[Those not Missionaries or Assistant Missionaries of the A. B. C. F. M. are printed in italics.]

THE

MISSIONARY HERALD.

VOL. LXXXII. — JANUARY, 1886.- - No. I.

THREE MONTHS. - During the first three months of the financial year the regular donations have amounted to a little over $66,000, and special thankofferings to a little over $4,000—a total of $70,186.72. This is a gain over the average donations for the corresponding months, for the past six years, of about twenty per cent. It is a favorable indication at the beginning of our New Year. Now, if all who desire to be included among the special donors to the Memorial Thank-offering will send in their generous gifts or pledges during the next two months, advancing that offering handsomely forward toward the $100,000, suggested at the recent Annual Meeting, and if the regular donations from churches and individuals also increase through the early months of the year, we shall have abundant occasion "to thank God and take courage." Let every church and congregation help in this direction. See article in the present Herald, entitled "Our Annual Missionary Offering. How is it Distributed?"

THE diagram opposite, showing th religious faiths of the world, is by no means copied from, though suggested by, one prepared by Eugene Stock, of the English Church Missionary Society.

BECAUSE Sympathy and prayer for missions cannot be expected where there is little or no knowledge of them, we ask the lovers of the good cause to take advantage of this favorable season of the year to aid us in enlarging the circulation of the Missionary Herald.

THE English missionary societies are still greatly favored in the supply of men and women offering for service in foreign lands. Aside from the large number who went last year in connection with the China Inland Mission, we read that at the "Valedictory Dismissal," held October 2, by the Church Missionary Society, thirty persons, including nine wives, were present to receive instruction and to be commended to God in prayer. Though many of these were returning to fields in which they had already labored, the proportion of new missionaries is large, and the number offering themselves for service is increasing.

By a clerical error the number of native churches in the Foochow Mission was given in the Annual Report as three, when it should have been fourteen, the churches in the out-stations having been accidentally omitted. This makes the total number of churches in foreign lands connected with the Board 303.

SOME of our readers will probably miss, in this issue of the Herald, the list of missionaries with their stations, which has for some years been given in the January number. We have thought it best to place this list, with much other matter, in the "AMERICAN BOARD ALMANAC OF MISSIONS," notice of which was given last month. The almanac is now ready; it is somewhat larger than at first proposed, having thirty-six pages, with a cover printed in colors. It will contain the list of missionaries with their stations, a list of stations and principal outstations (with pronunciations), the distances from different points, and a large variety of other matter which it is believed will make the almanac indispensable to the friends of missions, and especially the constituency of the American Board. It will be sent by mail at the rate of $6 per hundred, $1 a dozen, and ten cents a single copy.

THE Commemorative Volume, which was announced as in course of preparation, is now ready. It contains the discourses of Drs. Walker and Storrs; the address of President Hopkins; the principal portion of the paper of R. N. Cust, Esq.; letters and salutations received from other missionary bodies; the Historical Papers presented at the late Annual Meeting, and the concluding remarks of the President and Dr. Webb; together with portraits of President Mark Hopkins and Governor Treadwell of Connecticut, the first President. It will be sent, postpaid, for twenty-five cents in paper cover, and fifty cents bound.

It is a matter for universal congratulation that the world is rid so suddenly, and with so little bloodshed, of such a monarch as King Theebaw of Burma. There are, no doubt, difficult questions connected with the assumption of authority by the English government over Burma; but the interests of humanity required that that savage and brutal king should be deposed. A better day is to dawn for Burma, and we congratulate our brethren of the Baptist Missionary Union on the auspicious outlook for their work in that empire.

THE sum of $143 has just been given by individuals in the Broadway Tabernacle Church of New York City, supplemented by ten dollars more from a mission circle, known as the "Cheerful Workers," to be expended by Mr. Neesima in supplying English books to Japanese pastors of his acquaintance. This timely gift was increased by the kindly offices of the pastor, Dr. Taylor, in securing ten copies of Dr. H. B. Smith's "Systematic Theology," presented for distribution by D. Willis James, Esq. It was quite in order that a church which, under the lead of its pastor, had just increased its annual contribution to the Board by $1,000, should be forward in this grace also, for supplying our native ministry with the means of broadening their views and enlarging their influence. Good books, by the best writers of the time, on Christian Apologetics, Biblical Theology, History of Christian Doctrines, and current Philosophical and Theological questions, are greatly needed for textbooks and books of reference in our seminaries and higher institutions of learning, as well as for the best educated pastors and preachers in Japan, Turkey, and India. The Secretaries of the American Board would be glad of the opportunity to distribute the following, among other good books: Hopkins's Outline Study of Man, 100 copies; Smith's

Systematic Theology, 50 copies; Storrs's Divine Origin of Christianity, 50 copies; Schaff's Church History (3 vols.), 25 copies; Schaff's Creeds of Christendom, 12 copies; Fisher's Supernatural Origin of Christianity, 50 copies; Fisher's Reformation, 50 copies; Fisher's Beginnings of Christianity, 50 copies; Shedd's History of Christian Doctrines, 25 copies; Stanley's History of the Jewish Church, 25 copies; Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, 25 copies; Taylor's Bible Characters, Daniel, David, etc., 50 copies each; Meyers's Commentaries, etc. These and other volumes of like character would be of the greatest service to the work we are prosecuting in foreign fields.

ARE our churches caring as they should for the training of the children in developing the spirit of benevolence and zeal for missionary work? Children as well as adults must read of distant lands if they would care for them. If you cannot find anything better for the little ones than the Mission Dayspring, published by the American Board and the Woman's Board, by all means get the latter. Would it not be a good thing for our youth, as well as for the future of the churches, if 60.000 copies of this children's missionary paper - instead of 20,000 or more— could be distributed monthly among them?

THE edition of the map of Micronesia in the set of wall-maps prepared by the American Board having been exhausted, a new map has been prepared with some additions, especially giving as an inset a map of the lagoon of Ruk, the region which is just now made most interesting by the reports from Mr. Logan, which will be found on another page. Price, on cloth, 70 cents; on paper, 40

cents.

A MONTH OF SPECIAL PRAYER. The following letter has been received in the Home Department from an earnest Christian woman: "The December Heraldi came this morning filled, as it always is, with valuable material. The item of special significance in this number is the announcement that the month of February has been set apart by the English Church Missionary Society for united public prayer for special spiritual blessings. The thought must have come to you as it did to me, instantly, and will to many as they read the statement: 'We ought to have just such meetings in this land!' Is it not possible to make arrangements for one hundred or more meetings in convenient localities, so timed that three or four of them may be held each day of the month, so that, during the entire month, there shall daily ascend public pleadings for the needed gifts of the Holy Ghost gifts needed that all Christians may be prepared, as God alone can prepare them, to obey that last command of our Lord in just the particular line of work that he wishes, and that the heathen may be made ready to accept the gospel when presented to them? If with such public prayer there is also offered the daily secret prayer, may not, must not, the month of February, 1886, become the month of months in the history of the upbuilding of Christ's kingdom in the world?" The suggestion here made is in the line of much that has been said and thought by many Christians in recent days. Is not some such plan as this here presented feasible and desirable? We shall be glad to hear briefly from any of our friends as to their opinions on this matter.