Sherwood Academy opened its new winter term with increasing numbers.  The school is gaining favor with all classes and is doing an excellent work.

* * * * *

“Habits and Manners,” is the title of a neat little volume by Mrs. W.A.  Armstrong, of Hampton, Va.  It is made up of the lectures delivered by Mrs. Armstrong to the students of the Institution, and is a remarkably clear statement of the rules that should govern the habits and manners of ladies and gentlemen.  These lectures, though originally addressed to colored students, are equally applicable to white people, for here, at least, color makes no difference.  The book has many other items of interest, as for example, rules for cooking, recipes, etc.

* * * * *

THE CHINESE.

* * * * *

A GLIMPSE AT SHADY SIDE.

REV.  W.C.  POND, D.D.

Our friends will get a quite one-sided and mistaken view of our work among the Chinese, as of any other missionary work, if they have nothing but the sunny-side reports to read.  It is a war that we are waging, and war is serious business.  The varied fortune of the battle involves defeats, incidental and temporary, on the way to the final victory.  Sometimes it is hope deferred.

There are Chinese in whom we have come to be deeply interested, for whom we have long prayed, who have for years been among the most constant and most pleasing of our pupils, and for years have been convinced that an idol is nothing, but that the God of the Bible is the only true God, and the Christ of the Gospel the only true Saviour, who stop just there.  Over and over again we ask about them, only to find them still just there.  Not a step forward seems to have been taken, and meanwhile time—­weeks that grow to months, and months that grow even to years—­ time that might be full of service, runs to waste.  The heart gets sick with this hope deferred.

Then there are cases of disappointment.  Bright hopes have darkened almost to the blackness of very despair.  A brother whose conversion, (must I say apparent conversion?) has seemed to be unusually clear; whose walk as a Christian seemed, while he was with us, to be well-nigh perfect; whose spirit was singularly humble, devout and Christly; who was growing rapidly in knowledge of the word, and could already preach the word with power, goes back to his home in China.  Sore pressure is brought to bear upon him, and he pays some sort of homage at an idol’s shrine.  He feels forthwith condemned.  He will not be a hypocrite, and therefore will no longer profess to be a Christian.  Now that he has returned to California, he is ashamed, he says, to show himself among the brethren.  He stands aloof; keeps out of sight, and thus takes the very path along which Judas hastened to his doom.  In vain do we show him the better way of faith; in vain speak to him of Peter, or of the Father’s welcome to the prodigal, and the delight we once had in him adds soreness to the heartache of our disappointed hope.