The Young People's Department The Synodical Tour is always a source for gathering information of local as well as synodical and presbyterial conditions among young people's organizations and Sundayschools. A few gleanings may be of interest: A successful method of stimulating missionary interest in a Sunday-school is to have the classes present in turn a five or ten-minute review of one or more mission stations, or notes from the special work supported by the school. This was reported by those who have tried it for both weekly and monthly sessions. Another school adapts a mission study textbook in a similar way-the classes giving in turn the gist of a chapter until the book is fully reviewed. Missionary exhibits were also reported as successful in arousing an unprecedented interest which spread from the Sunday school workers who arranged it to the entire congregation. One such exhibit continued for three days with two evening meetings, one of which was given to a stereopticon lecture. What is being done for the children of your church along the line of missionary training? The reports listened to from Christian Endeavor State Junior superintendents, and from Mission Band secretaries testified that the disbanding of many of these children's societies is "because it is impossible to find leaders." One does not wish to believe such a statement. It is not because the children are unwilling, nor because there are no children; nor is it because they are not a delight and an inspiration to work with. "Somebody" is not willing to take time, and then-there are too many homes where no encouragement is given either the children or the one who has offered to lead. These sample questions asked at a Junior Conference seem to tell a secret: "How can parents be interested in this work for the children?" "Who helps the Juniors prepare for the meetings?" "Where will the Superintendent find helps for preparation?" "Are your efforts with the boys and girls productive of good results?" "From whom, outside the society have you received encouragement and cooperation in your work?" At the late meeting of the American Missionary Association great emphasis was laid on the plans for "an advance of fifteen per cent. increase in membership and attendance in Sunday schools, to introduce an apportionment system of giving, and to educate Sabbath schools as to the meaning of their gifts." Our Board of Publication and Sabbath school Work has also published a "Standard of Excellence" which covers these points. There is the inspiration of concerted action, and with increased membership and increased knowledge, a goodly percentage of increase in gifts for missions may be expected. This department is always ready to suggest specific objects-stations or salaries-for gifts, and to provide information for superintendents or teachers. "Efficiency" is the watchword of the year in our Christian Endeavor societies, and the contagion of this slogan has already spread to other activities. It is seen in announcements of religious publications. The other day the startling headline appeared, “Only one-half a man is efficient at any one time, unless"-and there followed the "ad" for a patent medicine. To aid in making the "whole man," or the whole young people's society "efficient" we have programs, letters, leaflets, and many other forms of printed helps for meetings, classes, etc., etc. Send for what you need. Leaders are needed for the older societies -willing, earnest, systematic, businesslike chairmen for the missionary committees, and for the leading of study classes. Why could not one member of our C. E. missionary committees be a permanency-or elected for three or five years? It would help solve some of the problems. Then the call is loud for volunteers on the "firing line”—especially for young women of "efficiency" for the mission school work. Are there young people in C. E. societies training for this active service in the home church and on the mission fields? Are your guns aimed at a definite mark, or are you trusting to a stray shot from some outside quarter to hit any "game" in your "preserves"? The "efficiency" call is needed in the individual lives if the society or Sunday school is to win the mark for the "standard of excellence." "The Church in the Open Country" is on our book shelves. What better time than winter for studying the needs and opportunities of country problems? The book by Dr. Wilson is exceedingly interesting, and we are ready for your orders, and to register and help your class. The "Tour of the Mission Fields of the World" ends with a visit to the West Indies. We have a good program for this Christian Endeavor meeting in December. Send at once for sample or supplies. Address all orders to the Secretary of this department, Miss M. J. Petrie, 156 5th Ave., New York City. "World Missions from the Home Base" is a series of home mission addresses by Mr. Joseph Ernest McAfee, Associate Secretary of the Board of Home Missions. They take large views of the missionary problem in its home and foreign relations, and are expressed in the vigorous English of which Mr. McAfee is master. They will give some people a new conception of the meaning of missions and of the duty of the Church of today. The wide reading of these addresses will insure both a wider knowledge of and a deeper devotion to the opportunity and responsibility of the American Church. (Published by Fleming H. Revell Company, 158 Fifth Avenue, New York.) Is Your Church Included? Is your church represented on the list of Home Mission study classes? If not, do not fail to give consideration at once to the question of which, or how many of the new text-books, can be adapted to your use. There are three. "The Church of the Open Country," by Dr. Warren H. Wilson (price 35c. paper, 50c. cloth) has been written for young people. If yours is a country church your young men need to think about and study the problems common to all country churches; if your affiliation is with a city church you need to know how you may help the large number of others in rural places needing your aid. This study should bring you closer to the heart of the home missionary. The book for women's societies and West vation of National Ideals," (price 30c. paper, 50c. cloth), and is written in six chapters by six well known authors. Its aim is to inspire all who study to preserve "American standards of equality of rights, freedom of conscience and purity of religion." The need for such inspiration is only too apparent in these days. The third book is for children and every Christian who gives it a reading will wish the principles set forth might be planted in every child's heart. Do not fail to let your children study-not read, but study-"Best Things in America," by Katharine R. Crowell, (price 25c. paper, 40c. cloth). Include these good books in your church plans for this winter. Order them at once from our Literature Department, Room 713. 156 Fifth Ave., New York, N. Y. An Appreciation Mrs. Delos Edwin Finks, for twenty-five years the gifted and beloved editor of The Home Mission Monthly, has entered into rest. For years she had been fighting the lifebattle, but with such courage and buoyancy of spirit that few realized that the end of her noble service was so near. She died at her home at East Orange on the morning of November fourth after days of extreme suffering borne with beautiful resignation. Her death-bed was a scene of triumph: "Let no one ever fear that strength for this hour will not be given." And again, "I want you to know that each day is a step up the golden stairway. The higher I go, the more glorious everything is. I hadn't thought it would be so radiant!" And so with messages of love to her nation-wide circle of friends, and in a glorious triumph of faith and hope, she had her abundant entrance into the heavenly kingdom. HOME MISSIONS DECEMBER STUDY.-"Backward Sections." Effects of Immigration. Weakening Community Life by Removals. Leaflet Aids. Church and the Transient, The. Conservation of Boys. Country Church Program, The. Farmers' Church and the Farmers' College, The. What is the Presbyterian Church Doing for Immlgrant? JANUARY STUDY.-"Money and Home Missions." Whence the Money Comes. How it is Administered. Increasing the Supply. Leaflet Aids. Aunty Parson's Story. Budget Method, The-How to Work It. Comprehensive Scheme of Church Finance, A. Little Argument With Myself, A. Making Home Missions Sacred. Phases of Home Mission Administration. Subscription Method of Raising Missionary and Successfully Financing a Church. "The Measure of a Man" by Norman Duncan is a book with a purpose. It depicts very vividly the story of missionary labors among the lumber jacks of the northern woods. Based on the life and experience of the Rev. Frank E. Higgins, the "Sky Pilot" of the Board of Home Missions among the lumbermen of Minnesota, it pictures in striking colors life in the woods, its temptations, surrenders, struggles and moral victories. As a story it is full of interest and holds the reader. As a drama of moral life and spiritual ideals and conquests it is uplifting and inspiring. It will have a wide reading.-Charles L. Thompson. Home Mission Topics for 1912 603 January-Money and Home Missions.-Whence the Money Comes; How it is Administered; Increasing the Supply. February-The Indians.-Evangelization and Nurture by Christian Ministry; Education and Development by State and Church; Place and Destiny in the Nation's Life. March-Immigrant Communities.-The Ministry of the Church; Methods of Approach; Forms of Service. April-Christian Citizenship.-Cooperation in Reform Movements; The Church and the Community; The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. May-Cuba and Porto Rico.-Educational Needs in Cuba; Multiplying Churches in Porto Rico; Medical Needs of Tropics. June-Alaska.-The Native; The Miner; A Perman THE BOARD OF HOME MISSIONS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE U. 8. A. Comparative Statement of Receipts for CURRENT WORK for the Months of October, 1910-11 Comparative Statement of Receipts for CURRENT WORK for the 7 Months ending October 31, 1910-11 $68,071.30 AND UNIVERSITY WORK JOSEPH WILSON COCHRAN, D.D., Secretary The Little Town Who can help feeling the ground-swell and under-tow from Masters of brush and chisel, makers of song and story, bring Libraries groan with the books telling of what Bethlehem means to literature, laws, education, moral and social uplift. Wherever men battle for liberty, wherever home life is cherished, friendships cultivated, childhood protected, peace maintained, self-sacrifice encouraged, spiritual values recognized, there you find living wires of dynamic energy running back to the cattle stall. The teachings of the Christ Child have been translated into four hundred and fifty languages and dialects. Three hundred millions of copies of His Word have been distributed within the. last century. Whoever spent twenty years giving Shakespeare to a savage tribe in India or Africa? This has been done time and again for the Babe of Bethlehem. On the backs of horses and camels, elephants and llamas goes His message of love. Hauled by dogs, bullocks, reindeer and men, loaded into canoes, roped on Arctic sleds, balanced on the heads of African porters, travels this same Word. It is read in the huts of the head hunters of Africa and the heart hunters of Bolivia; in the "igloo" of the Esquimo by the light of his walrus blubber lamp, and in the private apartments of the Emperor of Japan. About the manger of Jesus one's spirit is fired with a purer BUT WE NEED MEN FOR THIS TASK-LEVEL- The problem behind all other problems is the problem of Chris- "WHOM SHALL I SEND, AND WHO WILL GO For Me?" Testimony from the Lumber-Jack's Pilot T HAT strong and breezy champion of the faith, Frank Higgins, missionary to the lumber-jacks of the Northwest, paid a visit to the offices of the Board of Education recently, to say that in his experience the college and seminary-trained missionary is far superior to those lacking such preparation. "Mr. Secretary," he said, "I have come to have a great respect for the real man who is thoroughly trained. I did not use to think much of college men, but I do now, for if they have natural power that power is trained and developed in such a way as to give them larger effectiveness. Let me tell you about one of your boys, B, who is working with me in the far West." I asked Mr. Higgins to dictate the story, and here it is in his own terse and rugged language: "B as a boy worked in the Cody packing houses. Shortly after his conversion, when about nineteen years of age, he had a great desire for an education. One day he stuck his knife into the boom, saying to the foreman, 'I am going to leave you.' The foreman said, 'Why, where are you going?' 'I am going to school.' The foreman tried to persuade him how foolish he was, but he was determined to carry out his purpose. "Some years later when he graduated from college he went back to the packing company and skinned the sheep. He then asked the foreman if he would give him a job. The foreman told him he certainly would. Then he told the foreman he had a much bigger job on hand, that of lifting his fellowmen to a higher and more noble life. "Later he graduated from the Omaha Theological Seminary and accepted a call to a church in Nebraska, but all the time felt that his work was to deal with working men. Almost a year ago he offered himself as a missionary to the lumbermen of Washington, giving up a much more lucrative field to go off on the frontier and travel with pack on his back over the mountains, up the rivers and through the valleys, carrying the gospel to the men of the forest. He is dearly loved and honored and respected by all the men with whom he comes in contact, and doing a much larger work than he could ever possibly have done had he remained pastor of a single church." A Rhodes Scholarship for a Prospective Missionary STANLEY A. HUNTER, CHRISTIAN COLLEGE, ALLAHABAD, INDIA. NE of the young American college men who will present themselves for the coming term in Oxford will be John D. Hayes, the son of the Rev. Watson M. Hayes, one of the missionaries of the American Presbyterian Mission in China and Professor in the Theological College of Shantung Christian University at Tsing Chou-fu. Hayes was born and bred in China, and is planning to return there to a life of service. He will take with him a wonderful preparation. In Princeton University, where he spent his Junior and Senior years of college, he was looked up to as a man of deep spiritual power and consecrated devotion. In Wooster College where his two preceding academic years had been spent, and in his earlier days in the academy, he won a reputation for manliness. Hayes is at present teaching at the Peekskill Military Academy on the Hudson, and while at this institution he has done much for the religious and moral atmosphere of the place. A Princeton classmate writes of him as follows. "John Hayes is one of the finest college men I know. In college he was leader of the Mission Study classes and the Student Volunteer Band, but a man who made use of his religion in places outside these spheres in a quiet, inoffensive, but influential way. His robust personality and manly vigor we all appreciated, and we still look back upon him |