* * * *

Rev. Eli Tapley, pastor of four of our churches in Mississippi, died
March 2, in Lowndes County. He was born in the same County and State in
1839. When he was eight years old, his parents moved to Alabama. At
seventeen years of age he was converted, and immediately entered with
zeal upon the active duties of a Christian life. Uniting with the
Methodist church, he was soon appointed class leader and Sunday-school
teacher. Afterwards as exhorter and licensed minister he labored without
salary, as he had opportunity, both among white and colored people. In
1869, he removed to Lowndes County, Miss., united with the
Congregational Church there and was ordained to preach, and for many
years he continued his work under the Christian Commission for Free
Missions, of Wheaton, Ill. He was often the subject of great
persecution, because he labored among the colored people and refused to
take any part in the Civil War. In 1881, he began labors under the
American Missionary Association, which he continued until his death,
filling the pastorates of Salem, Piney Grove, New Ruhamah and Pleasant
Ridge Churches in Mississippi. He was an earnest and true man. One of
his latest rapturous exclamations, with face beaming with smiles as if
in full view of the Celestial City, was, "Heaven through Christ."

* * * * *

THE INDIANS.

* * * * *

A JANUARY TRIP.

BY REV. JAMES F. CROSS.

_Missionary among the Indians in Dakota._

On the 8th of January, I started from home at the Agency to visit
Northfield and Park Street Church Stations. A snow, heavy for this
region, had fallen, and I thought a sled would run easier than a buggy,
so I made a sled. I had counted on the road being broken, as fifty
wagons had gone over it only a day or two before. Here was my first
difficulty. Only a few hours before I started a heavy wind arose and
filled up every track. So for every step of the thirty miles I had to
break a new road. Most of the way it was knee deep, and in some places
it was entirely impassable and it was necessary to go half a mile or
even a mile to cross a ravine forty feet wide. In one place where the
road seemed plain, the snow was particularly deep. The crust was just
thick enough to hold a horse until he began to pull. Then down he would
go. Finally one horse could not reach the ground and rolled over on his
side, and left me not yet halfwa