of godliness, but not the power thereof." With few exceptions, the ancient Slavic liturgy alone is read in the services. There is no preaching, no Bible-study, but very little knowledge of the work of the Holy Spirit. No work is done for the children, and it is not considered proper for unmarried young women to attend the church services at all. Simple Bible stories, under the title "The Law of God," are taught regularly in the public schools. But this amounts to little. Often the text-books are poor. Worse still, many of the teachers are rank infidels or atheists. Indeed, I was recently told by the Secretary of the Holy Synod (the highest ecclesiastical authority), that in his opinion such teaching was much worse than none at all. He also said that though very desirable to introduce Sunday-schools into the National Church it was not yet feasible.

One reason for this is the prejudice against Protestant institutions. Religion is regarded as political. When a member of the Bulgarian Church joins the Greek Church or vice versa, he is regarded as changing his nationality. National rivalry is intense; therefore, feeling runs high. "Protestant" has meant to many not only pervert from the faith, but also traitor to the Fatherland. In Macedonia many believe that to become a Protestant is to become an American citizen.

Another reason is that the need for Sunday-schools is not yet sufficiently felt. In several instances, they have been opened in Orthodox churches, but in every case they have either been given up for lack of interest or have soon deteriorated into ordinary night schools for the teaching of arithmetic, geography, etc.

Here and there the priests do feel the force of the swift downward current. They note the Church daily losing its grip on the nation. They see the youth becoming indifferent, immoral, lax in all lines, atheistic. They sometimes even ask our Protestant workers: "What can we do to save our nation?" To which question they find no

answer, since they are not yet ready to accept the solution which the Sunday-school affords.

But the main obstacle in the way of establishing Sundayschools in the Eastern Church is the lack of teachers. The clergy are almost universally incompetent through ignorance of the Bible; the public school teachers through unbelief in the Bible; and laymen and women are incompetent through indifference to the Bible. The Secretary of the Holy Synod admitted these facts to me, and said: "If you have suitable men push this work as hard as you can.”

In Roumania, the Rev. J. H. Adeney reports three or four Sunday-schools carried on in Bucharest by a Roumanian society of ladies called "Tibisoi;" by foreigners, for Roumanians, one small school conducted by Mr. Berney, a Swiss; by foreigners for Jews, two schools under Mr. Adeney's general direction, and a Norwegian mission in Galatz, and a Swedish mission in Jassy. M. Adeney reports that the Roumanian church does nothing for the children outside of the day-school religious instruction, and that there is an immense need of evangelical work among the Roumanians.

3. The Outlook. But the horizon is not without light. Many hopeful signs are visible. Opposition to our work is everywhere breaking down. People who were formerly antagonistic are now friendly, and we believe that large. numbers are convinced in their hearts of the truth which they dare not confess with their lips. In the Orthodox Church a few leaders and one religious journal do realize the need of a general spiritual awakening, and are working toward that end. Recently they have organized various "Preaching Brotherhoods," and some priests are beginning to read the Bible and to preach in the language of the people. A new translation of the Scriptures into modern Bulgarian is being prepared by the Holy Synod, and last Easter, for the first time, the "Twelve Gospels" were read in every church in the country in the Bulgarian language. A fresh interest

in Bible study is springing up. One Orthodox woman who buys Bibles from the writer for other women says that their study of them at home and in their woman's meeting is a "wonderful cure for their many sorrows." One bookstore in the town of Stara Zagora within six months has sold three hundred and fifty copies each of Bibles, New Testaments and of Gospels and Psalms in Bulgarian alone, in addition to one hundred Testaments in four other languages.

4. Our work. The only Sunday-schools in Bulgaria are those connected with Protestant missions. Many of these are attended by numbers of Orthodox children, some almost exclusively so. In some places our schools are more prosperous than any other phase of the work. For several years, in the Philippopolis field we have opened one new Sunday-school each year, while most of those already existing have increased in number.

Many children have joined the "Bible Lovers" auxiliary of the American Bible Society, of which at least one hundred and thirty are contributing members. For more than sixteen years the Primary Department of the Philippopolis church has contributed annually two dollars and twenty cents to the support of "The Morning Star." Several classes in our Samokove school are giving tithes, with the hope that the Sunday-schools in Bulgaria will soon be able to send an evangelist into Servia where 4,000,000 Slavs are entirely without gospel teaching. Other schools have sent contributions to foreign mission fields. A number of our pastors and teachers use The Sunday School Times and Peloubet's Notes, both of which they feel to be invaluable.

The following incident shows that we should not despise the day of small things. An earnest Bulgarian Protestant opened a little Sunday-school in a village near Philippopolis. The children at first came gladly but were soon forbidden by the priest to attend. She continued to teach the lesson to a few soldiers who dropped in, but felt greatly discouraged.