges to "compel them to come in," they gave away 2283 Bibles and Testaments; of other religious books, 23,707; and of tracts and papers to the number of 1,274,786 pages.

Besides these Sabbath-schools directly organized there, they have also formed, under the offer of the Board, and supplied with singing-books, Bibles, lesson helps and papers, sixty new schools. So that the number of schools organized, directly or indirectly, is no fewer than 1018.

The vast majority of these schools will live. Several of them have already grown into churches. Is any one discouraged concerning the progress of Christ's kingdom? Let him attentively consider these figures, showing that one division of Christ's army in this land has, within five months, established 1018 Sabbath-schools, and that these will be living fountains of Christian influence to make the wilderness to blossom as the rose.

NINE NEW SABBATH-SCHOOLS. Here is breezy news from Missouri :

Since writing you last, I have, by the blessing of God, organized nine Sabbath-schools, five or six of them in very destitute regions, one of them on Greasy Creek, in Barry county, Mo. This is a mountainous region. The people live in small log houses. The school-house is built of logs, slab floor and slabs used for seats, no backs to seats, no windows, board roof. The people gathered from five or six miles around to hear and see the "new man" that was coming. The children were barefooted in most cases. The inhabitants are very poor. After addressing them, I took a vote as to whether they would have a Sabbath-school or not. All voted for it. We found a very good man, whom we elected superintendent, though he had not any experience. He prom

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ised, however, to do the best he could. I gave the adults tracts and the young people some Sabbath-school papers. It would have done you good to see how glad the children were to get the papers, for some of them had never seen a Sabbath - school publication before. Some adults were there who had never been in a Sabbath-school. The Board, at my request, is sending some lesson helps and papers every month, which are being read by many who have heretofore been deprived of such advantage, and I trust will result in much good for the Master's cause in that region. On visiting around from house to house and talking Sabbath-school to the people, one man said, "Stranger, the diffikilty about gittin' one of them thar schools you talk about is that thar hain't a man fittin' in these parts far foreman of the thing."

A BIBLE-SCHOOL IN A HOTEL. One of our most reliable missionaries thus describes one of his endeavors:

I went to Wright to see about organizing a Sabbath-school. I had difficulty in finding a room in which to hold a meeting. The landlady of the hotel where I was stopping said that if I could find no better place, she would run out her tables from the dining-room and let me hold my services there. I accepted her offer, announced a meeting for Sunday in the hotel dining-room, made out big posters and hung them up in the post-office, and visited everybody within reach between then and Sunday. On Sunday we had sixty at our meeting. We studied the Sabbath-school lesson, I talked a few minutes to the people, after which we organized a splendid Sabbath-school. I spent the next Sabbath with them to help in getting them started nicely in their work. visited them again last week. They are doing excellent work. Rev. H. Shockley, our Board's home missionary, stationed at Spearville, goes over and preaches for them once a month. The dining-room is always crowded. There never was preaching or Sabbath-school in that place before I visited them. I think there is bright prospect for a Presbyterian church at Wright.

BETWEEN THE LINES.

I

An item is going the rounds of the current religious papers to the effect that the missionaries of the Presbyterian Board of Sab

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bath-school Work organized during the past year more than eight hundred new Sabbathschools. The statement covers but two or three lines; perhaps only those specially interested in the work of their church even take the trouble to read it; but when we stop to think of it, what an untold tale of prayer and pains lies wrapped up in those few words! Eight hundred schools means sixteen every week- -more than two a dayand every school is the child of earnest and anxious labor, perhaps for a long period.

"It is often easy," writes one of our most earnest and experienced workers, "to get up a superficial interest and open a school that will swell the list, and die after a few weeks; but to plant one that will grow and last is no small matter. The people's minds must first be prepared. In many places they have never so much as thought of having a school of their own. The neighborhood must be canvassed, and every family visited and consulted. Often I must go several times before making any impression. Then a suitable person must be found who is willing to take charge of the school-to be foreman of the concern,' as one man expressed it. Ready workers must be enlisted as officers and teachers, and great tact and judgment are often needed to avoid unnecessary antagonism at the outset. All this takes time. I have now in mind a place where I worked earnestly for three years, before I had any success. I am thankful to say that we have there now a good, strong, all-the-year-round school, which is a power in the community."

And when the school is at last organized, the missionary's work is only fairly begun. It must be visited and encouraged; emergencies must be met and difficulties smoothed away, until it can stand alone. But the beneficent nature of the work is soon shown by its salutary effects. Once get the people thoroughly interested and at work in the Sabbath-school, and the general character of the community is soon changed, no matter how destitute or depraved it may have been. With the school comes the church; the claims of the Bible and the Sabbath begin to be recognized; before long the neglected

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little village becomes a Christian community. This is very humble work. It does not make any show in the newspapers; it is forgotten or ignored even by the Christian people who ought to be most keenly interested in it. But it is work which touches the very springs of the nation's welfare.

"The census of these states," said Daniel Webster sixty years ago, "shows how large a proportion of the population lies between infancy and manhood. Here are the wide fields, here is the deep and quick soil for the seeds of knowledge and virtue; and this is the favored season, the spring-time, for sowing them." The words are as true now as then, and the need is a hundred fold more urgent. It is this quiet, patient, prayerful labor, carried on by hundreds of nameless workers, which makes it possible for us to hope that the many evils that threaten us may yet be overcome by good, and that we may continue to be that happy people whose God is the Lord.

PLEASANT FRUITS.

A letter from a lady in Idaho shows how white to the harvest are many localities:

Oh that all might see our Sabbath-school at Cherry Creek, seven miles away from my own field! By visiting it from time to time I have succeeded in inducing some connected with it to visit me. Men here are smart in all things but the one thing needful; that has been neglected. Error and infidelity, the outcome of Mormonism, have warped and starved these souls. Yet some come to hear and study the lessons, and oh how grateful I am for these! Did the Christian people know how much good can be done here in these mountains, would they not be more anxious to inquire, What shall we do? and can we do enough? Would they not pray, O Lord, help us not to be afraid of doing too much for thee!

I wonder if every one feels such a joy in strength as I do, in being able to ride on horseback and carry on my three Sabbath-schools. I have for nearly two years done this without any aid from the Board until your gift was received. I am thankful for the papers, and pray that they may be continued and result in greater good. In the three Sabbath-schools fifty or sixty are benefited, thirty of whom are at Cherry Creek.

HOPE AND FULFILLMENT. When this Board of Aid for Colleges and Academies was known to be established two classes of men took courage: Those who were intent on seeing their own communities supplied with the means of Christian education, and those whose work it is to furnish such education. Just as our Church's organized work for home missions gives backing both to the congregations that wish to produce their church-buildings and to the men who are ready to preach in them, this work for the extension of schools, helped trustees to see how their new edifices could be paid for, and helped teachers to see how their precarious salaries could be better assured. For a very little reflection will show that the teacher of a new school which has neither endowment nor state support must either have a very solid board of trustees to look to, or he enters upon an uncertain business. So many things can interfere to prevent the expected attendance of pupils; and so many things can cut down the payments even when the school has been full, that income, for the first years, is very insecure. Besides, the teacher is not so close to the people as the minister who preaches to them every Sabbath; so that to the teacher, even more than to the home missionary, the provision of denominational aid through a special Board was seen to be an invaluable addition to his expectancy of a steady support.

Trustees and teachers being thus encouraged, there has resulted such an expansion of our Church's educational work in her newer territory as attracts very general

attention.

Has the Board fulfilled the hopes of those that trusted it? To a great degree, yes. Some current aid it has given from the first, and in amount that has steadily increased; so that now, since the Board is more intent on establishing and developing the schools. which it has, than on multiplying new ones,

there is good prospect that its current aid will henceforth come near to supplementing effectively the several incomes of its institutions.

In addition to this current aid, the Board has, from the first, conveyed to some institutions specific personal gifts that have gone far to complete the school properties which their local constituencies had begun. The gifts of Mr. McCormick and his executors, at Hastings, Pierre, Tusculum, Parkville, Del Norte, Jamestown; of Mr. Trask at Deer Lodge; of Mrs. Stuart at Del Norte and Emporia, and of Mr. Howard at Galesville and Emporia, belong to the earlier years of our work, and they gave it a breadth and power which the contributions of the churches could not have supplied alone. For those gifts have not only all entered into enduring property; they have encouraged other giving even in excess of their own amount. Very certainly, then, those trustees in whose behalf these gifts were made, have not counted on the Board of Aid in vain.

But what of the institutions that were not reached by these special personal benefactions? Have none of them had occasion to regret the courage with which the name of this new Board inspired them? Our answer, made in the summer of our seventh year, is a brighter one than we would have given in the summer of our sixth. Then, very heavy clouds were hanging over several very valuable properties, and nothing less than the prompt supply of means far larger than any sudden call of the Board had ever produced promised to prevent the utter loss of large investments. But those larger means have been supplied, and in these past months group after group of trustees has been taking up in rapid succession that Old Testament note of deliverance, "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken and we are escaped." The Board is