7. A supply of men.

8. Can any system of training, or course of reading, Le recommended to men of limited education?

9. Swedish missions.

10. The use of the press.

11. The endowment of small churches.

12. Local aid in building churches and parsonages.

13. How to get one annual collection from every Congregational church for Home Missions.

14. Suggestions with regard to the next annual meeting of the American Home Missionary Society.

The following resolutions were adopted:

Resolved, That, as it has pleased God, since our last annual meeting, to call to his gracious reward our beloved brother, Rev. Edward H. Greeley, D.D., Secretary of the New Hampshire Home Missionary Society, who, for seventeen years had been accustomed to attend and enrich these Conferences, we hereby record our high appreciation of his qualities as an earnest, judicious, and valued adviser with us in the common interests of the work in which we are engaged; and our sympathy with the family in their bereavement; and our hope that the Society will be divinely guided in the choice of a successor who shall be equally valuable as a secretary, and equally useful to us in the yearly gatherings of this body.

Resolved, That, inasmuch as the supply of ministers for our weaker churches is increasingly inadequate, we hereby respectfully submit to the prayerful attention of the pastors and churches of our order the importance of seeking out, and bringing to notice for immediate service, young men of such gifts as may justify their employment in Christian work under the direction of our Home Missionary Societies.

Resolved, That, being deeply impressed by the need of larger gifts from our churches to meet the growing necessities of the work put upon them, not only in New England, where larger expenditure is constantly called for by work among the foreign population, and special evangelistic work in cities, but also and more especially in the newer parts of our land, where to-day there are over sixteen hundred communities in which there is no public preaching of the Word nor even a Sunday-school; we, Secretaries of the New England Auxiliaries and of the American Home Missionary Society, request pastors to study the situation, that, from full information, they may urge upon their people a deeper sense of financial responsibility for the evangelization of our land; and also recommend that each church, as such, make an annual offering for Home Missions.

It was voted, That the next annual meeting be held at the Bible House, New York, N. Y, beginning at 9 A. M., Wednesday, November 11, 1891, and that the secretaries of all the State Auxiliaries be invited.

The minutes were approved, and it was voted, That they be offered for publication in The Home Missionary.

WILLIAM H. MOORE, Registrar.

Woman's Department.

W. H. M. U.

THE North Dakota Woman's H. M. Union held a meeting previous to the first session of the General Association in October, for the purpose of transacting business, and for consultation as to plans of work. Many questions were asked as to the methods of other State Unions, and any suggestion which could be adapted to its own pioneer work was received with enthusiasm.

The efforts made by delegates and missionary wives to be present at this meeting, the heroic persistence of State and Auxiliary officers to carry on the work in the face of the most trying difficulties, put to shame the one woman who represented the East. While listening to the reports from auxiliaries whose members travel miles to attend the regular missionary meeting, sometimes on foot, one was compelled to think of that vast army of women in our land who profess to have entered into fellowship with Christ in word and work, yet who have neither time, strength, nor inclination to walk to the next street, or even the next block, to attend the missionary meeting, leaving this gracious privilege to the faithful few.

But, attention, friends! By what law does the sacred obligation to obey the last command of our Lord rest upon the "faithful few at the East, and the gospel pioneer at the West, which does not with equal pressure rest upon each individual member of this great army of "The Indifferent"? Let that woman who has the courage to declare "I am not interested in missions," get first the true definition of "missions," and then answer this question "before the Lord."

By the courtesy of the General Association, the addresses designed for the Woman's meeting were delivered before the pastors and delegates, that they might keep in touch with the Woman's Work. By invitation of the same body, a woman conducted the devotional meeting of the Association, in which Dr. Roy, of the A. M. A., Dr. Kincaid, of the A. H. M. S., Dr. Boynton, of the S. S. Soc., and other visitors took part. One whole session, lacking a half-hour, was given to listening to reports and addresses by women on home and foreign work, in addition to the time given during other sessions. The policy of the North Dakota Associa tion in recognizing the work of women in the churches, and the power of the Woman's Union, is wise. This hearty co-operation will do much to strengthen the churches and enlarge the work.

THE HOMELAND KALEIDOSCOPE.

BY MISS ELSIE A. CURTISS, MAYVILLE, NORTH DAKOTA.

Ar some time you have looked through a kaleidoscope, and as you turned it round and round you admired the ever-changing pictures made by those magic bits of glass.

Our country is a mammoth kaleidoscope, and we, like those insignificant pieces of glass, are found in different places as time rolls on. Are we insignificant? Were those bits of glass insignificant? Did not each piece lend some of its tint to the next bit, and all together form a beautiful mosaic? The clearer and brighter the pieces, the more beautiful the figure. It is so in the ever-shifting scene of life; the influence of a Christian life upon those next to it brightens the otherwise dark picture.

I remember, when a child, that as I turned the Kaleidoscope, some pictures were composed mostly of brown and black, and with some disgust I shook the little plaything until brighter pieces fell in among the others and made a pretty figure. In the Homeland kaleidoscope some pictures are dark and brown, and some are very black, where one would much prefer to see figures of light all the time. We get anxious and troubled, and ask, "How can we have brighter pictures? Do not we need some shaking together, some stirring up, until the brightness in our lives shines into those other lives?"

We hear of the millions sitting in heathen darkness. We see the large black figure, and we send a little of the light of Christ's love to them. But alas! what a huge figure of blackness is that in the kaleidoscope of the wide world! But what of the dark spots at our very own doors? All over our fair land these shadows are marring the beauty of the perfect picture. Some of us do not realize this; because it is so near it loses its significance. To some souls there is no heroism in doing what lies close at hand. The quaint saying, "Do ye nexte thynge," applies with great force to the ambitious soul who longs for some great work and neglects the duty at hand. There is no place for greater heroism than on the home field.

While doing all we can for the benighted souls abroad, let us not forget those at home. We need to bend our energies, individually and collectively, to lighten the darkness around us, or we shall soon have it so dense that we cannot see through. How shall we secure beautiful mosaics in our Homeland Kaleidoscope? How can you and I put a bright tint here and there, and soften the dark shadows?

Let us turn this kaleidoscope a while. See this dark spot composed of ITALIANS-people from the lowest walks in life, the very dregs of the Old Country, who have come to our shores with their low ideas of morals and life, and speaking a foreign tongue. They swarm like bees in a hive— men, women, and children to the number of twenty in one small, dark room. What elevating influence can be brought to raise them to a higher life? Here are thousands of little children, brought up in heathenism as far as home life goes, as are the children of China. Is it not a shame that these little ones are growing up in ways of wickedness and sin?

In Chicago there are 40,000 BOHEMIANS. Think of that multitude needing the light of Life! Romanism has lost its hold on them to a great extent, and they are unbelievers, skeptics, atheists. Cleveland has 30,000, and there are thousands in Milwaukee, St. Louis, and other cities. It seems almost incredible that they came from the land of John Huss, yet it is true. They are poor and ignorant; coming in great numbers, they swarm together in colonies, and keep up their native customs and language. They do not know what Christ's love means. A dark figure this in our kaleidoscope! What shall we do to brighten it? What are we doing? A blessed work has been begun in Cleveland and Chicago, through Rev. H. A. Schauffler, D.D., and Rev. E. A. Adams. Native students are fitting themselves in the seminaries to go among these people and tell the good news of salvation. Young native women are in training in Cleveland to act as Bible readers in this work. The Bible reader goes to them as a Christian sister, and the sweet aroma of the Christian life is perceptible in every home she has entered. Well do I remember hearing Miss Hobart, Mr. Schauffler's assistant at Cleveland, who has learned the Bohemian language, tell of her daily work; how she went among the people, trying to win their confidence, noticing the babies (the key to a mother's heart), doing all in her power to help them to something better; reading them the Bible and telling of Jesus. The work among this people would have been much retarded if Mr. Schauffler and Mr. Adams had not learned the language when they were missionaries in Bohemia. A few valuable native helpers have already come thence to assist us. These people, Americanized and imbued with the love of Christ, make good citizens. As it is, many of the ignorant, unskilled workmen among them get discouraged and desperate and dangerous.

In Pennsylvania there are about one hundred thousand SLOVAKs, or Hungarians. Many of them are so degraded that the Bohemians and Poles look upon them with contempt-yet they have souls, and must not be neglected.

How many dark shades in our homeland mosaic! And here is another, coloring our Pacific shore. CHINA has visited us, bringing her idols, her religion, and her morality; nor did she leave her opium pipe when she

sailed in at the Golden Gate. What are we doing for these thousands of Chinese? In most of our cities there are Chinese Sunday-schools, and many a Chinaman has come to them, lured by the tempting bait of "learning to read," and has found the Savior. And do not the Chinese, the despised, heathen Chinese, put us to shame when we see their fidelity to their Master? I knew of one, not a Christian, who shut up his shop on Sunday after ten o'clock, because he thought it right that man should rest one day in seven. The Sunday-schools on the Pacific coast are doing a vast amount of good, but there is plenty of grain in that field yet to be brought into God's garner. And with the Chinese we see the other “despised races," needing the same divine light. The colored people of the South and the Indians are also our neighbors. Are we binding up their wounds, or are we merely giving them a casual glance and passing by on the other side?

And now, with a final turn of the kaleidoscope, we discover countless vast multitudes who have come to us from Christian lands, but who lack gospel light. Although from nominally Christian homes, they are not free from the bonds of superstition. They have heard the name of Jesus, to be sure, but the brightness of his love does not shine into their hearts, making them full of sunshine, and a leavening influence upon the people around them. They have come to America to make for themselves homes. With their foreign ideas and customs they feel like strangers in a strange land. Speaking a foreign tongue, they are separated from us until they get discouraged, their good desires are crushed, and they fall into worldliness, forgetting there is a God above, who watches over his children. If they could only have been met in the beginning by a Christian sympathy and love, many would have taken heart, and their homes would have been full of cheer. Such strangers need neighborly acts of kindness, thoughtfulness, and general friendliness. They need to see a Christian home filled with a Christ-like spirit that shines upon all that come under its influence. The hearty clasp of the hand, the sunny smile, are always understood when words are unintelligible. These people get lonely away from friends and relatives, and need sympathy. We know what this feeling is; then why not try the Golden Rule? To do these people good we must first win their confidence. We must have Christ's spiritwilling to deny self for their sakes. It is not always pleasant for a foreign missionary to show pictures by the hour, or to exhibit her house to the natives, or have her every action watched and clothes examined; but for Christ's sake she does it with patience and sweetness.

So we of the Homeland must always be ready to lend a helping hand, if we would bring the sunshine of Christ's love into these homesick hearts, and thus put bright figures into our wonderful kaleidoscope. Many a