We have (say) 120 Congregational churches in the State, with (say) 8,000 members. (The last statistics, now nearly a year old, give 114 churches and 7,308 members.) More than three-eighths of this aggregate membership are to be found in five churches, leaving to the remaining 115 churches an average membership of about 40. Among these remaining churches are 15 that have an aggregate membership now of about 2,500; so that we have 100 churches with an average membership not exceeding 25. These churches are scattered over a territory nearly three times as large as all New England. A line drawn diagonally across California in either direction would reach from the northeastern point of Maine to the centre of North Carolina! It is a State of boundless possibilities, inviting and now welcoming a tremendous immigration. Opportunities abound. The demands for Christian work, in order to improve these opportunities, are imperious and almost oppressive. What might be possible if California Christians were all ideal Christians, I do not know; but taking Christian people as they average the country over, taking churches as we find them in this world and at this particular stage in the development of Christianity, it is chimerical to suppose that for a _long time_ to come the Home Missionary work that ought to be done in connection with our denomination in California will be sustained by contributions made upon the ground. Still more chimerical it would be to expect that this missionary work among the Chinese, to which we are summoned by every instinct of our faith and by a special call of Providence, but which _here_ is called to encounter special prejudices and pull a laboring oar unceasingly against both wind and tide, could be maintained without assistance from abroad. The fact is that but for the generous assistance of the American Missionary Association there would not be enough left of our Chinese mission to stir any interest or induce any giving at all in California. It is because the Association started us, and because it, and it alone, enables us to give to the work such extent as it has, and develop it into such present usefulness and gather about it such promise of larger good; it is thus, and thus only, that we have gained our vantage-ground for successful appeal. As it is, the amount contributed in California for this cause must be to every one acquainted with all the facts a grateful surprise. It reached last year a total of $2,654.05. I trust the amount will be no smaller this year. But should the Association stand aside, it would in another year be reduced almost to nothing. When effort becomes hopeless, enthusiasm dies. * * * * * GRADUATING ADDRESS OF YAN PHOU LEE, AT YALE COLLEGE. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CHINESE QUESTION.