When the Christian Endeavor society was founded only three officers were chosen a president, vice-president and secretary. There were three committees appointed-a prayer meeting, a social and a lookout committee. Graeville Stevens, now of John Wanamaker's establishment in Philadelphia, was the first president. A junior society near Boston got much good lately out of this little contest. The superintendent gave each junior a penny. They were to spend them in the best way they could think of, and at the next meeting they were to tell how they spent the money. The juniors would then vote to decide which was the best way to use the penny, and a little prize was to be given to the best. The prize was for the best good deed was given to a junior who with her penny bribed a little girl to go to the junior prayer meeting.

There are 2,945 Baptist Christian Endeavor societies; Free Baptists, 155; Seventh Day Baptists, 49.

It

The Slanderer.

Against slander there is no defense. It starts with a word-with a nodvith a shrug-with a look-a smile. It is pestilence walking in darkness preading contagion far and wide which the most wary traveler cannot void; it is the heart searching dagger fthe dark assassin; it is the poisoned rrow whose wounds are incurable; it the mortal sting of the deadly ader, murder its employment, innocence s prey and ruin its sport. The man ho breaks into my dwelling, or meets e on the public road and robs me of y property, does me an injury. He ops me on my way to wealth, strips e of my hard-earned savings, inlves me in difliculty, and brings my mily to penury and want. But he es me an injury that can be repaired. dustry and economy may again ing me into circumstances of ease d affluence. The man, who, comg at the midnight hour, fires my

dwelling, does me an injury. He burns my roof, my pillow, my raiment, my very shelter from the storm and tempest, but he does me an injury that can be repaired. The storm may indeed beat upon me, the chilling blast assail me, but charity will receive me into her dwelling; will give me food to eat and raiment to put on; will timely assist me, raising a new roof over the ashes of the old, and I shall again sit by my own fireside and taste the sweets of friendship and of home. But the man who circulates false reports concerning my character, who exposes every act of my life which may be represented to my disadvantage, who goes first to this, then to that individual; tells them he is very tender of my reputation, enjoins upon them the strictest secrecy, and then fills their ears with hearsays and rumors, and, what is worse, leaves them to dwell upon the hints and suggestions of his own busy imagination the man who thus "filches from me my good name" does me an injury which neither industry, nor charity, nor time itself can repair.-Sacred Heart Review.

Young People in the Church.

There has never been a time in the

history of the church when so much attention has been given to the organization and discipline of young people as now. The century just closing has witnessed a revolution in the treatment of the children; but we are just beginning to distinguish between children and young people and to order our efforts in the line of this recognition. We have long enough included young boys, who are no longer boys, in our appeals and efforts for "the dear children." Wise adap tations to infantile capacity become puerilities when applied to young men and young women. These resent the treatment. We smile and bow and "adapt" ourselves to them. They laugh at our folly. We wonder at their

want of respect. wiser than we. vastly more earnest than we know. Treat them as men and women; recognize their developing sense of self-respect and responsibility; cease "adapting" ourselves to them as a class; meet them on own level; talk to them in a straightforward, earnest, practical way; teach them the Gospel; emphasize the ethics of the Gospel; press upon them the necessity of prompt, final, eternal decision; put responsibility upon them; enlist them in christian service; call upon them for christian testimony; prepare to be leaders and soldiers in the coming years, and the young life of the church will respond to this appeal in a way that will give joy and hope to all lovers of Christ.-Bishop J. H. Vincent, in New York Independent.

In fact they are And indeed they are

Giving.

In the matter of Christian giving a personal obligation rests upon every

one.

overlooked by Christian people. They This fact is not infrequently think of their neighbor with his larger means as one who ought to give, forgetful of the fact that the same obligation rests upon them, although their possession of this world's goods may be very limited. The New Testament injunction is, "Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store." No exception on account of one's pecuniary condition is made. This sense of personal responsibility is one that should be prayerfully cultivated. We are prone to be very selfish, especially in money matters. We think of our money as our own and that its chief use is in the promotion of our personal interests. This spirit of selfishness, unless we exercise due spiritual vigilance, gradually grows upon us, and our sense of obligation to give as the Lord has prospered us fails to suitably impress us. Richard Baxter once said: "My rule has been to study to need as little as possible for myself; to lay out nothing on neednots; to live frugally on little; to serve God on what he allowed me, so that what I took for myself, might be as

good work for the common good as that which I gave to others; and then to do all the good I could with the rest. The more I have done this the more I have had to do with. When When I gave away almost all, the more came in, I scarce know how, when unexpected and unplanned for. When of improvidence I was led to use too much on myself or on things of little importance, then I prospered less than when I did otherwise. If I had planned to give only after my death, then all might have been lost; whereas, when I gave away at present and trusted to God for the future, then I wanted nothing and lost nothing."Mid-Continent.

Essentials.

Mint, anise, and cummin! These are the things about which we cannot agree. We are as one in the essentials. We can say the Apostles' Creed together. But we fight each other when we ought to be fighting the enemy, because our different regiments wear different regimentals. Blind! blind! The Christian church

is a mighty giant. There is no end to its strength and its power, and no limit to the possibilities of its victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. But the giant is blind, and can

not tell the difference between a man and a tree, between the little and the big. And the giant is breaking twigs when he ought to be uplifting nations. Christ healed a great many people in the years of his blessed ministry, but the writers of the Gospels seem especially fond of telling us how he opened the eyes of the blind. For that is one of the sacramental miracles. Beneath the outward gesture and deed lies the spiritual meaning.

We are all more or less blind. We are all feeling our way about in the haze, not seeing anything clearly, and often making blunders, taking men for trees. And Christ came to be the life of the world. He came to open our blind eyes, and to show us what things are to teach us the eternal difference between men and trees. Rev. George Hedges, in "Christianity Between Sundays."

At the last annual meeting of the British and Foreign Bible society one of the speakers, referring to the 4,000,000 copies, in whole or in part, of the word of God issued by the society in word of God issued by the society in one year, said: "Suppose these could be printed in Chinese and distributed on Chinese soil. Before the task could be accomplished of placing one copy in the hands of each of China's 380,000,000, 95 years would have rolled by and three generations of mortal men would have passed away."

The number of Presbyterian Christian Endeavor societies is as follows: Presbyterian, 5,363; Cumberland Presbyterian, 549; United Presbyterian, 275; Reformed Presbyterian, 43; Scotch Presbyterian, 24. In addition

there are enrolled two Westminster leagues of Christian Endeavor. The Congregationalists have 4,368

Christian Endeavor societies.

Mr. H. B. Pennell, now of Boston, son of Mr. W. H. Pennell, lead the first Christian Endeavor prayer meeting, being at that time but 11 years of age.

The total number of Christian Endeavor societies is 23,163; 845 of these societies are in foreign and missionary lands, 1,546 in the Dominion of Canada, and 20,772 in our own land. There are now 2,859 Junior Christian Endeavor societies enrolled.

Rebuilding the Temple. If, as we said last week, life is a pilgrimage, it is also a process of building. We are the temple of God; and from this historic scene we may draw some lessons concerning the process of soul-building.

The temple is in ruins. Whatever may be our view of the doctrine of the Fall, we cannot doubt that in point of fact, man is not what God means him to be. He is a majestic ruin; the

very enormity of his sins bear witness of the sublimity of his nature. Depravity is not natural, but contranatural, as Dr. Bushnell has well said. It is the spiritual nature which gives to man his dignity, as it was the Temple which made Jerusalem a Holy City. As the glory of the latter de

pended not upon its commerce, manufactures, palatial splendors, social luxuries, but upon its Temple,symbol of the Divine Presence, so the glory of man depends not upon his indus

tries, his civilization, his outward pomp and splendor, but upon that faith and hope and love which constitute the sacred centre and hope of his nature. It is here, therefore, that the rebuilding of man must begin. Religion is not a decoration to be added, it is not a climax to be reached, it is the foundation of character. In all reform, whether of community or of individual, the first rebuilding is to be of the moral and spiritual nature, of the conscience and the life; and as in

Jerusalem the altar was first be built and sacrifices offered before even the foundation of the temple was laid, and long before its walls were reared, so in this building of the spiritual nature the inward life comes first, the outward symbol afterwards; devotion precedes ritual, faith precedes creeds, and love precedes service.-Lyman Abbott.

VOL. 5.

The Annual Meeting.

On Monday evening, April 3rd, a good attendance gathered for the annual meeting. Reports were given from the various officers and organizations showing a busy and profitable year's work. The election of officers took place and throughout the entire meeting of two hours and a half the utmost harmony prevailed. Brethren R. C. Davis and W. W. Beman were elected trustees and deacons for three years, H. N. Chute, trustee for the same period, and A. B. Stevens trustee and deacon for one year to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Bro. Spaulding who goes abroad for all of next year. Bro. J. L. Markley was elected clerk. The full list of officers may be seen from the Directory.

The Pastor's Report.

The year has been unusually free from interruption by sickness or otherwise. But one death has taken place, that of Mrs. Nettie Walker in Canada. Services have been held every Sunday throughout the year. Special religious interest has been manifested at different times, and twenty-three have been baptised. The church list has been pruned of excrescences, and the list is now in good condition. The pastor has called upon all of the church families, and up on all Baptist students whose names could be ascertained, and has made many other calls upon the sick, upon religious inquiries, and upon strangers. A large amount of work in the state connected with the general work of the denomination has also fallen to him, as usual.

The Deficit.

NO.

"Having Done All, Stand."

We shall not be always in the fi but we must be always on the wat and when we have struck every b and won every victory in our po then we are not invited to sit dow some cool retreat and rest upon laurels, but "having done all, star says God. When the old city of P peii was dug out after having tinel was found still standing at for eighteen centuries buried, a post, his skeleton fingers gras his sword and his bony feet pla to run before the black smoke firmly on the pavement. He had t choked him or the black ashes buried him, but having done all faithful in death. And that is a stood. Faithful unto death, mon in effigy for us all. We a endure hardness, to stand, the blackened with the smoke of de with ridicule and having done tion and riddled through and thre to stand.-A. J. Gordon, D. D. †

1

h

Snowflakes.

ut of the bosom of the Air,

Out of the cloud-folds of her garment shaken,

ver the woodlands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent and soft and slow
Descends the snow.

ven as our cloudy fancies take
Suddenly shape in some divine expres-
sion,

ven as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession,
The troubled sky reveals
The grief it feels.

his is the poem of the air, Slowly in silent syllables recorded; his is the secret of despair, Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded, Now whispered and revealed To wood and field.

-Longfellow.

"Not a Business Woman."

The Spectator's maiden aunt has issed some seventy-five summers in gle blessedness, and yet she thinks e understands the men better beuse her judgment is not blinded by ve. It is a source of amusement to e nieces and nephews of the old Tar to hear her declare that it is the sence of love that has made her sion clear, when as they know by ppy experience that she has a yally loving nature that enfolds even erring ones. When, however, she ns her critical cap, they deem it ll to give earnest heed, just as we told to pay attention to what is d of us by friends or enemies in the at of passion, or that we are to

re

Mr. Smith, a church-member and a most respectable-looking man, brought for her inspection one day in her younger days a remarkably finelooking animal as candidate for the important position of family horse. Her father was ill in bed, the mother never meddled in such matters, and it devolved upon the eldest daughter to settle upon the buying. The animal was a beauty, and arched his head and pranced in a way to conquer the most obdurate feminine heart as he walked np and down for inspection. How was she to be sure that all was right? She felt herself helpless indeed. Just then the hired man stepped up and whispered in her ear, "Miss Ruth, that horse will go lame in a few days. Ask Mr Smith to show you his hind feet, and tell him they are tender." Mr. Smith was just then in the distance leading the horse, the latter prancing and tossing his head in the most approved style.

Upon his return my aunt requested to see the mooted hind feet. They were, of course, raised for her inspection, and, as she surveyed them with an air between that of a horse jockey and a veterinary surgeon, she exclaimed, "Why, Mr. Smith, he's got tender feet!" The would-be sales

man looked at her in breathless astonishment for a moment, then exclaimed, with the most disgusted air imaginable, "Why, Ruth Miller, the

themselves. Let the sister tell some well-known story, "Little Red Riding Hood," "Puss in Boots," "Dick Whittington," or any other of the dear old tales or fairy stories will do. Take the distressing story of "Red Riding Hood," for instance, and let one of the children take the part of the grandmother, a rollicking, sturdy child should play the wolf, and a third should be Little Red Riding Hood herself; then, as the sister slowly tells the story, let each of the children act his part in pantomime, adapting the language, to suit the different dispositions of the children. Red Riding sitions of the children. Hood can have a cape or shawl (preferably red) draped around her arm, after having said good-bye to her anxious mother. As the story goes on the wolf should appear, got up as fiercely as the means at hand will permit and the final catastrophe can be made as terrific as possible. "Cinderella” will lend itself to this sort of treatment excellently; and, as it affords an opportunity for all the children to take part as guests at the famous ball, will make a most interesting play when there are a number of children to be amused. With a little tact and pa

tience, anyone who has charge of the children can keep them contented and

entertained for hours at a time. A child's imagination can invest even the most commonplace things and events with romance and reality.

A

ken in jest. One of the gravest usations that this maiden aunt ngs against the sterner sex is that ectly a woman finds them in the ng and does not acquiesce in all ir doings she is declared unbusislike, and, if she does not believe

louble-dealing, she has no idea of iness tact, finance, diplomacy, or tever name may happen to be en to "every man for himself and

1 for us all." She bases her acation largely upon the following

Jerience.

women!"-Christian Union.

Home Amusements.

An ingenious person who is much with children invented a little game for them which she called "The Marionettes." This game will call for rionettes." the help of good-natured elder sisters, perhaps, but, after the children have tried it once or twice under her guidance, they can very easily play it

turn the fretful little lad into a proud soldier-boy. An apron fastened on securely will make a fine train for the princess. The fairies can be supplied with wings of newspaper, or a scarf or veil pinned at the neck and fastened at the wrist. A whellbarrow or box will make the most elegant coach in the young people's eyes. Of course, some children are very much easier to amuse than others. The delicate, nervous child has neither the strength nor the inclination to enter into his stronger brothers' sports.