cerning conditional immortality and future punishment. The case is exciting great interest among the Free Churches of England. We do not presume, with our present light, to criticise the attitude of Dr. Beet, but we cannot now understand how he could ever have promised to publish no more editions of his book and to refrain from teaching doctrines which he regards as so important. The world is wide, and if he could not have done so in his present ecclesiastical relations, it would not have been difficult for him to have made others, and not impossible for him to have stood alone if there were need.

The Kumi-ai Creed

A widely circulated statement, originating with the late Bishop Bickersteth, of Japan, that the creed of the Kumi-ai (Congregational) churches of that country had discarded the divinity of Christ, is corrected by the Rev J. D. Davis, D.D., in a communication to the "Independent." Dr. Davis exposes the error by exhibiting the creed, viz.:

We believe in one infinite and perfect God, who is revealed in the Bible as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We believe in Jesus Christ, who, being God, became man, and for the sake of saving a world of sinners endured agony, died, and rose again. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the giver of

new life.

We believe in the Bible, which was given by inspiration of God, and which makes us wise unto salvation.

We believe in the holy Church, baptism by water, the Holy Supper, the Lord's holy Day, the everlasting life, the resurrection of the dead, and righteous rewards and punishments.

This was adopted with but two negative votes, cast by conservatives who would have preferred a fuller creed had one been brought forward.

Religious Condition of Syria and Palestine

Professor Samuel Ives Curtiss, D.D., of Chicago Theological Seminary, has an illuminating article on the subject of this paragraph in a recent number of the "Independent." According to the observations of Professor Curtiss, the French and Russians are establishing religious institutions in these countries for political purposes. The French work through the Maronite or French Catholic Church. They are utilizing all the means which have made Protestant missions so successful, not so much from religious motives as to strengthen the power of France in these regions. On the other hand, Russia has

stretched a line of hospices from one end of the land to the other, and these are open to travelers for a nominal sum. They are operated by the Greek Church, which has also established many schools where instruction is given in Russian. The purpose of what is being done there by Russian workers is beyond a doubt the strengthening of the political influence of Russia. Under such circumstances it is evident that the Protestants are laboring against great odds, but their success is by no means small. Professor Curtiss speaks of the Conference of Christian Workers which was recently held at Brummana, near Beirût, and which was attended by one hundred and sixty-six delegates—all enthusiastic workers for the kingdom of God. The two chief Protestant missionary forces there are the Church of England and the Presbyterials, although other denominations are doing good service, and perfect harmony among the workers seems to prevail. All classes of people are reached by the Gospel. In the two countries there are now 4,700 native Protestant church members. In the various schools of the missions there are 16,521 scholars enrolled, and many more whose names do not app ar. Medical missions and industrial education have proved very efficient helps in evangelization. A new form of Christian service is that undertaken by Dr. Theophilus Waldemeier in behalf of the insane, "who are bound in chains to rocks and put in caves." Not only because of the ambition of France and Russia, but also by reason of the Zionist movement among the Jews, Syria and Palestine are just now conspicuously before the world. It is reissuring to receive from so competent an observer as Professor Curtiss so encouraging a report concerning the religious outlook in these countries.

Dr. Thomas at the City Temple The Rev. Reuen Thomas, D.D., of Brook line, Mass., who came from London to his present church, for several summers has supplied the pulpit of the City Temp'e of London, of which the Rev. Joseph Parker, D.D., is the pastor. Dr. Thomas this summer has preached a series of sermons on "The Christianizing of the Home," which have drawn crowded congregations. The City Temple always has large numbers of young people in its congregations, and Dr. Thomas's sermons, in which he discouraged early marriages and uplifted a high and noble ideal of home life,

has kept them up even in a hot summer. Perhaps the keynote of his thought is in these words: "We have been occupied with individuals, and have forgotten families.” "We have been careless of God's order of home life, and have established one of cur own."

Missionaries and the Foreign Population

By "foreiga population" we mean those foreign to the land in which the missionary labors. What should be the attitude of the missionary toward people from so-called Christian lands? This is a very important inquiry, since the influence of the missionary on the native is largely dependent upon the character of the foreign population-if there be any. We have just received "An Open Letter to the English-Speaking People" of Chihuahua, Mexico, addressed to them by the Rev. James D. Eatɔn, D.D., missionary of the American Board in that city, which shows that Mr. Eaton realizes that he has a duty to Americans and English as well as to Mexicans. The letter is a dignified and manly appeal to those who at home have been trained in Christian ways to co-operate with Christians in the land in which they are temporarily sojourning. We refer to this subject because we have been informed that sometimes missionaries have been instructed to devote their entire attention to the natives. Often the spiritual destitution of the foreigner is greater, and if he is overlooked the natives cannot be reached. The example of Dr. Eaton should be followed in all mission stations where there is a resident foreign population.

An Educational Crusade

There were held during the first two weeks of September a series of meetings in some of the cities of North Carolina and South Carolina which have a special interest for every one who is concerned with the welfare of the negro race in this country, and the work which is being done for the elevation of that race. At the suggestion of Mr. Morris K. Jesup, of New York, and Dr. J. L. M. Curry, Agent of the John F. Slater Fund Board of Trustees, Mr. Booker T. Washington and Mrs. Washington have arranged to give as much time during the next two years as they can, consistent with the management of the Institute at Tuskegee, to an extended trip through the entire South, addressing the negro men and women in the cities. No such work as this has ever been attempted

The attempt

on anything so large a scale. will be made to arouse the negro to a consideration of his moral, physical, and industrial condition, point out what most needs to be done, and some ways for remedying existing evils. A further effort will be made to leave in every city some nucleus of helpful effort towards reform. At least three meetings, widely announced beforehand, will be held in each city visited. Mr. Washington first addresses a mass-meeting of both sexes and all conditions of people. The experience at the meetings already held has been that his reputation and ability are going to draw to the gatherings large numbers of white people, along with the blacks. On the day following the mass-meeting Mrs. Washington addresses a meeting of women only, and Mr. Washington a meeting of teachers and ministers, to whom he brings home forcibly their duties in this work, and shows them how they can and should carry it on for themselves. It will surprise many people to learn that in not a few of the cities of the South the death-rate among the negroes is twice as great as among the whites in the same places; but Mr. Washington has prepared himself for this work with figures which cannot be denied. The mortality among children in certain cases is still greater. The figures are sufficiently serious to arrest the attention of every one. The first meetings were held September 4 and 5 in Greensboro', North Carolina. Greensboro' is a city of about twelve thousand population, an important railroad center on the main line of the Southern Railroad. The mass-meeting was held at the Agricultural and Mechanical College, a State school for colored people. Mrs. Washington spoke in one of the churches, and the teachers' meeting was held at Bennett College. The other meetings of this series were held at Wilmington, N. C., Columbia, S. C., and Charleston, S. C. Others will be held later after the opening of the school year at Tuskegee, of which this may very reasonably be reckoned a University Extension movement.

The Church and the Prisoners

The really stonishing success which Mrs. Ballington Booth has had in dealing with prisoners, in inspiring them with nobler ideals and in giving them courage and hope, ought to lead the Church at large to consider with more care its duty to those who are in prison. If an organization outside the Church, like

the Volunteers, can achieve so much, the Church itself ought to accomplish vastly more That it does not is due ratner to lack of knowledge and a consciousness of responsibility than to lack of will. The problem is a difficult one and requires careful study, but every church has in its membership those who could approach the subject intelligently if they would give it proper attention. There is no better way to use the mid-week service than now and then to devote it to a consideration of such subjects as "The Crimes Common in Places in which We Live," "The Condition of Prisoners," "The Age, Nationality, and Sex of Prisoners," "What is Done for the Promotion of their Moral and Spiritual Life," "The Newer Methods in Prison Management, as Illustrated at Elmira, N. Y., and Concord, Mass." A consideration of such subjects would bring the Christian community and the inmates of the prisons into nearer and more helpful relations. These thoughts are suggested by the fact that the Massachusetts Prison Association is sending out its usual pamphlet in aid of the better observance of Prison Sunday. This Association is composed of many eminent men and women of the Bay State, and the work in which they are engaged is of vital importance to all the churches. Their example should be followed in every State in the Union.

Foreign Missions at Home

The sometimes far-reaching influence of city missionary work is strikingly shown by Louise Seymour Houghton in a recent article in the" Independent." A poor Italian cooper in desperate straits for lack of work in New York was induced to go to one of the few Protestant Italian pastors, who succeeded in getting him a place. The connection with the mission church thus formed resulted in his conversion, after which he sent a New Testament to his sister in Italy, with the request to read it to his illiterate parents. Returning home after some years with his savings, he found that the whole family had been converted by reading it. He then procured the visits of a Protestant pastor to his village, when persecution ensued, but the work prospered in spite of grievous trials, and the Waldensian Evangelization Committee took it up. The result is that a church of wellseasoned and well-taught Bible Christians is now about to be established in that village. Mrs. Houghton pertinently remarks that the various poor foreigners who are here for a

few years' residence may become on their return our most effective and inexpensive missionaries to their people, if the "down-town and mission work in our great cities is adequately sustained.

The New President of Newton Seminary

The Trustees of Newton Theological Seminary (Baptist) have elected as the President of that institution, in succession to the Rev. Alvah Hovey, D.D., the Rev. Nathan E. Wood, D.D., pastor of the First Baptist Church in Boston. Dr. Hovey has occupied the position for many years with credit to himself and honor to his denomination. His successor, Dr. Wood, is forty-nine years of age, and a graduate of Chicago University of the class of 1872, and of Rochester University in the class of 1875. His past rates have been with the Centennial and Memorial Churches, Chicago; the Strong Place Church, Brooklyn; the church in Brookline, Mass., and last of all in Boston. Dr. Wood, both as a preacher and a writer, is regarded as one of the strongest men in the denomination. At the time of our writing his answer to the invitation is not announced, but the desire that he should accept is widespread and strong.

Notes

The Diocese of Iowa has just chosen as its Bishop the Rev. Thomas E. Green, Jr. Mr. Green was originally a Presbyterian. As late as 1885 he was a minister in that denomination in Chicago. He has been very successful in his wo k, and is described as a man of much enthusiasm and industry. It was supposed at one time that the choice for Bishop would fall upon the Rev. Dr. Edsall, of St. Peter's Church in Chicago, whose remarkable work in his parish has attracted wide attention.

A correspondent writes: "Under the leadership of the Rev. J. Wilbur Chapman, D.D., of Philadelphia, the fourth annual Conference for Bible Study was held at Winona Lake, Ind., August 14-23, 1898. The attendance was nearly double that of last year, two thousand people in all having been present, five hundred of whom were ministers. The programme was as strong and spiritual as any outside of Northfield, Mass. Outline Bible studies and topics dealing with the deepening of the spiritual life were presented, and many conferences on Christian work were conducted. The principal speakers were: The Revs. Dr. George W. Moorehead, Xenia, O.; Dr. George T. Purves, Princeton. N. J.; Ford C. Ottman, Newark, N. J.; Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman, Philadelphia; G. Campbell Morgan, London, England, and Mr. Augustus Nash, Lincoln, Neb. Conferences were conducted by Miss Annie Harlow, of Philadelphia, on primary work. and by John Willis Baer and William Shaw, of Boston, on Endeavor work."

Victor Hugo on Cuba

To the Editors of The Outlook:

I have just come across a letter by Victor Hugo dated November 24, 1867. It may possibly interest your readers to know how our greatest writer felt on the question of Cuba:

Hauteville House, November 24, 1867. To the Revolutionary Committee of Porto Rico: The Republic of Porto Rico has defended its liberty bravely. The Committee has given me this information, and I thank the gentlemen warm ly. Spain must leave America! Such is the great aim; it is the grand duty for the Americans.

Cuba free, like San Domingo! I can only praise all this powerful effort.

The liberty of the world will be due only to the liberty of each nation. VICTOR HUGO.

Another Union of Ministers To the Editors of The Outlook:

A. L.

In connection with your paragraph "A Union of Ministers of all Denominations" in your issue of September 10, it may be of interest to know that a similar association has been in existence in this city (Salem, Mass.) for five years. It was organized through the efforts of the late venerable and beloved Rev. E. B. Wilson, pastor of the North Unitariar Church, and includes Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Uni arian, Universalist, New Jeru salem, and Congregational pastors. The meetings are held quarterly, and the discus sions, which have covered a variety of topics, have been both spirited and harmonious. Its influence has been a broadening and, on the whole, uniting force. The organization is very simple, consisting only of a Business Committee and Secretary, elected annually. The members serve as Chairman in order of seniority of ordination. Ministers from surrounding towns are included in the membership. Catholics are invited, and have been represented on one occasion.

JOHN W. BUCKHAM. Secretary.

Salem, Mass.

The Mount Meigs School To the Readers of The Outlook : Two years ago an appeal was made through The Outlook in behalf of the People's Village School for funds to buy stoves, and I thank you very much for your kind and hearty re

sponse. We succeeded in getting the stoves needed for our new school.house, and some stanch friends for our work, too.

This school, started five years ago on one of the old Southern plantations, at Mount Meigs Village, Montgomery County, is situated near the central part of Alabama, within a half-mile of Scotia Station, on the Georgia and Alabama Railroad, and three miles from the Mount Meigs Station, on the Western Railroad.

The plantation negroes in this part of Alabama are taking every advantage of the school brought to their doors, so the work has grown much faster than had been dreamed of at first, and our needs have kept pace with it. The yearly expense is something over a thousand dollars now; four teachers, including the principal, have been engaged in this work since the first year, and over six hundred young men, women, and children have been gathered in from the different plantations during that time. The colored people themselves have paid, in five years, over two thousand dollars on building and running expenses of the school.

The old debt of one thousand dollars, incurred for the building, is still hanging over us, and is a great worry. The people have had so many failures, for the last three years. in their cotton crops, that we have had only enough money, outside the tuition fees, to pay interest on part of this money. If the crops sell for anything this fall, we expect to reduce our debt, a little anyway.

We have tried for the last year to get a large bell for the school, something very much needed, not only to have our children on time for school, but to help the whole community. But the most urgent need at present is an additional room to our teachers' home, by the first of October, in order to accommodate another teacher, made necessary by the increasing duties of the principal. The special work of this new teacher will be the housekeeping, and at odd times she will assist in the class-room.

Our Trustee Board, including Mr. B. T. Washington, was incorporated, under the laws of the State of Alabama, two years ago, and this year we have organized an Advisory Board. We were fortunate in securing the services of Dr. George B. Eager, pastor of

the First Baptist Church (white) of Montgomery, on this Board. Any of our friends who would like to know further about this work could write directly to Dr. Eager, of Montgomery, Ala., or Dr. H. B. Frissell, of Hampton Institute, Va.

Any amount of money will be thankfully received, and may be sent to F. D. Banks, our Treasurer, at Hampton Institute, Va., or directly to

GEORGIA WASHINGTON, Principal of People's Village School. Mount Meigs, Ala.

The Negro Here and in Cuba To the Editors of The Outlook:

In your issue for September 10 there is an article from the pen of Booker T. Washington in which he advocates that negro young men and women be brought from Cuba to this country and educated at Tuskegee and Hampton.

Now, Mr. Washington has been and is doing a noble work, but I do not agree with the idea set forth in this article, and sincerely hope that some strong journal such as yours will oppose it. I believe, with Mr. Washing ton, that we owe it to these people to educate them, but in order to do so it is not necessary to bring them to the South, where there is a civilization in which the ideas of a past long since dead are perpetuated, where there is a caste prejudice irrational and most unChristianlike, and where negro men, educated or uneducated, are considered as inferiors, and negro women as toys and playthings.

What the world needs at the present day is manhood and womanhood. In Cuba and Porto Rico there is little, if any, caste preju dice. There young men and women feel that they are men and women, but if you brought them to the South to educate them they would be made to feel that they were less. To know how true this is you have only to make observation of the facts which are exposed to your view upon every hand. No longer than the other day, I was walking with an intelligent negro clergyman who has spent twelve of the best years of his life laboring in the South among his people. His children are now growing up, and the idea of rearing them amid the environment such as they must have in the South grows daily more repugnant to him. He wishes to rear them where they can have the best educational advantages, and where they can have born within them the consciousness that they

have the possibility of becoming men and women in the truest and noblest sense of the word. He knows that this cannot be done in the South, where a paymaster in the National army, the representative of a people who have fought bravely for the honor of the Nation upon more than one battle-field, was recently grossly insulted by Sou hern gentlemen soldiers, for no other reason than that he was a negro. Hence he is thinking of moving his home away from there to the North or the West. His case is not an isolated one, but there are thousands like him.

If we would educate the negroes of Cuba and Porto Rico, let us establish schools in their own land; but, for love of humanity, do not bring them to this country, where millions are suffering under the sting of a caste prejudice the equal of which the world has perhaps never seen.

T. EDWARD Owens, Young Men's Institute, Asheville, N. C.

Direct Primaries

To the Editors of The Outlook:

Your issue of a few weeks ago contained a letter giving the dark side of direct primaries as at present held in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. The letter referred to clo ed by say. ing that much can be said in theory but little in practice of the nominations of candidates for public office by direct vote. The implication is that the experience in Cleveland is a criterion of what would exist wherever nominations by direct vote were made; but before accepting that conclusion let those interested in this question know the facts.

The Cleveland method is simply the old regulation and discredited primary, with all its attending evils, with the exception that the ballots contain the names of candidates for the nominations instead of delegates to conventions, and are printed and furnished by the Board of Elections, which body also appoints clerks to receive the ballots and count them.

While these are very good requirements, they are but incidentals compared to two other features which must be secured before nominations by direct vote can by any possi bility produce good results.

First: A provision must be adopted which will secure the support and participation of practically all the voters. Primaries and caucuses never have and apparently never will do this, no matter what ballot is or is not used. This fact is so self-evident that