T.

Three little children gave us two dollars, for two missionary children in Kansas. The father writes, "They were wild with joy when I gave them each a silver dollar; they thought they could buy every thing.' invested his in a hand wagon. All our food, etc., has to be brought from town, and they charge from twenty-five to sixty cents to bring the smallest article; so T. has saved us many a dime by his wagon. He has done good service also in hauling stones for our church and parsonage yards. Many thanks to the three children."

Last winter we received from a German woman in Iowa two pairs of woolen socks. She spun the yarn (wool from her own sheep), knit the socks, and, not having much money to give, sent these as a gift for some needy person. They were sent to a Welsh Home Missionary in Minnesota, who was feeble and needed warm clothing. He writes, "We are glad and most thankful for the socks; they are very good. May God bless the one who made them. The winter is very severe.

We would like to put missionaries in about one hundred places, which are destitute of any means of grace,-no church, no Sunday-school,— where mothers are saying, "For twenty years we have been burying our dead without a prayer at the grave, and wondering, if there are Christians in the world, why they don't come and help us.' There are always cases of sickness and need among our missionaries, where a dollar or so would bring comfort and relief, and we are always grateful when the Lord opens the way to help such. $12.25 have been thus dispensed, which proved a great blessing. We wish it had been much more. The infant class has kept up a lively interest in our work, supplying us with children's papers and $7 for postage.

Eight years ago last month we commenced our "Paper Mission." As we think of the host of workers, the missionaries, the teachers, the Freedmen, the institutions of learning, the reading rooms, the mining camps, the lumber camps, in our own land, besides many places in foreign. lands, and the sailors that have come to us from Iceland, Sweden, Finland, and the islands of the sea,-we are almost overwhelmed with the greatness of the work, the opportunities given, the responsibilities laid upon us, and we ask "Who is sufficient for these things?" But when we think how God has blessed us from the first, and of the help, and the helpers he has given both here at home and all over the land, who have responded so cheerfully to our many calls, without which the work could not have been carried on, and when we read the grateful letters from these workers, we are constrained to feel that this is the Lord's work, and we hope to abide with God in this calling while our strength lasts, or we receive a new commission from the Master; and we feel sure that all who have helped us in any way to carry on our work will receive a rich blessing. We have carried many heavy burdens these eight years, beside those left at the post-office, and those have not always been light; but we have learned as never before that God is true to his promise, and

that no case is too hard for him. So we bless him for the work, for its success, and would say with the psalmist, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake."

A DAKOTA INVITATION.-Dear Friend,-What sort of a Christian do you want to be?

Have you a burning desire to aid some one in his Christian walk? Then come! let us feel the warmth of your Christian love in the prayer meeting!

Have you grown cold and negligent of your duty towards God? Then come and let us aid you in that Christian life.

Do you wish in any way to identify yourself with Christian workers? Come to the prayer meeting.-Sincerely, Your Pastor, C. M. Daley.

BAD PRAYERS.

I Do not like to hear him pray

On bended knee about an hour

For grace to spend aright the day

Who knows his neighbor has no flour.

I'd rather see him go to mill

And buy the luckless brother bread,

And see his children eat their fill

And laugh beneath their humble shed.

I do not like to hear him pray,

"Let blessings on the widow be,"
Who never seeks her home, to say,
"If want o'ertake you, come to me."

I hate the prayer so loud and long

That's offered for our country's weal
By him who sees it cursed by wrong,
And only with his lips doth feel.

I do not like to hear her pray

With jeweled ear and silken dress,
While Gospel Workers toil all day,
And then are asked to toil for less.

I do not like these soulless prayers;
If wrong, I hope to be forgiven-

No angel wing such upward bears:
They're lost a million miles from heaven.

Adapted from The Hartford Times.

ROCKY MOUNTAINS. A CABIN IN WHICH MRS. PICKETT AND HER FAMILY LIVED EIGHT MONTHS.

THROUGH the kindness of Mrs. J. W. Pickett, White Water, Colorado, we present to our readers this month, two illustrations which will bring to mind, with many, her thrilling story of Rocky Mountain experiences. It will be remembered that the collection of $450 taken at the ladies' meeting at Saratoga, is to help build a chapel for the use of the little church which was organized by Mrs. Pickett. One room of this chapel is to be fitted up as a reading-room for her staunch friends-the cow-boys.

OREGON AND WASHINGTON.

IN connection with the fortieth session of the General Association of Oregon and Washington, an afternoon session was held by the woman's home and foreign missionary societies. Mrs. J. F. Ellis, vice-president of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, presided during the devotional exercises for the first half hour. Mrs. Geo. H. Atkinson, president of the Woman's Home Missionary Society, took the chair. An interesting report by Mrs. N. F. Cobleigh was read by Mrs. Sanderson. A carefully prepared paper by Mrs. H. P. Tucker, of Arlington, Oregon, on the subject of "Home Missions," was read by Miss Edith Sanderson, after which the president gave a review of the work for the past year. Mrs. Ellis again took charge of the meeting. First on the programme was a children's home missionary concert exercise, "To the Rescue," which was admirably rendered and was an excellent feature of the hour. Twenty-five misses and youths participated, who severally performed their parts with credit to themselves and to Mrs. M. A. Kelly, who had sole charge of their preparation.

The exercise was one prepared by Rev. C. C. Otis, late of Seattle. Twenty-five children took part in this exercise. Ray Foster represented California, Nellie Gillette, Oregon, and Blanche Treen, Washington Territory. Maurice Case represented "Immigration," Hillman Case, "Socialism," Frank Foster, "Mormonism," and Paul Harper, "Intemperance"-the four evils which threaten our nation to its very heart's core each inscription borne aloft upon a symbolically colored banner. As a remedy for these evils, four girls came bearing Bibles and a banner upon which was inscribed, "Christ for the World." The responsive singing and recitations, the conflict between the good and evil forces continued, until finally the little girls presented Bibles to the boys bearing the evil devices, which signified their overthrow, and left Christ's banner waving victoriously over the field. The conception of the exercise was fine, and the execution good in all respects.

The exercises of the afternoon were of the most interesting character, and were listened to with close attention by a good audience.

The secretary of this society, Mrs. Atkinson, feeling the need of more earnest effort in behalf of Home Missions, has originated a plan to secure pledges of a cent a day from each member of the churches. She hopes through this arrangement to lift the cause from embarrassment, and fill the treasury. She commenced with Plymouth Church, Portland, Oregon. The church is small and poor, but she found a ready and hearty response. When she approached other churches she found the same spirit even with the poorest members of the smallest churches. 'Of course,' says this earnest worker, "it will require time to secure the name of every member, but something has been accomplished, and we intend to go on. We have been in this work forty years, and are still trying to do with our might what our hands find to do. If this plan of "a cent a day" might be carried out in all our churches, the result would be an overflowing treasury, and a rich blessing to our own souls."

NEW YORK.

THE President of the New York Woman's Home Missionary UnionMrs. Kincaid-has issued a circular letter to her auxiliaries, both inspiring and suggestive. She urges the Congregational women of New York State to renewed zeal in this "inviting work" of extending Christ's kingdom in our land. She says:-"We believe that the fate of the world is to be decided where we are,' that America christianized means the world christianized.' We would therefore lend a hand in this 'mighty emergency' which is upon us as a nation. In no way have we thought this could better be done than by collecting money for the National Societies of our Congregational body, hence we undertake no independent work.

"The new year opens with a call upon this Union for $5,500. With this money we shall be able to support two home missionaries upon the frontier, a teacher among the Bohemians, one in Utah, one among the Indians, a general missionary among the Mountain whites and another among the Freedmen. Beside these salaries, we can help in pushing the work of our Sunday-school and Publishing Society in planting new schools, can give a little to the College and Education Society, can help build a church in California and a parsonage in Dakota, and have $800 left to divide between the A. H. M. S., the A. M. A. and the New West."

MICHIGAN.

THE treasurer of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of this State, Mrs. Grabill, in a letter inclosing a draft, expresses her joy that Michigan