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allowing the latter to appoint and commission the missionary teachers nominated by the Woman's Society and sending to its Treasurer money for the payment of their salaries.

The new plan of co-operation between the two Societies proposes no break or radical alteration in the relations hitherto existing, but aims rather to make them more complete with a view of unifying and rendering more effective the benevolent activities of both bodies and the awakening of new interest and securing larger contributions from the churches.

Hereafter the representatives of the Woman's Society in presenting their work 'will not confine themselves as heretofore to the educational feature exclusively, nor will they limit their efforts to interesting the women and children of the churches in the special work of the Woman's Society, but will also co-operate with the General Society in promoting its interests among the churches.

It is expected that there will be in the churches missionary committees, composed of both men and women, entrusted with the privilege of circulating literature and otherwise promoting the interests of Home Missions.

The Woman's Society is to retain its essential autonomy, elect its own officers, fix their salaries, conduct its annual meetings and publish its own report.

Provision is made for the appointment by the Woman's Society of a Committee on Co operation to confer with a similar committee or with the Executive Board of the General Society on matters of common interest.

The Home Mission Society is to provide on the programme of its annual meetings for the presentation of the work of the Woman's Society and to publish a synopsis thereof in its Annual Report.

Representatives of both organizations will co-operate in holding local and Associational meetings in behalf of the entire work of Home Missions on this Continent.

The Home Mission Echo will hereafter be published by and in the interest of both Societies under the title, "Home Mission Echoes." It will be enlarged, illustrated and furnished in clubs at 10 cents per annum in order to meet the demand for a

cheap and popular Home Mission paper for circulation in churches and Sundayschools.

The Woman's Society is to have placed at its disposal an equitable pro rata part of the increase in the gross receipts of both Societies.

It is believed that the plan here outlined contains the solution of some hitherto perplexing problems concerning the harmonious adjustment of the relations of the two Societies. While practical tests may suggest minor modifications, we believe the plan in its essential features will commend itself to the judgment of pastors and members of our churches generally whose hearty support of this new departure is earnestly invoked.

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CHURCH IN CHICAGO AND AMERICA.

In response to a call from the First German Baptist Church of Chicago, a council composed of thirty-four delegates and representing eighteen Chicago Baptist churches, assembled at the Bohemian Mission on Throop Street, Chicago, to consider the propriety of recognizing eighty-four members of the Bohemian Mission as the First Bohemian Baptist Church of Chicago. Dr. Wm. M. Lawrence was elected Moderator, and Rev. James A. Goodman, clerk. A full statement of the condition of the Mission and of the proceedings by which it had been organized into a church were made by Brother John Shultz, church clerk and Superintendent of the Sabbath-school. A succinct history of the Mission from its beginning in 1888 was then given by Dr. Haigh, Dr. Parker, Rev. J. Meier and Rev. R. E. Manning. Pastor Kejr also addressed the Council, with Brother Meier as his interpreter. This history proved to be most thrilling, indicating from the first Divine guidance in the important work.

Two Bohemian women attending prayermeeting at our German mission had been brought to Christ, and in every meeting were offering eanest prayers that a missionary might be sent to preach to them in the Bohemian tongue. At the same time Brother Meier received a letter from a thoroughly educated Bohemian missionary, engaged in German work in Baltimore, asking if he could not find some work to do among his own people. When it is remembered that at that very time it was stated there were not five men in America who could preach a sermon in the Bohemian tongue, the hand of the Lord seemed to be most manifest. The Committee on Foreign Popu lation, Dr. Parker, chairman, recognized the call. The circumstances were presented at the meeting of the Baptist Social Union and $200 voted toward starting the Mission, and the Home Mission Society appointed the brother mentioned as missionary.

Many embarrassments were met with at

first, and great difficulty was found in securing a suitable mission hall, but, after awhile, S. B. Lingle, Esq., of the First Baptist Church of Chicago, began the erection of the Mission premises, and, when the basement was completed, invited the Mission to occupy it. After some years, the second story, with additional rooms, was added, so that now the Mission House is quite commodious, and the building has become the center of many branches of Christian work. An English Sunday school was organized for Sunday afternoons, and an industrial School was established by the Women's Home Mission Society, and finally English preaching also has been established, and all these interests are carried on in the building.

Through many difficulties and discouragements, the work has gone on to the present time, and, after many removals and deaths and changes, eighty-four members were dismissed from the First Baptist German Church to form the Bohemian church. The Bohemian department has sustained a flourishing Sunday-school in the morning, and a mission school in a distant neighborhood in the afternoon, preaching morning and evening at the central station, with prayer-meetings and other services on week

nights.

In the English department the First Church, under the leadership of Mr. Lingle, sends every Sabbath a band of teachers, as does also the Women's Home Mission Society. Thus the Bohemian and English departments aid and supplement each other.

The Mission has gradually been accustomed, by the permission of the First German Church, to transact its own business, receive members for baptism, and baptize them in its own building. By this means they have become accustomed to church work and order, and the reports read by the clerk were very systematic and highly satisfactory. A fine choir has been organized and trained, a Young People's Society and other organizations have been made, so that the Mission is already trained in the habits of a Christian church. The Council was profoundly stirred as these statements were brought out, and a decision was reached unanimously to recognize the Mission as a now organized Baptist church. A Committee, consisting of Dr. Parker, Dr. Haigh, and Rev. Meier, had charge of the

recognition services to be held Sunday night.

At that time a gathering of about three hundred and fifty people was found ready to take part in the services. A full programme had been prepared by the church. The eightyfour members, composed almost exclusively of mature adults and young people, were all arranged on one side of the room, and, after various religious services, they arose in a body, and Dr. Haigh, on behalf of the Council, addressed them on the gracious Providence which had led them, the privileges they enjoyed, and the responsibilities they were undertaking, and then extended to the pastor at the head of his people the hand of fellowship. All the brethren and sisters joined hands together, and at the close of the address broke out into a happy and inspiring song of loving fellowship.

They were then addressed by H. R. Clissold, Esq., Moderator of the General Association of Illinois, who followed his remarks to the church with an earnest appeal to the over two hundred persons who witnessed these exercises. An earnest sermon in the Bohemian language was then preached by the pastor, and amid great joy and rejoicing, these interesting services were brought to a close.

This is the first Bohemian Baptist church in the United States, and the second in the world, the first being in Bohemia. There are from forty thousand to sixty thousand Bohemians in Chicago, according to the most conservative estimate. Let prayer be offered on every hand that this promising band may become a great power among their own countrymen.

THE ITALIANS IN BUFFALO.

BY REV. A. S. COATS.

The city of Buffalo, N. Y., is greatly honored in being the birth-place of the only Polish Baptist Church in the world, and the First Italian Baptist Church in the United States. The history of the latter reads like a romance. Two years ago last May mission work among this people was a thing hoped for by a few earnest Christians who realized that some 5,000 sons and daughters of Italy, blind and ignorant adherents of Rome, were living among them without hope and without God in the world. To-day three successful missions are conducted

among this people, of whom fifty-seven have publicly testified in baptism to their newfound faith in the Son of God; possibly as many more have been savingly touched by His Grace, and a new church home for this people has lately been dedicated in a rapidly-growing Italian district on the outskirts of the city. Best of all the young people of our Baptist Churches, divided as they have been for years into Christian Endeavor and Young People's Union Societies, have heartily united in an association the most important and interesting work of which is this same Italian mission. Indeed, to some of us it seems as though the Baptist Young People's Association of Buffalo was born for the Italian Mission of Buffalo, and that the Italian Mission of Buffalo was born for the Baptist Young People's Association of Buffalo, so closely identified have these two institutions been from the beginning. The American Baptist Home Mission Society has from the first shown a deep and practical interest in the evangelization of both the Poles and the Italians of Buffalo, having paid half the salaries of our missionaries and in many other ways helped in carrying burdens too heavy for us to bear alone. The remarkable success thus far achieved in this work is due under God to the fact that our missionaries have been capable and godly men who speak these strange languages as their native tongue. Three years since Mr. Ariel B. Bellondi, a graduate of the University of Florence, Italy, came to this country for his theological education. While pursuing his studies at first in Colgate University, and lately in Rochester Theological Seminary, he has nobly wrought among his own people in Buffalo. In the meantime God has raised up among them several men and one woman-a Mrs. May-who are "able to teach others also," and so the future of the work is not entirely.dependent upon one man.

The Italians in America, though largely ignorant themselves, have great respect for learning; and the first permanent im. pression Mr. Bellondi made upon this people was in a public debate with one of their priests, in which he proved his abil ity to use the Latin-the sacred tongueas skillfully as could the learned "Father." Too often among this and other foreign nationalities the attempt is made to win

the parents through the children. If the work in Buffalo proves anything, it is that the normal, hence the divine way is to win the children by first winning their parents. Concerning the dedication of the new building referred to above, I cannot do better than to quote the following from the facile pen of Rev. O. P. Gifford, D.D., in his account of the same to The Standard: "Sunday, September 15, is marked in the history of Buffalo by two curiously contrasted events. At three o'clock in the afternoon the First Italian Baptist Church of America was dedicated.

Good Work Among the Jews. 340 JEFFERSON AVE., BROOKLYN, N. Y., September 23d, 1896.

Dear Bro. in Christ: For so many centuries the missionary to the Jews, if there was any, stood beside the workers from the different fields, like Peter, with his empty net. Some have toiled through the long night on the Jewish sea and caught nothing until the morning begins to break and the Lord Jesus himself calls, "Cast the net on this side of the ship and ye shall find." With great joy and thanks to God do I inform you now of the blessed fact that the Lord enabled me to open a mission in Williams

The new church is a plain, one story wooden structure costing about $2,000 and is nearly paid for. Dr. Morgan, of Newburgh as a branch of the mission in BrownsYork, preached the dedication sermon. Addresses were made by different Baptist❘ pastors of the city. Thus we have our "Italian Band" and can sympathize with Paul when he wrote his epistle to the "First Baptist Church in Rome." It was a delight to see the sunny faces of these happy Christians who have come out from the shadow of the Romish superstition.

About 6.45 last Sunday evening two of the police arrested some Italian loafers, in a section of the city miles away from the chapel; the patrol wagon hurried the arrests to the station. Shortly after, the arresting officer was dragged into an Italian dairy, knocked down and severely kicked; a fellow officer trying to rescue him was set upon and badly beaten. The crowd grew, the police were reinforced, six more arrests were made. Sum total, two officers in the hospital, ten Italians added to the criminal list, one Italian woman shot in the back; the dignity of the law sustained, the Italian element embit tered, the Lord's Day stained with blood. Which is the better way to Americanize the immigrant, with a policeman or a missionary? with the chapel or the cell? with the Bible or the club? Which way is cheaper and on the whole most effective? When shall we learn that law fails through the weakness of the flesh? but that, what the law could not do, God sending his Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin succeeds in doing?

Doubtless every man arrested is a member of the Holy Catholic Church,' and his standing is not questioned by this Sunday fracas. In view of facts what are our duties as Americans and as Christians?"

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ville, where I have been laboring for two years. This new mission is in No. 17 Ewen street, and it was opened for the first time last August. Of course, it has pleased the Lord to bless my humble and poor efforts in Brownsville more than I expected, and it is still, thank God, growing in every respect, but this new work at Williamsburgh is marvelous in my eyes, and surely it is from the Lord. The mission room was opened on a Friday evening, after some cards of invitation were circulated among my Jewish brethren. As soon as the gas was lit in the room the Jews began to move in large crowds from every side and began to push their way to the hall. There was such a multitude of the house of Israel that we feared someone might be injured through the crowding. A Christian lady kindly volunteered to go for a policeman in order to avert such a calamity. The Lord enabled me to secure eighty chairs. These were speedily filled. The remainder of the audience occupied the vacant space. Here they stood, closely crowded together, all with keen, eager faces, all curious to know what the speaker had to say concerning Christ and Him crucified. There were young, middleaged and old men, the shorter ones craning their necks that they might see all that was going on, as well as did those more favored as to height. There were no interruptions, no sneers and no disapprovals. My text was, "I seek my brethren." Eye and ear, heart and hand, judgment, imagination, hope, desire, will, all the faculties of the audience seemed to be satisfied.

The absolute silence of the multitude of my Jewish brethren showed that the joy of

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