THE CONVERSION OF ANIWA.

The water supply of Aniwa was the means of converting the people to Christianity, and was brought about in a curious manner. The want of water was a terrible scourge when Mr. Paton arrived, and at last it occurred to him to sink a well in his own back garden. The people never having seen a well in their lives, came to the conclusion that he must be mad to think of digging for water into the dry earth. Every day they gathered round and watched him dig, though they were too much scared to help. At last the old chief spoke. "You must be mad, missionary," he said, "rain comes from the clouds here, it does not rise up from the earth." Day after day went by, but at last at thirty feet deep, there were signs of a spring. Then the missionary told the savages that the next day they should see water. On the morrow in fear and wonder, they came, and at thirty-two feet deep, lo! there was a spring of fresh water, which has ever since supplied the entire island. It was this which finally conquered the people. The chief gathered his people about him, and said, "We thought the missionary mad when he would go down, to the earth to find rain; but he has worked and prayed till Jehovah has given it to him. Now as there was water in the earth beneath, so do I believe there is a God in the skies above. And as the missionary has removed the earth and we have seen the water, so do I feel that death will remove the mist which is before our eyes, and we shall see God. Bring out the idols and let us destroy them." And so all the people of Aniwa came over to Christianity, and last year themselves sent out seven missionaries to another island. Standard.

ITEMS.

A MEMBER of the British Parliament who pleads in the Contemporary Review for a new system of education, says that twenty-five per cent. of the children in the lowest parts of London come to school without breakfast, while they have nothing for dinner save perhaps a crust and a cup of tea.

THE JEWISH MESSENGER states that a wooden bridge has been built across the river Jordan at Jericho, and that at the banquet given at the opening, Moslems, Christians and Jews were present.

DR. B. T. TANNER, of Philadelphia, one of the most intelligent and observant colored men in this country, gives the following significant incidents of a trip to New Orleans:

"

'We are in Charleston. It is noon. Here and there a stray whistle or bell is heard. On the right and on the left schools are being dismissed. On the corner of Mary and streets, stands a colored policeman, short, bulky, with legs of brass. A group of white children, just from school, stop at the corner to have a boyish chat. The colored policeman approaches, and, with burly voice, orders them to 'skit along, skit along! And along they skit' without saying a word.

"We are in New Orleans. Driving to the Illinois Central Depot, we notice a decently clad white young man approach the carriage, open the door and assist us out. Taking possession of our luggage with the query: To the sleeper, sir?' he led the way to a Pull

man.

Entering the car with us, he carefully placed our baggage at berth eight. Before we had time to recompense him, he said: 'Please, sir, give the boy something,' which, upon receiving, he withdrew, with all the thanks imaginable."

DURING 1884, nine minor planets were discovered, bringing the number up to 244 on January 1st. 1885. Of the nine, six were discovered by Palisa at Vienna, and one each by Knorre at Berlin, Borelly at Marseilles, and the veteran Luther at Düsseldorf. Our own veteran, Peters, of Hamilton College, has been for the past year or two busy with other work, mainly in preparing for publication and in issuing the series of incomparable star charts which will remain as the most valuable and permanent fruit of his labors. In the number of asteroid discoveries, last year's work puts Palisa at the head of the list, with forty-six to his credit, while Dr. Peters stands next, with forty-two. Luther and Watson, whose account is closed in death, follow with twenty-two each; at least, this was the case on January 1st; but last month Luther added another to his list, the only one so far discovered this year. Next in order follow Goldschmidt (who died more than twenty years ago), with fourteen, Borelly with thirteen, and Hind with ten. Of the whole 245 at present known, German observers have discovered eighty-two, American seventy, French fifty-nine, English eighteen, and Italian sixteen.—Independent.

CO-OPERATION has been introduced in Russia, where the 3500 to 4000 employés of the great engineering works of Struve & Co. have been planted in a com. plete settlement something like the town of Pullman, near Chicago. The men have a co-operative society which is in a flourishing condition Struve & Co. contribute liberally to a benefit society, but no other form of charity is needed. In addition to other advantages possessed by the settlement is a technical school for the education of the workmen's children. Russia is a

pioneer in this kind of educational work, and has been successful mainly because the principles of hand-work are taught, and no effort is made to impart trades as such. The education in mechanics is in other words parallel to the general literary education given in our public schools. The Russians no more think of teach ing boys to be carpenters or plumbers in school than we think of teaching public school children to be doc tors or lawyers. But they lay the foundation whereby the children can become capable workmen in almost any branch of mechanics. It is this principle that has made the Russian schools so successful, and which promises equally good results in this country wherever it is thoroughly understood and acted upon.-Phila. Public Ledger.

THE (London) Christian says:

One of our laws requiring to be forthwith modified is that which compels a man who is not a Quaker, Moravian, or Separatist, under penalty, to take an oath in giving judicial evidence, though he may have strong conscientious scruples as to the unscriptural nature of all oath-taking. A case has recently oc curred at a coroner's inquest, in which an enginedriver refused to utter the words of the oath, on this ground. By the provisions of the law the coroner was obliged to commit the man to prison, though he dis creetly allowed bail till the Home Secretary could be consulted. The Northern Echo thus wisely comments on the incident:

"Had he been a Quaker, a Moravian, or a Separatist, he might have affirmed to his heart's content. Being only a Primitive Methodist, with a conscience, and an incapacity for explaining away plain Scripture texts, he has suffered for a while the indignity of dur

ance vile. Is a Primitive Methodist not entitled to the same consideration as a Quaker? The true safeguard against false witness is a prompt legal punishment, and not a formality the awful nature of which is in sad contrast to the lightness and levity with which it is administered and undertaken."

ACCORDING to the Paris correspondent of The Nonconformist and Independent, M. Brisson, the new French Premier, is an evangelical Protestant of marked purity of private and public life, of unflinching integrity and rectitude, opposed to the Concordat, and to making the church an instrument in the hands of the State.

CHRIST'S encomium of the grace of the true Church-Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.-Canticles iv. 7.

FAITH AND REASON.

BY FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.

Reason unstrings the harp to see
Wherein the music dwells;
Faith pours a hallelujah song,

And heavenly rapture swells.
While Reason strives to count the drops
That lave our narrow strand,
Faith launches o'er the mighty deep
To seek a better land.

One is the foot that slowly treads
Where darkling mists enshroud;
The other is the wing that cleaves
Each heaven-obscuring cloud.
Reason, the eye which sees but that
On which its glance is cast;
Faith is the thought that blends in one
The Future and the Past.

In hours of darkness Reason waits,
Like those in days of yore,

Who rose not from their night-bound place
On dark Egyptian shore.

But Faith more firmly clasps the hand
That led her all the day,

And when the wished-for morning dawns,
Is farther on her way.

By Reason's alchemy in vain

Is golden treasure planned;
Faith meekly takes a priceless crown
Won by no mortal hand.
While Reason is the laboring oar,
That smites the wrathful seas,
Faith is the snowy sail spread out
To catch the freshening breeze.
Reason, the telescope that scans
A universe of light;

But Faith, the angel who may dwell
Among those regions bright.
Reason, a lonely towering elm,
May fall before the blast;
Faith, like the ivy on the rock,
Is safe in clinging fast.

Be kind to the little children!
Ye may not have them long;
God may call them in life's morning
To join the angels' song;
Even now, while yet they're thrilling
Our hearts with hope and love, /
Their voices may be tuning

For the golden harps above.

Be kind to the little children!
The day may come too soon,
When you'll mourn with bitter mourning,
By your quiet hearth alone,
And sigh for the noisy patter
Of the feet upon the stair,
And turn in silent anguish
From some tiny vacant chair.
Be kind to the little children!
They have their part of pain,
And sorrow lieth heavy

On childish heart and brain.
Thank God, the pain is transient,
Or the burden were too great,
And childhood's frail endurance
Must fail beneath the weight.
Be kind to the little children!
So oft misunderstood.

So oft rebuked and thwarted,
When trying to be good,"
So oft misnomered "naughty,"
When only tired and sad!
So oft, alas, discouraged,

When a smile had made them giad.

Be kind to the little children!

They were blessed by Christ the Lord! You call them tiresome, foolish : Are you as near to God? Beware, lest you crush the blossom

As it struggles toward the sun; Take heed how you grieve the spirit Of one such little one!"

Be kind to the little children!
Ye cannot have them long,
Time's swiftly flowing river

Is hurrying them along;

And as careworn men and women,
They soon must join the strife,
And fight as you are fighting,
On the battle-field of life.

Be kind to the little children!

In after years may come, Like the sound of a distant music, The memory of home; And the kiss of a long-lost mother, "The touch of a vanished hand,” May win some weary wanderer

Paris.

To the Home of the heaven-land.

H. W. G.

SUMMARY OF NEWS.

GREAT BRITAIN.-The controversy with Russia continues in a very uncertain state. It was announced on the 9th that considerable delay would probably occur in preparing the details preliminary to arbitration; this delay being necessary to allow the two Cabinets to decide upon the precise points to be submitted to the arbitrator. Between Earl Granville and the Russian Ambassador to London, differences of opinion exist as to the scope of the proposed arbitration and the zone of delimitation. The propositions thus far exchanged appear to be distasteful to the extreme war party both in England and Russia, each complaining that too great concessions are made by their respective governments.

It is said that recent advices from Earl Dufferin, the Viceroy of India, indicate that the Afghans are less friendly towards England than the Ameer had led him to believe. British agents who accompanied the Ameer to Cabul reported that much discontent prevailed among the tribal chiefs, because of rumors that the Ameer had consented to the marching of British troops through Candahar in case war should occur on the Afghan frontier between England and Russia. They disbelieve the Ameer's denials, and are earnest in their denunciation of his supposed course. Emissaries of Ayoub Khan, the deposed Ameer, who is now in exile at Teheran, are working among the people between Balkh and Herat, in his interest and in favor of Russia, promising that if Ayoub is restored the Russians will guarantee their independence, and freedom from the tributes levied by the present Ameer. A British advance beyond Quetta would probably cause a general revolt in that region.

Military preparations are still kept up on both sides. A Cabinet Council held in London on the 9th, directed that the orders providing for the dispatch of 2000 troops to India should be cancelled; but assurance was also given that the war programme would be maintained until some definite settlement of the difficulty should be reached. It is estimated that more than £5000,000 has already been expended by the Government in strengthening the naval and military equipments.

On the 11th, Earl Granville said in the House of Lords that a conference had been held by himself, the Secretary for India, and the Russian Ambassador, which resulted in an agreement perfectly satisfactory to England, Russia and the Earl of Dufferin, Viceroy of India. He hoped the arrangement would be made the subject of a convention with Russia. On the 12th, he corrected this statement by saying that the agree ment had not been completed in London, but had been put in shape for submission to Russia for acceptance.

In the House of Commons, on the same day, Lord Hartington, Secretary of War, said that the Government's decision respecting the Soudan practically involved the abandonment of the advance to Khartoum. They had resolved to make Wady Halfa the most advanced position as a permanent defence of Egypt. (This point is at the second cataract of the Nile, about 220 N. lat.) As soon as the Nile rises, probably about the end of this month, the troops will be withdrawn.

A member asked how much had been spent on the Khartoum expedition, whether more or less than the $22,500,000 asked for. Gladstone replied that Government had spent much money in the Soudan, but he could not at present say whether any part of the sum named would be saved. He then moved a sec ond reading of the bill for $55,000.000 credit. Upon this, a bitter attack was begun upon him and the Government. Consideration was moved for an amend ment, of which notice had been given, proposing a fresh vote of censure, and concluding that the House having shown their readiness to vote supplies, refuse their assent until informed of the present policy and purposes for which the money is to be applied. After some debate, the motion was defeated, 290 to 260.

FRANCE. The Minister of Foreign Affairs has sent to the French Minister to China definitive instructions respecting the negotiations with China for a treaty of peace. France adheres to the treaty known as the Fournier convention.

The Suez Canal Commission have decided to exempt Egypt and Turkey from the prohibition of acts of hostility in the Suez Canal, or the landing of troops on its banks, provided these measures become necessary for the defence of Egypt. Several of the Powers represented in the Commission, however, have made some reservations as to the exercise of these privileges by Turkey and Egypt. The report of the Commission is to be submitted to an International Conference to be held at Paris in the Seventh month. The question of the neutrality of the canal will be decided by this Conference.

The Chamber of Deputies reopened on the 4th. On the 7th, it adopted by a vote of 308 to 57, the treaty concluded in the Eighth month, 1883, between France and Anam. The Minister for Foreign Affairs explain. ed that the treaty had been virtually in force for the last eighteen months. A credit of $120,000 was adopted, to defray the expense of laying a submarine cable to Tonquin.

ITALY. In the Chamber of Deputies, on the 7th, a motion of censure of the Ministry was proposed, with the object, it is believed, of displacing the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mancini; but the next day, a vote of confidence was adopted by 188 to 97 votes. Mancini subsequently resigned.

GERMANY.-During a debate in the Reichstag on the bill to forbid "Sunday" work, Prince Bismarck said that in his opinion the question of regular working days was more important. Though himself not in favor of a law forbidding work on that day, yet if he thought working men really wished it, he would advocate the measure.

DOMESTIC.-The town of Plymouth. Pa., on the Susquehanna river, is suffering from an epidemic of typhoid fever. A local relief committee reported on the 5th inst. 730 cases of the disease then existing. About 90 persons have died. Assistance in medicines, provisions, physicians, money, &c., has been sent from Philadelphia and some other places.

the province of Dongola, and to complete the Nile railway as a commercial enterprise. Lord Wolseley had advised the Government to retire to Assouan. There is no intention of evacuating Suakim until some arrangement can be made for holding it against the hostile Arabs either by England or some other civilized power. Osman Digna, El Mahdi's lieutenant, has

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 ihe 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

A VOICE FROM THE PAST.

This is all the Lord your God requires of you, that you would think upon His name, believe in Him and trust in Him, and wait upon Him for the operations of His grace in the use of His ordinances, and your attendance upon them, and hearkening to His voice and obeying it and so to hear that your souls may live.

I will affirm that there is none of you here present, whether ye be Quakers or no, but you may meet with the Divine operations of the power of God in your own hearts, if you will regard it, and when you meet with these operations and regard them not, I cannot help it; if you will be of that mind, always to resist the Holy Ghost;" if as your fathers did so do ye," then you must all perish, both you and your fathers. There is no escaping but by being subject to Christ Jesus, and His quickening Spirit. If there be any Divine operations that you meet with in your own hearts, let me persuade you to submit and have regard to them; for I know the devil is near at hand; and when people meet with Divine operations in their souls that humble them, and bring down their pride, and convince them of the danger of their condition, he lies in the way and suggests some poisonous thing that takes off the edge of these operations, that they may dislike them. It is true, they meet with the convictions of sin; but they

A Voice from the Past.....

BOOK NOTICES.-A Reasonable Faith, conclnded-The Abiding

......

Sabbath ............ Religious Intelligence Pacific Invasion of the Soudan Bread Cast on the Waters.. Christ in the Old Testament.. School....... Rural.........

Stephen Crisp 657

..........

658 660

......A. S. Reporter 660 ..Sunday at Home 661

.S. S. Times 661

662

662

....

664

Publications Announced......
EDITORIAL.-The Quaker Reformation-The Student-Friends'
Quarterly Examiner-Friends' Freedmen's Association...... 664
DEATHS..
667

International Lesson.......

.........

667

reckon they have that faith and belief in Christ that doth in the sight of God obliterate all their sins that can be laid to their charge, both past and to come. If I would look, say they, to the Divine operation, or anything wrought in me, it were enough to make me mad. I look wholly to the merits of Christ; my mind is wholly fixed upon Him who is "the author of eternal salvation;" His meritorious sufferings and obedience can blot out all my sins.

My friends, I tell you many a poor soul hath split upon this rock, by undervaluing the Divine operations of the Spirit upon their hearts. They make a false and wrong application of the merits of Christ, which indeed are so great that nobody can overvalue them. But we must not make a false application of them. For "for this purpose was the Son of God manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil." He takes away the guilt of sin, not that you might live in it still. Whosoever believeth in Christ shall have power over their sins, and not be under the dominion and power of sin. "Sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace. But God be thanked, ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart the form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness."-From a Sermon by Stephen Crisp, in 1692.

BOOK NOTICES.

A REASONABLE FAITH. SHORT RELIGIOUS ESSAYS FOR THE TIMES.-By three "Friends." London: Macmillan & Co. 1884. Pamphlet, pp. 102.

(Concluded from page 645.)

In the "Christian Doctrine" forming the first Part of the "Book of Christian Discipline," issued two years ago by London Yearly Meeting, we find George Fox's testimony, in his Letter to the Governor of Barbadoes (1671) adopted as representing the accepted belief of the Society of Friends. Familiar as this may be to many of our readers, it seems fitting in this place to cite a few of its sentences bearing particularly upon the subject now under consideration. This Letter, "of George Fox and others," says:

"And we do own and believe in Jesus Christ his beloved and only begotten Son, in whom He is well pleased, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary; in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." "And we do own and believe that He was made a sacrifice for sin, who knew no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; and that He was crucified for us in the flesh, without the gates of Jerusalem; and that He was buried, and rose again the third day by the power of His Father, for our justification; and we do believe that He ascended up into heaven, and now sitteth at the right hand of God. This Jesus, who was the foundation of the holy prophets and apostles, is our foundation; and we do believe that there is no other foundation to be laid but that which is laid, even Christ Jesus; who, we believe, tasted death for every man, and shed His blood for all men, and is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world: according as John the Baptist testified of Him, when he said, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world' (John i. 29).”

One of the finest passages in the Essays before us, is that in which (pages 30 and 31) the Divinity of Christ is spoken of, as follows:

"But it is asked. How can a human being be in any true sense Divine-one with the Infinite God? Without entering here upon a discussion which would be beyond our limits, an illustration may throw some light on this mystery. If we stand by the seaside, and gaze on the waters of some bay as they flow in between the surrounding land, we say and say truly,This is the sea;' and yet, beautiful and glorious as it is, it is but a limited and circumscribed view of the broad boundless ocean. Nevertheless it is as much of the ocean as can be included within that opening in the land. So we see in Christ as much of God as can be manifest in a human life."

Thus, also, it may be added, we meet, in the many types of the Old Testament, and in the figurative and descriptive expressions in the New, as much of the mystery of redemption through Christ as can be put into human language and in

terpreted by human thought. Is not that quite enough?

Some sentences in the numerous letters to the London Friend and British Friend in regard to the publication now under review, are so much to the point as to be worthy of repetition here.

F. P. Balkwill writes: "The wisdom of God is as great as His goodness, and His justice is as holy as His love. All His attributes are equally vindi. cated and demonstrated by Jesus in His life, doctrine, death and resurrection. The I Am of Sinai, Father, who, in the parable of Dives, and in the the Ancient of Days of Daniel, is the same with our Revelation, is seen to have lost none of His terribleness in judgment; and what can exceed 'the wrath of the Lamb?'

"In the vindication of the inviolability of His law and the sinfulness of sin, and its penalty, the spectacle of Calvary and its pure, holy, self-immolating victim, suffering for our sins and in our stead, was a display to all the universe of the supremacy of law and order, and of the self-consistency of God in all His attributes,-wherein Jesus has exhibited the highest degree of true moral greatness in His self-abnegation, and by which He has crowned Himself with the glory of the adoring gratitude of the ransomed and redeemed of every clime and age, not as apart from the Father, but as one with the Father in the salvation of mankind."

Hannah Maria Wigham concludes a communication on the same subject with these impressive

sentences:

"In shedding His blood on Calvary, our Saviour has perfected the outward sacrifice for sin, and under the simile of the blood which is the life' He has taught us that our nature is to be renewed through drinking in His Spirit, and so entering into the full blessing of that Sonship of which His life on earth was the perfect manifestation. If we once take in the thought of the Fatherhood of God, and all that it implies, we shall see a new light on the stormy sea of life, and shall be assured that the Everlasting Arms are underneath all and everything. Looking at the cross of Christ as the utmost token of that infinite Fatherhood, we shall feel the truth of the words:

"Through all depths of sin and loss
Drops the plummet of Thy cross;
Never yet abyss was found

Deeper than that cross can sound.
Deep below, as high above,

Sweeps the circle of God's love.""

That late eminent minister among Friends, James Backhouse, of York, England, left the following clear testimony, which is preserved in the Memoir written by his sister :

"I prayed often to the Lord to preserve me from adopting any opinions that were not accordant with Truth, and He inclined His ear unto me and heard my cry;' and as I leaned upon Him, and submitted to feel myself to be a fool as to these things, so far as regarded my capacity to under stand them by my natural powers, and waited patiently to be taught of the Lord, He was pleased