I venture to think that at this, the last meeting of our Association for the present season, it will not be without interest and profit if we devote the time allotted for the evening to a review of the past year, in order that we may refresh our meniories ard to some of the more import:
events that ha: en place since our last adjournment in June 1899. With your permission, therefore, I will undertake to recall some of the occurrences of the past 12 months, first in the world at large, second in China, and third, in connection with this Association. In a survey of the world for the year, the war in South Africa is, of course, the event that first attracts our attention. Begun within two weeks after the first _meetmg of this Association in October Inst, it soon developed into a far more serious affair than the most of us, Americans and English, thought it was Hrealls tu regurd to the program of thie going to be, Without, however, going into
war, or discussing the rights and wrongs of the questions at issue between the Dutch and English in South Africa, two things, it seems to me, stand out perfectly clear to every observer (1). That it will be infinitely hetter for the world in general and for South Africa in particular that the British should conquer the Boers, which, as it now appears, they ate likely to do very soon, and establish a permanent pence under the enlightened and liberty-giving sway of that race whose very. name stands to-day as the synonym for freedom and good government, civilisation and progress, throughout the world, (2) That the war, however much it has cyst, and may yet cost, the British people in blood and treasure, has brought about one result, the value of which as potent factor in the continued predominance of the Anglo-Saxon race in the affairs of the world, it is impossible to fully estimate. That result is the practical federation of the British Empire. The best blood~ of England's colonies has mingled with that of the sons of the mother country amidst the storm and stress of the battlefield, and it has cemented together the integral parts of the great empire in stronger bonds than any amount of mere academic discussion or even community of commercial interests could sibly have done. With a Federation Parliament sitting at Westminster, composed of representatives from all parts of that great empire, the tap of whose drum eat is heard around the world, the supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon race is assured, ind liberty, civil and religious, with all its benign' influences, will, more and more, become the heritage of the nations of the earth.
The successful effort of the United States Government to secure "The Open Door" in China is another event of world-
Assodiation, June 5th, 1900. wide importance that has occurred during the present term of our Association. That Mr. Hay, United States Secretary of State, las been able to secure a written ayreeworld, ten and
4 native Christians, actual communicants; and a tetel native Christian ment from all the principal Powers of Europe, and also from Japan, guarantecfree trade and the maintenance of treaty tights in all those parts of China that have already, or may hereafter, come within the spheres of influence of any of these Powers, as well as throughout China in! general, is a source of very great satisfction to all concerned, and especially to all Englishmen and Americans whose homes are on these Far Eastern shores.
Two results will, I think, necessarily follow: (1) The integrity of China as ation is plied ona firmer basis than ie as occupied for many years past. It seems plain now that the country will not be divided up among the foreign Powers, community, including adherents, 4,414,236." So mightily has the word of God grown and multiplied in heathen lands!
Other events of the year might well claim our attention if we had the time dwell on them, such as the great famine in India, which, covering an area of 490,000 square miles, and involving " population of 36,000,000 of people, of whom near five and a' half amiilion are being supported by the government, makes it the worst famine that has ever devastated that fair land; or the great World's Exposition at Paris, and other occurrences more or less worthy of mention. But Must pass on to note a few events that have occurred in the land of our adoption. as, we have had too much reason to believe would be the case, especially in the three or four yous. (2) The union of the two great English-speaking nations of the world thereby becomes aneasurably stronger. This act of the American gov. ernment is a distinct step in the direction of coming to the assistance of England needed. other nations of the world must be pretty well convinced by this time that if, for any reason, they should wish to pick a quarrel with one of these nations they rust reckon with the other A recent tele: that Seeretary Hay ment to join the United States in taking immediate action to protect British and American citizens in person and property from the attacks of the "Boxers" and other mobs in the north of China and elsewhere, gives added emphasis to the above statements, and_ affords another proof of the clos¢ relations existing between the two great English-speaking n: tions, a condition of things that we 1 ently desire to see strengthened by possible mea ide impor. tance was the Ecumenical Conference of Foreign Missions that met in New York the last days of April. That nearly 2,500 missionaries and others interested in the Great Christian Propaganda, coming from all parts of the habitable globe, have met in the metropolis of the New World to devise ways and means forthe better prosecution of the one chief work of the Christian Church, that is the evangelization of the heathen, is an event that must strongly impress the imagination of every thoughtful oh. server of the times. The interchange of thought and feeling among so many men and women of ripe experience, wide observation, and burning zeal, must result giving a great impetus to the cause of world-wide Missions.
The very full accounts of the Conference given in the New York ' Tribune" and in the N. Y. Times" show it to have been a most wonderful meeting indeed. About 2,500 delegates were present from all parts of the world, a large proportion of whom were missionaries. The great Carnegie Hall, with a seating capacity of 7,000, was crowded to the roof at every meeting, forenoon, afternoon, and evening, while sectional and overflow meetings were ity. "The. papers and discussions covered held in many of the large churches of the
the whole range of Missionary Polity, and between 15,000 and 20,000 persons assembled daily,' at the various places of meeting, heard' the high things of the kingdom of God discussed by the ablest leaders in the great cause, while the published reports in the secular and religious press throughout the country centred the thought of a continent' upon this the greatest gathering of the closing years of nineteenth century.
According to the Report made by the Read before the Shanghai Missionary Committee on Statistics, there are now in the various foreign Mission Fields in the IL, Turning now to China, therefor the feeling that will be uppermost in our minds, no doubt, will be one of disappointment that, so far as the present po it outlook is concerned, we do not seem to be any nearer getting relief from the reactionary forees that dominate Peking than we were at the beginning of last autumn, The Empress Dow: ith her ultra-conservative advisers, continues to hold sway in the Northern Capital, and no leader yet arisen among the people who is sty enough to break their power nnd mak possible for the rightful ruler, the Emperor Kuang Hu, to exercise real authority agri It is true that their avowed purpose to sot aside the Kmperor and plies x'puppet on the throne, in the person of a wine year old boy, which was to have been dove at the beginning of the present Chinese year, was frustrated by the patriotic protests of many of the leaders of the people throughout the central and southern provinces, And this failure, especially the ensue that produced it, prevents us from despairing utterly of this country, There must be sone life in the old land yet. And indeed there are many evidences tht the new life that the missionaries have brought into the country is taking root in the soil and it will yet grow and produce aluindant fruit in a Tenovated, reformed, and saved people.
The past twelve months have been especially noted for the proveription of the reformers by the Empress Dowager and hor advisers. They have threatened wholesale penalties imprisonment, execution, banishment, confiscation, and what not, upon the heads of the men who have dared to counsel a change in the methods of government so as to adapt it to the new conditions of the present times and bring relief from the heavy burdens under which the peuple groan and suffer. A black list was made out by the Empress Dowager's orders lust fall containing the names of some 300 leading reformers who were to_be visited with condign punishment. Fortunately the old Empress has not been able to carry out her threats to the extent that she intended. Many of the proscribed men moved into the foreign Settlements at the open ports and thus eseapesl arrest. Of those who were actually arrested for the purpose of being summarily executed, yas notably the Emperor's former tutor, Wong Tung-ho, and another leading states. man, both of whom live at. Cha'ngshu; none have been put to death, the sentences having been commuted to' banishment, or imprisonment for life. Que, King Lien-shan, the former head of the Telegraph Administration here in Shanghai, is now under confinement by the Portugese authorities in Macao, having been arrested at the instance of the Chinese government ona trumped up charge of having embezzled some of the funds of the Telegraph Department. But he is safer in the Portuguese prison than he would be at large, as the pald assassin cannot reach him there, Again we have, during the past twelve months, witnessed the revival of a state ai affairs with which the missionaries in the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.