CHURCH EDIFICE DEP'T.

Kansas City, Mo.

REV. THOMAS J. MORGAN, LL.D. Dear Sir and Bro.:-The members and pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church wish to express most profound thankfulness to yourself and the Church Edifice department, for the gift of $300, which was the stimulus and inspiration that encouraged them to undertake what otherwise would have been deemed impracticable, if not impossible, in these times-the payment of their entire church debt. The result is told in the enclosed report in a few figures and ciphers, but it means a great deal to this church to be able to report for the first time in its history, No debt! We enter upon the new year hopefully, trusting God may so bless us, that before its close we shall become a self-supporting church. For this the pastor will most earnestly labor.

Again, we thank you most heartily, on be half of the church, J. STEWART, Pastor.

22. How many houseless Baptist Churches are there?

Ans. Perhaps one thousand on our mission fields.

BOOK NOTICES.

The American Baptist Publication Society has begun a series of short biographies of noted Baptists, with special reference to the need of the young people of the denomination. The plan is to include in the list those men who have distinguished themselves in various lines of Baptist leadership. It will not be difficult to find material for such biographies; and, if the series is properly developed, it cannot fail to be of signal service to the denomination. It is proposed that the books shall be prepared by experts; that they shall be well printed, on good paper, with attractive binding.

The first of the series, already issued, is the life of our great missionary, Rev. Adoniram Judson, D.D., written by his son, Rev. Edward Judson, D.D., pastor of the Memorial Church in New York City. We have read the book through with special interest because of its subject, its author, and of the plan of which it forms a part. We commend it heartily to our readers. We feel constrained to say, however, that so good a book, with such a subject, such an author, and such an occasion ought to have been a little better than it is. It betrays a lack of thoroughness in preparation, a carelessness in revision which, while excused doubtless by the pressure of work, is, nevertheless, hardly excusable.

IN EDITHA'S DAYS. By Mary E. Bamford. 12mo, 351 pp. Price, $1.25. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1420 Chestnut Street. The past always possesses a charm for the present. And in nothing is this more true than in personal records that have braved the destructiveness of Father Time and yet live to convey to us the thoughts and fears, hopes and aspirations, pleasures and sufferings of the "days that are dead." To read a diary of one long numbered with those that are not, adds interest to the times of which we heretofore have known only through the medium of history, and brings us in touch with the period as nothing else could do.

In this story, In Editha's Days, we are given such a treat, and go hand-in-hand, intensely interested, with the writer through "long days of labor and nights devoid of ease," bearing in her heart the faith of those who are so cruelly persecuted. The story is placed in England in the reign of Henry VIII., and in the low countries when they were under the rule of Charles V. and his son, Philip II. Here it was that those who dared differ from the Catholic Church felt the weight of her wrath as we in these peaceful days little realize. Through the medium of the writer, "Editha,” we see and feel as did she; we suffer and flee with her, and together we pray for a day of religious freedom for all. All things are brought to us in a very vivid and yet attractive manner, making it hard to realize that more than three hundred years

have passed since the time of these wonderful experiences.

The struggles and discouragements of those who were called "Anabaptists," and who struggled for "freedom," not only of life but of conscience, show us, as we compare the past with the present, how much we owe the grand old heroes and heroines who counted their lives as nothing in order that they might demonstrate to the world the purity and strength of their faith.'

This is the third volume of the Crown Series, which was inaugurated with A Mexican Ranch. The volume is bound in corresponding style, and together with the preceding two makes a very enjoyable set to read. They will be sold separately, or in neatly packed sets of three each. We would most heartily recommend it to the attention of our readers.

DAISY. By Marshall Saunders. Philadelphia: Charles H. Banes.

A charming, brief little story of a child, by the author of Beautiful Joe, which has met with such well-deserved success and already taken its place alongside of Black Beauty. Daisy appeared some years ago in England; and this new edition, in its attractive binding of blue and gilt, will be welcomed by the many who have become acquainted with the author through her Beautiful Joe-a pretty Christmas present.

THE ELKSVILLE GIRLS. By Mrs. Susan M. Griffith. Price, $1.00. Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1420 Chestnut Street. This is one of that large class of books of which it is difficult to say anything distinctive, as they run along in much the same groove without any special individuality or noticeable originality. The aim of the book is good; its lessons evident; each of the five girls sets out to accomplish in her own way the most she can for the Master, and their experiences and their results achieved constitute the story, which maintains its interest quite well to the close.

The Society's new child's paper, Barnens Tiding, issued in the interest of Swedish Sunday-schools and churches, is bright and helpful. Our Swedish brethren should do their best to make this paper a success and obtain for it a wide circulation. The price of this paper is 40 cents each, in clubs of ten or more, to one address!

The new year of The Young Reaper and The Sunlight, the leading juvenile issues of the American Baptist Publication Society, opens with very marked attractions. Each number is so planned that it shall contain instructive as well as entertaining articles. Historical, biographical and descriptive sketches are introduced now and then; timely topics are considered; the whole range of nature is placed under contribution; and in the

working out of the plan the best of writers have been secured, many new names appearing. The editorial articles in each issue deserve the best place in the literature of childhood and youth. The Reaper and The Sunlight, alternating with each other, furnish an issue for every Sunday in the year. The utmost care and painstaking are bestowed in the effort to make them by all odds superior to any issues of their class. The Society is to be congratulated upon the production of such excellent work.

EVOLUTION OF RAILROADING.

WE LEAD THE WORLD IN PROGRESS.

From the Old-Fashioned Coaches to the Enticing Luxuries of the Pennsylvania Limited.

SAFETY AND COMFORT NOW THE CHIEF CONSIDERATIONSSOME INTERESTING FACTS.

It was an Englishman who, looking backward from the rear car of a Pennsylvania train while on his way to the World's Fair, sixteen months ago, and noticing the long trail of glistening steel tracks in the wake, sweeping around mountain sides, skirting the edges of dark forests, shimmering through ravines and shining over level tracts of country for long distances behind, like the white froth in the wake of a swift steamer, remarked: "It's a wonder to me how they keep the buffaloes, the bears, and the Indians off the track."

Absurd as that remark seems, it nevertheless opens up an interesting train of thought or reflection. How is it that the Great American railroads, which cannot be fenced in as some of the English rail lines are, and which of necessity run through comparatively unpopulated sections, along the base of mountain sides covered with treacherous boulders, and through the hearts of forests, are not dangerous? How is it, not that "buffaloes, bears and Indians," but loose rails, landslides and natural obstacles do not render journey by rail dangerous?

Well, on some roads the answer is, "They do " But take a line like the great Pennsylvania Railroad, where accidents are so rare that they practically amount to nothing, and there must be some explanation. It is furnished in the undeniable fact that the roadbed of the Pennsylvania, like the main walk through a gentleman's country seat, is kept in as good order and is the object of as much vigilance and attention in one spot as it is in another.

Safety is unquestionably the first requisite in the mind of a railway passenger. As a Western railroad man, who was caught by a cyclone, and after being carried across country at the rate of several miles a minute, was eventually landed in the middle of a river, remarked: "I prefer less speed and better terminal facilities."

The honor of the introduction of interlocking switches and the now famous and widely-adopted "block system” clearly belongs to the Pennsylvania road, as do, in fact, almost all of the modern appli. ances that make journey by rail safe. Singularly enough, also, this great road took the initiative in providing means to make "life on the rail" luxurious to make it a period to be enjoyed rather than merely to be endured.

The introduction of the "limited" train was made by the Pennsylvania road. Old railroad men will remember how long the subjeet of providing something ne plus ultra-something a little beyond the ordinary means of travel—was discussed in the councils of all the great railroad companies. Eng. land had long had a graded system of rail travel, first, second and third class, but it was not esteemed wise nor politic by an American company to adopt that system. The fact that there was, however, a considerable percentage of the American travelling public who would be only too glad and willing to pay for extra privileges, was something which could not be denied or lost sight of. The mere hitching of sleeping cars to the trains did not fill the bill. There was a class among the constantly increasing number of long-distance railroad travellers who wanted something more.

It was the Pennsylvania road that first met this want.

The management conceived the idea of a through train to the West, which should run at extra speed, and upon which the comforts of the passengers should be looked out for with extra zeal. The

vestibule" patent had not been evolved at that time, but the principle of one solid, compact and fast-moving train was there.

To this new train the Pennsylvania gave the name "New York and Chicago Limited." It was not long before a rival of the Company put upon its tracks a train similarly named. It certainly does seem as though a little ingenuity might have avoided this plagiarism, but the Pennsylvania Company made no complaints, and simply simplified the name of their flyer by calling it the "Pennsylvania Limited." There is no train in the whole world to-day that compares with it. ;

In the beginning an extra charge of $5 was demanded of passengers on the " Limited," with a guarantee of a rebate of that amount provided the train was more than one hour late. A few years of practical experience showed the company, however, that passengers on the "Limited" were not actuated so much by a desire to make the journey with great speed as to make it in luxury and with supreme comfort. The recognition of this fact led to a practical revolution in railway travel. It was perceived that the mere adjunct of a few sleeping cars to the day coaches and a quicker schedule of time did not meet the want. What the travelling public demanded en route was hotel accommodations, and

fin-de-siècle hotel accommodations at that. The filling of the bill was what the Pennsylvania road set about accomplishing.

Of course, with the discovery that it was comfort and not an absolute guarantee of arriving on lightning time that the public wanted, the Pennsylvania was able to cut down the extra price for privilege of travelling in the "Limited," and to-day it costs a passenger only $4 more to make the journey to Chicago in this moving modern hotel of the Pennsylvania road than to go by an ordinary train.

Although the Pennsylvania road has reached the extreme limit to which luxury en route may be obtained, this is by no means the only step in advance it has taken. It was the first railroad in America to introduce a stone-ballasted track. The difference between a railroad track stone-ballasted and one which is not, may best be likened to the difference between asphalt pavement and a corduroy road. It was also the first road to adopt the system whereby locomotives could be fed with water from a filled trough in the centre of the tracks instead of from stationary watering tanks, thereby doing away with many delays. It was the first railroad in the world to introduce the feature of personally conducted tours for the benefit of pleasure-seekers, and is to-day the only railroad which supplies chaperons in connection with these tours.

A great many persons may suppose that it is only during the summer months that the great Pennsylvania road invites the attention of tourists, but here a great mistake is made. The winter excursion routes are quite as inviting as those that are and have long been so deservedly popular in warm weather. Of course, in arranging these tours, the co-operation of other railway lines has been necessary, but this co-operation has been so fully obtained and secured that persons desiring to visit any of the winter resorts in America have simply to apply to the Pennsylvania road to be accommodated, not only with transportation, but with every facility and accommodation for the enjoyment of a mid-winter jaunt.

There is a book issued by the Pennsylvania road which gives full particulars on the subject, and one cannot glance through its pages without becoming impressed with the extraordinarily important part which this railroad plays in the entire system of rail communication throughout the United States.

The Pennsylvania road, with its connections, seems to bring Florida almost as directly to the door of New Yorkers as it has brought the city of Chicago.

With the great work of redeeming the big cities through which it passes from the curse of steamtracks on the level of the public streets, in which the Pennsylvania has been ceaselessly engaged for years past, the public is, of course, familiar. Jersey City and Philadelphia have felt the full force of the boon which the Company has voluntarily offered,

and in a lesser way New York has been made acquainted with it. The Pennsylvania Ferry is the only one which New Yorkers can reach by a covered way leading over that most impassable of thoroughfares, West Street, It is also, by the way, the only railroad terminating in Jersey City which gives to the great city of Brooklyn an opportunity for its inhabitants to go West, or to return from the West, without the inconvenience of passing through the streets of New York, The Brooklyn Annex to the Pennsylvania Railroad is a convenience fully appreciated by all the inhabitants of the fourth city in population in the United States.

There is not space in this article, nor, indeed, is there any necessity to describe the great depots and terminals of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The new station recently completed in Philadelphia is one of the handsomest, finest and most costly in the world. It does seem worth while saying, however, as a matter of public curiosity, that the new train-shed, which has recently been completed in Jersey City, is by long odds the largest in the world. It is 651 feet in length and 258 feet wide. The San Pancras station, in London, about which Englishmen have been bragging for years, is put effectually in the background by this Jersey City structure, just as England's best passenger service is made to seem primitive and provincial in comparison with the "Pennsylvania Limited" hotel on wheels.

The proper grouping and division of scholars is an important feature of a good Sunday-school room. Many distractions can thus be avoided and all the work of the school facilitated. The best and simplest solution of this matter is found in Wilson's Rolling Partitions. They are very convenient, sound-proof and easily operated, and may be had with blackboard surfaces, thus serving a double purpose. We recommend those interested to send to Jas. G. Wilson for catalogue. See advertisement in this number.

Home Mission Appointments.

Edwin N. Elton, Salubria and Middle Valley, Idaho.

T. H. Lydston, Nampa and Boise Valley, Idaho.
Richard Pearse, Payette and Weiser, Idaho.

John H. Milburn, South McAlester, Ind. Ter.

John B. Hayes, Marlow and Ryan, Ind. Ter.

C. Stubblefield, Ardmore, Ind. Ter.
George Swimmer, 14 Mile Creek, Ind Ter.

B. F. Stamps, District Missionary, Cherokee Nation,
Ind. Ter.

Perry G. Shanklin, District Missionary, Southwestern Kansas.

P. H. Kennedy, General Missionary for Colored People, Kentucky.

Ludwig von Lanyi, Germans, Massillon, Ohio.

66

Halsey Moore, D.D., District Secretary for New York
and Northern New Jersey.

N. B. Rairden, Superintendent of Missions and District
Secretary for the Missouri River District.

Wm. M. Haigh, D.D., Superintendent of Missions for
the Mississippi Division.

Dwight Spencer, District Secretary for Indiana and
Southern Illinois.

The following teachers were appointed:

Cherokee Academy, Tahlequah, Ind. Ter.-Miss Jennie Howell.

Chinese Missions. -Mrs. A. J. Thompson, San Francisco, Cal.; Mrs. C. W. Wright, San Francisco, Cal.; Mrs. Amanda Egli, Visalia, Cal.; Mrs. H. C. Chamberlin, Chico, Cal.

Seattle, Wash.-Mr. W. O. Hardin.

International School, Monterey, Mex.-Miss Dina V. Jiminez, Maria C. Ramirez, Maria E. Ramirez. Santa Rosa, Mex.-Miss Delfina Cavazos.

Baptisms.

"Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." -MATTHEW 28: 19.