of Dakota pays more revenue to the Post-office Department than any one of 32 States, has a population as large as Connecticut or Nebraska and larger than Vermont or Florida, with 2500 miles of railway, 2000 school houses, and 275 newspapers, more than any New England State except Massachusetts.

THE party who discovers a means of transporting fruit in good condition from the hot latitudes to our seaports, will find a bonanza. Only see the reported figures of the loss under present methods. Last year 281,000,000 oranges were shipped from Mediterranean ports to New York, and 112,000,000 of them perished on the way, or about 40 per cent. Of 316,000,000 lemons shipped, more than 63,000,000 perished, or 20 per cent. Nearly 17,000,000 oranges perished out of 33,000,000 shipped from the West Indies. More than 3,200,000 pineapples were shipped here, and 800,000, or 25 per cent., were lost. There was a grand total of 1,110,000 bunches of bananas shipped, and 181,000, or 16 per cent., perished. Cocoanuts are the best shippers, only only 1,100,000 perishing out of 14,200,000 shipped, or 8 per cent. Of 109,000 barrels of grapes, 25 per cent. perished.

From Faith and Works. JESUS.

In one of our beautiful Church Homes in Philadelphia is a very aged woman-now in her one hundred and third year-whose incoherent "ramblings" give evidence of a bright intellect long since dethroned.

A lady visitor at Christmas time, distributing gifts and cards, vainly endeavored to obtain from her a rational reply. At last mention was made of Jesus. Like a rift in the cloud came the quick response, "Jesus! I know His Name."

Can we not imagine what the "awaking" will be to such a one, to new and unfailing powers, and the clear vision of her Lord?

"Jesus! I know His Name;

The hand has lost its skill,

Too worn the mind for weary thought,
But the heart loveth still.

"Jesus the Holy Child,
Jesus the Man Divine,
Jesus-the Lamb of Sacrifice,
Thy Substitute and mine.

"Jesus-the spotless One

Who took my penalty,

Who bore my heavy load of guilt
Upon the accursed tree.

"Jesus-my risen Lord,

My Advocate. my Friend,

My interceding Priest with God;
Who loveth to the end.

"He loveth to the end!

My sun hath well nigh set-
He loveth to the end, and I,
Shall I His Name forget?

"No, though a bondage drear

This troubled soul confines,

One ray of hope gleams faint yet clear,

One Star serenely shines!

"No, though so dull and low,

Though darkness thicken fast:

But see,-Light breaketh through the gloom!

Jesus, with Thee at last!"

From "The Friend." THE MOUNTAIN STONE.

Where afar the western sun
Lingers when our day is done,
O'er the prairie's swelling tract,
And the foaming cataract,
Sending arrowy shafts of gold
From his quiver, round and old;
Where Missouri's infant streams
Murmur in their cradle dreams,
And the red man wanders still
Where his fathers roamed at will;
There, 'tis said, a mountain lifts
To the skies its snowy cliffs,

From whose breast a sound is hurled
Like the ruin of a world;

And from out whose mighty heart,

As the rocks are rent apart,

Oftentimes a dark-hued stone,

Rough, and round, and hard, is thrown,
Like a bomb projected far
From artillery of war;

And, exploding, like the shell,
In the chasm where it fell,
Has revealed a wondrous sight
Of an inner glow and light.
Lined with silver, jewels rare
From their settings flashing there,
Crystals clear as morning dew
Which the sunlight sparkles thro',
Rubies rich as aught that flings
Splendor on the brow of kings,
Are the treasures formed and cast
From that cavern deep and vast.

By his camp fire on the plain,
When the Indian hears again
That loud mountain-thunder near,
Low he bows in awe and fear,
The Great Spirit's voice to hear
In the wild convulsive throes
Those majestic sounds disclose.
And his thoughts roam far away,
Where his vanished people stay,-
Fancies from these peaks are seen-
Prairies wide, forever green,
And an endless view unrolls
Of the hunting ground of souls.

In our lives there may be thrown
Duties like that mountain stone,
Dark, and hard, yet bearing still
Impress of a Mighty Will,
Evidence by which we tell,
Not from any chance they fell-
Formed and fashioned for our need,

Perfect in the thought and deed,-
Given forth with whisper clear,
Strong as thunder in our ear,
Till we bow in reverent fear,
Feeling the Great Spirit near.
If we faithful follow on,
Take our burdens one by one,
Will they not at times reveal
They an inner wealth conceal?
Open to our ravished sight
Jewels warm with living light?
As the darkness falls apart

From the radiance of the heart,

We may in our visions see
Earnest of the joys to be,

When the ransomed reach their goals

C. A. L.

In the happy land of souls.

SUMMARY OF NEWS.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.-Advices from Europe are to the 5th inst.

GREAT BRITAIN.-The budget for 1885 was submitted to the House of Commons on the 30th ult. It showed a deficit of £1,049,000. H. C. Childers, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that the Government did not propose to cover the whole. of the deficit this year, nor to let the whole charge fall upon property. It is proposed, however, to raise the income tax to eight pence in the pound The expenditure of the past year was £3,800,000 over the estimates. The customs and excise showed a continual decrease on spirits, a slight one in the duties on wine, and a slow but constant rise in the other chief duties. The deficit for the coming fiscal year is estimated at £14,932,000. The Chancellor proposed various modifications of the legacy and succession and probate duties; the imposing of new taxes on property hitherto exempt; the raising of the duty on foreign stocks made payable to bearer; and the increase of the duty on both home and foreign made spirits, and on beer. He asked that the second reading be fixed for the 14th inst., which was agreed to. The bill relating to industrial schools in Ireland passed its third reading in the Commons on the 30th.

It is asserted that the Government has postponed a decision as to the revival of the "Crimes act" in Ireland. If the Queen should conclude to visit Ireland next autumn, the proposal to revive the act may be dropped or modified.

The vote of credit of $55,000,000 for war purposes, asked for on the 21st ult., was granted by the House of Commons on the 4th inst. A motion by a Radical member to reduce the amount to $35,000,000, was rejected by a vote of 79 to 29, the Conservative leaders voting with the majority.

The World's Exposition of Inventions was opened in London on the 4th inst. by the Prince of Wales, in presence of a large assemblage.

The Queen and Princess Beatrice returned on the 2d inst. from a visit to the Continent.

The reports during the week respecting the progress of negotiations with Russia have been various and somewhat contradictory, but on the 4th, Earl Granville, Foreign Secretary, stated in the House of Lords in answer to inquiries, that England and Russia had agreed to renew the negotiations in London concerning the Afghan frontier question, and that the details had been arranged for the meeting of the Delimitation Committee. He said that the two Governments had agreed that the difficulties which had arisen from the Penjdeh incident should be submitted to a full investigation and reference to friendly Powers, and that both would facilitate the inquiry as much as possible. The Penjdeh district will remain neutral territory during the progress of the negotiations. The Russian Government had expressed its readiness to consider the question of withdrawing its troops if the Afghan Boundary Commission should decide against it. Any differences that may arise regarding the interpretation of passages in the dispatches of the two Governments will be dealt with in a manner consistent with the honor of both countries. Substantially similar statements were made by Premier Gladstone in the House of Commons. On the 5th, Gladstone stated in the House that Sir Peter Lumsden, the Afghan Boundary Commissioner, and Col. Stewart, had been directed to come to London, to advise the Government upon technical matters respecting the delimitation of the frontier, as future communications with Russia on that subject are to be carried on in London,

FRANCE. It is asserted that the Cabinet has decided to ask the Chambers to vote the extra credit of

12,000,000 francs, which was requested by M. Ferry for the Malagasy expedition.

GERMANY.-A majority of the Bundesrath (Federal Council) have approved the treaty between Germany and Russia, for the extradition of regicides and conspirators.

ITALY.-Vesuvius was in a state of eruption on the 3d. A copious stream of lava was issuing from the principal crater and flowing toward Torre del Greco and Pompeii.

GREECE.-The Government has decided, as a measure of economy, to recall all the Greek diplomatic representatives abroad except the envoy to Constantinople.

EGYPT.-The French Chargé d'Affaires, who had left Cairo, has returned, the Egyptian Prime Minister has formally apologized for the seizure of the Bosphore Egyptien, and the difficulty is considered as ended.

CHINA. Recent dispatches from Tientsin say that the dispute with Russia respecting the frontier of Mantchooria has been revived, owing to the nonarrival of the Russian members of the Delimitation Commission, and the repeated postponement of the promised time of their reaching the place of meeting to settle the boundary. The Chinese Commissioners, it is said, have been ready for several months. China now demands that Russia fulfil her part of the agree ment upon which the Commission was appointed.

A Shanghai paper of Third month 28th, stated that the Chinese Viceroy of the provinces of Yunnan and Kwechong had issued a decree ordering the destruction of all Catholic convents, and the killing of all Catholic converts and foreigners; and that as a result, several of the convents had been razed, and some hundreds of Catholic converts and foreigners had been assassinated.

An immense stone bridge constructed by Chinese engineers over an arm of the Chinese Sea at Lagang, is finished. It is five miles long, entirely of stone, and has 300 arches, each arch 70 feet high. The roadway is 70 feet wide.

MEXICO-The Government announces officially that no Mormons immigrating to Mexico from the United States, will have any special concessions granted them, but they are at liberty to come as other immigrants, subject to the laws of the republic, which forbid poly. gamy.

DOMESTIC,-The decrease of the public debt during last month was $5.464,596, and for the ten months just ended, $50,075,230.

A bill for the purchase and establishment as a public park under the charge of the State, of the land imme diately about Niagara Falls, on the American side of the river, has passed the Legislature of New York, and been signed by the Governor.

Wheeling is no longer the capital of West Virginia, The State archives, property and officers were removed on the 2d inst. to Charleston, which under the provisions of an act passed in 1879, becomes the permanent seat of government for the State.

On the 2d inst. fifteen inches of snow fell at Dixmont, Me., thirteen at Dexter and ten at Bangor; and a violent hail-storm occurred in Southern Virginia.

ALKETHREPTA

There is a large and increasing demand for this Superior Chocolate, and we would call special atten tion to it as an exceedingly wholesome beverage for the healthy and ailing, children as well as adults.

A sample package will be sent by mail by addressing Smith's Manufacturing Co., 107 Fourth Avenue, New York, 17-261

ever. Dark clouds may appear to be gathering over the nation; but the Christian statesman no less than the private individual may gather strength and comfort from the assurance that "unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness."

Many of you are called upon to associate in public life, whether national or local, with those who approve of War. We desire to encourage you to uphold your views firmly and without flinching, although the endeavor may at times place you in positions of difficulty, and cause doubt as to your right course of action. Be assured that as you seek it, the guidance and wisdom that is from above will be given you, and that you will be strengthened to act in fidelity to the teachings of Christ.

Signed on behalf of the Society of Friends of Great Britain, at its Representative Meeting, held in London, the 27th of Third month, 1885.

RICHARD LITTLEBOY, Clerk.

12, Bishopsgate Street Without, London.

OUR LONDON LETTER.

A few particulars have lately been published which illustrate in a remarkable manner the growth of one of the leading religious sects (that of the Wesleyan Methodists) in the Australian colonies during the last five-and-twenty or thirty years. This body possesses about 1 300 churches and nearly as many Sunday schools, the number of each being about seven times greater than was the case in 1855. The scholars receiving instruction in Wesleyan Sunday-schools amount to 102,000, and have increased eight-fold in the same time. Numerically this section of the church now ranks third amongst the Protestant Australian churches. Complete sta tistics for all the colonies are, unfortunately, not available, but we find that in the three most popu lous (New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia) there were recorded at the census of 1881 in round numbers 729,000 adherents of the Anglican Church, 223,000 Presbyterians, and 196,000 Wesleyan Methodists. But if we go by the comparative numbers of churches and chapels, or of Sabbath-school teachers, then we must concede the first place in the list to the Wesleyans. These figures are, moreover, irrespective of the numerous other branches of the Methodist family, some of which are by no means small.

The proportion of the Wesleyans to the population varies considerably in the different colonies. From the actual numbers returned to the last census it appears that the ratio was highest in South Australia, being no less than 15.0 per cent. Victoria came next with a rate of 11.3 per cent; then at an interval came New Zealand, New South Wales, Tasmania, and Western Australia, their percentages varying from 8.1 to 6.9. Lastly, the Wesleyans of Queensland were only 4.8 per cent. of the population. It would be an interesting matter to inquire into the causes of these inter colonial variations, and also to ascertain the corresponding particulars for other religious denominations. Taking these seven colonies as a whole the number of Wesleyan

Methodists amounted to 257,000, being 9.3 per cent., or nearly one in ten of the entire population. London, Fourth mo. 23d, 1885.

From The [London] Christian. THE REVISED BIBLE.

While we do not look for perfection in any work of man, we may anticipate that the revision of the Old Testament will create a greater sensation than marked the appearance of that of the New Testament. As was indicated in our first paper, no branch of investigation has yielded richer or larger results than the knowledge acquired of oriental languages since 1611. Especially has this been the case in the present century. In addition, the literature on the Old Testament has been of late

years inestimable in value. Single Scriptural books have been subject to careful exposition; and light, beyond all conception, has been thrown on the inspired records. Biblical Archæology, in its bearing upon Babylonia, Assyria, and Egypt; Jewish antiquities and authorities; geographical and topographical explorations; ripe scholarship and Eastern learning, must have vastly aided the Old Testament Company, and it may be hoped the rich results will appear in their Revised Version.

Let us pause for a moment. We have seen that in relation to the supreme and vital articles of the Christian faith, there was among the MS. copies of the New Testament-copies from Greece, Rome, Carthage, the Persian frontier, slopes of Lebanon, the coasts of Malabar, the Egyptian deserts, monasteries of Gaul, and from the heights of Sinai-a marvellously substantial unanimity. Forgery in the light of such a fact must be held to have been ab solutely impossible. So in relation to the Old Testament; modern investigations in matters of ancient languages, places, buildings, and events, all go to confirm the truthfulness of the books of the Bible. Surely we may conclude that another momentous page of the world's history is about to be opened: and before its disclosures dawn, the assurance is to be confirmed and strengthened that in the Scriptures of both Testaments is the voice to men of the living God.

use.

To return to the subject of Old Testament translation. A collateral advantage will be secured in reference to English words. Changes in our mother tongue have been such that we have marked about a hundred places where words, which were common in 1611, are no longer in general Almost all of these are in the Old Testament. There are, moreover, in the Authorized Version, about one hundred and seventy places where there are words which have changed their meaning. Three fourths of these are also in the Old Testament (see Professor Newth on Bible Revision: Hodder & Stoughton). Certainly a Book that has to be circulated among the hundreds of millions who speak English should not contain archaic words, or those of doubtful meaning.

And now, may we not fittingly ask what is that great spiritual principle which we hope will be

shown to be even more plainly enforced and illus trated in the expected version? In making this inquiry there is no intention to suggest that the Old Testament teaches but one pervasive lesson. Such a method is facile and captivating, but is superficial. Nevertheless there is one dominating truth which is the very essence of the Old Testament. God's chosen people were witnesses on behalf of faith; their warfare was the warfare of faith; their whole history was an emphatic and everlasting record of the disasters or triumphs which followed the failure or the maintenance of faith. Against the materialism which attributed occult influences to nature, was set God; against the sham divinities which malign world powers framed, was set the one Living God; against the corrupt demands of Polytheism was set the holy will of God; against the might of earthly king doms was set the dominion and almightiness of God. Yes, the Bible claims that ascendency for God to which the noblest men of all times have aspired. Abraham is called to be the father of a theocratic nation. Moses confronts the pride of Egypt by proofs of the reign of Jehovah. Samuel forms schools of prophets, who should bear messages of encouragement or monition from the Lord of Hosts. Israel goes into exile as apostate to the power of faith, and returns as a race of Puritans when faith has resumed its ministry. It is true that all is moving towards a Messianic destination, but that is to give a grander unveiling of the potency, safety and blessedness of faith.

Most opportunely will the Revised Bible draw interest around it. Its testimony of faith will be more needed as the new future opens. About miracles men will come to ask, as has been well said, not how they were worked, but when, and why they were at special periods, a necessity. About "laws" of nature, they will learn from the Old Testament, as Bishop Butler has said "That that which is natural as much requires an intelligent Agent as that which is miraculous." All life will be shown to have its meaning, its best motives, its firmest supports in that habitual recollection of God which the historians and prophets of Israel taught. The doctrine of faith furnishes the key to the Old Testament, and gives grandeur and meaning to life. The present denial of God, either in the form of Atheism, or Agnosticism, cannot last. Man, ere long, will say, in the words of a modern poet, "I am all alone, I must have Thee." Yea, the race will learn that the final consummation and triumph of good over evil can come only when the goal, towards which all Revelation works, is realized, and GOD SHALL BE ALL IN ALL.

NIAGARA.-At last the bill has become a law which takes the bank of the river out of private control and makes it the property of the State. The unsightly structures will be removed, and the scene will be restored to something of its primeval beauty and gran. deur, making it, in certain respects, the most magnificent park in the world.-Exchange.

BRITISH MISSIONS IN INDIA.

In a review of a book by James Kennedy, for thirty-six years a missionary in India, the Nation

says:

The fact commonly pleaded to account for the little progress made by the various Christian missions in India is the immobility of the Asiatic character. But as regards the religious history of India this does not happen to be a fact. That continent has been the theatre of a succession of religious revolutions of the widest and most drastic character. Buddhism established itself on the ruins of Brahminism; then Brahminism recovered its ascendency, while Islamism continues even at this date to gather in an abundant harvest from among the lower castes of Southern India, and also in Eastern Bengal. Immobility as regards its religious convictions is the very last attribute that can be ascribed to the people of India; and if Christianity makes slower progress among them than did Islamism, the cause must be looked for in the character of the English rather than that of the native population. When this is done, the marvel, in our opinion, will be, not that Christian missions have effected so little, but that they have accomplished so much. The splendor and magnificence of the Mohammedan conquerors of India are still to be seen, all over the country, in their beautiful and stately mosques, palaces, shrines, tombs, tanks, aqueducts, and other public works; but that which most concerns us at present is the profound religious faith which, so to speak, is embodied in these grand edifices. They were all erected to the glory of Allah and his Prophet. The Faith, it is perfectly clear, was always the first thought in the Mohammedan mind; and an imaginative people like the Hindus could not fail to be deeply impressed by such a fact as this. Secondly, the Moslems were not, like the English, mere birds of passage. They made India their country in as absolute a sense as did the Hindus whom they found established there; and all their works were, in consequence, done with a view to the future ages, not, as with the English, in order to secure a clear balance sheet for the next year's budget. Thirdly a Hindu, on becoming a Moslem, acquired at once and as a matter of course all the privileges of the conquering race. He entered into a higher state, instead of having to endure the heavy sacrifices which the ingenuity of the Court of Directors had contrived for those misguided natives who were so lacking in worldly wisdom as to become Christians. Lastly, there was no limit to the hopes which a Hindu becoming a Moslem might entertain. He might become the leader of an army, the Governor of a province, the chief minister of the whole mighty empire; but a Christian native can look forward to no such high possibilities. The ceremony of baptism cannot whiten his skin, and is, therefore, from the material point of view, quite valueless.

The English during the past quarter of a century may be said to have surpassed their Moslem predecessors in the matter of public works. They have