The American Baptist Home Mission Society seeks to maintain the most cordial and fraternal relations with all Christian organizations, especially with those of our own household of faith. It accords to each all the rights and privileges it claims for itself. It trespasses upon the work of no other Society, and it expects fair treatment in return. No other Society has any moral right to invade the province of the Home Mission Society, and when it does so it will meet with protest and resistance. We claim as the province of the Home Mission Society the work of serving the Northern Baptists as a distinctively Missionary Society; an evangelizing agency for carrying the gospel to the destitute, baptizing converts, organizing churches, building meeting-houses, and supporting missionary pastors. State Conventions do similar work, but we know of no

No. 2.

national organization that can do it without trespassing.

We take great pleasure in presenting a sketch of our Superintendent of Indian Missions, Rev. Dr. J. S. Murrow, together with a portrait, which, we are sure, will be gladly welcomed by the many friends of this veteran and much revered missionary.

Occasional requests for boxes or barrels of clothing and other supplies for frontier missionaries continue to reach us. If there are still churches that are desirous of aiding in this gracious work, we should be glad to hear from them.

CHAPEL DAY SUNDAY.

We ask especial attention of all of our readers, particularly of the officers of the Young People's Societies, to Chapel Day Sunday. We have prepared an elaborate and interesting exercise for that day, which will be furnished free of cost to any Sunday school or Young People's Society which will take up a collection for the benefit of the Chapel Fund. This money will be used in the erection of chapels or meeting-houses for churches and Sunday-schools that are now without a home. The object ought to appeal very strongly to our young people who enjoy the great advantage of having a religious home for themselves. Write to the District Missionary for your district, or to the rooms, for further information.

Friends of Dr. Jeter who knew him well assert that it is impossible that he should have made any such statements, as they are directly in contradiction of his well-known sentiments and actions toward the colored people. Dr. R. H. Pitt writes: "The statement that Dr. Jeter ever said to anybody, anywhere, that the negroes had no part in that human nature in which Christ came, is simply ludicrous to any one who knew anything whatever of his life."

Although we have no personal knowledge of Dr. Jeter, or of his views regarding the negroes, we can hardly believe that a man of his general intelligence and high standing as a Christian minister could have entertained or have expressed such sentiments as those attributed to him.

Dr. Tefft says in reference to the matter, that his recollection is clear that the statement was made to him by Mr. Keen, a man of good standing, who would not knowingly misrepresent Dr. Jeter.

There seems to have been some misunderstanding of Dr. Jeter's position, and we are very glad to have had our attention called to the apparent injustice done to his

memory.

We have on hand for sale, at the rooms, at $1 a copy, a few Jubilee volumes. This gives an authentic, interesting history of the operations of the Home Mission Society during the first half-century of its existence. It contains material that cannot be found anywhere else, and is of special value to pastors and others who are desirous either of informing themselves, or of giving information to others.

We are very much gratified to learn that Rev. Dr. A. J. Rowland, of Baltimore, Md.,

has accepted the secretaryship of the American Baptist Publication Society, and will enter at once upon the discharge of his important duties. Our association with Dr. Rowland in Rochester Theological Seminary, away back in the 60's, and our delightful personal relations with him in all the years that have followed, have endeared him to us very much, and we anticipate the most pleasant official relations with him in the future. He is scholarly, industrious, conservative, and yet aggressive. He has had large experience with men, has signal ability as an administrative officer, and is, we believe, exceptionally well equipped for the important position which he assumes.

Multitudes of the readers of the MONTHLY will join with us in a deep sense of loss occasioned by the recent death of the wife of Dr. MacVicar, Superintendent of Education. A woman of rare gifts, fully ripened by many years of Christian service, she had been a "helpmeet" indeed to her husband in all his varied public service; and at no time had her counsel and support been more cordially given or more fully appreciated than during the years that he has been engaged in his present important field of service.

GOSPEL TENT FOR THE KIOWAS.

Friends of the Home Mission work in Iowa, who are interested in the Kiowa Indians, have provided, through the agency of Rev. N. B. Rairden, Superintendent of Missions, a Gospel tent, at a cost of $26.25. It has already been delivered to Rev. G. W. Hicks, our missionary at Anadarko, and we trust, ere long, it will be pitched at various favorable points, and that through its instrumentality many of these neglected people may hear the Glad Tidings and be brought out of darkness into light. The results of this new, and yet most appropriate, method of working among the Kiowas will be watched with deep interest, and we are sure that many will earnestly pray that it may be fruitful for good.

"THE LOYAL SIX." Frequent inquiries have come to the Rooms regarding a circular appeal sent by the women at Newkirk, Okla. Concerning this church, our General Missionary,

Rev. L. J. Dyke, says:

"The church is small, but very resolute. 'The Loyal Six,' as they call themselves, are very good and faithful sisters. They are anxious to purchase a lot that is very central. It is to secure this lot, and get a little fund on hand, that they have adopted this plan. They need a house of worship. very much, but I have not encouraged them to try to build before spring, when I have told them we will try to help them some. Brother Whitaker seems to be getting a wonderful hold upon the people, and their outlook is very encouraging."

A CHANGE OF METHOD. One of the practical results in administration growing out of the visit of inspection made by the Field Secretary in the Northwest, has been a modification in our method of dealing with the Chinese. While Dr. Hartwell, who spoke the Chinese language readily, was our Chinese Missionary, it seemed best that he should have the oversight of all the Chinese work on the Pacific Coast. On his return to China, as missionary, his work was assumed by Deacon H. F. Norris, who, though unable to speak Chinese, has rendered very faithful, efficient and satisfactory service. It is thought best now, however, to bring the work among the Chinese into closer relationship with other missionary work, and, consequently, its oversight in the State has been referred to the several State Conventions and their General Superintendents of Missions. It is hoped that this will result in awakening a livelier local interest in the Chinese work, and also of a stronger sense of responsibility for its vigorous prosecution. The Board has the highest appreciation of Deacon Norris, and hopes to continue him in its service, unless a broader field of usefulness should present itself to him.

TOO MANY APPEALS FOR HELP. We desire to call the attention of our readers to a subject which has perplexed us at the Rooms, and which is not free from difficulties. The Home Mission Society sweeps the entire vast, almost illimitable, field of missionary work under its special watch care, and is acquainted with the needs of the field as no other organization possibly can be. It presents these needs in the most impressive way possible, through its annual reports, through the columns of the MONTHLY, and by the lips of its District Secretaries, General Missionaries and other workers, and also through private appeals to individuals, churches, and Sunday-schools. There is no legitimate method of arousing public interest and stimulating the benevolence of the churches in behalf of Home Missions which the Society, knowingly, fails to use. It expends, according to its most careful judgment, every dollar it can secure in furthering educational and missionary work in the most judicious, economical and efficient manner. When all that it has been able to do has been done, and every dollar available has been used, there remains an enormous amount of work unattempted; and it sometimes seems to us, acquainted with the facts, that the work undone is vastly greater than the work accomplished. What then? If the Society has done its utmost in pleading the cause of Home Missions, and has secured from the churches the largest possible contributions, and then has expended its donations wisely, the responsibility of the Society would seem to be ended. There is a limit of responsibility; that limit is reached when the agent has done his

utmost.

Struggling schools, feeble churches, destitute mission fields, having appealed in vain to the Home Mission Society to give when it is unable to give any longer, oftentimes make their appeals, either through the newspapers or by their agents, or through letters addressed directly either to churches and Sunday-schools, or to individuals. Nobody questions the right of a school to

appeal for help to erect a school building, employ teachers, and meet other current expenses involved in carrying on its work; no one doubts the right or privilege of a Baptist Church in Oklahoma or Idaho to appeal to the public for help to build a meeting-house, buy a bell or an organ, or for aid in the support of a pastor; no one doubts the right of a church in Washington, or anywhere else, which finds itself burdened with a debt which threatens to crush its life out, to appeal to the charitable to rescue it from its peril. It is useless to say that all this work has been committed by the churches to the Home Mission Society, because, as we have already shown, the churches supply the Home Mission Society with only a meager portion of the money necessary to meet the wants of the field. The Society could spend profitably a million dollars a year for the next twenty-five years in strictly Home Mission work, and as a result of this spending the Baptist cause in America at the end of the twentyfive years would, under the good Providence of God, be enormously strengthened and prepared for the tremendous conflicts that await the Christian churches in this country in the twentieth century. The Baptists of America are not meeting the urgent Home Mission demand made by America upon them; and so long as they do not meet it, the appeals for help will certainly be made directly by the churches and schools and destitute fields. There is no way to prevent this. If the demand thus made upon the churches is a burden too heavy to be borne; if the appeals thus made are troublesome, embarrassing and vexatious; if the men and the women who urge the claims of their respective cases are unwelcome visitors, and if their letters and appeals are sometimes trying to the patience of those who are besieged by them, we know of no help for it, so long as the necessity for missionary effort remains. When all the foreigners have been converted to Christianity; when all the destitute places in the West have been supplied with Baptist churches comfortably housed;

when the millions of destitute children in our cities and elsewhere, now growing up in practical heathenism, have been gathered into Christian Sunday-schools; when an adequate system of Christian schools has been established for the education of preachers, teachers, and other Christian workers among the eight million Negroes of the South, and when the churches in Eastern States, enfeebled by emigration to the West, have been rejuvenated, then, perhaps, these demands will cease to be so many and so urgent-unless God, in His good Providence, having regard to the grace of benevolence in the churches, shall create other demands for missionary contributions.

A Better Way.

There is no doubt, however, that the plan of indiscriminate solicitation of money for Christian work is open to criticism, and is liable to serious abuse, and we believe it is possible to apply at least a partial remedy. We suggest, therefore

First. That the receipts of the Home Mission Society for the prosecution of the continental missionary enterprises that it has undertaken shall be made more nearly adequate to the demands. For every dollar given by American Baptists for foreign missions, there should certainly be added another dollar for missions at home. The receipts of the Home Mission Society ought to be largely increased. The Society has all the needed machinery, experience, wisdom, public confidence and opportunity, and could at a very slight additional cost expend wisely and efficiently twice the amount of money that annually finds its way into its treasury. This would at once relieve the pressure upon the churches from these miscellaneous, individual appeals.

Second. If all contributions made in response to special appeals by individuals, churches and Sunday-schools, were sent to the Home Mission Society, designated for the special purpose for which given, with instructions not to pay the money

unless the object was needy and deserving, the givers would have the guarantee that their money would be worthily bestowed, and would be saved from the fretting suspicion that they had been duped-a suspicion which, we are sorry to say, is in many cases not without foundation. It is undoubtedly true that in numerous instances appeals are made for money and supplies where there is no real necessity for such appeal, or where the need is very much less than in other cases. It is also true that in some cases appeals are sent broadcast over the country and yield a return beyond the necessities which prompted them; and, besides, where no report is made of money thus received and expended, the door is wide open for extravagance and misappropriation of benevolent contributions. All of this, or at least a large part of it, could be remedied if all moneys for mission purposes were sent to the Home Mission Society.

Third. The Home Mission Society is constantly called upon by churches and individuals for information in reference to the need and worthiness of the school or the church making appeal. The Society expends a good deal of time and labor in the investigation of such cases, in order that a reliable report may be made, but there is a disposition on the part of the Society, hereafter, to limit, absolutely, its endorsement of any appeals whatever to those churches or schools which ask the Society for its endorsement, and submit to it such statements of fact as will warrant it in giving an opinion, and which will, also, report, through the columns of the HOME MISSION MONTHLY, every dollar received in answer to the appeal, and the method of its expenditure. We are convinced that these three suggestions, viz.: The increase of the receipts of the Home Mission Society; the sending of all contributions, designated for special cases, to its treasury; and the refusal of the Society to endorse any appeal except on the conditions named, will, in part, at least, remedy the evils complained of, and will tend to systematize, stimulate,

and render efficient the enlarged missionary contributions of the Baptists of America.

CO-OPERATION-ADVISORY COM-
MITTEES.

At a meeting of the Board of Managers of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, January 14, 1895, it was voted that the following preamble and resolution be and they are hereby adopted by this Board for the guidance of the Advisory Committees to be appointed by the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, in conformity with the basis of co-operation between the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and this Board, adopted November 12, 1894, and that a copy thereof be furnished to the Corresponding Secretary of the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention :

Whereas, The Executive Board of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, at its meeting held November 12, 1894, adopted and ratified the basis of co-operation agreed upon by representatives of the Southern Baptist Convention and of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, in joint conference, at Fortress Monroe, September 12, 1894; and

Whereas, In accordance with the basis of agreement, the Executive Board of the Southern Baptist Convention is to appoint Advisory Committees in connection with each of the schools for colored people in the South supported by the American Baptist Home Mission Society; and—

Whereas, The American Baptist Home Mission Society, in accordance with the basis of agreement, is to prescribe and authorize from time to time the performance by the Advisory Committees of such duties as will promote the best interests of the institutions with which they are connected; and—

Whereas, Each chartered institution has a Board of Trustees, with defined legislative and executive power, and a duly appointed President or Principal charged with the duty of administering the affairs of the institution; and

Whereas, The Committees to be appointed are simply Advisory and can have no legislative or executive authority, and are to discharge their duties in harmony with the requirements of the constituted authorities of the schools to which appointed; and—

Whereas, It was specially agreed in the Joint Conference that the ultimate authority for deciding