they must move out when I say "Go, "I am not anxious for them to leave until I get a permanent pass, as they are a protection to the house, and besides they are to pay twentyfive dollars a month rent for it.

Every civilian in the country must have a pass. The morning after I reached Germiston, I had to wait upon the lieutenant of the police for a protection pass for a month, and for a pass to move around with. He gave me a weekly traveling pass, which enables me to walk, drive, ride or bike on the main road between Johannesburg and Boksburg. The father of the lieutenant above mentioned was a mine manager, and finally as a major in a volunteer regiment was killed in Natal. It was sad but interesting to see the Boer women, dressed in deep mourning for some of their loved ones slain, coming into the office to get their passes renewed at the hands of this lieutenant. The pass business is a great affair, and sentries with loaded rifles are stationed at different points along the road with orders to let none go by without a pass.

On the road between Johannesburg and Germiston are two large hospital camps where sick and wounded soldiers are treated. The Red Cross flag is flying, and as one passes he gets a whiff of iodoform, carbolic acid and other medicines used in the treatment of wounds and disease. There is no fighting in Johannesburg or its suburbs. In fact the country is said to be clear for one hundred miles around, but the war still goes on wearily in other parts, and the wounded are still being brought in to suffer and to die. I am glad to report that some earnest Christians have been working among the soldiers, and that meetings are being held regularly, and hospitals and camps visited.

The other day while down in Germiston I wanted to hire a bike. I met the bicycle man on the street, and he told me to come around and see him. I went down to his place in about an hour's time, and found he had just shot a native through the heart. It seems that a native had assaulted a man with a hatchet, and that a policeman shot at him and missed him. The policeman then called upon the bicycle man to get his rifle and assist him. He did so and shot the native dead. Every policeman carries a rifle and bandolier, and every able-bodied British subject is supposed to belong to the Rand Rifles, to be called

upon when needed. Yesterday I visited the two compounds near to our school, and met some of our old boys. They were very glad to see me, and were anxious for a meeting, so I told them to come on Sunday and we would have a meeting in our chapel. I am going to clean the chapel, arrange the seats and have the glorious privilege of preaching the gospel in our own chapel once more.

Last Sunday I visited the compounds, accompanied by another brother, and had the privilege of seeing and talking with a number of Inhambane boys with whom I was acquainted, one of them being a boy who stood by me when I was seriously sick, when it seemed that all others had fled.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

TRANSVAAL CONDITIONS IMPROVING SETTLED AT JOHANNESBURG PEACE DECLARED BIRTH OF SON.

""Tis weary watching wave on wave,
And yet the tide heaves onward;
We build like corals-grave on grave,
But pave a pathway sunward.
We're beaten back in many a fray,
Yet ever strength we borrow;
And where the vanguard rests to-day,
The rear shall camp to-morrow."

Mr. Agnew's next report of his work was from Johannesburg, and was probably written about the middle of February, 1902. It tells of improved and continually improving conditions in the Transvaal, the resumption in some degree of mining operations, the reopening of his school, with an attendance of thirtyeight, and a temporary and somewhat successful return to his favorite work in the compounds. In one part of the report he says: "As thirty thousand natives are now on their way here, most of them from Inhambane and the east coast, our hands, as missionaries, will soon be full."

The following incident is also related: "A short time ago I went to visit a graveyard near our place. There are a great many new graves of soldiers who have fallen in the war. Over some of the graves there are tombstones which have been stolen for the occasion. One fine marble slab erected over a soldier's grave had painted on it, in crooked letters and bad spelling, 'We

shall meet, but we shall mis him.' I had heard of a colored man who stole a pair of pants to get baptized in, but this was the first I had seen in the line of stolen tombstones over the dead."

On March 2nd of this year Mr. and Mrs. Agnew bade farewell to their work in Ebenezer and vicinity, their way having opened, and they regarding it as duty, to return permanently to their Johannesburg field. In summing up the results of their labors in Natal, whither the breaking out of the war had determined

them to go, Mr. Agnew says:

After two years of pioneer work at Ebenezer and Umzimkulwana, we are now about to leave for Johannesburg. Having received a permit for wife and Susie I came down to Natal a week ago to bring them and our baggage up to the Transvaal.

The past two years have been times of blessing. We have enjoyed our work here and have made progress along different lines.

In the first place, we have become better acquainted with our fellow-missionaries, and this is quite a help in mission work. In regard to our Natal missionaries, while they do not need any of my endorsement, yet it may not be out of place to say that they are all doing a good work for God, and his blessing is with them. This is more than can be said of the work of scores of missionaries in South Africa. When we think af some with whom we are acquainted, one of whom said he had been a missionary for twenty-five years and had never seen a native convert, and of others belonging to evangelical societies who have no confidence in their own so-called converts, we have, as a church, great cause to be thankful for the souls won here at Natal. Many have taken the narrow way, and, abandoning all their vices and heathenism, have come out boldly for God.

In the second place, during our stay in Natal we have become better acquainted with the natives. We have learned to love them more, and it has done us good to visit them in their kraals and pray with them in their gloomy huts. We have endeavored to point them to "the Friend who all their miseries bore," and God has blessed the efforts made.

In the third place, in the past two years we have become better acquainted with ourselves and our needs; consequently we see more and more our constant need of the presence and power of God in our lives. "Without me," said Christ, "'ye can do nothing," and these words are impressed upon our souls more and more. Only as we live in fellowship with Christ can we expect to have power with God or man.

The openings at Ebenezer and Edwaleni are splendid ones, and a good start has been made. The schools at Ebenezer and Umzimkulwana are going again now, after the holidays, and Sister Hartman will have her hands full in our absence to carry on the station work alone. She will, of course, have the help of a native evangelist, and Brother and Sister Brodhead intend visiting the work all they can, but we all feel that the young lady appointed to be her associate ought to be there as soon as possible.

During the months of May and June the church paper contained reports regarding the progress of the