dially willing to correspond with intending applicants at any time in order to give them any desired counsel. In some cases, boards will make an appointment a year in advance, if there are special reasons. Such appointments, however, are apt to be made without designation of field and subject to any emergencies that may affect the board's ability to send out new men, as it is usually difficult to forecast the financial situation so far ahead.

The secretary of the board, on receiving the formal application, corresponds with those who know the candidate. Some boards have a printed list of questions for this purpose, as they have learned from experience that, while most people will tell the truth, they will not tell all the truth unless definite questions are asked and a specific answer insisted upon. Even then, it is not always easy to get a candid judgment. We know a distinguished professor who almost invariably writes in superlatives regarding his students. He does not mean to deceive, but his kindness of heart and his ardent desire to help his students to a start in life unconsciously affect his judgment. Others shrink from putting into writing an unfavourable opinion of a young man or woman with whose families they are perhaps related in business or social ways. In these circumstances, a board, in spite of all its care, is sometimes deceived, but the secretaries are so thorough that they are seldom led astray. The time required for this investigation is ordinarily about two or three months, though in special cases it may be shorter or longer. Sometimes the financial condition of a board causes delay, as of course a board must know whether it can support a missionary before it appoints him. In the event, however, of delay on this account, the board usually informs the candidate at once whether the way is clear so far as his qualifications are concerned, so that he is not kept in suspense.

As a further precaution, a few of the boards have adopted the plan of bringing newly appointed missionaries to their headquarters for a conference of a week or ten days. These

conferences, inaugurated by the Presbyterian Board in 1898, have proved to be of great interest and value, enabling the secretaries to pass the appointees in careful review before going to the field, establishing at the outset relations of personal friendship, acquainting the new missionary with some of the lessons of missionary experience and the main features of missionary policy, and clarifying his opinions on a number of important

matters.

Assignment of field is ordinarily made at the time of appointment, as a given application is usually considered in connection with the needs of some particular mission. It is not uncommon, however, especially among the larger boards which send out forty or fifty new missionaries each year, to leave the assignment of field until most of the intended appointments have been made and then take up the question of distribution. This enables the board to make the assignments more intelligently, since it can select for a given position that one of the available men who is best suited to it. The new missionary's preferences, if he has any, are respected as far as practicable, but of course they cannot always be determinative. Half a dozen physicians may wish to go to Korea when that mission needs only one, or a candidate who is fitted for teaching may desire to go to North India which has asked that year for evangelistic workers but not for educational, or a death or resignation may have created a vacancy in Persia that is more urgent than the addition of another man to the force in Japan. A board must make assignments with primary reference to the field needs, which may not coincide with the preferences of candidates. There are, too, considerations as to the kind of work for which a candidate is best qualified and the question of his physical adaptations as made known by his medical examination. Some men, who could stand any amount of work in temperate North China, might quickly succumb to disease in tropical Africa. Of course a candidate may have convincing reasons for going to the field of his choice, and then the board

gladly acquiesces, if the relative needs of that field justify the assignment. Experience has shown, however, that the preferences of candidates are apt to be based upon some casual circumstance like the reading of a book or a conversation with a furloughed missionary or a general idea that he would like to work among a particular people.

The candidate of the right spirit will be willing to take into serious and prayerful consideration the claims of the field that the board may deem to be most needy at the time or better adapted to his qualifications. Need, adaptation to it and request to go to it are surely more apt to be in accord with the divine ordering of a life than a more or less hasty and unintelligent notion as to where one would like to go. God not only calls missionaries, but He assigns their fields of labour, nor does He hesitate to overrule personal preferences. We read of Paul and Timothy that they "were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia," that "they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not," and that from the vision of "a man of Macedonia," Paul "assuredly gathered that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them." 1 The tenth chapter of Acts makes it plain that the Holy Spirit not only directed the three men to seek Peter but in turn sent Peter to Cæsarea.

Many modern illustrations might be cited. Adoniram Judson felt bound in the Spirit to go to the foreign field, but he had not intended to go to Burma, a country extremely unattractive to him. He wanted to labour in India and he tried twice to go there, but God barred the way and literally drove him to Burma, where he entered upon that marvellous missionary career among the Karens. Barnabus Shaw was wellnigh discouraged when he saw that he could not preach the gospel in Cape Town. Buying a wagon and a yoke of oxen, he started for the interior, without any definite idea as to where

1 Acts 16.

he was going. After 300 miles of apparently aimless wandering, he met a band of Hottentots who were journeying to Cape Town for a missionary to teach them "the great word" regarding the true God. Who brought that missionary and those heathen together? Do such things happen, or does the Spirit of God order them? William Carey, influenced by Captain Cook's reports of the Pacific Islands, "assayed to go" to Tahiti, "but the Spirit suffered" him not and sent him to India, where he was so mightily used of God. David Livingstone studied and planned for years to go to China, but in ways very strange to him and only explicable on the supposition of the Spirit's immediate direction, he was led to Africa.

The reader only needs to be reminded how much better it was in all these instances that God overruled the preferences of individuals. Save, therefore, in exceptional cases, it is better for the candidate to keep an open mind regarding his field until he has learned from the board all the facts that should enter into a decision and is sure that he is following the leadings of Providence. The final decision may involve a change in some cherished plans; but there will be no mistake and no regrets in going with God.

V

FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND LANGUAGE STUDY

T

HE sailing dates vary according to convenience and climatic conditions; but as a rule, new missionaries sail in the late summer or early fall so as to reach the field at the most favourable season and in time for the annual meetings of the missions. Arrangements for railway and steamship tickets are made through the board, which can ordinarily secure reduced rates. Necessary travelling expenses from the missionary's home to his destination are paid by the board on the basis of the most direct route. Variations may

be made, if desired, but the additional cost is met by the missionary personally. He is expected to keep a memorandum of his expenditures of the board's funds and to render an itemized account to the mission treasurer on his arrival on the field.

Suggestions as to outfit, furnished by the mission to which the missionary has been assigned, will be sent by the board and should be consulted before making purchases. Some boards make no grant for outfit, leaving it to be provided by the family or friends of the missionary. Others furnish an allowance for this purpose. The amount varies, but is usually about $200, except in fields where heavy household furniture is provided by the board, the allowance then being proportionately reduced. To a medical missionary an additional allowance is sometimes made for instruments, unless they are already at his post. In any event, as much as possible of the allowance should be reserved for use on the field. New missionaries are apt to buy articles that are not needed. They should purchase before sailing only what they are sure that they will require and leave everything else until after arrival. The board will be glad to fill any order that may be sent from the