Railroads are doing the work of pioneers and of soldiers, peace is not far off. There will soon be need of the army only as a national police, and half of the 15,000 troops at the West may be dispensed with. What better service can a few of its accomplished officers undertake than building up a civilization at its weakest point? The Indian can be rescued from a sad fate only by personal devotion; that has, under God, created the great results of missionary work throughout the world in recent years. The labors of the Riggses, Williamsons and of Bishop Whipple and others during the past half century, in the western wilderness, has been a seed-sowing of which the results are now appearing. The men they have touched and taught are those who are now breaking from the old superstitions and asking for light, while official dealings have scarcely a moral result to show for armies of agents and vast annuities. Only the light of Christian truth and example steadily shining can lift men up. Mission work among the Cherokees and others, and for the Sioux at Sisseton and Fort Sully and Santee agencies in Dakota, where wild Indians are settled on so peaceful prosperous homes that “a stranger traveling through the country would not believe that he was on an Indian Reservation,” attest the complete success of the Congregational, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian societies. Peoria Bottom, which I visited in 1881, is a charming village of twenty Christian families, on thrifty homes, the result of the efforts of the Rev. Thos. L. Riggs. “In proportion to the aid and means employed no missions since the apostolic age have been more successful than those to the American Aborigines,” declares one of these bodies. There have been, however, weak and disappointing missions. Such work cannot be inspired from Washington, though it may supply many of the conditions of it. A purified civil service would do more for the Indian than for any class in the country. Good agents would create a _morale_, like a favoring tide, for the Christian teacher. The “gist” of the Indian question I believe to be honesty and capacity in dealing with them. Given these and the rest will work itself out. * * * * * THE CHINESE. REV. W. C. POND, SUPERINTENDENT. * * * * * HUMBLINGS. BY REV. W. C. POND. I had finished the preparation of the last annual report of our Mission. I had read it at the annual meeting. It was ready for the printer, and had even been placed in his hands. It was a report instinct throughout with good cheer. It could not be otherwise. It recorded the work of a prosperous year. No previous year of our whole history had approached this one, as to the numbers gathered into our schools and brought within reach of the invitations of the Gospel. Perhaps I was in danger of being “exalted above measure.” And, so, humblings were prepared for me.