But aside from these general opportunities of influence, the special work of the missionary physician is to care for the families of missionaries. The fact that a medical man, well known and loved, is within call, is a source of comfort and moral support on mission ground which can hardly be realized anywhere else. It has been the aim of the American Board to provide its missions with competent medical assistance, and thus to relieve so far as possible the missionaries and their friends at home from anxiety in their behalf.

The number connected with the Board at present is sixteen one in Mi cronesia, four in Japan, three in China, five in India, and three in Turkey. Five more thoroughly educated physicians are now in urgent request; three one for North China, and two for Turkey, and two women to do in China what Mrs. Capron and Misses Norris and Ogden are doing in India.

men

THE COMING OF CHRIST.

He will come. All branches of Christ's church agree in affirming that he who once came in humiliation will come again in glory. But Christians are not at one in their opinions as to the period of that second advent, or the events that will precede it. At the present time this divergence is made prominent by the recent utterances of a large assembly of well-known Christian gentlemen who maintain that the coming of the Lord is imminent. They desire that coming, are waiting for it, and praying that it may be hastened. With the longings thus felt for the presence of our King, all Christian hearts must sympathize. But whatever theories are held as to the visible appearance of Christ on earth, there is great liability of overlooking the fact that there is a coming of our Lord which is not alone in the future, however near. It is not conditioned on any change of our bodily relations. Has he not come already? Is he not daily coming to his faithful people? On this point again, all Christians agree. It is everywhere admitted that Christ's presence may be secured here and now, without waiting for another advent. Such was his promise to his disciples: "I will come to you." Who doubts that he kept his word to them, though they never saw him a second time in the clouds?

Is there not need of placing greater emphasis on this form of Christ's coming? Whether or not some other coming is imminent, this is more than imminent. He is already with many of his people, and they are walking daily with him. He is ready to make a fuller and richer revelation of himself to all. And this too, be it remembered, is a personal coming. Something else is commonly referred to under this name, but nothing can be more personal than the promised presence of the risen Saviour, "I will come to you." "Lo, I (not an influence from me), I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Should not this coming of Christ, not in the future, but the immediate present, be the object of our thought and endeavor?

TO WHOM DOES HE THUS COME?

This question is of the first moment, since it is clear that he does not come without respect to the spiritual state of the soul. There is no more comprehensive answer to be given than to say that Christ will come to those who, according to the measure of their ability, are seeking to advance his kingdom. That clearest and sweetest promise of his presence: "Lo, I am with you alway," stands connected with the great commission to go and evangelize the nations. The two are not merely in juxtaposition; they are organically related. It is to the individual, or the church, that is seeking to preach the gospel to every creature that the Saviour utters the words: "I am with you alway." To no one else. The "and" which connects the command and the promise assures us that where the duty is neglected, the blessing will be withheld. We can have the Master with us only as we are bearing his gospel to the world.

What is thus taught us in the Scriptures has been confirmed in experience. It is the missionary church that has had the clearest tokens of the Saviour's presence. To those consecrated souls who have gone out into the world, far or near, to proclaim his gospel, Christ has come. When Simeon Calhoun heard the voice of Jesus, saying: "Come, Brother Calhoun, let us go over into Syria together and preach my gospel," he obeyed, and he bore glad witness that they two did go together and that they had had blessed fellowship all the time. And so another missionary, writing lately out of a deep experience of trial and of joy, can say: "He has been near me, consciously so, and his presence has given me such joy that often, when journeying, I have been compelled, so to speak, to break out in songs of praise."

Oh, for such a coming of Christ to his church! May she fulfill the conditions on which she can secure this coming. She will find him, not by standing and gazing into the heavens, but rather by looking over the earth, and seizing hold of the work he has given her to do.

THE FIRST FOUR MONTHS OF THE FINANCIAL YEAR.

THE Ominous decline in the amount of receipts as compared with those of last year, to which allusion was made in the January Herald, still continues. December brought in, by donations, but $22,263.78,-less by over $7,000 than was received from the same source during the corresponding month of the preceding year. Legacies during the same month fell off, also, to the amount of over $3,500. Our total deficiency, therefore, for the first third of the present financial year as compared with the same period of the preceding year, is more than $28,000. Of this amount the falling off of regular donations from churches and individuals has been over $12,000: of legacies over $16,000. The simple statement of these facts is a sufficient appeal to all pastors and churches to do their utmost to make the coming months unusually fruitful in generous donations to foreign missions. A vigorous missionary sermon just now from every pastor, will be preeminently timely.

"TO LIVE MORE NEARLY AS WE PRAY."

BY REV. GEORGE HARRIS, PROVIDENCE, R. I.

EVERY one who prays at all prays, "Thy kingdom come," but facts abundantly prove that the habits of giving which many adopt are not in keeping with their prayers. A considerable proportion of church members give a mere trifle for the extension of the kingdom of God through the earth, and they are not few who give nothing at all; yet they keep on praying —“Thy kingdom come." A child once asked its father who habitually prayed for the destitute, "Father, why don't you answer some of your prayers yourself.'' If giving for the progress of Christ's kingdom could be as extensive as praying for it, that is, if every one who prays for it would give even a little, the principal hindrance to its extension would be removed. It seems to be taken for granted that the good work of Foreign Missions will go on at its present magnitude indefinitely, that if this church or that church falls short, the whole amount needed will be secured in some way, that if I do not take the trouble to give, it will make no difference; as though the missionary work had acquired such a momentum that it cannot be stopped. But it is by no means among the certainties that the American Board will always do as much as it has been doing. Lack of consecration on the part of Christians, or the diversion of gifts to other objects, may in the next few years reduce the number of missionaries one third or one half. In fact, there is only one way, to human foresight, in which the work can be expanded as it should be, or even go on undiminished, and that is by securing the gifts of those who now give little or nothing. It is only with difficulty that those who give largely can maintain so liberal a measure of generosity. Increase from them can hardly be looked for. But the great number who now do so little can easily swell the amount by their many small gifts.

Some of the churches have adopted a system of weekly offerings which promises good results, and it is hoped that this system will increase the revenues of the American Board. But the system, after all, is nothing but a method. It cannot create the disposition to give. Some water-pipes are better than others, but none of them can carry away water from a desert. The best system is the conscientious decision of the individual to give according to his ability, whether his church adopts improved methods or not. If the force of the three following considerations could be felt by those disciples who pray but who do not give for the coming of the kingdom, there would be a wider personal response to the call for increased means.

1. The intrinsic importance of the Foreign Missionary work. It must be admitted that there is but a faint conception of the power which the gospel is having in the lands to which it is now carried. If it could be generally understood that within fifty years almost incredible religious changes have taken place in India and Turkey in consequence of missions to those countries, that ten years have witnessed astonishing progress toward the Christian civilization and religion in Japan; that from almost every land the cry is, not as it was twenty years ago, a cry of discouragement, but a cry for more men and more means, a cry of amazement at the hunger of the nations

for the bread of life, if the people could realize the triumphs of the gospel everywhere, they would by saving and self-sacrifice contrive to give something for the extension of Foreign Missions.

2. The relative importance of the Foreign Missionary work. The comparison is too often made between a single subdivision of the work at home and the entire work of the Board. Far be it from me to say a word which might take a dollar from the treasuries of our home societies. But the fact ought to be recognized, in order to draw out additional gifts, that the work which is done at home by four or five distinct organizations, is done abroad by a single organization. And yet on the printed lists which are presented to some churches, there are ten or twelve objects among which foreign missions is only one, no more prominent than any other; or if causes are presented from the pulpit, some local charity, or a single branch of home work is pressed as vigorously as the entire claim of Foreign Missions. We have at home one society for the support of preachers, another to educate young men for the ministry, another for church building, another for the publication of Bibles, another for printing tracts, another for work among the freedmen and Chinese, each with its officers and secretaries. But the American Board sends out preachers, trains theological students, prints Bibles and tracts in several languages, assists in the erection of churches, and educates thousands of children and youth under its one effective and economical management. The true comparison is between the home work as a whole, and the foreign work. It should be remembered that there are two great departments of Christian benevolence, Home and Foreign, each including several important branches. If there is a right proportion, a true perspective, so that all objects are not equally in the foreground- or back groundhome evangelization would not receive less, and foreign missions would receive a great deal more.

3. The value of Foreign Missions to Christian doctrine and Christian life at home. The zeal of the church in sending the gospel all around the globe, has been a preservative of doctrine by the signal triumphs of the simple truths of the gospel, and a preservative of Christian life by the demands it has made for heroic service, for patient self-sacrifice, and for abundant liberality. If it becomes more and more difficult to sustain foreign missions, we may well be alarmed for the future of Christianity at home — we may fear for our religion when missionaries no longer sail from our shores and money is no longer given to send the gospel abroad.

In view of such considerations the support of Foreign Missions should have a place not after, but among necessary expenses. "There is the rent, there is the table, there is the education of children;" these we provide for at any rate. Let us put into the same list, "there is the giving," and make what is not indispensable bend to it.

No one should withhold his offering because it is small. Three cents a week from each member of our churches would put more than half a million dollars into the annual revenue of the American Board. The good man Tobit, whose biography is contained in the Apocrypha, left this injunction. with his son, which is excellent advice for us all: "If thou hast abundance, give alms accordingly; if thou have but a little, be not afraid to give according to that little."

All reforms begin with individuals. Let no one wait, then, for a general agreement among the churches to give proportionately, but let every one who recognizes the measure of his own duty, begin at once to give according to his ability.

AN ENGLISH STATESMAN ON AMERICAN MISSIONS IN

THE EAST.

THE Right Hon. William E. Baxter, member of the British Parliament and a gentleman of eminence, lately delivered an address on the Eastern question, at Arbroath, Scotland. In the course of his address, he says:

"Wherever I traveled four years ago, in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Asiatic and European Turkey, I found that men of all nationalities and creeds, of all opinions on the Eastern question, and other questions as well, emphatically and unanimously gave evidence that the colleges, schools, churches, and other institutions conducted in the most business-like manner, with most conspicuous ability, with a remarkable freedom from all sectarian or religious narrowness, by American gentlemen, were doing more for the civilization and elevation of the ignorant masses in the East than any other agency whatever."

In another part of the same address he says: "The Armenians in many respects are a remarkable people: they are even more forward than the Greeks in the matter of education, which has been greatly stimulated by the splendid work done among them by the American Missionaries." Near the conclusion of his lecture, Mr. Baxter uses these words: "I desire to add my testimony to that of many other recent travelers, to the extraordinary moral influence exercised in the East by the United States of America."

Such testimony to the work of the American Board, from such a source, and coming incidentally, has special force. Witnesses need not be multiplied to the value of the work already done in Turkey. What our churches, acting through the Board, have already done for that empire, not only gives them the right but puts upon them the obligation to do more. The auspicious beginning should be followed by a vigorous prosecution of the effort to give Christian institutions and a Christian civilization to the Ottoman Empire.

THE POPULATION OF CHINA.

STATEMENTS have recently been published purporting to come from a Chinese gentleman, and quoted as "excellent authority," indicating that the population of China has been over-estimated four fold, and that, probably, instead of 400,000,000, the true figures should be about 100,000,000. Canon George Rawlinson, in an article in a recent number of the "Princeton Review," expresses the opinion that instead of 414,000,000 the correct statement should be 300,000,000. These statements led one of the secretaries of the Board to write to Hon. S. Wells Williams, the author of "The Mid