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by Christian influences, particularly as they approach it through the medium of medical aid.

The first missionary effort in Siam was in 1828, when Dr. Karl Friedrich August Gutzlaff (d.1851) of the Netherlands Missionary Society visited Bankok with the special purpose of seeking an entrance to China. Through his representations, David Abeel of the American Board came to that city in 1830, but the first effective work was done by Dr. Daniel Beach Bradley, Rev. Jesse Caswell of the American Board, and Rev. William Dean of the American Baptist Missionary Union. Dean's work, chiefly among the Chinese, Dr. Bradley's medical work, and paaticularly t4 e influence of Mr. Caswell, who was appointed by the king as tutor of his son, the late king of Siam, laid the foundation of the successful labors of succeeding years when the Presbyterian Board in 1848 entered the country and the American Board withdrew, preferring to put its strength into other fields. The early work was not productive of specific results, and it was not until 1859 that the first convert was baptized. Three years later a new station was opened to the south at Petchaburee, and shortly after a tour of exploration into the Laos states resulted in the establishment, in 1867, of mission work at Chieng Mai on the river MePing, about 500 miles north of Bankok. From the be ginning this work gave promise of great success, and numerous stations have been established. Medical. work was begun in 1875, and three years later a boarding-school for girls was opened, and one for boys in 1888. As the work among the distinctively Siamese Laos tribes has progressed, there has come to be a feeling that through them the Shan tribes to the east and north might probably be reached. Under French law no missionary effort can be car ried on in the province of Tonking, but the members of the Laos churches, as they cross the border for business, are constantly coming into relations with the people and are carrying the Gospel in much the same way as the Christians did in the first cen tury. Of late years the work in Siam proper has taken a new start and has met with greater success. A considerable amount of shore work is done by means of a vessel that touches at the different ports on the extended coast line, and from these points into the interior the influences are rapidly spreading.

One peculiarity of the mission work in this kingdom is that it is entirely under the care of one organization, the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. There is thus not only a unity which is lacking in other fields, but a freedom from intervention and disintegrating influences. The statistics of the work for the year 1908-09 are as follows: Siam: Stations, 7; missionaries, 37 (10 ordained, 6 medical, 1 lay, 14 married women, 6 single women); native helpers, 41 (1 ordained preacher); churches, 9; communicants, 580; schools, 8; pupils, 660; in Sundayschools, 805; contributions, $24,225. Laos: stations, 5; missionaries, 47 (I6 ordained, 7 medical, 20 married women, 4 single women); native helpers, 92 (5 ordained preachers); churches, 18; communicants, 3,494 ; schools, 27; pupils, 781; in Sundayschools, 2,843; contributions (incomplete), $11,369. Total: stations, 12; missionaries, 84; native helpers,

Shushan Bibel 133; churches, 27; communicants, 4,074; schools, 35; pupils, 1,441; in Sunday-schools, 3,648; con tributions, $35,594. EnwIN M. BLIss.

Modern exploration shows that the Shan race has spread in China in the province of Yunnan northward as far as 25a north latitude, westward as far as the Selwin River, and as far eastward as the province of Kwantung. So that over an area of 400,000 square miles the predominant element of the population is Laos. This involves the fact that on a most conservative estimate five millions of Laos are living in southern China, and raises the total of the race to about twelve millions using the Laos language. This fact is of importance for the diffusion of Christian literature in that tongue.

BIBmooRAPHY: E. Young, The Kingdom of the Yellow Robe: Sketches of the domestic and religious Rites of the Siamese, London, 1898; P. A. Thompson, Lotus Land; Account of the Country and the People of Southern Siam, ib. 1908; C. Gutzlaff, Ausfahrlicher Bericht von winem dreiiahripen Aufenthalt in Siam, Elberfeld, 1838; J. B. Pallegoix, Description du royaume Thai ou Siam, 2 vols., Paris, 1854,; Sir John Bowring, Kingdom and People of Siam, 2 vols., London, 1857; Mrs. F. R. Feudge, Eastern Side; or, missionary Life in Siam, Philadelphia, 1871; B. Taylor, Siam, New York, 1881; Siam and Laos as Seen by our American Missionaries, Philadelphia, 1884; A. R. Colquhoun,Among the Shane, London, 1885; Miss M. L. Cort, Siam, New York, 1886; H. W. Smith, Five Years in Siam, 1891-98, 2 vole., ib. 1898; J. G. D. Campbell, Siam in the 80th Century, London, 1902; Lillian J. Curtis, Laos of North Siam, Philadelphia, 1903; A. Wright and O. T. Breakspear, Twentieth Century Impressions of Siam. Its History, People, Commerce, Industries and Resources, London, 1909; J. H. Freeman, An Oriental Land of the Free; or Life and Mission Work among the Laos of Siam, Burma, China, and Indo China, Philadelphia, 1910; P. A. Thompson, Siam; an Account of the Country and the Pea pie, Boston, 1911.

SIBBES, sibz (SIBBS, SIBS), RICHARD: Puritan; b. at Tostock (33 m. e. of Cambridge), Suffolk, 1577; d. at Gray's Inn, London, July 5, 1635. He was successively student and fellow of St. John's College, and lecturer of Trinity Church, Cambridge (B.A., 1599; M.A., 1602; B.D., 1610); preacher of Gray's Inn, London, 1617-26; master of Catharine Hall, Cambridge, from 1626; and perpetual curate of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, from 1633. His bestknown works are, The Bruised Reede and Smoaking Flax (London, 1630), to which Richard Baxter owed his conversion; The Soul's ConLdict (1635); The Returning Backslider (1639 ); and A Learned Commentary upon. the First Chapter of the Second Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, ed. Thomas Manton (1655). His literary activity was, however, much more extensive than this, thirty-three titles of books and sermons being known. His Complete Works were published with memoir by A. B. Grosart (6 vole., 1862-63).

BiBrroaRAPHY: Besides the principal memoir by Grosart, the reader may consult the Life by E. Middleton, in 9th ed. of The Bruised Reeds, London, 1808; that in a new ed. of Sibbes's Divine Meditations, Newport, 1799 (ed. G. Burder); and one by S. Clarke in The Soules Conflict, Glasgow, 1768. Also: T. Fuller, Hist. of the Worthies of England, ed. J. Fuller, 4 parts, London, 1662; Samuel Clark, Lives of Thirty-two English Divines, 3d ed., ib. 1670; B. Brooke, Lives of the Puritans, ii. 416 sqq., ib. 1813: DNB, Iii. 182-184.

SIBEL, sai'bel, gASPAR: Dutch Reformed; b. at Unterbarmen (a part of Barmen, 26 m. n. of