be. Just the thing for us to
do is to "build better than we know." It is not our eye, but His,
which sees the end from the beginning. And it is his
providence--sometimes as a pillar of fire, sometimes as a pillar of
cloud--which shows us the way. Then it is for us to follow close up.

When some fifteen years ago, that slender, forlorn-seeming Japanese
lad landed in Boston, with the strange, vague, resistless,
heaven-enkindled longing in his heart; what if there had been no
kindly hand to grasp his own, no heart to discern and respond to his?
How easily might young Neesima have been lost, and the fateful turn
in the destiny of Japan at the moment of its supreme opportunity for
regeneration been vastly, disastrously different! What Chinese
Neesimas to-day God's eye may have under His gracious watch and
merciful leading, we cannot know beforehand; but this is certain,
that we know enough to know that we do well to walk softly all the
day long as seeing things invisible, and that with these thousands of
Chinese among us, walking so noiselessly, so observantly in and out
beneath the very tree of life that grows beside the river of life
clear as crystal, and which proceeds direct from the throne of the
Lamb, there are doubtless God's hidden ones, whose lives, if we will
do our part; shall yet be woven in as shining and mighty threads into
the divine plan wider than any nation, larger than the world, sure
and strong as the word of Him who, at the first, said, "Let there be
light," and there was light.

* * * * *

REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE.

BY DR. L.C. WARNER, CHAIRMAN.

Your Committee have made a careful examination of the books and
reports of the Treasurer, with special reference to the methods of
keeping the various accounts, the security of the invested funds and
the economy and prudence of the expenditures.

We find the system of bookkeeping as thorough and complete as that of
any business concern. Each item of receipts or expense appears in its
proper place, where it can be found without delay. The different
departments of the work are classified and separated so that a broad
and comprehensive knowledge of the work is always before the officers
and Executive Committee. All payments are made by checks, and each
check requires the signature of two officers of the Association; thus
reducing to a minimum the chances of error or loss in the
disbursement of the funds. At the end of each