The Missionary Review of the World — October 1895
TOlIB OF EZR_ OX THE TIGRIS
A GLIMPSE OF THE CHEEK AT Bl'SRAH. ARABIA. MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVIn. No.lO.-.Oltl&riu.-OO~OBER.-VoL. YIn. No.lO.-Ne?JISerie8.
MIRAOLES OF MISSIONS.-No. XXIV.
* THE ROMANCE OF THE HovA BIBLE.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
As the heart makes the theology, so, it is to be feared, it often makes the history, or at least misreads it. Because amid the four millions of Madagascar nine tenths still ramain heathen, there is on the part of some no little proneness to depreciate the grand results of Protestant missions there, and to disparage the magnitude of the work begun in 1820.
We have thought well to reproduce, from the ·panorama of these seventy-five years, one scene which is at once full of romance and reality, pathetic and poetic, vivid in its contrasts and intense in its interest-the story of the Malagasy Bible. Christian missions have many such pictures, which need no retouching by humau hands to make them brilliant with historic lustre, and fascinating with romantic beauty; but this story of the Hova Scriptures wiJl bear to be Fut beside any similar narrative of this Illissionary century.
Seventy-five years ago two humble Welshmen landed on the coast of Madagascar-David Jones and David Griffiths. But one year apart in their arrival at Antananarivo, they were the pioneers of Protestant missions on this great island, which has been called the Britain of the Dark Continent.
They found the French missio~, which had preceded them by more than a century and a half, had scarce left even a permanent footprint to mark its twenty years of experiment. Madagascar was still virgin soil ; the people lacked all true knowledge of Christ, and had not even a written language. It waa still a pioneer work that was to be done ; and a score of years of teaching, discouragement, and hardship had failed even to lay the foundations for a church of Christ.
* See" Mada,galiCal'.of To-d&y." By Rev. W. E. ColllliDl. F. U. Revell" Co.
JlI&ACLIII 0.- 1II11l0lfS
The reason was obvious. Roman Catholics had made there, as in 1M) many other places, the fatal mistake of not gitJing to the J"OPle the Wortl of God. God has ordained that no mission work shall be lasting which does not magnify the Holy Scriptures as the corner-stone of Christian education. These two WcIslunen recognized the cause of the failure of Nacquart and Gondree, and they began, as soon as they learned the Malagasy tongue, and when, in fact, they were u yet novices in this strange language, to translate into it the Word of God. Distrusting their own imperfect acquaintance with the vernacular, they selected from their more promising ~cholars, some as usistante, and they are still honored in Madagascar as "The Twelve." So faithful was the work done, that by March, 1830, only ten years after D~vid Jones had reached the capital, the first edition of three thousand copies of the New Testament was com. pleted j and considerable portions of the Old Testament had likewise been translated.
The devil now came down, having great wrath, as though he knew that, with an open Bible, his time would be short. Already the Word of God we had begun to turn the little world of the HoVAS upside down; and need no greater proof of the mighty power and inlluence it had begun to wield among the people than the organized opposition it now encountered.
Soon after King Radama I. died, in 1828 clouds began to gather OD the horizon, and lurid lightnings played amid the darkness. There were threatenings of a coming storm, and seven years later the violence of a malicious and cruel persecution burst upon the infant church. Queetl Ranavalona I.-the Bloody Mary of Madagucar-issued her famous edict against the religion of the Christian's Bible, March 1st, 1835.
At that time a part of the Book of Job, and the whole of the Old Testament from Ezekiel to Malachi, remained yet to go through the press. Uncertain how soon, by expulsion or martyrdom, they might have to leave the young church to itself, the missionaries prayed for time and strength to complete the Malagasy Bible. It wu like attempting to gather up household goods and put them in a place of shelter when a volcano WIUI belching out lava and ashes overhead. Undismayed by danger, undaunted by difficulty, deserted by timid converts, and watched by a suspicious government, they toiled without resting and prayed without ceasing.
Unable to secure native aid, they had to do the work of printing aDd even of composing type; but by the end of June, four months after the edict of intolerance had pealed out its thunders, the first bound copies of the complete Bible were ready for the HOTa Church !
And now the next question wu bow to prevent this whole editiOD from destruction by the Satanic queen and her sernle miDions. Most of these new Bibles were secretly scattered among· the converts in whose piety and loyalty they could repose most confidence. But, for greater securi~1' and so that, if all these were discovered and consigned to the lIames, as many of them were, a precious remnant might I1U'vlVe, they bnriedsevellty
189r;.] KIRACLES OJ' KI88IONS. '728
copies in the earth-precious seed for a future harvest when the storm should have spent its fury.
They had done their work none too soon or too speedily i and now their expulsion was decreed, and for twenty-five years Protestant missionariel!l were exiles. The translators of the Bible were driven from Madagascar, but the Bible they had translated was not so easily driven away. In th. story of that martyr church two facts stand out like opposing mountain peaks on a landscape-like Gerizim, the mount of blessing, and Ebal, the mount of curse, at the gateway to the plains of Sychar-the intense hatred of the persecuting queen and her court toward the new Bible, and. the equally intense love and devotion of the Hova martyrs toward that hateci and proscribed book.
History furnishes few more pathetic tales of heroism, even where touched with the pencil of romantic fancy, than is found in the Inartyr church of Madagascar. The blessed Book had to be treasured in secret, and in secret read and studied. Discovery meant the sure destruction of the book, and the almost equally sure death of the possessor. Every copy of the Bible was therefore kept and read at risk of life. A quarter of a century is a long period of testing i but they stood th~ test. When some of the Bibles were found, as they were, and committed to the flames, they hid the rest in trunks of trees and in rock caves, and many of them committed large portions to memory, that at least one imperishable record might be preserved which no fire could destroy. And, when the missionaries once more found welcome at Madagascar, very few complete Bibles were. left i perhaps not more than a dozen or so survived i and with these was associated a most pathetic interest. They were thumbed and worn into shreds, or patched and so preserved, but treated as precious relics that no price could buy i and he was counted specially bappy who could produce even a few leaves of the sacred Word, however soiled or ragged through much use, or mildewed with the mould of the damp place where they had been secreted.
The revision of this early translation supplies in its way a story scarcely less romantic. On December 1st, 1873, eight foreigners and three natives began a work, not completed until thirteen years later, of retranslation. When the first Bible had been prepared, the knowledge of the language had been so imperfect that, as in all other similar cases, errors had inevitably crept in, and it became necessary to prepare another version, embodying all the results of later and, more accurate scholarship. On that new Revision Committee five denominations of Christians were represented, all working in loving harmony during all the years of the work, though only two Europeans and one native, who were members at the inception, remained on the committee until its completion.
The meetings were held on Wednesdays, and two sittings of three hours each were given to the task. So slowly and carefully was the work done that a day was sometimes spent on a dozen verses, though sometimes from sixty to eighty were covered. But what a beautiful sight in God's eyes it must have been, when, for nearly fourteen years, Anglicans and Lutherans, Presbyterians, Independents and Friends sat every week studi- ously seeking to make a new and complete Bible for the people, forgetting all minor differences in one absorbing aim and work! and, as Mr. Cousins beautifully says, even Mr. Richardson's Malagasy Dictionary lying com- paratively unused on the table, because at one end was a living lexicon of the native language in the person of three native helpers, * to whom, in fact, the final re,·ision was mainly entrusted.
When the labor of these long years reached completion, and the prayers of more than six hundred successive sessions had been answered, it was felt that a thanksgiving service should signalize the close of such a gigantic task. And the place chosen for such a praise service-there could be none so appropriate-was the stone memorial church at Ambonin' Ampamari- nana, the sanctuary reared on the verge of the precipice over which, thirty- eight years before, fourteen Malagasy martyrs had been fiung, because they loved that Bible and would not disown the Christ it had revealed !
But in what different circumstances that thanksgiving service was held!
When that earliest edition had been completed, a storm of pitiless perse- , cation was beating on the heads of native Christians, before which even the ,translators were driven away. Now it was eighteen years since the public burning of the idols, and at the thanksgiving meeting behold His Excellency, Rainilaiarwony, the Prime Minister, sent by a Christian queen, Ranavalona II., the first Christian sovereign of Madagascar, to represent her and convey to all who, had aided in this great work the thanks of the queen. With what emotions must they who remembered the horrors of the reign of the first Ranavalona have heard this noble premier, the queen's consort, as he told of the profound personal interest his royal wife had taken in the work of revision, and how in her jealousy for its perfec- tion she had herself often suggested to the revisers certain suitable words and phrases to convey tho sacred sense. And so in more than two thou- sand congregations and nearly as many schools, representing more than three hundred thousand Protestant Christians, this revised Bible is to be used. .
If facts have any force, surely no one who candidly surveys this pano- ramic scene can doubt that a Divine Artist has been at work. The hand of God has drawn these outlines, and there is a touch of celestial color- ing. The rainbow round about the throne reflects its sevenfold beauty in the history of the Hova Church; there is something which arches this whole seventy-nve years, in sight like unto an emerald. Shall we question the Divine sanction upon missions when seventy-five years among the Hovas work such chang.es and reveal such fruits ~ • P. 122.
THE GOSPEL IN RUSSIA
THE GOSPEL IN RUSSIA.
The writer, in conversation with a highly placed Russian official, in- quired what he thought was the greatest obstacle to the progress of true religion in the great empire of the Czar, and the remarkable answer was immediately given: "There are no obstacles j the people are ready, even the Church is ready. Let the movement but have life, and be in harmony with our Russian sympathies and character, and nothing can oppose or retard it. Before all else, we are a religious people. "
From his peculiar point of view there is much of truth in this dictum of the Russian official. The people are unquestionably prepared for a great religious revival, and in many ways the Orthodox Greek Church shows a liberality and a receptivity which is quite remarkable. Nevertheless, in spite of the official's opinion, there are obstacles to the spread of evangelical religion in Russia, so formidable and so numerous that one almost despairs of seeing them altogether removed in onr day. Let us look for a moment at the position of affairs. Of the one hundred million Russians inhabiting Russia in Europe and Siberia, about eighty millions are orthodox Greek Churchmen, and some twent.y millions are heretics of one school or another-Old Believers, Old Ritualists, Molokans, Stundists, etc. The policy of the Church and State toward dissent has been almost invariably one of severe repression, appalling sometimes in its severity. The result is that persecutor and persecuted view one another with an hostility difficult for people to judge who enjoy perfect religious freedom. Besides, the conduct of the" heretics" themselves has been often so indecorous, so fanatical and intolerant, and the excrescences which they have put forth have been frequently so offensive, that almost all the sympathy felt for them by the warm-hearted and more liberal of the orthodox has been chilled. In Russia, therefore, dissenter and Churchman are face to face, hating one another bitterly, the former excluded from every privilege, from every office in the State, hunted down by those two steady allies, priests and police, prohibited in most cases from worshipping in his own way, his children often taken from him and forcibly brought up in the orthodox faith. The position of the Russian dissenter is an intolerable one, and only the most steadfast belief in the infallibility of his doctrines, and the ever-present hope that his fidelity to principle will have its glorious reward hereafter, could compensate him for his !ifeof toil and trouble, for the ignominy and contempt poured upon him.
There can be no doubt that among the different dissenting bodies in Russia there are, on the whole, far greater evidences of energetic religious life than among the orthodox. The very multiplicity of sects among them, however harmful and disastrous it may be in many ways, is still proof that they are thinking, that religion is a reality to them, that it is a tremendous force playing a controlling part in their lives. Hardly a sect among them that is not eagerly missionary in spirit and practice. Generally it is this very propagandist zeal of theirs which gets them so often into trouble, for no orthodox Russian is allowed to leave the Greek Church without being liable to transportation to Siberia, and the same terrible punishment is likewise meted out to any sectarian who either attempts to or succeeds in perverting any member of the Orthodox Church. These drastic punishments, however, have never deterred enthusiastic propagandists anywhere, and the result in Russia agrees with universal experience, that danger lends attraction to the missionary's work, and that a martyr's crown is often a far greater inducement to work than the prospect of full money-bags and an easy old age.
I am often asked, apart from the Stundists and other Russian sects professing what is known as Protestant doctrine, is there any vital evangelical force at work among the numerous millions of the other heretical bodies f I believe there is. To too great an extent the leaders of the Old Believers, the most numerous of these sects, are taken up with the empty points of ritual which divide them from orthodoxy, their minds are too full of an antipathy almost absurd in its strength to anything modern or that deflects in any way from the methods of their fathers, but their very isolation, and the fact that they give their minds to the consideration of sacred subjects, are evangelical forces of the strongest character. Many of them will not take a New Testament or other religious book in their hands if it is written in modern Russ. They deem it profane to quote Scripture in auy language other than the ancient Slavonic, but this very conservatism of theirs has forced them to pay attention to the Scripturel, and to learn by heart whole chapteri of the Bible, which are handed down orally from father to son, from generation to generation. One of the most affecting services I ever attended was in the little hut of one of these sectaries. Before retiring for the night my host and his wife stood in the middle of the room and recited psalm after psalm, passage after passage, without an error so far as I could judge. Neither of them could read, and their parents and grandparents before them were equally illiterate. After careful study of these, the more ancient of the sectaries, I am led to believe that the vital principles of religion are slowly and steadily finding their way among them, and that there seems to me some slight softening of the asperities which used to mark their dealings with those who were not their co-religionists.
But in addition to the hostile attitude of sect toward sect and of orthodoxy toward heresy, there is another far more fatal obstacle to the uninterrupted course of evangelical truth in Russia. I refer to the influences which centre in the great lay procureur of the Holy Synod, M. Constantine Pobedanostseff. This able man, notwithstanding a temporary eclipse at the accession of the present Czar, is still the most powerful statesman in Russia. He is thoroughly sincere in his notion that the welfare of the empire depends upon the intimate connection of Church and State, and no
I•.] TO fiOfI'ZL IN BVIIIU
pains are too great and no labor is without reward which has for its object the welding together the closest interests of both. Dissent from the Church is, in his view, disloyalty to the empire. The dissenter who, enamored of Luther's doctrines, hangs up a picture of the great reformer in his room, is not far from hanging up a picture of the German Emperor, or from deposing the picture of the Czar. These are in reality M. Pobeda- nostllej!'s views more than once expressed. The passionate love which this statesman bears to his church is part of the fibre of his being. In a well-known passage he once declared to the leaders of the Evangelical Alliance, that it was the Russian Church which stood for two hundred years between Western Europe and the Mongolian invaders from the East, that if the East has left its impre88 too deeply on the Russian character, it is because Russia took upon herself what might have destroyed Europe, and that instead of the Western churches sneering at the supposed intoler- ance and immobility of their Russian aister, they should be filled with admiration at the constancy and fortitude which has enabled her to preserve inviolate her holiest traditions and her undying hopes. Both as Churchman and as politician, therefore, Pobedanostseff will tolerate no deftection from the atandards of the orthodox faith, aud if a handful of peaaants here and there in the interior maintain their right to liberty of conscience, or if the Lutheran pastors of the Baltic provinces interfere with the rights of the RWlSian clerC', or if the Roman Catholics of Poland attempt any undue aasertion of the rights of the Latin Church, they are one and all summarily crushed. We can have nothing but admiration for zeal properly directed and guided by discretion into right channels, but when a highly placed statesman, a man of great culture and knowledge of the world, thinks that he can advance the cause of true religion by petty restrictions, by vexatious harryings of peasants' cottages and kidnapping of their children, by prison and stick and banishment, by depriving hundreds of innocent men and women of their personal rights and privileges, by conduct, in a word, which approaches in its ferocity the methods of the Spanish zealots of the seventeenth century, we have nothing but reprobation for such a statesman, we have nothing but condemnation for his principals, and our most entire sympathies are wholly with the wretched victims who for the faith that is in them remain undaunted in face of the priests and police who hound them on to prison and exile. It was the foolish notion of many well-wishers of Russia that the persecutions which had disgraced the last years of Alexander Ill.'s reign would cease under the sway of Nicholas, but auch hopes have turned out to be groundless, and after a short spell of quiet the jails are again receiving the more prominent of the Stundists and Baptists, and almost every chain of prisoners which crosses the anows of the C~Ucasus from Russia contains one or more representatives of that patient and heroic body of Protestant peasants who have done far more for the real advance of RU8sia than all the states.. mell in Peteraburg.
72i PEACE WITH JAPAN' :RIOTS m SZOllUAN'
But despite persecution and many a dark cloud on the horizon, the outlook in Russia is anything but gloomy. Even if we abide by the somewhat uncertain test of numbers, there is every reason to believe th&t the Protestant or evangelical sects are increasing. If in one or two places the Orthodox Church can boast that it has eradicated dissent, there are innumerable districts all over Russia which now contain il!lolated bodies of Stundists where ten years ago there were none. Th8 very dispersal of these brethren must tend to their rapid increase. Filled with zeal for his cause, the banished man and his family at once start to make known to their neighbors the great truths which have done so muw for them.
Perhaps no factor in the situation is so important and far· reaching as the extraordinary circulation of the Scriptures, which is effected year after year in the mighty empire stretching from the Baltic to the Pacific. Between five and six hundred thousand copies of the Word of God are circulated every year in Russia, and he who would learn what is being actually done in bringing the Gospel to the people of Russia has only to study the deeply interesting reports of the agents of the British and Foreign Bible Society and t.he report of the Russian Society for Circulating the Scriptures. From all parts of the huge country the colporteurs of these societies meet with encouragement. It is not merely in the towns and cities that this work is being done. We read of hundreds of copies being distributed in a village, of the peasants on steamboats sitting all day long reading the Gospell!l, of employers buying copies for their workmen, and officers for their soldiers. The writer of this article has seen the colporteurs at their work, and more than once has noticed the tears start to the eyes of great rough fellows as they became possessed for the first time in their lives of a copy of the New Testament. This wonderful sowing will some day, and some day soon rather than late, bring in a rich harvest of Bible-illuminated souls.
Unquestionably the prospects are bright, and it is safe prophesying that the day is not far distant when the sweet faith and tender paRsions of the Russian nation will be used by the Master in the advancement of his kingdom to the uttermost ends of the world.
PEACE WITH JAPAN! RIOTS IN SZCHUA~ !
BY REV. WILLIAM M. UPCRAFT, SZCHUAN, CHINA.
Again the flame of persecution and destruction has broken forth in China. While lovers of peace specially, and th8 world generally, were rejoicing at the restoration of peace in the Orient, and all were hoping for the fruits of peace in enlarged opportunities for intercourse with the subdued Chinese, Christendom was startled by reports of widespread uprising and persistent attacks on all kinds of missioB :wark and workers, such as have not been known before since the right to travel and rellide in the interior of China was granted to Western nations. On May 29th, a date coincident with the annual fifth month festival, the trouble began at Chentu, the capital city of Szchuan province.
Owing to the recent extension of missionary enterprise in the western provinces, quite a large work was in course of development at Chentu, this being one of the most eligible as it is one of the most important points in this vast inland province. The China Inland Mission (pioneers in this as in many other places), the Methodist Episcopal, and Canadian Methodists, each had a company of workers and a working plant in operation, so that some seventeen adults (all young and nearly all new to the work) and eleven children, English and American, were at home in Chentu.
For some weeks before the actual riot ugly rumors had been spread throughout the city and neighborhood, retailing the old stories of child murder and mutilation, with local embellishments, but nothing serious was apprehended. Missionaries in China are accustomed to a maximum of misrepresentation.
Inflamed with wine toward the close of an exciting day, the crowd of riotous rowdies bore down upon the Canadian premises, forced the doors, took possession of the courts, and finally caused the little handful of helpless missionaries to lieek Hight by a rear gate, where escaping to the city wall, they hid in the darkness till midnight, and then escaped to the house of the Inland Mission. Repeated applications to the officials failed to bring relief, owing, as we now see, to the hostility pf mandarins high in office, who refused the help that might easily have averted the disaster.
Returning early the following morning, the rioters finished their work of destruction upon the Canadian Mission, and then began an attack on the Inland Mission, in which the refugees of the previous night had taken shelter. Flight again was forced upon them, and having no door at the back, the wall was scaled by means of a ladder, and shelter purchased in a neighbor's house, where men, women, and children were hustled behind the curtains of a friendly bed, and the little crowd forced to wait in suspense and discomfort, within earshot of the yelling mob outside.
Who can tell of the hours of suffering in that poor refuge, and the uncertain future pressing upon them all! Meanwhile, over at the Methodist Episcopal Mission a similar scene was being enacted. Calmed somewhat, after the excitement of the previous night, by official assurance that no harm could befall them, the missionaries had returned to their house and arranged themselves for their usual work, when the crowd swept down upon them intent on destruction. Before the outer gate gave wa.y they were able to get the children and a very few things over the back wan, into a loft placed at their disposal by a friendly neighbor. The dust of years was in accumulated wealth on floor and rafters, a hot slln beat npon the unceiled tiles, while the motherli stifled the cries of their babes lest such a sound should attract the rioting crowd in the next yard.
01lJUSTIAN MIllION. IN ABAJtIA
All that day they remained as spectators of the scene, while home and chapel and dispensary, their furniture, books, even trees and 1l0wers, were destroyed, so eager were the crowd to wipe out the traces of the foreigners' home and work.
For ingenuity and diabolical delight in finding reasons why this should be done, the Chentu mob holds the palm. Bones were dug up and displayed, recent corpses exhumed and paraded, chickens killed and their blood smeared around on the walls, as evidence to support the charges made against the missionaries.
At length, from various points the driven, hunted ones were gathered together at the magistrate's yamen and found all safe; no one missing, though many a narrow escape was related as experiences were compared and the day's full total made up.
Starting from this central point, the contagion spread till Kiating, Suifn, Yachow, Lnchow, and many other points were involved. At some only a partial wreck was made, at others again the ruin was complete. In happy contrast to the conduct of the officials at Chentu, the mandarins at some other places did their utmost to protect the foreigners, and in a few cases succeeded.
The full tale cannot now be told. God intervened for His people marvellously, and in all the widespread trouble no life was lost. The native Christians suffered much and suffered well. And China stands again disgraced and discounted in the eyes of Christendom. The causes are not far to seek for this and other similar outbreaks.
It is, in the nature of things, only too true that we reap as we sow. Like seed like harvest. Given a credulous people, an incompetent administration, an assiduous misrepresentation of all foreigners, a relentless slandering of mission work and doctrine, and the result is not difficult to foresee. Sow Hunan placards; reap Szchuan riots.
A diligent inquiry should be promptly instituted in this cass and safeguards devised against a repetition. The right of Westerners to residence thronghout the interior should be made unquestionable, and freedom guaranteed. There is a strong plea in present circumstances for prayer and intercession on behalf of China, her rulers and people, that she may see her hour of opportunity and acceptance.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF MODERN CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN ARABIA.
IIY GJ:NERAL F. T. HAIG.
It would be deeply interesting, did space permit, to trace the gradual unfoldings of the Divine Providence in the re-introduction of the Gospel into Arabia, thirteen hundred years after Christianity had been blotted out in that land by the sword of Mohammed and his successors, but the limits imposed upon this article forbid anything more than a glance at this part of the subject. For many centuries the Arabs had ceased to be a menace to Christianity and civilization. As the great missionaries of Islam they had spread their creed over nearly half the African Continent, and the ever-advancing wave of Mohammedanism had begun even to threaten the young Christian churches on the western coast. Still it was not until some time between 1880 and 1890 that Arabia itself, the cradle and home of the race, seriously engaged the attention of the Church of Christ. About that time, however, it became evident that the Spirit of God was moving upon the hearts of His people, and that the yearninga of His love were beginning to find expression in their prayers for the 1000t sons of Ishmael. "For some years," wrote an American minister in the far West, " I and my people have been praying for Arabia. " More than one appeal went forth, pleading for the Arabs. Interest was awakened. Old Dr. Lansing, of the American Mission in Egypt, who for over thirty years had labored there, waiting for the dawn of a brighter day for the Moslem world, when one of these appeals fell into his hands, was all on tire to start for Yemen. "I could scarcely keep him," said his wife, "from mounting his donkey and setting off at once." Keith-Falconer felt the same mighty impulse, left home and country, and settled oat Aden, which for two short years became his mission field, and then his grave. The mantle of the elder Lansing fell upon his son, and he with a few other kindred spirits rose up at the Divine call and started the Arabian Mission, which now occupies the three most important points on the eastern side of the peninsula. Another mission, afterward taken up by the Church Missionary Society, was commenced at Kerak:, on the mountains of Moab, by a Methodist preacher, Mr. Lethaby and his wife; and Bagdad, which had already been occupied by the same society, in connection with their PerSian Mission, now assumed new importance as a great Arab city. Finally the venerable Bishop French, who, after some thirty years of missionary labor in India, could not, though feeble and broken, cease from his loved employ, commenced work: at Muscat, where shortly after, in a little nook: at the foot of the cliffs, where the waves have washed up just sand enough to afford space for a few graves, he was laid to rest, consecrating the whole movement by his noble example of devotedness Ullto death for the salvation of his fellow· men.
Thus six of the most important strategic positions aroUlld the great peninsula are now held for Christ : those on the East Coast and at the head of the Gulf, commanding the whole hinterland of Central Arabia, by the (American) Arabian Mission i that at Aden by the Scotch Mission; and the two on the north by the Church Missionary Society. When we remember that this has been accomplished in little more than ten years since the attention of the Christian Church was first drawn to the subject, including all the preliminary organizations at, home aud inquiries abroad, before actual settlement on the spot could be effec'ted, there is cause for thankfulness and praise. At the same time it is necessary to point out that each of the three stations of the Arabian Mission is held at the present moment by only one man, whose death or disablement by sickness would instantly stop the work at that point. Immediate and strong reinforceme~ts are called for. Only one side of the great fortress is as yet, and that but partially, invested, and no advance into the citadel, the great populous centres of Nejd and Jebel Shommar, is possible without further help. Ten millions of Arabs need- something more than half a dozen men for their effectual evangelization. It is surprising, indeed, how much of vigorous forward movement and exploration has been done, chiefly by the Americans, in this short period. They have explored the beautiful mountainous country of Yemen in the southwest; several hundred miles of the coast of Hadramaut on the south, including the centres of Makallah and Sheher; and many hundred miles of the Euphrates and Tigris on the north, making the acquaintance there of new forms of Arab life, and of the interesting little community of the Sabeans, the descendants of the Hemero-baptists of the first centuries.
They have annexed Bahrein and Muscat to Busrah, their original settlement, and Rev. S. M. Zwemer has pushed his reconnaissances inland as far as Khateef and Hofhoof, on the way to Nejd and Central Arabia, finding more than one evidence of t.he truthfulness of Palgrave's picturesque descriptions of that country. Thousands of Bibles, Testaments, and portions of Scripture have been scattered by the Bible societies and missionaries around the various mission centres. Thus a good beginning of the great work has been made, most of the strategic points for mission work have been occupied, but nothing more; but enough at least has been done to show that if only the men now in the field be properly backed up by the churches at home, not many years will elapse before all Arabia, north, south, east, and west, shall have heard the joyful sound, and " Ishmael shall live."
Let us now look a little more closely into the conditions of this great problem, the evangelization of Arabia. Nothing need here be said about the geography, climate, etc., of the country. Ample information already exists upon this part of the subject, and may be easily found elsewhere by those who desire it. Of the present distribution of political power, however, some account must be given, and I take the following from a tract by Rev. S. M. Zwemer.
" Sinai is Egyptian, and also the 200 miles of coast south of the Gulf of Akaba. Hedjaz belongs to the Turk, and he also grasps (not holds) Yemen, Asir, El Hasa, and Irak. All the rest of Arabia yields neither love, obedience, nor tribute to the Sublime Porte. The oppressed tribes of Upper Yemen were recently crushed into submission, but do not despair of future revolution. El Rasa (on the East Coast) frets like an Arab steed under the yoke of taxation, and Mecca itself dictates at times to the
THE TOMB OF A MOSLElIl SAINT AT
2. A CONVERTED 1Il0SLElIl HELPER. 3. REV. S. M. ZWEMER IN ARAB DRESS. 4. NATIVE HOUSES AT BUSRAH.
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN ARABIA. ~83
power behind the throne at Constantinople. The tribes near Aden, and the entire South Coast, including Oman with. Muscat, are in one way or another under subsidy or ' protection' by the English, who ruIe the Gulf, and have a voice at Busrah and Bagdad. Wide, wild Nejd bends to the iron sceptre of the greatest Arab of our day, Ibn Rasheed, the Ameer of Jebel Shommar. For the rest, nomads roam the free desert, acknowledging no Sultan save the sword ; they hold the parliament of war or peace in the black tents of Kedar. Thus, within the last fifty years have the schisms of Islam, the turmoil of Arab rebellion, and the diplomacy of English commerce, burst the barriers of the land of Ishmael for the Allconquering Son of Isaac ; the very cradle of Islam is aJmost unveiled for the heralds of the Cross." To ~hich I may add that Bahrein, the name given to two islands which lie just off the coast of EI Hasa, and are the centre of the pearl fishery, has in a remarkable manner been preserved from Turkish aggression, and is ruled by an Arab Sheikh under the control of the British Resident at Bushire. The islands have a large population, are the nearest point along the coast to Nejd and all Central Arabia, and are therefore of the utmost importance as a mission station for an advance in that direction. In all these political arrangements we clearly trace the overruling hand of God, curbing Turkish aggression, suppressing Wahabee fanaticism, and so preparing the way for His Gospel. There is not room to dwell here upon other influences which have told in the saIDe direction, such as the extension of commerce and intercourse with India, and the spectacle of the beneficent results of the British Government in that country, in Aden, and in Egypt.
But of yet greater interest is the question of the present religious condition of the Arab races. Does Islam retain its hold upon them as firmly as ever ~ How does their present mental attitude toward it, and toward the Christianity which it once supplanted, compare with that of the past ages and with that of the Arabs of North Africa ~ The question can only be lightly touched upon here. To treat of it at all satisfactorily would need a wider and fuller acquaintance than we yet possess, not only with the extent to which the outward forms of their religion are observed, but also with the inner thoughts and life of the people. Arabia is an immense country, about three fourths the size of India. Vast portions of it have as yet been unvisited except by a chance traveller passing hastily through, and having little real intercourse with the inhabitants. There may be lying, deep below the surface, phases of religious thought in parts of it with which we are wholly unacquainted. Has Christianity quite died out in the course of ages, or are there still faint memories and traditions of it which have influenced the religious ideas of the present day ? We know not. It is certain, however, that in another country which might be named such a survival of as remote a past has actually taken place, and may yet prove a powerful factor in the conversion of its inhabitants. In general terms, however, it may perhaps be said that the influences of
C. .I.TLUi MIIIBIOlf. Ilf AllA.:aIA
time have told less unfavorably, from the Christian point of view, upon the Arabs of Arabia than upon the scattered but probably equally numerous ponions of the race in North Africa. Romanism with its idolatry, on t.he one hand, and the scepticism and atheism which are the reaction from it, on the other, are the only forms of religious opinion, under the general name of Christianity, which the Arabs of North Africa have been acquainted with. The one they contemptuously reject, but. the other is secretly spreading among the more cultured classes, especially in Algeria and Tunis, where French education is rapidly extending, and the state of mind it produces is even more unfavorable to the reception of the truth than the most fanatical forms of Mohammedanism.
The isolation of Arabia has to a great extent preserved it from these forms of error, while there has been nothing within the borders of the peninsula itself to strengthen or resuscitate faith, or effectually to counteract the disintegrating forces of sectarian division, Persian speculative thought, and, more perhaps than either, the indifference to all religion. questions, which seems, according to some authorities, to· be a characteristic of the race, and which in the case of the; Bedouin is said to have led even Mohammed to despair of their conversion. In point of fact, Islam from the very first seems to have taken far less hold upon the Arabs than might be supposed. Immediately after the death of its founder a general revolt from his teachings took place, and for centuries the popular religion seems to have been little more than semi-paganism. Wahabeeism, which was an attempt to reinstate the religion of the prophet by his favorite weapon, the sword, has failed egregiously, and is now in the last stage of decay. The Arabs remain Mohammedans simply because they know of nothing better j fanatical in some parts, doubtful and bewildered in others, not because they have rejected the Gospel, but because they have never heard it. The Bedouin, constituting perhaps a fourth or fifth of the population, are for the most part Mohammedan only in name, observing the prescribed forms in the neighborhood of towns, but speedily casting them aside on regaining the desert. Yet there are men among them not without reverent thoughts of the Creator, derived from the contemplation of His works, thoughts which, according to Palmer, take sometimes the form of solemn but simple prayer. A missionary who some years ago spent more than two months with one of these tribes, living with the Sheikh, and accompanying them in their wanderings from pasturage to pasturage, found them willing though not particularly interested listeners, and singularly amenable to the Word of God as the one authority in matters of faith. The Sheikh, seeing that the missionary disliked travelling on the Sunday, inquired the reason, and willingly accepted the word of the Book as de. cisive upon the point, and indeed upon every other point, and from that time the tribe never marched upon the Sabbath. How sad it seems that 10 few of the race have as yet come under the sound of the Gospel !
In the cities and toWJll there is, of course, a more rigorous observance
CIIlUSTIAN MISSIONS IN ABABIA
of the outward forms of Mohammedanism, but there is also among the upper and middle classes, especially on the eastern coast, widespread doubt. A missionary writes: "There are very plain indications of an undercurrent of scepticism and free thought. Indeed, to anyone who knows the Mohammedans intimately, it is scarcely an undercurrent at all. I know men in the most learned Mohammedan society of B– who, judged by their dress and outward appearance, would be taken for bulwarks of the Mohammedan religion, and who yet have no more belief in it than Professor Huxley has in Christianity. One of these men astonished me by his expressions of downright loathing of the religion of which he is a professed teacher."
It would be foreign to the special object of this paper, and altogether beyond its scope, to give any detailed description of the doctrines and practices of Islam. It may suffice to say with regard to them all, that holiness of heart has absolutely no place in the religion of Mohammed, and that just as polygamy, unlimited concubinage, and divorce, being regarded as of Divine sanction, are not in the least degree revolting to the moral sense of its votaries, so there is no connection, either in fact or in popular estimation, between the most rigorous observance of the outward forms, which are of its very essence, and a holy life.
Arabs are not in the least deceived by what they know to be merely outward and ritual, and wholly without effect upon the heart j they draw, in fact, an unfavorable inference from much outward show of religion. In North Africa they have a saying, " Shun a man who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca once; live not in the same street with one who has performed it twice ; and reside not in the same country with one who has visited the Kaaba thrice. " I once myself formed one of a circle of some twenty gnests in the house of an Arab gentleman, who (excepting myself), when the evening adtham, or call to prayer, sounded forth from the mosque, joined the host in the most solemn and impressive recitation of the prayers, with the prescribed genuflexions and prostrations, but of whom he afterward privately declared that everyone was a thief, handing me at the same time the key of a room where he had had my baggage locked up, and warning me to be on my guard. The true Christian idea of prayer appears to be wholly wanting, though in times of great distress short ejaculatory prayer will be put up. The intercession of saints is much resorted to; prayer is offered at their tombs. At times the poor people, failing to receive an answer to such prayers, resort in their despair to necromancy.
In Arabia the women" pray." "At home," says Mr. S. M. Zwemer, "a larger proportion observe the times of prayer than do the men." (This is not the case in North Africa.) In the towns girls seldom, and boys never, "pray," until they are over twelve years of age. Women. are seldom or never allowed to attend the public prayers in the mosque.
Few of the Arabs can read, perhaps not above 10 per cent ot the dwellers in towns, and only some of these nnderstand what they read of the Koran. The Bedouin are wholly illiterate. Slaves are imported via Jeddah and the Persian Gulf, they are sold in Busrah privately, and doubtless in other towns, being brought from Mecca as merchandise by the returning pilgrims. Polygamy is· practically universal among the well-to-do classes, and divorce, almost unlimited, with its attendant horrors of cruelty and. suffering, takes its place among the poorer. Thus, with polygamy, slavery, and divorce (all sanctioned by their religion) the state of Arab society may be imagined. Happily space does not permit me to enlarge upon this terrible subject.
So, with fasts and prayers and pilgrimages, hoping in his good works, the mercy of God, and the intercession of the Prophet (such intercession being wholly unauthorized by the Koran), the poor Arab wends his way down through life, is laid to rest at last with his face toward Mecca, and passes into eternity with a lie in his right hand. One thing he never knew, that gracious message that was intended to be familiar as a household word to every member of the human race, that God loved him as God only can love, that Christ died for him, and that a free pardon and full salvation awaited his acceptance. He knew it not because he was never told, and he was never told because for ages the Church lost the blessed truth, and since it recovered it has neglected the one great duty, to proclaim it to every creature. Thank God those times of ignorance are nearly over. Through the tender mercy of our God the day-spring from on high has visited Arabia. And may we not hope that the churches which have taken the lead in this gr~at movement will spare no effort, neither men, nor life, nor money, to carry it on to the destined consummation.
Thus far we have traced the rise and progress up to the present time of the Arabian missions. A few brief remarks as to the future may not inappropriately conclude this paper.
1. It will be seen from what has been said that all the western and southern sides of Arabia are still without a missionary. The Free Church of Scotland Mission at Aden is doing an important work, and there is a wide field for extension before it. Not, however, being acquainted with its plans for the future, I do not venture to say anything on the subject here. Jeddah, however, the port of Mecca, might afford a base where, in spite of the intense jealousy and watchfulness of the Turk, a work might be begun. Asir and Yemen may not be accessible just at this moment, but they soon will be so.
2. As to the rest of Arabia, including the eastern, central, and southern provinces, in fact quite one half of the peninsula, I am indebted to the Rev. S. M. Zwemer for the following sketch, the result of four years' study of the subject on the spot, of a missionary scheme, such as the Church which sent him and his fellow-laborers out can hardly stop short of. I give this sketch only in very abbreviated form. Such a scheme would
—-~—— – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – —
ARCH OF CTESIPHOX NEAR BAGDAD.
ARAB PILGRIMS BOUND FOR lHECC_~.
OllRlSTLUT lUBSIONB IN ARABIA
include thre~ provinces, HasS3, Oman, and Nejd, with Busr.1h on the north, and a part at least of Hadramaut on the south. There would be twelve centres-viz., the seven coast towns already occupied, or visited, by the American Mission, four inland towns, Hail, Boreyda, HOfhoof, and Riad in Najd, and two or three inland towns of Oman, and Hadramaut (MakalIah is included in the coast centres). These would require twentyfour missionaries and twelve native helpers. The cost would be, in round numbers, $30,000 a year-viz., *25,000 in addition to the present outlay on the missionarie!!l and native helpers, new in the field. "With this demand supplied, all of Eastern, Central, and Southern Arabia would in ten years be p&rmeated with the Gospel message, by word and printed page. Leaving all other results with God, is that too much to pay for such a privilege! Can the Dutch Reformed Church do it ? Will she do it 1" To such an appeal there can be but one reply. That Church when it took up the mission originally commenced on an independent basis as the Arabian Mission, did so with full knowledge of the plans and purposes of its founders, which, as the very title of the mission shows, embraced nothing less thaD. !!Iuch a comprehensive scheme of evangelization as that above described. Surely then that church will feel it to be both a duty and a privilege to carry that scheme through to the end.
is As to the qualifications needed for the work, here a description by one of the missionaries now in the field: " 1. A strong and sound constitution. " 2. Ability to acquire the language. This is the one aud only quaIl- fication needfRl, mentally. Scholarship is good, but not at all necessary. Deep and abstruse arguers will not be wanted in Arabia for fifty years to come.
" 3. As to character-humility, patience, love-these three. A man with a hot temper could never stand three seasons in the Gulf. But after you have got these for foundation, pile 'on all the fire and zeal and enthusiasm you can get.
" Lastly, men foll of the Holy Ghost, sine qua non. " Christians of America, hearken to your brethren's call from the Gulf, come and take your stand by their side. The future of Arabia is largely in your hands. It will be very much what you make it. "Who among you is willing to consecrate this day his, service to the Lord ~ The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up."
SPECIMEN OF A MOHAMMEDAN PRAYER.-·O God, bestow blessing upon our lord Mohammed the beloved, and upon his father Abraham the friend, and upon his brother Moses the word, and upon the faithful Jesus the Spirit of God, and upon David and Solomon and Zechariah and John the Baptist and their people, as long as the thoughtful ones remember thee, and the thoughtless ones neglect to think of them.
THE JEWS IN PERSIA
THE JEWS IN PERSIA.-I.
BY REV. S. G. WILSON, TABRIZ, PERSIA.
The Jews in Persia can themselves Beni-Israel, which accords with the Bible account of the captivity of the Israelites in "the c:ties of the Medes," " by the river Gozan," which may be the Guzul-Uzun, the longest river of Media. Shahpoor II. transported Jews from Armenia to Persia.
The Jews now found in the limits of ancient Media are in the western part, having been driven there by Tamerlane. Starting at the northwest. ern border, we find them in Salmas, Oroomiah, Suldooz, Sonjbulak, Miandnab, Sakkus, Senna, Kermanshah, Ramadan, and other places. In Azerbijan there are twelve hundred and thirty houses of Jews. They are found also in Teheran, Kashan, Khorasan, and Ispahan.
These remnants have survived the persecutions of centuries. Tabriz has none except a few strangers. The cause is that old slander which is constantly renewed even in the present day and in Europe. It was reported by some renegade Jews that the Jews had killed a missing Mohammedan child and drunk his blood. The late Kala-Begi narrated how the police snatched a Jew, thns accused, from the hands of an infuriated mob, which followed him mto the courtyard yellmg for hIS blood. The Kala-Begi bastinadoed him to appease the mob, and afterward told the English consul, who remonstrated with him for beating an innocent man, that it was the only way to save him ahve from the mob. At that time the Jews fled from Tabriz.
A somewhat similar affair occurred in Oroomiah in Dr. Perkins's time. A Mohammedan infant was found dead before a Jew's door. The latter was accused of murder and arrested. The Mohammedans collected in an angry mob, and for several days surrounded the governor's palace, demanding that all the Jews should be put to death. To appease the mob, the Jew was delivered to them, beheaded, and burned.
In Meshed, the ancient Tus, the Jews have resided for centuries. It was one of their rabbis who made the first Persian version of any part of the Bible in the eighth or tenth century. They continued there near the sacred shrine of the Emaum Reza, until several decades ago a report was spread that the Jews had killed a dog in ridicule of the ceremonies of the Festival of Sacrifice. A mob rose, killed a Jew, tore down some of their dwellings, and finally gave the Jews the alternative of Islam or the sword. In fear of death they accepted an outward profession of Islam.
At Balfurush, in Mezanderan, in 1866, a massacre of Jews occurred. * The cause was, perhaps, a lack of rain. For this an efficacious remedy was supposed to be the disinterment and scattering broadcast of the dust * See Mormsey's "Through the Caucasus and Persia."
TJ[]I JBWI IN PBlUIIJ.•
of a Jew. For some unknown cause the Mussulmans rose one night, set fire to the Jewish quarter, and killed eighteen men and six women. Two of the men were besmeared with petroleum and burnt alive. The rest, to the number of four hundred and fifty, escaped to the woods. The British Minister made representations for redress. The Shah gave orders for the punishment of the culprits, and indemnifying the Jews j but the mollahs rose in their wrath that anyone should be punished for injuring a dog of a Jew. Popular fanaticism rose high in Teheran. An attack on the British Legation and on foreigners in general was even contemplated. The Shah was alarmed by the agitation, and to appease the mollahs dis· missed some French army officers from his service. Finally the Jews were partially indemnified for their losses.
In November, 1892, I was in Hamadan during a reign of terror for the Jews. 'Wishing to find a cause for the cholera, the Mohammedans turned their wrath upon the Jews, an ambitious mollah instigating the attack. Several Jews were seized and beaten. The mollah commanded that the Jews should wear a distinctive cloak, should have a badge of red on their coats, should not come out on rainy days, should dismount until a passing Mussulman went by j that Jewish women should wear black veils, and houses of Jews not be higher than those of their Mussulman neighbors. Some of the Jews took refuge with nobles, others fled to the telegraph office and appealed to the Shah and the English Legation. A crowd of Mussulmans shouting, "Ya Ali ! Ya Ali !" surrounded the refugees and threatened them, so that a dozen were frightened into accepting Islam. The Jews in Bagdad hearing of the disturbances, appealed to their friends in England. Lord Rosebery made inquiries concerning the affair. The Shah sent word that the mollah should come to Teheran. A month of confusion followed. Once the police seized the mollah. A frenl'ied crowd attacked the governor, looted his house, and killed a servant. It then turned toward the Jewish quarter, crying, "Kill the Jews!" The gate of their quarter was closed and the Jews escaped.
One young Jewish convert, who is a pupil in the school, was surrounded by some Mussulmans and pressed to become a Mussulman. He stood his ground as a Christian, and afterward gave before the governor the reasons for his faith.
After a while the mollah was taken to Teheran, and the Jews were again in peace.
These incidents do not show the continual state of the Jews, but they well indicate the continual attitude of the people toward them. Continual watchfulness is necessary on the part of the government, as there is no moment when fanaticism may not direct its attacks against the Jews. The Shah always tries to protect them from such attacks and oppressions.
Thus situated, it is no wonder that the Jews have a downcast mien and abject manner. They live apart from all, and not only hate, but no doubt despise their oppressors. They largely maintain their laws of food. I
'740 THE JEWS IN" PERSIA
invited a Salmas Jew to send bis boy to our Tabriz boarding-school. He replied that God had commanded the Jews not to eat the l-read of other races. Some Jewish doctors were invited to the wedding of our teacher in Zenjan. Separate dishes of natural products, as honey and fruits and bread prepared by one of their own race, were set before them. They gave thanks to God both before and after the meal. It is only lately and with difliculty that they have at last yielded their prejudice in Teheran and Hamadan, and pupils have begun to eat with their companions of other races. The Jews of Persia always kill their own animals, -and cut the meat into bits in extracting the sinews and veins from it. They are particular about the condition of the meat. If they find the liver diseased, they will eat none of the animal. Armenians, who are not so particular, sometimes buy such a butchered cow for one dollar.
Christians in Persia somewhat reciprocate the feeling of the Jews toward them. I took lodging in Sonjbulak in a Jew's house, much to the astonishment of the Armenians. They did not want me to drink milk furnished by Jews, saying it was unclean. Our evangelist for the .Jews in Sonjbulak told me that his innate feeling of aversion to Jewish food was so great that when he first plucked up courage to eat it, it stuck in his throat.
The Jews are limited in their occupations. Very few, if any, are farmers. Many sell dry goods in the bazaar or peddle them in the villages. Some are goldsmiths and jewellers, and dealers in antiques, real and false. A considerable number are physicians, sometimes celebrated, and the Mussulmans who refuse their food will take their medicines. In Hamad,n there are about one hundred Jewish doctors, and many more druggists. Many of them are liquor-sellers, and are themselves much addicted to drink.
On other points of morality they differ little from the rest of the population. They are polygamists, as the Mohammedans, and with the same results. They are very strict in keeping their Sabbath. They will not light a fire on that day, but will hire a Mussulman to do it for them. Some say that Sabbath-breaking is the sin for which they are suffering. They look for a national return to their own land, when they shall rule over the nations. Their schools are taught by their rabbis. Most of the men can read Hebrew, though they do not understand it perfectly. Their spoken language is an Aramaic akin to the Syriac. They speak also either Persian, Kurdish, or Turkish, according to the language spoken in the region in which they reside. They best understand the Persian Bible in the Hebrew character.
(To be C01IIJlud«l.)
HI88ION.A.BY JilFFOBT AND THE NESTOBIAN CHUBCH. '741
RELATION OF THE PROTESTANT MISSIONARY EFFORT TO THE NESTORIAN CHURCH.* BY REV. WILLIAM A. SHEDD, OROOMIAH, PERSIA.
It is generally known that the purpose of Protestant mIssIonaries among the Nestorians was at first to reform the old church, or rather to revIve spiritual life within that body. Various causes prevented the reali- zation of this effort in the manner and to the extent anticipated, and the missionaries have striven to establish an evangelical church, scriptural in constitution and spiritual in life. The change has been gradual, not sud- den, and the' relation of the old and the reformed Churchmen has never been that of bitter hostility, except in individual cases. The old Church is the mother Church, and the history and traditions of the past are rightly cherished by all. Within the last ten years a new force has come into the field, which is doing much to rear a wall of partition and to excommu- nicate and place reformed Christians under the ban. The old Church is persistently warned against the errors and schism of Protestant heresy by the members of the mission of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Just as far as possible, directly and indirectly, by precept and by example, in ser- mons, in teaching, through Nestorian ecclesiastics, the old Church is being , fortified against Protestant influences. This is simply a statement of fact based on daily increasing evidence.
'Vhat right Anglicans have to pose as the exponents of Nestorianism or Englishmen to represent the long descent of Assyrian Christianity is not easy to comprehend. They are unable to commune in the Nestorian Church, for she is, from the High Church point of view, the most venerable schismatic in Christendom, and yet forsooth t.hey offer themselves as her stanch defenders. Our right to preach the Gospel of repentance and life to those who call themselves Syrian Christians and our duty to do so are based on the great command, not only to baptize, but also to teach men to do.
I shall attempt briefly to discuss the question before us, viewing suc- cessively the old Church itself, the Reformed Church, and the Protestant missionaries from abroad.
1. The Old Ohurch. The theology of this ancient Church of the East iii, of course, Nicene, with the addition of the Nestorian definition of the relation between the human and Divine natures in the incarnate Son of God. Definite and logical development has not gone much farther, due partly to the character of the Syriac mind, impulsive in initiative and often vigorous in execution, but not constructive of either theological or ecclesiastical system. Another reason, perhaps the principal one, is that the vital conJiict of this church • A paper read at the Conference filf Mi~~ionarie8 to Persia, Hamadan, September, 1894. •
UroB'l' UD THE NESTOBUN CIIUlWR
has not been with heresy or variations of Christian doctrine, but with heathenism and Islam. On most theological questions, except the person of Christ, the Trinity, and the authority of apostolic and Old Testament Scriptures, a diversity of opinion is found in their literature. For example, transubstantiation is both affirmed and denied. There is, however, a practical tendency to replace simple faith in the crucified and risen Saviour with some sort of sacerdotal mediatorship. Still stronger is the tendency to trust to legal works instead of living faith. The fast is the greatest Christian institution, votal offerings and pilgrimages to shrines are most important auxiliaries. The priesthood of the clergy in succession to the Levitical priesthood is recognized, but the name commonly used to designate the clergy is not priest, but elder (qasha or qa8hi8ha), the New Testament presbyter. The sacrament holds a high place in popular regard, aod yet the fact that there is no confessional deprives the priest of inquisitorial power. Vows to famous saints are trusted means of curing disease and procuring blessings. Religion is largely divorced from morals, and has little power of moral restraint. The clergy are no better than the common people in general morality. are more given to idleness, and possibly more generally demoralized by begging in Russia. The higher clergy (there being at present the patriarch, one metropolitan, and eight diocesan bishops) are, with a few exceptions, shamelessly venal, and in some instances of notoriously evil life. Two favorable points may be emphasized.
The authority of Scripture has never been impugned, and is a holy tradition of universal acceptance; nor is there any objection raised to the Scriptures in the vernacular. The old dispute of Cyril and Nestorius has been fought over again by every educated Nestorian for fourteen centuries; and the appeal is always to Scripture as against conciliar authority. The possession of a pure and ancient version is an additional advantage.
The true catholicity of the Nestorians is the second point-that is, if catholicity consists in the recognition of other Christians as members in the viilible body of Christ. How far this has been true in the past is a subject for historical research, but certainly Protestant missionaries have been recognized as true ministers administering valid ordinances. The only exceptions, if any, are within the past few years, when the invalidity of non-episcopal ordination has been preached by the archbishop'S mission.
The dangers threatening this old church are mainly two : disintegration and perversion•..
The terrible storm of persecution which broke out under the Mongol emperors at the close of the thirteenth century was followed by the deluge of blood and fire when Tamerlane swept over these lands. Troublous days followed, and when peace was in a degree restored under various Turkish and Persian dynasties, the two Syrian churches, Nestorian and Jacobite, were shattered wrecks. The story since is one of continual loss. Oppression and fighting have held the Christian population in check. There has been a constant but small secession to Islam. Rome has beell the
MISSIONARY EFFORT AND THE NESTORIAN CHURCH
great gainer. As early as the thirteenth century the Nestorian patriarch, Mar x:-abha11aha, acknowledged by letter the primacy of the Pope j in 1445 the Nestorians in Cyprus became Roman Catholics, and in the beginning of the stJventeenth century a large part of the Christians of Saint Thomas, in India, were won over. During the sixteenth century the disorganiza- tion of the Nestorian Church led to various rival patriarchs, who were not slow to recognize papal authority in the hope of securing their own. About 1580 the present line of patriarchs, from its beginning dynastic, gained the authority over the Nestorians in Persia and Kurdistan. If we may trust Roman historians, patriarchs of this line during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have acknowledged the authority of the Pope and renounced Nestorianism. In the region of Mosul the proselyting to Rome has gone on so successfully that to-day nine out of ten of the Nestorian churches south of the Kurdish Mountains are in the hands of the Roman Catholics. This same work, begun in Persia over two hundred years ago, has not met the same success. The inaccessibility of Persia, and still more of Kurdistan, which have been ecclesiastically joined, is one reason, but not the chief one. French monks came to Oroomiah fifty years ago, but it was too late. They had now to meet not only Nestorians, but American Protestants, -the most watchful defenders against Rome. The struggle is not yet over, for Catholicism on the south is pressing to enter the mountain valleys of Kurdistan. Three years ago (1892) beyond question the Chaldean patriarch, subject to the Pope, had bargained for the submission of the Nestorian patriarch. The scheme was frustrated by an American missionary.
The condition of affairs in Turkish Kurdistan and Armenia is a most terrible disintegrating influence. Recent events have illustrated the misrule and anarchy more vividly than words, and leave little occasion for remark. Suffice it to say that extinction and ruin threaten most imminently.
A thir~ such influence emanates from Russia. The Greek Church has shown little concern for the Nestorian Church, but for half a century Russia has been open to Nestorian laborers and beggars from Persia. The former have supported their people very largely, the latter have demoralized them. Many thousands of roubles have been gathered from the superstitious Christians of Russia by beggars, working on their pious credulity in the name of shrines and churches with the aid of pretended relics. Long absence from home, often years at a time, and vicious habits contracted in a wandering life, have been the cause of an alarming increase of transgressions of the seventh commandment. The ill-gotten wealth, spent in extravagance and gluttony, has impoverished rather than enriched. The shameless blasphemy and sacrilege of these adventurers have gone far to destroy the simple faith of the people. Canting hypocrites in Russia at home are cynical scoffers. A chief source of revenue to the bishops in Oroomiah is the ordination of priests and deacons, that they. may beg more successfully, The old church alone cannot withstand this evil influence. In the conllict with Rome the higher ecclesiastics have again and again proved traitors j and the ignorant and superstitious people have been tho conserva- tive force. The archbishop's mission will do something to preserve the fabric of the Church, and most effectively in so far as it is a purifying power. Theirs is a helping hand held out to this tottering, falling sister church, and may God guide their efforts. They are ne~essarily and 'in loyalty to their principles under manifest limitations.
1. Moral reform is subordinated to ecclesiastical reform. 1£ the Church's life is its legitimacy, like a decrepit dynasty, thiil is right j but if the Church's charter is its life, it is wrong. The Anglican mission must either reform the bishops or effect moral reform under immoral bishops. A distinction is made between spiritual authority and spiritual character which is destructive of righteousness.
2. Emphasis is placed on conservatism. The life, the faithful endurance, the bold testimony, the zealous evangelizing, these are the glory of the old Nestorian nation-and these are lost. The old rituals are doubtless full of spiritual truth, but.the archbishop's mission prefer, in their zeal for the old forms, to hide the truth in an unknowll. tongue rather than print them in the vernacular.
3. The doctrinal reform cannot be more evanielical than the mission. This is a truism, but implies much. Loyalty to their conception of Christianity will compel a doctrinal reform. Nestorianism must be obliterated, and St. Cyril substituted for St. Nestorius. That old controversy is dead, and the name signifies little. More than this, the doctrinal reform means impressing on the old Church in fixed form the doctrines of sacramenta· rianism and sacerdotalism. Much can doubtless be found in Nestorian practice and teaching to support these errors, but they have been tindencies rather than dogmas. To impress this old Church with nineteenthcentury High Church Anglicanism is a perversion of her doctrines, a narrowing of her historic catholicity, and leads her to the schism of cutting herself off from other members of Christ's body. When a bishop of the old Church, a man of pure character, at his own request communed with Protestants, he was said by an Anglican priest to have taken part in " a blasphemous mockery." The past few years have been marked in Oroomiah by a revival of masses for the dead, a practice of late years fallen into discredit.
From such a source can we hope for reform, or must we expect the entrenchment of error'
II. The Reformed Ohurch. The first duty of the Reformed Church is to exemplify the Gospel of Christ. A strong, pure, loving Church of Christ will do morEl to hring about a reform in the old Church than any other rower. Let us emphasize the adjectives, strong in loyalty to truth and in its proclamation j pure in that life which is the characteristic of tho kingdom of heaven j loving in her conduct to aU, especially those who love the Master. The first duty is example.
The second duty is clear and unwavering protest. This, I take it, must be threefold and not entirely against the mother Church.
There is, first, the protest for morals, against the unrebuked evil in the old Church, against the bloody hands that receive the broken bread, the lips filled with revilings and foulness that are raised to His cup, the avarice that sells for gain the offices of God's Church, the unspeakable hypocrisy that uses holy things to coyer schemes of lying beggary.
There is the protest against false doctrine, against sacerdotalism and sacramentarianism binding God's free grace to men and rites, against Rome with her great high-priest on earth. This protest is not against the old Church as much as her self-appointed guardians.
There is,finally, the protest against formalism. Some years ago a Christian, to escape punishment for a kinsman's crime, became a Moslem. Authority was obtained for him to return to his own faith. "How can I~" he exclaimed, "I have eaten the great fast." Fasting is to multitudes the chief evidence and exercise of Christianity. It must also be a protest against unintelligible worship and ignorant ministers.
The Reformed Church must be a Protestant church. A third duty is that of nationalloyaIty. The true inheritor of the missionary spirit that inspired the fathers of this people is the Evangelical Church. Her sons have been the pioneers of missionary labor in this age, and from her sons in large measure must be expected the evangelization of Persia.' She is also the inheritor of the love and loyalty to God's Word shown by the Fathers. The best loyalty is devotion to the highest national ideal, and the past of this people is full of glorious aspirations. Herein lies a danger. Experience is showing us that breaking from old ties is too often the loosening of all ties, that the past is despised and not honored. There needs also to be a loyalty to the present duties and needs, a recognition of national unity and common sympathy. None have been more ready than our Protestant brethren to bear common burdens and to honor those who are in positions of honor. The patriarchal house in its civil functions has been frankly acknowledged and cheerfully honored by the Protestant Churchmen. III. The Missionaries from Abroad. The fundamental principle is that missionari8S are sent· to the whole people, not to the Evangelical Church alone j indeed, to all the peoples. While Christian equality seems best exemplified by our becoming members and ministers of the Evangelical Church, we must keep ourselves free from partisan animus. Neither our personal activities nor the missionary ;nstitutions must be confined to a section of the people. Our medical work is without any race or religious limitations whatever. Our educational work benefits many hundreds outside the Evangelical Church. Our literature is
DIVEBSITY OF OPJDU.TIONS IN TO MISSION FIELDS
by no means confined in its inll.uence to the Protestants. All this must be maintained, and if possible increased.
We need a fuller knowledge of the old Church and a deeper sympathy with its peculiar trials and dangers. Superstitions, old customs, and traditions are elements in the life of the people which we need to understand. Furthermorfl, we are losing in some measure an inll.uence of the highest importance in not making more use of the past as an incentive to present achievement. Martyrology, in spite ofits extravagances, has been a power in the Church everywhere. Such a martyr history as that of Mar Shimon bar Saha'ee, killed by the Sassanian king Shapor, is too precious to be forgotten. Scholarship is fostered· by the memories of former scholars, and this nation has many honorable names. We have no more right to doubt God's providence in the past than in the present, and the history of one's own nation is a book of God to him.
It may seem to be a strange Providence that has brought us children of the New World, even by our Old WorId ancestry only a few centuries removed from barbarism, to be the guides of this old apostol!c Church and ancient people. May God give us the wisdom to lead them aright, and to be warned and encouraged by the lessons of the past. May we and our generation be worthy of those who once before gave the Gospel to these lands, often sealing their testimony with their blood. Every one of the missionary stations in Persia was a bishop'S seat in the old Church of the East, Ispahan, Ramadan, Rhages (Teheran), Tabriz, Salmas, and Oroomiah j while Bagdad and Mosul were successively patriarchal cities. May the time soon come when everyone of the many other places where the banner of Christ was once raised may be made strongholds of truth and righteousness.
DIVERSITY OF OPERATIONS IN THE MISSION FIELD.
BY REV. D. L. LEONARD.
if mISSIonary zeal is to be according to knowledge, and so prove worthy and lasting, it must have length and breadth as well as depth, and facts are the fuel upon which this celestial flame must be fed. Let one, informed only concerning the doings of his own denomination, enlarge his field of vision sufficiently to include the entire evangelizing activities of Christendom, and an astonishing revelation will ensue. His little island is at once transformed into a continent, a universe crowded with strange phenomena. Row exceedingly complex the nndertaking, which before seemed so simple! What a heterogeneous mass of conditions to be taken in hand! All this we might well expect when we recall that multitudinous sects are engaged iu telling the glad tidings, and each with its marked idiosyncrasies of opinion, conviction, and ruling tastes i and remember also that heathen humanity is represented by peoples intellec-
DIVERiITY OJ' OnKATIOHI DIi TIlE KIIIilOH J'DU.DI. '14'1
tuallyas far apart as Eskimo, Hottentots, Pariahs, Brahmans, and lapsnese. A glance at this much-embracing realm may help to understand how mnch more is required for the world's redemption than the mere sending of a host of fervid souls to go up and down through pagan lands, by word of mouth declaring to the perishing millions the way of life opened by the sacrifice of the Son of God.
First, all to the matter of organization for the carrying on of missionary operations. It was Carey's idea that the task of proclaimwg Christ to the nations should be taken in hand, not by monarchs, or by ecclesiastical bodies as such, but rather by societies formed for this expreas purpose, and controlled by those who longed for the universal coming of the kingdom. The Moravians are unique at this point, since they make the furtherance of missions the reason for their existence as a church. Some denominations appoint mission boards and control their action. Curiously, the great English Establishment bears no direct part in Christianizing the nations, but all planning and performing are left to Churchmen who co-operate with the Church Missionary Society, the Propagation Society, the Universities' Mission, etc. In certain cases a close corporation hali entire control, while in others a single individual is supreme. And when it comes to details of management, the fashions are almost as numerous as the sects. For example, almost a treatise would be required to set forth the relations existing between the various woman's societies and the " parent" organizations.
It sometimes happens that a single fundamental principle will characterize an entire mission, like self-support. Carey's scheme was that, as soon as possible after arriving at the field appointed, he and his companions must needs in some way secure their own living. This is also the conviction of Bishop Taylor among others. The common conception, however, is that the herald of the Gospel can be engaged in far better business than "pending his time and strength in earning his daily bread. There are" faith missions" also, of various kinds and degrees, shading off from Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission, which constitutes one of the chief evangelizing forces at work in that vast field, through the East London Institute, Bishop Taylor's, the Missionary Alliance, to certain. Swedish and other bodies, of which nothing commendatory can as yet be wisely said. Of all these the idea is not to solicit funds, to seek no certain income, and to make no pledges of salary. " Faith-healing," too, seems to be a natural concomitant. Industrial missions constitute another class. For these tracts of land are required, shops and machinery, the teaching of trades, etc. Commerce and merchandising are in order to supply funds. In tropical countries, and among sarage tribes, it would seem to be necessary to teach industry and impart mechanical skill. It was largely in this way that William Duncan, at Metlakahtla, has been able to work such wonders of transformation.
Unfortunately, even yet not everybody is able to see just how" mil-
DIVERSITY OJ/' OPERATIONS IN TB1!l MIlstON FIELDS
sionary money" can be expended for spelling-books and arithmetics without robbing God. The time is sho~t, the emergency is so great that we have no time to educate. Let us send forth great hosts of evangelists. Or if schools must needs be, who shall be admitted ~ Heathen children, or only those whose parents are Christian? And how much" secular" knowledge shall be bestowed? In aU this there is wide diversity in opinion and practice. Some societies have ·no place for the school-teacher, and others again lay spch emphasis upon education as almost to cast into the background matters lying much nearer to the realm of the heart and conscience. Happy indeed are they who keep the spiritual and the intellectual each in its place, and in proper balance j but alas for him whose soul does n.ot kindle as he ponders upon the sublime achievements wrought for the Gospel by such institutions as Lovedale, Robert College, and the Doshisha !
Then there are medical missions, or rather medical missionaries are in ever-increasing demand. But what I Shall we turn away from ministering to diseased souls, and stoop to caring for the bodily aches and pains of humanity? Even yet in societies not a few the physician is conspicuous by his absence. Others commission him, though without enthusiasm, and because such is the fashion, or because other missionaries may need his services j while yet others set great store by hospitals and dispensaries. Surely at this point it should be enough to justify and even to compel, that the Saviour of the world was the Great Physician as well as the Great Preacher. But, besides, the fact is thoroughly established that there is no more effectual method of reaching the indifferent and prejudiced soul than by relieving suffering and healing disease. Salvation is also meant to restore to wholeness the entire man.
At least until recently there has been diversity of opinion as to the length and breadth of woman's sphere as a missionary. By the fathers she was regarded mainly, if not wholly, as an adjunct, a helpmeet to the man. The Germans believe most heartily in missionaries' wives, but have slight occupation for unmarried women. Most American and British societies regard it an advantage for men to be married, though also according to women without husbands a large and honorable place. The Universities' Mission to East Africa, however, tolerates only the celibate of either sex. But probably, on the whole, at no point has missionary development been more marked during this generation than just here; and whether we regard the thoroughness and vigor of organization, the amount of interest excited and of money gathered, and the increase of laborers in the foreign field.
Neither is there any agreement as to what constitutes fitness for evangelizing work in foreign lands, what grade of intellect, what degree of education shall be required. Probably the standard is highest in the United States, though even here there is wide diversity of judgmel:t and practise. With some the noblest specimeils of cultured manhO<.)i and womanhood are eagerly sought, while for preachers a college and seminary course is required. With others much less care is taken in selecting, and almost anybody with a proper spiritual experience will pass muster. European societies commission a far larger proportion of persons possessed of only average natural abilities and education. Self·supporting missions and industrial missions readily make room for those whose skill is in the hand rather than in the brain. Besides, the world is wide, the unevangelized range all the way from savagery which approaches the bestial, to lofty attainments in intelligence and refinement. And hence, though in a sense there is room somewhere for every humblest disciple who longs to help hasten the day when the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God, it still remains that in every field learning and the qualities of generalship and statesmanship are imperatively demanded.
This further question is yet under debate. To what countries is the missionary called to go, or who are the proper subjects' for his pray~r and toil 1 Clearly, to all lands where Christ is not known, and to all classes both high and low. And the queer Moravians actually prefer tribes that are most degraded and wretched. As clearly, also, to Mohammedans and Jews. Yes, and most would add, Roman Catholics and all other corrupt churches; and hence Austria, Italy, the Spanish-American States are visited, arid a pure Gospel is taken to Copts, Armenians, and the like. Here probably most would draw the line, though several societies go further and sustain missions in Lutheran Germany, Scandinavia, etc. At the extreme in this direction are certain rilects whose" missionary" zeal is wholly expended upon Great Britain and the United States, and in proselyting to the utmost from their brethren of every name. Since some 800,000,000 of the human family are perishing in the darkness of utter paganism, this proceeding would seem to be a case of missions gone stark mad.
One of the burning questions in the foreign field, as well as at home, relates to what constitutes fitness for baptism. The conclusions are various. The Baptists, of course, administer the ordinance only to adults who give evidence of conversion, while others would include such and their children. The continental societies make much of catechizing in the doctrines and church rites, and count those Christians who pass an examination, while the Methodists with their system of probation are ready to count as brethren any who desire to flee from the wrath to come. Some who are soundly orthodox believe that mass-baptism, baptism by the wholesale, is in order in certain cases, as when whole communities cast away their idols and put themselves under Christian instruction. Ah, what wisdom is required to decide just how far to go in meeting such poor souls whose faces are turned toward the light !
Can it be that not all missionary bodies require their representatives to preach and practise total abstinence from all that intoxicates! In this country those who come short at this point are few and far between.
'750 emTIOIfXI Olf 'I'D ORltI8TUN b»….VOlt CON'YDTIOlf
Aeroo the sea. also a large number are just 8S scrupulous; but yet, accord. ing to credible rumor, there are societies still retaining the conviction that alcohol is nece888ry for the stomach's sake, and so despatch regularly invoices thereof as a portion of the supplies required for the furtherance of the Lord's work.
It is worth while to take note how societies differ as to size and strength. While a few have attained to mammoth proportions, the many possess but a limited treasury, a little group of laborers, and a handful of converts. The English Church Society is the greatest, with an income of ,1,500,000, and an army of men and women scattered all the world over. The American Baptists can count 115,000 communicants, , and the London Society almost 95,000, with 125,000 pupils in the schools.
And, finally, no society is equally successful in every field. If here great successes are won, then over there certain fields stony and barren are likely to be discovered. The American Board can point to the Sand. wich Islands, the English Wesleyans to Fiji, and the London Society to Madagascar. The Baptists have beheld wonders among the Telugus and Kar.ns, but not among the Burmans, while over against the frnitful Northwest Conference of India the Methodists must set Bulgaria with its years of sowing much and reaping next to none. In every case, such are the wisdom and goodness of God, with succe!l8es enough to inspire, are mingled failures sufficient to keep the saints humble and prayerful.
Thus in missions as elsewhere it is "many men of many minds." The tremendous problem is perplexing because so complex, composed of such a heterogeneous mass of facts. Countless experiments must be tried, that proving all things the good may be held fast. No single denomination is in possession of the wisdom required to couquer the whole world for Jesus. And when any disciples in His name undertake to cast out the devils of paganism, we are not at liberty to " forbid them because they follow not us," our ideas, our convictions, our methods of work. Paul W&8 made all things to all men, that by all means he might save some.
CRITICISMS ON THE CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR CONVENTION.
BY UT. JAMES M. GltAY, BOSTON.
Now that the Christian Endeavor Convention is over, it is very notable how much is Mid in commendation of it and how little criticism of any kind is heard. Concerning the latter, however, the question is being raised in some quarters as to whether so great a gathering pays. It is estimated that the Boston convention cost, in round numbers, .1,000,000 ; might not this sum have been expended to better purpose in the Lord's cause' Fifty or sixty thousand enthusiastic young people collected together at one time and in one place, bent on Christian culture and ser·
18915.] CBITICI8H8 Ol'f TBIl CBlUITUN ENDEATOR CONVENTION. '751
vice, is an impressive and valuable demonstration before the world, and there can be no question also but that it has its effect upon the young people themselves, and through them upon the work of the churches they represent. But did the average individual delegate obtain as much, either of instruction or inspiration, as he would bad he been able to hear better, or to get nearer the heart of things, or had his attention and interests been less divided by other powerful attractions incident to such an occasion? This is not a question for Christian Endeavorers only to consider, but appertains also, for example, to the Baptist Young People's Union, whose convention, more recently concluded in Baltimore, is open to something of the same criticism. Could these great conventions be divided into three or four parts, and held in as many different locations, and could their officers and principal speakers be conveyed from one place to another after the manner of the bishops who preside over the Methodist conferences, might not the expense be very much less and the benefit proportionally more?
Speaking of the great size of these conventions, another inquiry is being heard as to whether it has not a tendency to beget a trust in numbers, or rather a trust in men, instead of the power and grace of God. And if this be put aside, then there is the other thought, that so large a concourse makes great demands upon the commercial world for financial help and upon the political world for civic recognition, which give to the convention or the movement a semi-secular tone, if they do not necessitate a spirit of compromise on certain critical questions of public moment.
Moreover, the success of such mighty gatherings means the perfection of organization and machinery of a certain kind; and while every one admits the value and importance of both, yet there are true friends of the movement who deprecate the utterance of one of its representatives that "Christian Endeavor stands for organization." This cannot be true. Christian Endeavor should stand, and we believe it does stand, before everything else for spiritual life. But organization is not life. To quote the suggestive words of one of the critics we have in mind: "The organization, rules, and practices of the Christian Endeavor may have been the expression of an ardent and devoted life j but the mere adoption of these expressions wm never produce that life, and the too rigid adherence to them or the too great dependence upon them may be a hindrance rather than a help to the desired end." While this criticism bears rather upon the society itself than its convention, yet the latter is what it is only because of the nature of the society.
The convention which has just closed gave a powerful impulse to the subject of good citizenship as one of the principles of the Endeavor movement. Indeed, before the convention met, at the preliminary meetings of the great chorus, the speeches that were heard bore chiefly upon that topic, the addresses of welcome climaxed upon it, some of the Ressions of the convention were charged to the very full with the electricity of patriotism, and tho pilgrimages that followed it to points of historic interest gave a culmination to " Boston '95" that must make it memorable as the great " civic" convention. Every true Christian citizen must rejoice over this. Moreover, it seems the most likely thing imaginable that a real revival of religion such as Christian Endeavor is should result in purer primaries, in better legislators and legislation, and in the more thorough execution of righteous laws. But it is just here again that a danger signal is raised. Can young Christians have their attention turned and their energies en- gaged with such persistency and power toward the betterment of their earthly citizenship without in some degree detracting from their apprecia- tion of that which is from above 1 In other words, if more attention be paid to the cultivation and development of their own inner IIpiritual life, will not that be the better way of promoting good citizenship in both direc- tions 1 There is in this city an institution known as the Sunday Patriotic Meetings. It dates back to the time, in 1888, when there was a great uprising of the communi/;y against an attempt on the part of the papal hierarchy to dictate the policy of our public schools. These meetings were then begun on Sunday afternoons in one of the largest places of assembly, for the purpose of educating the people in the history and plans of the Church of Rome as a political machine. They have been continued ever since with immense audiences, and at times manifesting the most intense enthusiasm. But many who were interested in them at the first have come to see that they have taken the place of religion to a large ,proportion of their regular attendants; they are the only church they attend, the only worship they engage in, and practically the sum and substance of the gos- pel which they know. To be an intelligent and consistent opponent of the papacy is to have a clear title to a mansion in the skies. Those who have passed through a temperance revival have met with the same phase of ex- perience, and have found scores of otherwise very intelligent people who • believed that total abstinence was not only the chief good in the present time, but that merit which had the all-inclusive claim on the time to come. It is suspected and feared in some quarters that the enthusiasm for good citizenship in Christian Endeavor may work: somewhat in a similar direc- tion unlellS most carefully watched and guarded. Of course it is not alISumed that it is not carefully watched and guarded. The criticisms which the writer has heard and read, in other words, are not those of ene- ' mies of Christian Endeavor seeking in some way to weaken its hold upon the young people of our churches, but sincere and sympathetic friends, in some sense leaders in the movement, who speak of these things chiefly in the hope of awakening each individual society to exercise special care and supplicate special grace on account of them.
In my own judgment, God Himself, who has originated this movement and is directing it, has in this last convention provided a safety-valve of escape from many of these anticipated dangers. I find this in the engage- ment of Endeavorers in evangelistic effortS. The different conventions have seemed in their particular features to mark a progress or development in the principles and work of the movement as well as in its numbers. At first consecration and loyalty to Christ and the Church were insisted on, then special attention was called to the duty of foreign missions, then came good citizenship, which we have seen culminating in this convention in a mighty patriotic impulse ; but side by side with the consideration of this last subject in the present gathering, there has been an aggressive movement for souls which marks an advance upon the work of any convention hitherto. Not only were the noon meetings at Faneui! Hall and Bromfield Stre~t Church filled to overflowing with audiences who came to hear the great evangelists, but the young men and women of the convention themselves went everywhere preaching the Word. They visited the wharves and lumber-yards, the stores and engine-houses, the factories and lanndries, bringing the glad tidings to thousands of needy souls at the same time that they were training themselves and stimulating their appetites for more of such work in their own respective localities. Dr. Duff once said that the e~angelistic Church would be the evangelical Church. He might have added also that it would be the holy Church. Practical work for souls not' only makes for sound doctrine, but consistent living. Let the Endeavor conventions henceforth seek more and more for the evangelization of the cities in which they meet, and the reflex benefit upon every society represented will be the best that their truest friends can desire.
There was just one feature of this convention that the writer of these lines would deprecate, and that was the tendency to speak jocularly of older people, and to intimate that if it had not been for this uprising of the young people all our churches would have been dead and buried. There is such a"thing as pressing a truth like that too far. When the once noted theologian and revivalist, Dr. Lyman Beecher, was too aged to engage longer in regular employment, he removed to Brooklyn and attended the ministry of his more famous son, Henry Ward. One Sabbath morning, as the congregation was retiring, he heard them praising the sermon and the preacher in, the most exalted terms, and turning round when he reached the vestibule he shook his finger at them, and with a merry twinkle in his eye exclaimed, "Ah, if it hadn't been for me you'd never had him 1" It is certainly not only bad taste but bad judgment, as well as bad religion, for Christian Endeavor to make too many comparisons to its own advantage at the expense of the Church to which it is almost entirely indebted.
But critics may say what they please about the Boston convention, it was, nevertheless, a great demonstration. It was a great demonstration of the fact that yonng people are now coming to the front in religion, as they have long been coming to the front in other lines of thought and action. Such a convention makes it very much easier to present the subject of personal religion to a young man or woman of your acquaintance than if it had never occurred. It was a great demonstration of the life and power of the Gospel. These young people bore witness to something
THE LATEST BLOW TO THE AFRICAN SLAVE POWER
different from the Unitarian cultus of Boston. Theirs was an infallible Bible, a salvation of grace, a Divine Saviour. Theirs was a faith that awakened a lively and unselfish interest in the lost. Theirs was a faith that begat a life and walk of righteousness. A great army of youth entering a city within forty-eight hours of one another, and not a keg of beer or cask of wine added to any cellar, not an extra chair placed in any gambling-room, not an additional ticket sold at any low theatre, no brothel made richer by them, no low rough crowd following them, no uncouth manners or bad actions seen in them, no increase in the number of arrests on their account-a decrease rather of thirty-three per cent! Boston entertained the flower of the world for one week when it entertained the Endeavor convention. Evil was out of harmony with these young people, and yet they had a happy time. They sang continually in the houses, and on the streets, and in the cars, as well as in the hall and tents. Wherever they went the richest laughter fell. upon the ear. There was a peculiar urbanity about them, a winsomeness in their Christianity, as another expressed it, which has left a most delightful impression on the whole city. Yes, and this convention was a great demonstration of anotherfact, namely, the power of a Divine idea lodged by the Holy Ghost in the heart and brain of a consecrated Christian man.. This Christian Endeavor movement is of God. There can be no doubt of this when we consider its origin, its character, its development, and its results. No man, no hundred men can account for it. And yet God was pleased to use a man in bringing it into being. How this thought exalts our human personality! It is the truth that is to convert the world and conquer it for Jesus Christ, but truth incarnated, truth dwelling in men, borne witness to by men, lived out in the lives of men. As one thinks of what has been accomplished by this religious movement among the young people of our generation, and what its possibilities are, he may well ask, who would not be a man, sanctified and surrendered, for God to use ~ THE LATEST BLOW TO THE AFRICAN SLAVE POWER.
BY REV. JAMES JOHNSTON, DARWEN, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND.
Another crushiug defeat has been delivered to the slave traders in Nyassaland. By the intrepidity of Acting Commissioner Sharpe, Kawinga, a notorious human hunter and terror to his peaceful neighbors, has been chivalrously resisted and defeated. So far back as 1859, when Livingstone explored the Nyassa regions, this same chief, then known as Kainka, belonging to the Yao race of slavers, was in the habit of harrying the Mauganja tribes, and of his ravages Livingstone wrote graphic and thrilling narratives. Kawinga has ever !lince been one of the most active slavers firmly intrenched on the southern and eastern shores of the lake. Part of the country of the Yaos lies in the northeastern corner of the British Cen- tral Africa protectorate and a greater portion within Portuguese territory, and over the entire district the slave trade has had a vigorous stronghold through unknown generations. Similarly Kawinga's own town, though covered by the British flag, has been a regular halting-place for slave cara- vans on their journeys from the slave fields of the interior to the Portu- guese settlements on the east coast. To rid himself of Kawinga and two or three minor chiefs holding effective positions, Commissioner Johnston, who has rendered valiant service against slave chiefs along the shores of Nyassa, was obliged to leave for India in order to recruit a few hundred Sikh soldiers for the accomplishment of his unavoidable militant object. Kawinga assumed that the commissioner's absence would afford a favorable opportunity for an assault on the protectorate. Happily this anticipation has been wholly frustrated.
The incessant energy of Commissioner Johnston in putting down slave operations around the lake, which has a length of 350 miles and a breadth averaging from 16 to 60 miles, roused Kawinga some time since to plan an attack on the Shire settlements to the south of his town. To effect this he determined last March to make war on Malemya (a chief under British protection), and, subsequently, to destroy the thriving Domasi mission station, for long years associated with the famous Blantyre missionary headquarters of the Church of Scotland. If success had attended Kawinga it meant an invasion of the whole of British Nyassa (looking southward) ; and, inasmuch as six chiefs rallied to his call and others were awaiting the results to share in the spoils, it is apparent that this perilous combination of slave raiding-chiefs would have swept away the promising civilizing colony from end to end. Unpleasant as it is to make use of the Angel of War as the forerunner of the Angel of Peace, the Acting Commissioner, Mr. Sharpe, bravely confronted his wily antagonist and proved a sufficient match. In the darkness of night Domasi, the branch of the Blantyre Mission lying to the southwest of Lake Shirwa, was assailed hy a tremendous force of native Yaos from different points, and, save for the gallantry of the Sikhs at hand and the traders acting under the directions of Messrs. Sharpe and Fletcher, Domasi and its surronndings would have been utterly lost. With considerable loss Kawinga was repulsed, and ultimately his pursuers, following up their advantage, took possession of his capital, the fugitive chief being obliged to find refuge across the Portuguese borders in the valley of the upper Lugenda River.
Had Domasi been captured by the Yaos, the Scotch missions and plantations on the Shire highlands, for the growth of which a quarter of a century of patient labor has been required, would have been levelled to the ground. If the defeat has not finally broken the back of the Yao slavers, it will enable the colonists to extend their activity northward unmolested and eventually abolish the old slave trade route around the south end of Nyassa. The passage of the slave traffic across the lake is impossible,
'156 THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL.HEREDITY
states Archdeacon Maples, of the Universities' Mission, now that the last. of the slave dhows is destroyed. On the arrival of Commissioner Johnston's reinforcements from India there will be no further dread of victorious slavers overunning Nyassaland. At an early day it may be expected that the country stretching to the distant north between Nyassa and Tanganyika will be equally cleared of Arabs, whose staple commodity is hnman flesh, and whose forays are stained by organized murder. By that achievement the slave trade in East Central Africa will have received a deadly blow. For its extirpation it would almost seem, as an authority has observed, that" of the slave trade it may be said, without extravagance, that there is nothing in African human nature which leads us to suppose that this abomination will eventually yield to any argument save force."
Meanwhile, the outlook over Nyassaland presents an encouraging prospect. Missionary and civilizing agencies exhibit a forward movement. Strangers unarmed are growingly trusted by the natives and welcomed as defensive allies. As a thoroughly interesting race of people, skilful in a variety of native trades and willing to adopt Western ideas and handicrafts, the Nyassa tribes are universally described. Nor is it anyexaggeration to say that for their moral, material, and spiritual salvation magnificent efforts have been made by men and women, mostly of Scotch ancestry, whose record makes an epic volume in the history of modern mlSSlOns. The standard of the cross has been unfurled on the sonth, north, east, and west, at many points of the silvery beach of Nyassa (the Lake of the Stars) by the ensigns of faith whose sanctified vocation it has been, as Whittier sings, to "Right the wronged and raise the weak."
THE LAW OF SPIRITUAL HEREDITY.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
Rev. J. Murray Mitchell, LL.D., tells how he once climbed to a mountain peak in the Western Ghats, in India, in search of the source of one of India's noblest rivers, the Godavari; and how at last the exploring party reached a spot where a few drops were trickling from the rocks, so few that for two or three seconds the whole stream was held in the hollow of the hand, and it needed but to scoop out a small channel to divert the stream in a new direction. From this small beginning the insignificant rill could be traced, descending the slope and gradually broadening. It flowed eastward toward the Bay of Bengal, widening, deepening, gathering volume and momentum, until it was the secret of fertility to tens of thousands of acres of otherwise barren desert.
That river is a parable of human life. "The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord, and He turneth it whithersoever He will." Is not that proverb a reference to the point in the stream of life, near the heart, out of which flow life's issues, and where character and destiny wait for a determining hand ~ And does not God put the mother at that point of power where the heart of the child-and every child is one of God's born kings-is in her hand to be turned whithersoever she will ~ Thackeray says, ' , We sow a thought, and we reap an act; we sow an act, and we reap a habit; we sow a habit, and we reap character; we sow a character, and we reap des1iny." What an awful responsibility when you or I have the opportunity to give direction to the thought, the aim, the desire, the motive from which conduct, habit, character, destiny spring!
No lesson of missions is more sublimely and pathetically grand than that which is taught us in the proof afforded by the lives of missionary heroes and heroines, of the power of a spiritual ancestl·y, of a faith first dwelling in a mother and a grandmother, and by a law of spiritual heredity descending to the son or daughter. It almost seems as if there were an inheritance, not of aptitudes only, but a legacy of character.
Ziegenbalg was trained to be Christ's pioneer in the East Indies, not first at Halle, under the saintly FrancH, but before that in the primary school of his own home, under the teachings of a mother who baptized her words with tears and hallowed them with prayers. In a humble hamlet near Dresden that consecrated mother was dying with a group of little ones about her, and being very poor she amazed them by saying, "A great treasure I have laid up for you-a very great treasure. Seek it, my children, in the Bible, and there you will find it. There is not a page which I have not wet with my tears. " One of those children was Bartholomew Ziegenbalg. And when after thirteen years of apostolic labor he passed away singing, "Jesus, my Confidence," it was his mother's treasure that had been his from childhood to the end.
In Sonnenberg, Germany, another holy woman Jay dying, and with her last breath confided to her weeping husband this whispered secret, "Our youngest son I have dedicated to God for such service as He shall appoint. Assure me that when he hears the Lord's call you will not discourage it." That lad was christened Friedrich Schwartz. Then, under Francke, at Halle, what his mother had begun in his heart received development, and Schwartz went home to announce to his father his conscious call from God to the career of a missionary in India. Then the father sought the dying chamber of that holy mother, and in that atmosphere, after three days of agony, gave up his boy to God. At twenty-three Schwartz sailed for India, where for forty-three years he did so grand a work that it may be well doubted whether any other man has so impressed that empire for good. Schwartz's name is to this day spoken with a sort of holy awe in India. This man, who lived in one room barely big enough for a bed and table, who was cook for himself and ate rice and other vegetables, and who spent less than seventy-five cents a day on his entire support, held a sceptre which swayed not only the common people, but princes and kings in their palaces.
The story of Zinzendorf, the Moravian bishop, is very familiar. His grandfather was a martyr in spirit, resigning his estates for the sake of Christ, and he was brought up by a grandmother and aunt who faithfully nursed his infant piety. At four years of age he covenanted with Jesus, "Be Thou mine, dear Saviour, and I will be Thine," and the simplehearted boy, yearning for communion with Jesus, used to write to Him little notes, un burdening his heart, and flinging them out the castle window to be found and read by Him. It was he who could say, "'One passion have I, and it is He, He alone j" it was he to whom any country was home and native land where Christ had need of him j he it was who would rather be hated for Jesus' sake than loved for his own. How little did the grandmother know that she was shaping the whole course of Moravian missions !
Alexander Duff, so famous in the history of missions in India, owed everything to his spiritual ancestry. Back to and through a former generation the subtle influences must be traced that ripened into the self-offering of this marvellous man, so that from the hour when he was led io care for his own soul he began to know a passion for the souls of others, and especially the heathen, that led him once for all irrevocably to devote himself to their salvation.
Samuel J. Mills is entitled, if any man is, to be called the father and founder of missions on this side of the oceltn. Though he died at sea, on to the African coast, and was never permitted enter fully upon the work for which he set himself apart, he had set in motion the springs of both home and foreign missionary effort and organization. A score of various forms of benevolence, wide as the United States, the continent, the world, owe to him their inspiration and encouragement, if not their origin. And yet that wonderful life whose lamp went out so early and yet wrought such marvels, was sealed with consecration to God and to missions before birth by a holy mother j and when Mills grew to boyhood and was yet unrenewed by the Spirit, and even blind to his own need of regeneration, it was his mother's prevailing prayer that on a definite morning caused him to be overwhelmed with a new sense of sin and guilt, and l~d him to a full surrender to a new master.
When the secrets are brought to light, what wonders will be revealed of parental influence, known only to God, shaping the character and lives of children !
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BlIV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
The International Duel in the Far East. the fact that France and England con. stitute, either merchant or missionary, It is well to remember the severe their avant IXntreur. Either may afford strain put on some non-Christian na- occasion tor new foreign political comtions. So far as China is concerned, plications. The missionary may preshe stands chullenged to single-handed cipitate national disturbances as well combat against the combined nations of as the merchant. He is the picket of a Europe and America in their solidarity. new order of things. If we remember correctly, it was Hon. William B. Reed, as United States Pleni- Let us illustrate. The Republic of potentiary, who, now, nearly fifty years Liberia prohibits titles of property to ago, introduced into the treaty with any white man. She needs foreign China the" most favored nation" clause. capital and knows it ; but she knows, Perhaps the most penetrating diplomat too, that property investments by forof the world had little anticipation of eigners become, too frequently, the occathe ultimate result of that shrewd and sion of national strife. The Chinese apparently just demand. But what has know this as well as the black man of been the outcome? Every treaty-con- West Africa does. cession, however incidental or however ruinous to China's interests, made After having pigeon-holed for more amicably or at the cannon's mouth, to than a third of a century applications anyone of the European nations or to to allow titles to the Christians, and to that of the United States, is necessa- direct that the vendor who chooses to rily made to everyone of them. For lIell to them property be allowed to do so forty-five years all the Western powers unrestrained, the emperor has just now have been a unit as against China. 'fhe gazetted the governors that this must be duel is unequal. the order. At the same time, Christian missionaries are urging their govern- It is little wonder that the Chinese, ments to demand anew treatybywbich finding themsel ves in danger of being the foreign missionary or his society parcelled out, like Africa, into ,. spheres shall be granted the privilege of holding of influence" by Europeans, should titles, alleging as one reason, that if held grow increasingly restive In their pres- by the Ohinese Church the government ence. Millions in China have before may at any time confiscate their investthem the prospect of starvation during ments of foreign money. and their own the transition from the old industrial governments be powerless to demand and commercial conditions, to the new redress. It is just this that the Chinese ones which contact of foreigners is re- themselves know. We make now no sistlessly introducing. A million of argument, pro or con, but state the pro idle, pensioned ex-soldiers or their de- and con of this case as a mere illustrascendants organized about the gambling tion. Take as another illustration the den as a unit, are ever present to stir the following : The hcad and centre of the quiet people to riot that they may plun- anti-foreign agitation is the province of der. The ruling class, the literati, are Hunan. Thence issues indecent and always disposed to resist the presence strife.engendering literature against for· of foreigners' as liable to become the lIigners, missionaries in particular. A occasion of disturbance, and thus af- Hunan Inan, an officer in Szechuen, ford ground of fresh encroachment of boasted during the recent riots at Chenforeign powers. They are not blind to tU,that if a foreigner entered Hunan they killed him and wiped the streets with him. This riot occurred in Szechuen, but Kucheng, the turbulence having sub· the diplomatic pawn that it is proposed sided-Dr: Gregory, of the same mis- to move forward is,that the French army sion, also. We have no tidings whether march on Hunan and demand the open- the missionaries of the English Church ing of at least one port for foreigners in removed or not temporarily from Ku· that province. The" most favored na- cheng at the time of that disturbance.
tion clause" will of course apply. The But it appears that several of them were Chinese see all this, resistless as the tides. at a health·station at Whasang farther A thousand other similar complications up in the mountains. Miss Hartwell steadily result in foreign political, com- went up there also. It was at Whasang mercial and religious advance. Seen that the massacre took place; those mis- from their standpoint, it is humiliating sionaries of the American Board, the and irritating. We must bear all this in Methodist and the English churches who mind in judging of and dealing with were at Kucheng were undi~turbcd.
China. On the night of July 31st the mob rushed into the mission premises and The Massaore in Kuoheng, Ohina. murdered Rev. R. W. Stewart, his wife, and two children;' Miss Elsie It is scarcely worth while, except for Marshall, Miss Annie Gordon, Miss Bes- making the historical record in this peri- sie Newcombe, and Miss Flora Stewart, odical, to repeat the details, which the all of the Church of England Mission.
secular press has made widely known, Miss Hartwell was lodging in a native of the riots of March 28th and massacre house near by, and escaped with minor of Christian missionaries, which took injuries, after a severe struggle with one place at Kucheng, China, July 31st last. of the mob and a race for her life.
That of March 28th was conducted Mr. Stewart, who was slain with his by the vegetarians, who, whatever wife, had been some twenty years in the their original organization was designed country and was the head of his mission.
to effect, are now known as one of the In his last report of the Church of Eng- secret political organizations which are land zenana mission he referred to the a constant menace to the peace and pros· ladies who were since cruelly murdered perity of entire Central China from the as follows: seacoast to the borders of Tibet. .. Nangwa is the centre mission for the Previous to March 28th everything ladies in the far Northwest. It is four had been quiet for a long time, and no days' journey over high mountains from disturbance whatever was apprehended. Kucheng. I visited them ,at the be- On that day the rumor was current that ginning of the year, and found there the vegetarians would march into Ku- :Miss Johnson, Miss Newcombe, Miss cheng, kill the local magistrate, and Rodd, Miss Bryer, and Miss Fleming; burn the missionary property belonging they have also among them a Miss Sin· to the llethodist and other missions. clair, who has come from England in- The wildest confusion prevailed for dependently, and is making herself use- three days, when the United States ful in various ways. These ladies are consul at Foochow warned the Ameri· living as nearly like the native women can missionaries that they must retire as possible; no knives or forks are seen to Foochow, as no soldiers could be sent in the house. I am told that one knife to protect them. Dr. Gregory, Miss is kept for any unhappy guest who can· Rouse, and Miss Hartwell proceeded not manage chop.sticks, and though the to Foochow, which lay s:lUthwest of locality is far from healthy, and our Kucheng, the route being thirty miles C. M. S. missionaries have one after an· " through the mountains by chair, and other felt the effects of malaria, your sixty miles by the river Min, in boats. ladies have in a surprising degree main· Miss Hartwell subsequently returned to tained their strength. You know the kind of life they lead, visiting from vil- at a place called Sek'ci-Du, with Miss lage to village, sometimes at long dis- SaunderS, of the Australian Association, tances from home, putting up not at who is stationed in Kucheng while chapels or at Christians' houses, for, learning the language.
alas! there are none, but in the native " A letter has come to-day from Miss inns or the house of some hospitable Marshall telling of the great encourage- heathen woman. Their reward for this ment they find in Sek-ci-Du. This is devotion is being used of God. It is remarkable because, although we have truly invigorating to the soul to sit down been for years endeavoring to rouse an and listen as they tell of the good hand interest there, hitherto we llave entirely of their God upon them, and the spir- failed, and purposed retiring from the itual results they have seen. Oh, for station altogether. Thank God for the more of these" women that publish the ladies whom you send us; wherever tidings" I They have, too, a little hos- they go God gives His blessing, and the pital here, and this year they tried a secret lies in the quiet, unwavering trust small station class, though in doing so in a living Saviour by their side. Such they had to face difficulties that were trust He does not disappoint."
not met with in the old districts. The only American missionary who "The three other ladies who regard suffered personal harm in the murder- Kucheng as their headquarters are Miss ous Whasung attack was Miss Mabel Gordon, Miss Marshall, and Miss Stew- C. Hartwell, of the Methodist Episco- art. .Miss Stewart is still working for pal Mission, who was in a native house her examinations; when she has got near by the mission premises where the through them her sphere of labor will English missionaries were quartered.
be in the country, in the western sec- Miss Hartwell makes the following tion of the -district. Miss Gordon's sta- statement: tion, where she spends the greater part "August 1st, at 7.30 A.M., I heard of the year, is Dong-Gio, the chief cen· shouts. They were the yells of servants tre of the Ping-Nang district. This who rushed in shouting to me to get great district, or, as we should say in up, for the Vegetarians were coming, England, county, has no other lady tearing down the houses on the hill be- worker, and I need not say that, how- longing to the English mission.
ever hard she may try, she can do little " A few minutes later a teacher came more than touch what is waiting to be to my door and told me to run. I put done. At that one station of Dong-Dio on my clothes and rushed to the door.
80 or 90 women usually attend the Sun- I was met by a man with a trident day service. We have to thank the spear, who yelled, 'Here is a foreign Rev. H. R. McCartney, of Melbourne, woman.'
for this valuable missionary. Miss " He pointed the spear at my chest.
Elsie Marshall's work is also in the coun- I twisted it to one side and it just try; she only returns now and then to grazed my ear and head. He threw me Kucheng as headquarters. Her sec_ to the ground and beat me with the tion lies north of Kucheng, and covers wooden end of the spear. A servant more than 300 square miles. She has came and wrenched the spear away, several centres in this region, where she then told me to run. I jumped down stops for a few weeks or two months at the embankment and ran along the road.
a time, collecting the women together A servant came and pulled me along and visiting from house to house. Our until I got up on the side of the hill. I plan is for your missionaries to travel then lay down there to get more breath.
in pairs, accompanied by a Bible wom- After resting twice I reached a seclud- an and Christian servant, and to put up ed spot and lay there. All this time at chapels where a married catechist is the yells went on and two houses were stationed. Just now Miss Marshall is burning to the ground. " After a while the yells stopped. I but I only saw one, the man who rat· supposed tbe Vegetarians had gone tacked me, who shouted, C Here is a away. A servant went to see how foreign woman.' He had a trident matters were. He returned in half an spear. Some had swords. There was hour, telling me to come home, that five at least one gun, for I heard it fired off. ladies of the English Mission had been The natives say there were more." killed. and some had been wounded, but that my house-a rented native Government Defence of Missionaries. house-had not been troubled at all. A great deal of nonsense has ap· " I went home to find Miss Codring· peared in the secular press of this coun· ton much cut about the head and beaten try since the riots in Chentu and Ku· all over; Mildred Stewart, twelve years cheng as to the duty of the United old, with knee cut and bleeding very States Government to demand redress hard; Herbert Stewart, six years old. for injury done to person and property cut on the head and almost dead ; baby to missionaries. Even such rubbish has Stewart, with one eye black and swol· found place in influential newspapers. len; the second Stewart girl; Kathleen, as that, affording protection to missiona· eleven years old, with the second boy, ries and missionary property is propa- Evan, three years old, were beaten and gating religion by the sword. pierced with a spear, but not seriously injured. The boy vomited all day, So far as missionaries are concerned, but we thought it was from fright. they go to these foreign fields fully aware that they are liable to be harmed .. Mr. Phillips, of the English Mis· by such outbreaks. Weare not aware sion, who lived in s native house some that the missionaries from America ever distance away, escaped all injury, only asked government aid or protection in arriving in time to see the bodies of the the prosecution of their calling. If they dead and hear the Vegetarians say, ' We obtain it it is on the basis that they are have killed all the foreigners.' American citizens. It might be possi· ble that they would advance their influ· U At first we heard that some foreign. ence more by not demanding redress at ers had escaped and were in hiding, but all. Native Christian Chinese have over Mr. Stewart did not come and we feared and over refused indemnity proffered the worst. Mr. Phillips went to the by the authorities for injuries to person ruins and found eight bodies-five not and property. They gained greatly in burned and three burned so as not to influence as religionists among the peo; be recognizable. Dr. Gregory arrived pIe thereby. There may be occasions at dark and dressed the wounds of the when missionaries might choose to do patients. Coffins were made and the likewise. The missionaries in Uganda bodies put in them. The bones of the gained great triumphs while absolutely burned were put in boxes. unprotected to any degree by the Brit· ish Government. The Gospel can win .. When I was thrown down my its way without patronage of any po· teacher's wife called on some Whasung litical powers. But no state can afford men around to save me. There were to see its subjects unprotected. This, four men there to only one Vegetarian, regardless of their calling, whether mis· but they would not help me. She came sionary, merchant, or bicyclist reporter. and tried to pull me away as he was The British Government in one instance beating me. The Vegetarian kicked spent millions to defend a single one of her. its subjects-and he a Jew! The per- son and property of the citizen of any U When the Vegetarian who beat me country must be held to be absolutely started down the hill to come to our inviolate in every other country, Thus house three others were with him; but these ran off after some Chinamen, so I escaped with only one persecutor.
" There were about fifty Vegetarians, missionaries as citizens or subjects must it appear vast and well worth remark be protected by their governments,' not for size. But this knowledge isolated, for missionary interests, but for the pres· counts for nothing. Look at the" Dark tige of the government. Whatever the Continent ;" our land would go more missionary may choose to do or not to than three times therein; then recall, for do in the ca8e, when wronged or harmed, our one minister to 800 persons, Africa the government has no alternative. It has one for every 600,000. Or note must protect an American citizIJn, Brazil, larger than us, yet with as little though he be a Jew, Moslem, or Budo chance for enlightenment as Africa. In dhist propagandist, or whatever else, in the land east of the Mississippi (India'S any part of the globe. A government area) put one·sixth of the world, or that does not do that, or attempt to do let the swarming millions of China over· it, is not worth owning. flow our fnll area, somewhat. You are utterly powerless to grasp even the out· Maps and Money. side edge of these facts unless you have BY v. F. PENROSE. a map of the world.
But if you have been constantly in The Christian Church is nowevery· contact thus with maps, your present where using maps. Hence we read rate of giving fails to satisfy. How that the " estimated increase of wealth could it ? "There remaineth yet very among evangelical Christians in the. much land to be possessed," and your United States was four times greater utmost efforts cannot make up for the than all the contributions for foreign anti·mission and partly.mission multi· work by all American Christians duro tudes. What railroad would proceed ing the entire century," for we are giv· to work without maps? What army ing at the rate of twenty·five cents a could be active unprovided with map~ ?
year apiece. The latest historical books are having What does the use of maps mean? their maps so printed that a blank space Accurate knowledge. The children who equal to the page is on the bound·side never have a meeting without maps of of each map in order that it may be al· the world and of the country studied, ways before the reader.
comparing every land in area with our It is not, however, enough to have own, and then imagining the quarter of maps; you must use them. "Oh, yes, the world's population, the Chinese, we have maps. They are put away in our somewhat lesser area, while reo somewhere. I forget where and what membering we have 65,000,000 people, they are; but we have maps ;" and the are gaining the intelligent interest based search the minister then made for me on business and scientific information revealed a map of Paul's missionary that will make their future gifts, put to journeys, which scarcely answered my shame those of grown people who are needs in telling of India after the above yearly giving without ever seeing and methods. The same incident occurred realizing the vast areas utterly un· in more than one locality.
touched by any Christian influence. A .. Weare so impressed by your map map of the world cannot be done with· of the world," a missionary speaker was out. You do not know China or Mex: told, "that we are going to buy one.
ico unless you compare it with other How much did yours cost ?"
lands and see its neighbors and find " A dollar and a half. It is paper their political influence. which I mounted on cloth, is eight feet Take Pennsylvania; it looks large six by four feet six, and came from the when compared with the New England American Board. I add our own sta· States. Bring California or Washing. tions as I need them. Your members ton forward and it is tiny. A large can -examine it, and ten·cent donations railway map of the United States makes will soon secure it," and they got it. When new members join your so- meeting while the influence of each naciety, if you have no map of the world, tion is being described. while you are studying China, how can they be expected to take a money inter· Have you ever tried to have an exest in your Osaka scholarship-for few hibition of all the maps of your local· can locate our mission stations without ity? Such a one has recently proved maps. Therefore first make or buy a wonderfully suggestive. Each society map of the world, and then secure the had individual map-methods. maps of the lands to be studied. It is not difficult to draw an outline of the Start an audience from where they live continents on a large sheet of paper or across their continent-on the map-reo on cloth. ferring, in passing, to the missionary' from Japan who returned- home after Clay or putty maps moulded on a ten years' absence and could scarcely large board covered with oil cloth, In· credit the increase of luxury in every terest greatly. Putty, not cracking place, and ye1; everywhere, as excuse for readily and softening in linseed oil, Is not giving, heard: "Debt, debt, debt." better than clay, though both can be Then crossing the Pacific, show the rela· used over and over again. Candles In tive size of the United States and China, Christmas-tree holders mark the mission and turn to a large map of China, speak. stations, and are lit one by one as bits of ing of the swarming population, illusinformation are given of the medical trating by the popUlation chart of China. work at this one, the press·work at that. A hundred squares, each representing The grains or names of animals can be 4,000,000, form a square, ten each wuy, affixed. Tiny flags may indicate where and all are needed for China. InRide, our missionary heroes have lived, or the tbe United States have their 65,000,000 mission stations. (A bit of ribbon and a in one corner; underneath, Great Brit· big pin make a flag.) The "black ain, France, Germany, and the Russian map," a map of the world with tbe Empire half fill the square, and China continents painted solidly black on some has one missionary for 300,000. They cheap material, or else on your ordinary give for their "spirit offerings" an· map covered with black paper or cloth nually $400,000,000. We gave in 1890, cut to fit, has the various denomina- $11,000,000 for home and foreign mistions' work represented by little circles sions; $1,200,000 we spent for drink in of white fastened by means of a pin, as that year; $24,000,000 we spend for work is described in Africa and Asia, cutjlower8 each year. till, at th<l last, a fringe of white repre· sents the Gospel in all lands. After such a map-illustrated talk, a most interested auditor said he felt com· Represent Africa alone in this way, pelled to arrange his household exor any country, marking all the socie- penses that he might ha ve more to give, ties at work. While the different col- so overwhelming was it to ored circles are being placed for the missions, you might have some defini· U Contrast tions read by various persons-diction- The petty Done, the Undone vast;" ary definitions of darkness, light, uncivilized, evangelized, mi88ionary, Ohristian· and others have proved the 8ame by ity, ending with Jesus as defined in their gifts when facts were once thus Matt. 1: 21. presented.
Again, have a mere outline of Africa Three leaflet·charts may be enlarged on brown paper, and cut the areas to assist this map force. They may be owned by England, France, Spain, etc., had for thirty cents per hundred of in red, blue, yellow, and other papers. W. B. Jacobs, 148 Madison Street, Chi· Have these fastened on at a public cago: "A Mute Appeal," "Trifling with a Great Trust," and "A Com· parative View;" the first two may be also had enlarged for sixty cents aim of miSl!ionary work. They either each. lay too much streSl! on the work of testi- fying, or they depend wholly on the Grown persons need not rebel at such Holy Spirit regardleSl! of human methmethods. Money comes spasmodically, ods. from impulse of the moment, unless the mind can recur again and again to the Such is the gist of the criticism. reasons for giving. The two· tenths area Now, while we do not belong to the of the whole world that alone have class of men who imagine that miSl!ionknowledge of Christ is a fact not to be ary methods are above criticism, we canforgotten when once seen demonstrated not but take issue with Professor Kozaki on a map of the world, and is empha- in what he says regarding present methsized each time the map is seen afler- ods of work, and also in what he outward. lines as the" true scientific method." It is somewhat startling to read that to- At oncll we feel we must give morc. day, after a hundred years of mission- Ask for birthday offerings of dollars, ary work, neither the churches at home dimes, or pennies. Give out nickels or nor their representatives abroad have dollars for investment. Find out every any idea of the true aim of missionary way in which you may increase your work. If that be true, no wonder that gifts; nay, lessen your indebtedness to our methods are bad and our converts the One whose light makes our life. few. The wonder is that such aimless men should have any methods or any To this, a constant use of maps, im- converts at all; and, wonder of wonpels me. ders I how have they been able to ac- complish what even Professor Kozaki From Another Standpoint.* speaks of as a work not inferior to what was done in apostolic times? It seems BY REV. W. WYND, BAPTIST MISSION. to us that, although the churches are not all that they ought to be, the ones OSAKA, JAPAN. which support missions are pretty clear about the aim of missionary work. As In your June issue of the MISSIONARY for the missionaries, God knows how REVIEW we were favored with a discus- hr short we feel ourselves to be of these sion of the missionary problem by Pro- grand ideals that we read of in the fessor Kozaki, of the Doshishi College, .. Acts of the Apostles," but even of Kioto. Looking at the problem from the worst of us, it cannot be truly said the point of view of a Japanese Chris- that we have no .. definite idea of the tian, the learned professor sees the prea- true aim of missionary work." In that ent methods of missionary work to be at least we k7W1J) our Lord's will; how wholly at variance with scientific prin- we are doing it is another question. ciples. More especially is his criticism Some, he says, are laying too much levelled at present methods of conduct- stress on the work of testifying, thinking work in civilized c(luntries. ing when they have done this their work is done, whether men are converted or Neither the missionaries who are sent not. to the field nor the churches that send If a missionary gives his time and them have any definite idea of the true strength and whatever talent God has given him to the work of testifying, is *[We do not hold ourselves responsible for the he not following in the footsteps of the great apostle of the Gentiles, who went views of contributor., and much prefer that r~ from city to city doing nothing else 1 joinders to any article that appears should take Without minimizing in the least the imthe form of independent presentation of oppo- portance of educational work; without site opinions, common now, as a symposium. But as this paper is written in a good spirit we make an exception. In securing Mr. Kozaki's paper we intended it to inangurate a series by pastors native to several fields. We expect to furnish such an article from a Mexican minister in an early issue, and invite others of these brethren to send US contribntions from time to time.-J. T. G.] detracting from the value of work done verts that the missionary searches for, by noble-hearted, courageous, consecra- and it is converts that together both ted native workers, the fact remains that Church and missionary rejoice over.
to·day in non·Christian civilized lands Again, he says II we depend too much the foreign missionary of the right on the Holy Spirit regardless of human stamp,by the power of his testimony can methods." Those who believe the words do at least as great a work as he could do of Christ have a right to depend on the in any other sphere; a work that but for Holy Spirit; but certainly they have no his presence would probably not be right to depend on Him unless they done, even if the independent native themselves are using means and meth- churches had plenty of funds at their ods to accomplish the work with which dispolilal. they have been entrusted. The mis- I would remind the reader that in sionary who does so, to say the least of Japan, during the last three or four it, betrays a sad lack of sanctified com- years, the gain in almost the whole of mon sense.
the independent churches has been very In Japan each mission has its yearly slight; in some cases, indeed, they have or quarterly meeting for discussing, gone backward, and the churches Which formulating, and improving methods of have gained have been for the most part work, for devising new meaDS of reach- churches with which the missionary has ing the unbelievers. I know not of a had more or less to do. From the days society, a mission, or a missionary that when the disciples went everywhere tes- expects to see men becoming Christians tifying that Jesus was the Christ, the without human means beiDg used to Saviour of men, the blessing of the Lord make them so, and am consequently has followed the work of testifying; wholly at a loss to know where Profes- and statistics to.day will show that that sor Kozaki found the type of men of blessing hath not been withheld from whom he writes. The advocate of foreign missionaries testifying in non- " scientific methods of Christian work"
Christian civilized lands. To say that ought to have been the last man to de- too much stress is laid by, the foreign part from a scientific method of criti- missionary on the work of testifying is cism.
to betray a superficial knowledge of the After a careful perusal of the article subject in question, and to tell the in question, the following I take to be churches at home-these churches that the substance of the new II scientific hunger to hear of conversions, that scan method" outlined by the professor in every missionary periodical to find out his article : how many conversions are taking place 1. Send only a few first·rate foreign -to tell these that both they and their missionaries, and let their work be edu- representatives in foreign lands regard cational.
their work done when they have testi- 2. Instead of sending missionaries to fied, whether men are converted or not, testify to the unbelievers, send funds to is to betray utter ignorance of these the independent churches and do the great principles that are working in the work through them.
home churches and impelling them on He is convinced that the great need to missionary efforts. of non-Christian civilized lands is na- If the Church regards her work done tive workers; and in order to provide when she has testified, why has she these he would have the home churches again and again kept her missionaries send out only a few select teachers.
ten, fifteen, and twenty years working With the help of these, and a staff of in fields where not one has turned from eq ually gifted native teachers, first-class idols to serve the living God '1 Even a institutions of learning could be estab- superficial observer might see that it is lished. from which a sufficient number converts the Church longs for, it is con- of cultured workers might reasonably be expected. With these at work the native churches, doing the work through first step would be taken toward put- them.
ting missionary work on a scientific That is not an original idea. For the basis. We also believe that what is last year or two it has been the pet cry, greatly needed in these lands is more not of the Church in Japan. but of a native workers of the right stamp; but few leaders more or less imbued with however important a part schools may an anti-foreign spirit. That such a have in furnishing such men, with all spirit should manifest itself at times is our applications of modern science to most natural, human nature being what our school system we have not yet it is. In the churches at home there reached the point where we can take in are always those who are ready to hug men, by disposition, sentiment, and some personal grievance against their training, estranged from God, and turn pastor until they are firmly convinced out spiritually-minded men, full of the that he is the round man in the square Holy Ghost, of faith, wisdom, and hole, and so in all good conscie!lCe they power, for only such men are titted to clamor for his removal.
be entrusted with the future wellbeing of If so at home, the foreign missionary the Church. To get such men, the in civilized lands must always expect present system, in spite of its draw- some ready to clamor for his removal; backs, seems to be preferable. The but in spite of these things, until the missionary who sees the young Chris- native self-governing, self·supporting tians in their home and at their places churches are ready to take the whole of business, who listens to their first responsibility of raising up other self- feeble testimony, who witnesses them governing, self-supporting, self·propa· conquering pride and making a Chris- gating churches, are the home churches tian confession before unbelieving justified in withdrawing their repre- friends-in short, the missionary, even sentatives? We think not. When the if he be a " mediocre man," who watches gardener sees the plant push out its the development of the spiritual life of tendrils, the tendrils taking root, grow- the young Christians, is better fitted to ing, multiplying, and surpassing the make a wise selection of workers than parent plant in strength and beauty, he the professor who hears the student knows .that there is no danger of that demonstrate a problem, prove the exist- species dying out. It will,even under ad- ence of God, or conjugate a Greek verb. verse circumstances, propagate its kind.
Itmight be mentioned, in passing, that It were foolish of the missionary to Captain L. L. James, who is mentioned leave a great nation in darkness as soon as an example of a foreign educator as he sees a few independent churches j doing a great work, is a man who, what- but when he sees the children and grand- ever he may have been in the past, now children of these churches shooting out, makes a specialty of ridiculing every- taking root, springing up, and surpass- thing that Christians hold sacred, while ing the parents in faith, hope, and char- some of those men whom he was the ity, he may depart with gladness, for a means of raising up are not the kind of church has been founded which, even men the Christians at home would care under adverse circumstances, will prop- to entrust with the care of the Japanese agate its kind. As for the home church. Others, it is true, of the men churches ministering to the independent whom he taught are men of ability and native churches, that is to reverse the piety and worthy of all honor i but that order that we read of in the good old is in spite of the fact that in their early Book containing the first missionary days they were under the influence of records.
Captain L. L. James. Professor Kozaki reminds us that the Again, he would have the home church at Philippi did so to the church churches send fewer missionaries, and at Jerusalem; but that is no plea for send the money saved to independent the churches at home to do so to their independent offspring abroad. We can un- missionary station to the Sassoon mas- derstand how the church at Philippi sacre, writes that one of the Turkish would be strengthened by the effort it soldiers, troubled in mind by the mem- made to pay back in temporal gifts what ory of those awful scenes, told his wife it had received from the mother Church to ask the wives of the' Giaours ' (in- in spiritual gifts; but we fail to see how, fidels, unbelievers), who is 'Hissoos in civilized non-Christian lands, the Nazaretsee ' (Jesus of Nazareth). For churches which have attained their ma- all the women whom they had to slaugh- jority will be strengthened for their ter died calling upon Him. They could work by continuing to draw money have life by just saying, 'Mohammed from the parent who has still to support is the prophet of God.' The Turks call many children under age. On the con- Jesus'Isa,' and so the ignorant soldier trary, we see every reason for believing did not understand the Armenian form that such a course would be the means for Jesus of Nazareth. This incident of stunting the growth and dwarfing must touch any Christian heart."
the life of these churches, not because the brethren in the independent churches The Turki8h &ldier to hi8 Wife after the are unworthy to be entrusted with the Ma8SaCre8 at Bas8oon.
funds-far from it-but because such a "Who is this' Jesus of Nazareth '?"
course would be a violation of the law The Mussulman soldier caught his breath of growth and development. In these And knit his brow, like a man oppressed lands there is no lack of money. Let Whom the soft divan hath brought no rest. the leaders of the independent churches not turn to the foreign churches or the He had come from a field of God accursed: foreign missionary and demand that He had fought where devils did their worst! The fearful fray he would faiu forget- In his soul its echoes were ringing yet.
more responsibility be put on them. .. Who is this ' Jesus of Nazareth '? Let them rather open their eyes to the The women all called His name, in death: great fact that the responsibility is al- And the very children, caught to impale- ready on their shoulders, placed there Nay1 not for a woman's ear that tale 1 not by any society or any missionary, .. Your blood would freeze at its very fount; but by the Lord Jehovah. When the Yet the fire up into your brain would mount, leaders realize that fact and the mem- Till you shrieked at night, when the wind awoke, bers realize that they are but stewards And, shuddering, cowered till the morning broke. of the Lord, that their time and talents and means are to be given without stint "Nay, ask no question! I know not why for the spread of the Gospel, then the The women and harmless babes must die. 'Twas my chief's to order-mine to obey. Be it on his head at the Judgment Day I missionary problem will be one step "Yes-there was one alternative: nearer solution. • CalIon our Prophet, and you live I'
But every victim, with dying breath, Called upon' Jesus of Nazareth !'
"Who is this Jeaus of Nazareth 7" .. Who is this ' Jesus of Nazareth'?
Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, one of the ablest Does He bear the sword that conquers Death? of the able corps of the corresponding Must I meet Him there, when Azrael calls editors of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF My naked soul to the Judgment halls? THE WORLD, sends an interesting explanatory note of the incident in the .. Go-ask the Giaours-and tell me true, Who is this 'Jesus of Nazareth'? Who? I have fought for Allah 1 But if He be massacre of Armenians at l:lassoun, Allah's vicegerent-woe is me I"
Turkey, which inspired Mrs. Hamlin, J ""US of Nazareth 1 Lord of Life, wh:> was many years with her husband Conqueror of all this world's mad strife 1 in Constantinople, to write the follow- VeJlgeance for blood that cries to Thee 1 ing lines, which appeared in The .Ad- Bow the False Prophet on bended knee, 'Dance, under the caption quoted above. Dr. Hamlin says: Till the Cross shall quench the Crescent's ray From St. Sophia to the Gates of Day; "Mrs. Knapp, of Bitlis, the nearest And murderous Moslem, with contrite breath, Shall call upon Jesus of Nazareth !
FIELD OF :MONTHLY SURVEY
I1I.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY D. L. PlEBSON.
Turkey,* Persia,t Arabia,t North Africa and Egypt,§ Russia, I Oriental Ohristianity-r Mohammedani3Dl. ** '
THE TURKISH EMPIRE. impulse or resentment. Missions in Turkey have always been carried on The feeling against the .. unspeakable amid tremendous difficulties. Islam has Turk" has by no means subsided either here undisputed sway in the governin America or in England. There is but ment, so that while, according to the letslight difference of opinion in the gen- ter of the law, freedom of religion is pro· eral condemnation of the action, or non- claimed, the law is interpreted by the action, of the Porte in regard to the Ar- Moslem to mean simply that any man menian massacres. It seems certain, at may become a Mohammedan. The any rate, that the government is not Turk has no sympathy or mercy for an grieved at the sufferings of the Chris- " infidel," whether he be so by birth or tians. It is rumored that the Turkish au- conversion. The Moslem races of Turthorities are trying to induce grain mer- key consist of Ottoman Turks (the chants to hold back food products in rulers, chiefiy in Asia Minor and Conorder to increase the sufferings of the stantinople), Arabs (in Mesopotamia, Armenians. What the final outcome Arabia, and Syria), Kurds (mostly outwill be is not yet determined, but in laws in eastern Asia Minor), Circassians, any case it seems that it will be as the Turcomans, and various smaller tribes. result of calm deliberation and not of The Christian races are the Armenians * "History of the Ottoman Turks," E. S. (in Asia Minor and northern Syria), the Greeks (Greece and Asia Minor), the Creasy; "My Life and Times," Cyrus Hamlin, Bulgarians, Jacobites, and Chaldeans D.D.; "Forty Years with the Tnrkish Em- (tn Mesopotamia), and the Maronites in pire." E. D. Prime, D.D.; "Antoblography of Syria. W. G. Schoulller, D.D.;" "The Armenian Crisis in Turkey," F. D. Greene; also pp. 32 (Janu- The chief missionary organizations at ary), 133 (February), 339 (May), 604 (Angust), 768 work are the American Board, laboring (present i~sue). in the Balkan peninsula and Asia Minor; the Presbyterian Board in Syria t See "Persia and the Persians," S. G. W. and Mesopotamia; the Reformed Pres- Benjamin; .. Henry Martyn," George Smith, byterians, in Syria; the Methodists in LL.D.; "Woman and her Saviour in Persia," Bulgaria ; the Church of England. 'the Dr. Thomas Laurie; "Dr. Grant and the Monn- Friends, Disciples, and Free and Estaio Nestorians;" "Persia, the Land of the tablished Churches of Scotland, and Imams," Rev. James Bassett; also pp. 3 (Janu- various other independent educational ary), 738, 741 (present issue). organizations in Syria. Turkey in Asia has an area of about 500,000 square :I: See "Memorials of Hon. Ion Keith Fal· miles and a population of 16,000,000. coner," Sinker i h Arabia Desena," Doughty; The total number ordained missionaries also pp. 1 (January), 414 (June), 730 (present is- is 75; lay, 15; medical, 18; and wom- en, 140. With these labor 270 native sue). pastors and 640 other workers. Prot- § See "Daybreak in North Africa," Mrs. estant communicants number about F. S. Haig; "Pioneeringin Morocco," Dr. Rob- 01040,00n0o. miBneaslidCeshrtihsetisaensthewrheoaraere5'0s0c0a~- ert Kerr; "Morocco as It Is," Stephen Bon· sal, Jr.; "Open Door for the Gospel in Egypt," tered throughout the empire, and among Mrs. F. 'f. Haig. whom the most promising missionary work has been carried on. The earnest II "The Highway of Sorrow" (Stundlsts), and united prayers of Christendom are Stretton; also p. 725 (present issue).
~ See "Missions to the Oriental Churches," Rufus Anderson, D.D.; "The Armenians," Rev. M. C. Gabrielian, M.D.; "Romance of Mis· sions," Miss West; also pp. 523 (July), 741 (present issue).
** See "Mahomet and Islam," Sir William Muir;" "Islam and its Founder." J. H. Stobart; "The Mohammedan Missionary Problem,"
H. H. Jessup, D.D. neeued for these downtrodden strug- kinds-the people living in the cities, gling races. the wandering tribes, and the inhab- itants of villages and country districts_ The government censoi-Bhip of the The latter are engaged in agriculture, pres8 is one of the features marking the and some of the best wheat in the world opposition to all religious and elevating is raised in Persia. Cotton, sugar, rice, influence. As is stated in the official re· and tobacco are also raised in the southports of the United States Government ern provinces. The wandering tribes (1893), the quotation of words of live in tents, and move about with their Scripture has been subjected to the will flocks and herds as the seasons change. of the censors. Appeal from the deci- They spend the spring and the summer sion of the censors is practically unavail· on the mountain slopes, and the winter ing. The censors insist that the phrase on the plains. The two principal races " kingdom of Christ" may not be used are the Turks and the Persians, the latter by Christians. The censors refused to of whom belong to the Mongol race. Bepermit the publication of the index to sides these, there are Arabs, Kurds, and Bible lessons for 1893 unless certain Gypsies, and other smaller tribes. words were erased-e.g., "Gospel lib· erty," omit liberty>" "sorrow turned to Most of the people belong to the joy" must be suppressed; "encourag- Shiah, or heterodox system of the Moing the people" must be erased; hammedan religion, although there "wicked devices frustrates" (Ps. 33) are a few adherents to the Sunni, or must be stricken out; also" sorrow in orthodox system. There are also the palace" (Esther 4), "saved by Parsees, Jews, Armenians, and Nesgrace" (Rom. 4), "hope in distress" torians. (Ps. 38), " fear not" (Josh. 1), " rejoicing in persccution" (Rom. 8), " a benevo- The Persians were first called Elamlent object" (Rom. 15). iteB. Their descent is traced to Shem, through his son Elam. The first relig- The references indicate the passages ion of the Persians, as well as of their on which the Bible lessons were found- neighbors, the Medes, was that of Zoroed, and the erasures are in themselves a aster, which knew but one God, though commentary on the Turkish Govern- fire, the sun, moon, and stars were, by ment, indicating, as they do, the ideas its followers, worshipped as his symwhich the authorities consider might bols. The Jews and the Persians were foster rebellion, etc., in the minds of brought into contact through Daniel the people. and the other captives in Babylon, and when Babylon was overthrowll and the PERSIA. ]Iedes established the Medo-Persian Empire, Cyrus, King of Persia, was in- The" Land of the Lion and the Sun" strumental in the restoration of God's has an area of 628,000 square miles and people and the preservation of the true a population of about 9,000,000. Mis- faith. sionary work is carried on chiefly by the American Presbyterians and by the It is conjectured that Thomas and Church of England Society, mainly Bartholomew carried the Gospel to this among the Nestorians, Armenians, and land. Old documents tcll of the mis- Chaldeans. The missionary force con- sion of Thaddeus to Edessa, in Mesosists of 23 ordained men, 8 physicians, potamia. There are documents, too, 20 women, and 84 native preachers; recording the acts of martyrs at Edessa these have gathered about 2500 commu- in 115 A.D. The Christians were numernicants. ous at that time, and the conversion of [ As elsewhere in Mohammedan coun- the king is proved by coins as early as tries, Islam is the great obstacle to the A.D. 165. spread of the Gospel in Persia. The Jews and the followers of Zoro- The population of Persia is of three aster opposed Christianity, and terrible persecutions began in Persia, and lasted released, as well as in direct evangeliza- for a century after they had ceased in tion, the physician is a power of GOd.
the Roman Empire. In the sixth and The missionary physician does a great seventh centuries there was much mis- work in promoting true medical science.
sionary activity in the Persian Church. The old medical practice is very defi- The missionaries even went into China. cient. At its best it is unscientific, but, Later, the ~lohammedans overthrew the mixed with superstition, it is still worse_ whole system of the Zoroastrian relig- The conjurer and the astrologer are the ion, and now its only followers arc companions of the physician. The about 5000 souls in Yezd, and 100,000 Vendidad of ancient Persia says: "If Parsees in Bombay. several healers offer themselves-name- Christians were subject to heavy ex- ly, one Who heals with a knife, one who actions by the Moslems, but were recog- heals with herbs, and one who heals nized as the" people of the Book," and with the holy Word-it is the latter who the Nestorians had special privileges will best drive away sickness from the and held offices of trust. Missionary body of the faithful." The astrologer work was still carried on and gained consults the stars as to the favorable influence in Tartary and China, beyond time for calling the doctor, and which the Moslem rule. When the Moguls one shall be called, and whether the conquered Chinese Tartary and Persia, medicine he has given shall be taken.
in 1202 A. D.. Christianity was tolerated A noble living in a distant city consult- for awhile, but finally the Nestorian ed the astrologers as to what physician Church fell before persecution, and not he should consult. The lot ,indicated a vestige of the Christians was left east Dr. Holmes, so, leaving the able help of the Kurdish Mountains. The Nes- at hand, he took a five days' journey on torians left, however, a monument in horseback to Tabriz. At a case of China in the shape of the Nestorian childbirth a Mollah led a sheep into the Tablet described in our February issue. room and around the couch of the wom- Persia has been gradually reduced by an, and then took it out and offered it Russian aggression and Mohammedan as a sacrifice for the life of the woman.
misrule to a desert. The American Sometimes the priest will write a pray- Presbyterian Board conducts successful er, and the patient will swallow the missions at Oroomiah and Tabriz in the paper or dissolve the writing in water west; at Teheran, Hamadan and Resht and drink the solution. For craziness in the east; the Church Mission is at priests are called, as their holy robes, J ulfa, the Armenian suburb of Ispahan. especially the blue and green of the There Dr. Bruce has amended Henry Sayids, are supposed to frighten the Martyn's Persian translation of the devils. Sometimes they exorcise by New Testament. It has a medical mis- beating in a barbarous manner. Others sion at Bagdad. In 1747 two Moravians are taken to a shrine and shut up in a made the first and unsuccessful attempt dark cave for several days to be cured to reach the Parsees or Kerman, and of lunacy. Others make the long pil- the Greek Church of Russia drove out grimage to Kerbela, hoping to be healed the Scottish and Basel missionaries who, by being tied in the portico of the from Shooshab in the Caucasus, sought shrine.
to influence Persia. European science is being introduced, Medical missions are very influential partly through European physicians, in Persia. In relieving suffering, mak- through the Shah's College, and natives ing the heart tender and friendly to re- who have received a foreign education.
ceive the truth, removing prejudices, The medical department of Oroomiah CUltivating the friendship of the authori- College, in charge of Dr. Cochran, is ties, so that doors of opportunity are doing a good work educating Christian opened, and the persecuted or:oppressed physicians. The hospital gives full opportunity for practical work. Instruc- them /lore at present mainly occupied in tion is from the best English text-books, learning the languages. As the bulk and is thorough.* of the population are in villages, many workers are needed to evangelize this country. The Scotch Presbyterians North Amollo and Egypt, have a mission in South Morocco. Algeria is the most advanced in civ- North Africa consists of Morocco ilization of all the countries of North Algeria, Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt, and Africa, having been held by the French the Sahara. Almost all its native in- since 1830. After great expenditure of habitants are Mohammedans whose life and money, it is now thoroughly creed has nothing in its teaching that subject to their rule. Its extent is can save the soul. It carefully denies ~bout three times that of England, and the fundamental doctrines of Christ's Its popUlation about 4,000,000, princidivinity, death, and resurrection. No pally ltIoslems, but with some tens of effort has, until recently, been made to thousands of French, Spaniards, Italevangelize this part of the Moslem ians, Jews, etc. The country has a world. It was considered impossible good climate, and much beautiful scento gain an entrance, much less a hear· cry; there are many good roads, and ing, among these followers of the False more than fifteen hundred miles of rail- Prophet. God has lessened and is still way. The North Africa Mission has lessening the political power of Mo- seven stations and twenty-two brethren hammedanism in Africa. Its vices and sisters working there. The bulk were too glaring for civilization to en- of the people live in villages scattered dure. Slavery and piracy in Algeria over the country, and only a very few led to its subjugation by the French, ha ve, as yet, been reached by the Goswho also are paramount in Tunis. pel. Tripoli is still under the Turkish Government. Egypt enjoys :the protection Tunis is under French protection, of England, and Morocco is as yet an and practically under French rule. It independent ~,[oslem empire. Islam's' is hardly so extensive as England, but spiritual deceptions and social degra- has a population of about 2,000,000, dations cannot be r€moved by force of nearly all of whom are Mohammedans. arms. Only the reception of the truths There are, however, a few thousands of of the Gospel can remedy these evils. Italians, Maltese, French, and Jews, etc., on the coast. Thirteen workers 'Morocco has an area of about 260,000 of this mission are stationed in the capsquare miles, and a popUlation estimated ital, some of them at present engaged at from 5,000,000 to 8,000,000. It is in study; the remainder of the Regengoverned by a Sultan, whose name is cy, with its cities and villages, remains Abdul Aziz, a youth of about 'sixteen unevangelized. Who will go to them ? A medical mission is now carried on in years of age. The North Africa Mission (British) began work in Morocco Tunis. in a small way in 1884; at the close Tripoli is a province of the Turkish of 1892'it had substantial mission premiscs, with hospital in Tangier, and sta- Empire, several times larger than Engtions in Tetuan, Fez, and Casa Blanca. land. It has a population of about It has twenty·six missionaries in the 1,350,000, who, with the exception ot a few thousands, are followers of the False Prophet. The Moslems here are country, laboring among Moslems, more intelligent and better educated Jews, and Europeans; but several of than farther west, but much opposed to the Gospel. Two brethren began, * For much of this review of Persia we are in 1889,. to labor for Christ among them, and others have since been sent, A indebted to an article by Rev. S. G. Wilson. medical mission has been conducted as midwifery diploma. Ability to ac- quire Arabic should be manifest. here with cheering results. 3. Stewards or associations of Chris- Egypt is still tributary to Turkey, tian contributors are earnestly sought but under the protection and super· of the Lord.
vision of the British Government. The' (a) To support individual miBBiona- ries. The inclusive expense of ft single miBBion commenced work in Lower brother may be reckoned at $500 (£100) Egypt in April, 1892, and has, includ· yearly, and a single sister at $350 or ing wives, six missionaries there. The $400 (£70 or £80); married missionaries population of this portion of the coun· at the same proportion, according to the extent of their families. try is estimated at nearly 4,500,000, the (b) To support forms of work such as bulk of the people being Mohamme· medical mi.ssions, schools, or provide dans. There are 40 towns with from for itinerating and rent of miBBion 7000 to 40,000 inhabitants each, and houses. 500 towns with from 2000 to 7000 each, (c) To secure and, if po~sible, find without any Gospel agency whatever. working expenses of a house·boat. As The vast Sahara, with its few scat· the Delta is a network of canals an easy tered millions of Berber and Arab Mo· and inexpensive method of evangeliza· hammedans, remains still without a soli· tion is at our hand, if only we had a tary missionary. We pray God that small craft at our disposal– one to ac· soon some brethren full of faith and of commodate three or four missionaries the Holy Ghost may be sent to preach could be procured for $1000 (£200). Christ amid the inhabitants of its palmy Perhaps some would like to pay the oases.-North Africa. hire of a boat for a few journeys dur· Northern Arabia is peopled by the ing the winter season. Bedouin descendants of Ishmael; they 4. Remembrance8 at the Throne of are not bigoted Moslems, like the SyrI· Gl·ace.-To be daily importunate on ans, but willing to be enlightened. behalf of the Egyptians and the mis· One brother went to labor among them sionaries who labor among them. in 1886; he has now retired, and an· Besides the North Africa Mission, other brother and his wife, who were which supports three men and four thinking of taking up the work, have women missionaries in Egypt, there are: through ill·health been obliged to come 1. The United Presbyterian Church home. of America, with headquarters in Cairo.
The Lord has greatly blessed their work among the members of the ancient The spiritual claims of Egypt are Coptic Church. They have raised up a strongly presented by Mr. W. Rum· native Protestant Church in Egypt with mers, who thus voices the needs of this native pastors. 2. The British and Foreign Bible S0ancient land of the Pharaohs : 1. Men are needed as evangelists ciety, with principal depot in Alexan· whose first qualification is to be soul· dria ; and the American Bible Society winners. They should not be without in affiliation with the American Pres- some intellectual and theological train. byterian Mission. ing. If possible, a rudimentary knowl· S. The Church Missionary Society edge of the healing art would be of carries on work in old Cairo. They great assistance. Fair linguistic abil· have a medical miBBion, small hospital, and school work. ity is absolutely necessary. Qualified Physicians. – Medical mis· 4. Church of Scotland Mission to sions are practically a forgotten agency Jews, with four well·conducted schools. in Egypt. What little has been done 5. An undenominational Dutch mishas proved successful. Government sion has been working for eighteen hospitals have free dispensaries, but years in Calioub, a town near Cairo. are as a drop in the bucket among those A native church is formed, and schools needing medical aid. There are dozens are efficiently conducted. of centres in the Delta alone where 6. Sailors' and Soldiers' Institute in medical missionaries would find large affiliation with Miss Robinson's work. Besides individual effort among Engand unoccupied spheres. 2. Women who have a passion for lish and other Europeans. souls, even if they live in the midst of Still the dense Mohammedan popula- filth and disease. Much patience and tion in the Delta remains unreached by ,love for Christ are needed to win the the news of the world's Saviour. They Moslem women to Christ. Ladies hav· mU8t be evangelized, for " They shall ing some medical knowledge should know that I am the Lord God" (Ezek. take an elementary qualificati.on such 29: 16).
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The March of Events. aonf dAsmuecrhicaannaatnidonBarsitiCshhinmaissshioonualdrie~s A massacre of missionaries began at held to strict account, entirely apart Whasang, near Kucheng, China, on from any religious question involved, August 1st. A mob fired the mission for the sacrifice of valuable lives, not to premises, killing ten people-one man say buildings. No money indemnity is and his wife, with seven other women, adequate in a case like the present. It and one child. Several other Christians is too loose and easy a method for rewere more or less seriously hurt. All pairing au irreparable wrong, and sets the killed were British citizens. The a premium on such merciless crimes. attacking party are said to belong to a Nothing less thau the arrest and severe Chinese sect, the "Vegetarians," and punishment of such assassins can satthe outrage was unprovoked and mali· isfy the common conscience and act as cious. The Chinese Government was a preventive. China should be made to compelled to take steps to discover understand that about the person of and punish the guilty parties, but the every citizen of America or Britain all governmental action was slow and un- the power and prestige of these two satisfactory. great nations wrap their guarantiel!, and that whoever unlawfully touches them, These murders are the more unac- when innocent of violating law, will be countable as being in the Fo·Kien prov- treated as an enemy of humanity. We ince, where a friendly feeling has gen- see nothing un-Christian in extreme reerally existed between the natives and sorts when nothing less suffices to inforeigners. Kucheng is on the Min sure immunity from such acts of vio- River, some ninety miles above the lence. treaty port of Foochow. The river is not navigable at this point, and hence The Armenian atrocities, as disclosgunboats cannot be used to protect the ures and exposures now warrant us in foreign residency. For months past saying, exceed for wanton outrage and the officials, or literati, have been at cruelty and nameless horrors anything work breeding discontent and riot, and on record. No wonder Britain's" Grand this is the result. All Americans at Old Man" finds one more burning fire work there were sent to Foochow for shut up in his bones which must have safety in June last. The mandarins are vent. Indignant protests from civilsaid to be charging ou foreigners the ized nations seem unheeded, and peace failure of China in the present war with may be purchased for Armenia at a Japan, as having stood by indifferent heavy cost. Mr. Gladstone sums up and beheld China whipped. the crimes committed against these people by four fearful words: "plun- The indignation aroused by these der, murder, rape, and torture;" he wholesale murders, and outrages on charges the Sublime Porte with the reproperty, is intense, and severe measures sponsibility, which, he claims, must be are threatened. We have no conscious brought home to the Turkish governspirit of retaliation or desire to magnify ment. China's faults unduly, but avenging is not revenging. There is a protection The treaty of 1856, he said, gave the which Government owes its citizens, Powers the right to march into Armenia and which Britain is usualJy jealous to and take the government of the country afford. We have long felt that, while out of the hands of Turkey, and under any nation may lawfully exclude for- thetrcatyof 1878 the Sultan was bound eigners or compel their withdrawal from to carry out reforms. He makes three proits territory, all needful guards should posals. First, that the demands of the be put about the person and property Powers should be moderate; second, that out .. fear of contradictIon." Of these no promises of the Turkish authorities should be accepted; and third, that the gatherings we have 5rowing conviction Powers should not fear the word •• coercion." .. We have reached a critical that, whatever good may be the outcome position," said he, .. and the honor of the Powers is pledged to the institution one way, the ultimate result is confuof reform iu Armenia." A resolution was then adopted by the meeting which sion-a Babel of ideas as to religious Mr. Gladstone addressed that the government would have the support of the obligation and the way of salvation. If entire nation in any measures it might adopt to secure in Armenia reforms guar- all religious faiths are entitled to recog· anteeing to the inhabitants -safety of life, honor, religion, and property; and nition, not as ethical systems having in that no reforms can be effected which are not placed under the continuous them a modicum of virtue and value, control of the great Powers of Europe. The speech made a profound impres- but as entitled to comparison as having sion. Mr. Gladstone said he was glad to see that as much indignation exists in in them essentials of salvation, the America as anywhere over the atrocities. unique position and claims of Christian· It is becoming a question whether those who act as the Turks do should ity must at once and forever be aban· not by other nations be treated as burglars, highway robbers, and murderers doned; Christian missions become im· generally are served. There is a broad question of political economy that is pertinent as a declaration of one only awakening Blore and more attentionviz., whether the race is not to be con- Name whereby we must be saved, and sidered as a whole, in its solidarity; and whether an "international police" is sink to the level of a friendly confer· not a demand of the age. It is felt, and not without reason, that there are some ence in which we may have as much to crijlles which are against humanity as such, and should so be punished. It is learn as to teach. hard to see why a city, State, or nation should exterminate a band of villains We quote from Ohristian Work, a who infest the highways, lurk in hiding places to assault the innocent, and paper so liberal that some orthodox peouse weapons of torture and assassination, and yet the community of nations ple think it lax. Yet hear its earnest stand by in helpless inactivity and see a whole district swept.by atrocious mur- and faithful testimony: derers I .. To whatever extent the Toronto The Pan·American Congress at To- Congress would place an equal value ronto, which was held in July, provid· and authority upon each religion, to ed a platform from which the various that extent it is misleading, dangerous, .. religions" of the world might plead and false to the facts. And it is signifithrough their respective advocates. cant of the character-'of the discussions Bishop Ireland, of the Roman Catholic held at Toronto that none of the relig- Church, Rabbi Gottheil, the Jew, with ions was put on the defensive; conserepresentati ves of nearly every Christian quently their reverse side was not seen. denomination, as well as of Mohamme· Take, for example, Mohammedanism. danism, Buddhism, Confucianism, etc., Mohammed certainly did perform the had the" right of presentment" with· noble service of overthrowing idolatry in Arabia, and he proclaimed the one- ness of God: so far we are with him. But the failure of Mohammedanism is to be found in its wholly inadequate conception of God, which rests on the mere fact of his unity and sovereignty-. The sacrifice for sin, the fact that 1D love only is there power to save from sin and turn earth into heaven-the abo sence of all this is the fatal weakness of Mohammedanism: this weakness was not brought out at that Toronto Con- gress. Then, take Confucianism: the cause of its failure-snd it has failed- is that Confucius based religion on man and wholly ignored God. Confucianism makes no full provision for dependence, fellowship, progress; certainly there can be no sense of dependence where the worship of God is restricted to the offering of sacrifices on State occasions by the emperor, thus relegating God to the background; there can be no fel· lowship with a God who is afar off! It is _little wonder that Confucianism failed. And Buddhism ; how could it be expected to succeed, excellent as is embarrassed by a gift made by Robsome of its ethical precepts are, when ert Arthington, of Leeds, England, some it is agnostic, if not positively atheistic? yeats ago, for the opening of a miBBion -for Gautama considered there was no south of Khartoum, on the Nile, which such spirit. Really, Buddhism, with has grown by regular increase and the its act force, is only an older form of addition of other donations till it amounts the deification of force and is nineteenth to $52,400. The money cannot be used century materialism dressed in the garb to carry out the design of the donors on ilf twenty·two centuries ago. account of the Arabian occupation of the Soudan and tbe exclusion of all for· " The one tremendous fact not to be eigners, and yet much of the money ignored is that whatever be the ultimate given could not be restored to the unfate of the deluded heathen in their known donors. The society has there- fore brought a friendly suit to secure a ignorance of sin and of the fact that love decision that the use of the fund in the only can save the sinner, Christianity region specified is impossible; and jualone supplies this: the religion of dicial instruction as to what use shall be Christ alone satisfies the wants of the made of it. This leads us to say, again, weary, sin-burdened soul. bringing him that it is well for donors not to condiinto reconciliation with God. Theolo- tion their gifts too restrictedly. gies are misleading. and confessions and standards and creeds are imperfect and Many questions of vital importance often foolish: but these are not relig- to missions require carefully to be ex· ion; but the implanting of the Christ amined and adjusted. The Independent life in the soul is. Any' congress' spirit of the Japanese makes them imor • parliament' which ignores this su- preme fact, and thinks to bring all religions down to a common level along the line, not of thorough discussion even, but of presenting the best photograph of each, makes a jest of the eternal verities and sows a crop the harvest of which will be fruitful of tares."
From a Chicago journal we quote: patient of foreign control even in the missions established by missionaries "Without assuming to decide the from abroad and in the schools they question, the Living Ohurch ventures originated or helped to develop, and a an opinion as to the cause of the gen- deputation has bee!. appointed by the eral falling off of mlBBionary offerings. A. B. C. F. M., consisting of Hon. It is an opinion which two years ago W. P. Ellison, Boston; Rev. J. L. Barwas a prophecy, when the extraordi- ton, D.D., foreign secretary; Rev. J. nary spectacle was presented in Chicago G. Johnson, D.D., Chicago; Rev. A. H. of the apostles of all the false religions Bradford, D.D.. Montclair, to visit of the world being invited to give an Japan. Some changes may be made in ea;-parte representation of faith and life the deputation, which started in Septemunder the religious systems which they ber. represented-or, rather, misrepresented. The Babel of Christian sects was mar· August 26th a company of missionshalled by Drs. Barrows and Bonney, aries of the Protestant Episcopal body who did what they couId to make a left Vancouver for China. Bishop good showing for the Christian religion Samuel 1. J. Schereschewsk; goes to (without any church), while they afded superintend the publication of his Bible in working up a hospitable enthusiasm translation into the Wen-Ii, his wife for the savants and picked men of all and daughter accompanying, also Rev. heathenism. Returning home, these D. T. Huntington and Miss Steva L. represented Christianity to be a failure Dodson, with Dr. W. L. Ludlow, mediin the countries they had visited; and cal missionary. in one case, we believe, missionaries were sent to America to convert our benighted people. Some part of the present falling off of enthusiasm for missions may be fairly attributed to this • exploiting' of heathen systems (without rebuttal) at the central point of the world's interest in 1893."
The African Inland Mission sent forth, The American Missionary Association August 17th, Rev. P. Cameron Scott as pioneer, who llaS spent already seven first at Shanghai, and then at Tung- years in Africa, with his sister, Miss chow for over thirty. He was of a Margaret C. Scott, a medical mission· genial spirit, full of humor, a fine stu- ary, Miss Bertha M. Reckling, Lister R. dent, especially gi ven to historical study, Severn, and Rev. Willis Hotchkiss and [.nd a cultivated man of scholarly tastes.
Rev. Fred W. Kreiger. Walter MeL. He was a native of Buffalo, N. Y.
Wilson joins the party in Scotland. The Such deaths leave a great void.
mission is interdenominational, and em· phasizes basal truths, such as the divino The death of an American citizen of ity, atonement, and second coming of Siam, Marian A. Cheek, is announced.
Christ, person and work of the Spirit, He went there twenty·two years ago as the verbal inspiration of the Word of a medical missionary of the Presbyte- God, salvation by faith, the eternity of rian Board, at the age of twenty, and future punishment, and the evangeliza· had become one of the most influential tion of the world as the duty and mis- men in the country, the intimate coun· sion of the Church. They go in the sellor of the king. Ten years ago he strength of these truths to confront severed his connection with the Board, deadly climate and relentless Moslem engaged in trade, and accumulated a hatred in the Soudan. May God go large fortune, and at the time of his with them! death was pressing a claim against the United States for several hundred thou· The well-known Charles N. Critten- sand dollars alleged to be due on ac· ton, of New York, founder of the Flor- count of the negligence of American ence Mission, attempts a t(Jur of the officials in Siam. Some years ago he United States to found similar missions -obtained a concession from the king to for outcast women. He left New York farm out a teak forest. While he was August 19th in a special car, Good floating thousands of logs to market in New8, and a trip of eighteen months is be- the form of a raft, they were confiscated fore him and his party. Portland, Ore., by representatives of an English com- California, the Southern States, and pany. Cheek floated the stars and Atlantic coast are the boundaries of the stripes on his rafts and called on the trip. Services of song and exhortation American officials for assistance. They from the car platform wherever there is failed to come to the rescue, and Cheek a wait of a quarter of an hour, and more accordingly sued this government for extended services where longer stops damages. The officials at Washington are arranged for, with meetings in halls contend that he had no right to fly the or churches wherever a night can be American flag in the situation he was spent in a city, are among the plans. then in.
Up to this time nineteen missions have heen established through the efforts of At St. John's l'lission, Grand Cape this New York merchant, whosedaugh- Mount, Liberia, Mrs. M. R. Brierley, ter's death gave such impulse to his life. one of the oldest missionaries on the What strange ways God has of leading African field, died July 6th. She was His people who are ready to be led. We about sixty-five years old, and went to know of no one man whose life is more the Dark Continent with her husband telllng on the reclamation of fallen in 1865 as missionary of the Church of womanhood. May great blessing fol- England. After her husband's death, low this new method of extending these in 1882, she was transferred to the mis· rescue missions. sions of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States and placed at the Rev. Charles R. Mills, D.D., died sud- head of St. George's Hall, one of the denly in Tung·chow, China, June 22, largest schools in Liberia, and was at having been in China about forty years, the head of it when she died. The death of J. L. Phillips, M.D., of practice in general use of assigning It young, inexperienced girl to each China- Oalcutta, already noticed in this RE- man for the purpose of teaching him VIEW, has awakened widespread sorrow our language and bringing him to a and left a great gap which will not be knowledge of the truth. I stated that easily filled. He will be most lovingly in all my experience among the China- men of this city I had never known a remembered in connection with the De- single one that·1 regarded as hopefully cannial Oonference of December, 1882. converted in this way, nor was I at all He was a man of deep spirituality and hopeful of ever seeing one thus brought great spiritual power, and had marvel- to Ohrist. I was simply criticising a lous tact in harmonizing discordant ele- method, and not considering the ques- tion as' to the possibility of the conver- ments. He was a peacemaker. If he sion of a Chinaman to Christianity. It had a new method to introduce he had is too late to discuss this latter question, singular felicity of manner, which made since many have been hopefully con- verted both in China and California. I • it seem unlike an innovation. He kept am not now, nor have I ever been en- a weekly prayer-meeting in his family gaged in missionary work among the on Friday evenings. and this is one of Ohinese.My interest in these people the influences which moulded his fam- has simply been a philanthropic one, the work being forced on me as an offi- ily for Ohrist and His service at a tender cer of the Prison Society, in which I age. His whole influence was in favor have been called to defend them against of a consecrated life. The memorial the cruel and' unjust persecutions to service was an impressive and mem- which they have been from time to time subjected at the hands of our own peo- orable occasion, in the college chapel ple. In this way I have come to be at Keuka Park, N. Y. According to recognized as their friend and advocate previous announcement the people as- in this region, and not because of any sembled, and all seemed intent on special missionary work among them. I have the hope and confidence that paying homage to the model modern God's elect will be safely gathered into Ohristian hero in the world's great the kingdom out of every nation and mission work. tribe under heaven; but I do not be- lieve that the coddling methods used to get these Ohinamen into the Sabbath- The newspaper8 have been making school will ever result in any success.
no little capital of a reported remark of " Respectfully, .. E. R. DONEHOO." Rev. Dr. Donehoo, of Pittsburgh, to the effect that, after long and large ex· perience of mission work among the Yukichi Fukuzawa, the" Grand Old Ohinese in this country, "he has never Man of Japan," though about twenty yet found, and never expected to find, years younger than the members of a thoroughly converted Chinese." ,This that famous triumvirate, Gladstone, statement has been made the more of in Bismarck, and Li Hung Ohang, has view of Dr. Donehoo's advocacy of more than any other man brought Japan Christian missions, etc. And now Dr. to her position among civilized nations.
Donehoo rises to explain; and, as a Thirty-five years ago he visited this country, and on his return home intro- specimen of the facility with which duced the Webster Dictionary to his countrymen, a book that is considered some people misunderstand and mis- the foundation of Japan's intellectual power; he also introduced English into quote, it may be well to append his own all the schools. In days when Japan was divided into two parties-one for explanation. He writes to the New and the other against foreigners-he ad- vocated the opening of his country to York Obser'l!er: the New World; and his book in be- half of Western civilization, which he .. Entirely too much has been made wrote from his studies and travels in out of a very .innocent statement of America, had a considerable effect in mine, not intended for publication, in restoting to the throne the dynasty of regard to the outcome of missionary work in this city. When questioned as to my opinion of the method"here em- ployed to reach Ohinamen with the Gos- pel, I unhesitatingly condemned the which the present emperor is a member. familiar friend by his carefully pre- The Jiji Shimpo (the Times Newspaper) is his organ ; and although he does not pared monthly notes of the progress of actively manage it, his sons are the editors, and its influence is widespread, the kingdom. We have seen no other doubtless because it is independent in every sense_ Perhaps his greatest bene· book that covers the same ground. And faction was the founding of a school known as the Kewgijiuku University, this was one reason for the work so carewhich is second only to the Imperial Uni.versity at Tokio in point of num- fully and admirably done. The book bers and rank of scholarship. Mr. ]j'ukuzawa comes from the common begins by laying down principles, the people, and is known as the "great commoner," and what shows above all basis of all missions, in Christ's own the character of the man is that he has never allowed himself to be carried conception and command. Then are away by his success, and has modestly refused to accept decorations, honors, briefly traced early attempts at evanor even the peerage from the Mikado.- Exchange. gelization, the influence of medireval " Missions at Home and Abroad" is missions on European history, etc. ; the title of Dr. E. M. Wherry's com- then the modern revival or renaissance pilation of papers and addresses at the of missionary life from Carey on to World's Congress of Missions in Chicago our day. He describes what he aptly in 1893, of which the editor was corre- calls the phenomenon of missionary ex- sponding secretary. It is published by pansion, traces the work done in India, the American Tract Society, New York. Africa, Persia, Korea, Turkey, China, In this book are thirty or more essays South Seas, Japan, North and South or addresses from representative men and women on home and foreign mis- America, etc., and then gives a final outsions, the questions that concern Jews and Mohammedans, Turks and Indians look on the unpossessed domain. For and lepers, etc., and city missions as well. Some of the papers are profound- this book we invoke God's blessing. It ly philosophical, others as profoundly practical. While there are flentiments is a new and valuable contribution to here contained which we could not agree with, the body of this testimony the study of the greatest practical probis of peculiar value. We would call special attention to Bishop Nicholson'S lem ever put before the Church. paper on" The Jew and his Land ;" Dr. Dennis's, on "The Inaccessible R. H. Woodward Company, 220 and Fields;" Wellesley C. Bailey's on "The Work Among Lepers;" George 222 North Charles Street, Baltimore, E. Post's on "Medical Missions;" 'Ehomas Kane's on "Consecration of Md., have published" Forty Years in Property;" and Joseph Cook's on " Victories and Hopes of Missions." China," by Rev. R. H. Graves, D.D.
One of our editorial staff, Rev. D. L. The retail price is $1.50. The work is sold by subscription, but where there Leonard, recently published .. A Hun- are no agents the book may be obtained by writing direct to the publishers. A dred Years of Missions, " through part of the proceeds from the sale of this book are to be given to missions, Funk & Wagnalls. This is the story and iu order to interest ministers in for- eign missions, the publishers furnish of the march of events since Carey's this volume to any minister whose year· ly income is less than $500 upon receipt humble beginning in 1792. The author of 40 cents in stamps.
was himself a very useful superinten- Dr. Graves has been in China for more than one generation, and has been dent of missions in the home field of a personal witness of the stupendous changes which he chronicles, and which Utah and surrounding territory, and in have nearly all of them occurred since the Tientsin treaty of 1861, when he had theso pages he has for years been a already been in China five years. In this valuable book an unusually ob- servant man has traced the conservative and reconstructive forces which have been contending for the mastery. He shows that ruin is before the Celestial Empire which can be arrested only by the acceptance of the lessons taught in history as to the secrets of a true and progressive national life, and especially the necessity of a religious faith that has in it the elements of individual and SHANGHAI, May 21, 1895.
national regeneration. The illustrations DEAR FRIENDS: I feel it laid on my in Dr. Graves's book are superb. heart to communicate with you by let- ter, as I have done before when delayed in China, and to thank you very warm- Mrs. M. G. Watt writes from Guelph, ly for your continued help in our ser- vice here. I shall not be able to meet Canada, that much more is being done any of you personally for some time, for the lepers of India and other lands and I have been unable to keep in touch than is usually known, and that a large with you as I could have wished through amount of .. leper literature" is free, Ohina'8 Million8. I am, therefore. ask- ing Mr. Sloan to forward to you a copy distributed only on one condition-that of a little sketch of the mission which I it be passed round after reading. Her daughter prepares pamphlets on the mrwas able to prepare when confined to room by sickness. You are partners subject of European lepers, etc., and wIth us in this branch of God's work in China, and will, I am sure. rejoice wit h thus th'lY were enabled to send $1500, us in what He has wrought tor the in· $600 of which came from Guelph, to terior of this needy land.
the treasurer in the old country. Six It is over a year now since we again auxiliaries are already at work iii. Can- reached Shanghai, expecting, after a short stay, to return to England. We ada, that in Guelph being the pioneer had not been here long, how('ver, ere and holding monthly meetings in all the we felt unmistakably called to visit a churches in turn. number of our inland stations. While away in the interior the sad war be- tween Japan and China broke out, and F. A. Jefferd, missionary in Funchal, it became clear that my duty was to re- Madeira, asks prayers of our readers for main here until thc rest.oration of peace.
the mission work he is conducting in A second journey enabled me to visit other stations, und was safely accomconnection with W. G. Smart, his plished before the end of the year.
brother-in-law. In 1884 the Protestant In January I was laid aside, and a General Mission was founded, with the protracted tIme of weakness ensued, object of evangelizing the island, with from the effects of which I have not yet its population of 140.000. They have fully recovered. I was able, however, since been permitted to form the first to visit Yang-chau and Gau-king be- Baptist church and two sub·stations in fore the scattering of the students; and other parts of Madeira. The objects my heart was greatly rejoiced a); each kept in view are the work among sail- place. Never have parties of brighter, ors stopping at the port. the teach- more capable, and more consecrated ing in day schools. and preaching among workers gone out from these homes the residents of the island, and the circulation of the Word of God and Chris- than this year. tian literature. After these brief visits, when consid- The mission among sailors was found- ering the question of reaching home in ed in 1876 by the late George Smart, time for Keswick, we were led to see and the Sailors' Rest in 1882 by W. G. clearly that Mr. Stevenson should re- Smart. turn and we remain in CIJina. I trust that he may have the opportunity of During 1894 vessels carrying a total crew of 31,225 men and 29.191 passen- meeting many of you. gers entered the port. It will be seen The restoration of peace will have rewhat ample opportunity is afforded for most needed service among seafaring joiced you, and is the answer to many men. Only 5 per cent of the inhabit- prayers. We must thank God for the ants of Madeira can read or write. preservation of His servants during the time of war, and continue to pray that These brethren. Smart and Jefferd, rebellion may not be permitted to folwill gladly respond to any inquiries. low, and that the troops may be safely and welcome any gifts to aid in their blessed and self-denying work. The disbanded and dispersed. address is 29 Rua do Conselheiro, Fun- A new call is given us to hasten the chal, Madeira. evangelization of China; let us remem- ber the power we possess in united prayer. Five years ago there were 1296 China missionaries. The Shanghai Mis- The following letter, addressed to all sionary Conference of 430 missionaries prayed and appealed for new ordained friends and donors to the China Inland and unordained workers-1OOO men in Mission, will be read with interest: fl… " years. What has been the response? No less than 1153 new missionaries have filled missionaries may be <lent out, and come out since that time-481 of them that all of us here may be filled to overhaving been men. Not just as we asked, flowing with the living water, and bebut as God saw best. And doubtless lieve me, there would have been a still fuller re- Yours gratefully in Christ, sponse but for the war. Now we have J. HUDSON TAYLOR. peace, and we must look for large and immediate reinforcements.
We in the C. I. M. have been con- Ohina's Orisis. scious that God was preparing us for this. Needed facilities have been sup- An .. Appeal for Missionaries for plied without which large reinforce- China, " addressed to all Protestant ments would have embarrassed us. The need of enlarged premises in China and churches of Christian lands, has been England was spoken of at our annual issued by Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, and meetings in 1887, and it was mentioned that a site had been obtained in Shang- we gladly reprint it : hai, and that one was in view in Lon- In May, 1890, the General Conference don. In the record of the annual meet- of Missionaries, assembled in Shanghai, ings of the following year Mr. Broom- and representing the 1296 Protestant hall reported that the latter also was missionaries then in China, issued an obtained, and gave the reasons why the urgent appeal for 1000 men within five mission needed and should have" much years; and appointed a permanent com- more accommodation" for the home mittee to observe and report the results work. Both these needs hal'o been of the appeal, consisting of Rev. J.
met, and we have to thank God for suit- Hudson Taylor, of Shanghai; Rev.
able premises, not only in London and William Ashmore, D.D., of Swatow; Shanghai, but also in several important Rev. H. Corbett, D.D., of Chefoo ; Rev.
centres in China. God has also given C. W. Mateer, D.D., LL.D., of Tung- us valued workers who are carrying on chow; Rev. C. F. Reid, D.D., 01 Shang- the business work of the mission in hai.
them. My beloved brother-in-law, Mr. At the same time the lady missiona- BroomhalI, has retired from the work, ries of the Conference put forth an ap- and we shall often miss him; he has peal for additional lady 'Vorkers.
not done so, however, before our hon- The five years have now elapsed, and orable secretary, Mr. Sloan, with our the Rev. C. F. Reid, D.D., has carefully competent staff of helpers, was thorough- collected and tabulated the returns.
ly able to carry it on. Miss William- From these it appears that 45 societies son, who as an honorary missionary had have sent new workers to China since superintended the Shanghai home for May, 1890. Some unconnected mis- some years, is at my request rendering sionaries have also come out. Includ- the same kind of service in London. ing these, the following numbers are And I need not further refer to the help reached: Male missionaries, 481 ; wives of Mr. Marcus Wood in England, of of missionaries, 167 ; single ladies, 505.
Mr. Graham Brown in Scotland, or to Total in fi ve years, 1153.
Miss Soltau's honorary services in the These numbers do not exactly corrc- ladies' training home, etc. Here in spond with the appeal-only 481 of China. during Ml·. Stevenson's absence, them being men. God knew the needa Mr. William Cooper, who has been of China, and sent those He saw would helping him for some time as assistant be most helpful. The answer, there- deputy director. is conducting the fore, is a gracious response, and shows work; and we have now the help of What may be done by united prayer and Mr. C. '1'. l!'iske here, who for so many effort; and thus adds to our responsi- years acted as financial secretary in bility to use these means stilI more large- London. Never before were we so well ly for the advancement of the Redeem- prepared for definite advance, and our er's kingdom in China. An important hope and prayer is that now that the crisis in China's history has been war is over we may have given to us reached. The war just terminated does many" willing skilful" helpers-men not leave her where she was. It will and women-for every department of inevitably lead to a still wider opening missionary service. of the empire and to many new develop- Continue to pray for us, dear friends, ments. If the Church of Christ does not and to help us as God may lead you. enter into the opening doors, others Thank God for the hundreds of souls will, and they may become closed against being reaped each year, and ask that her. We would reiterate some of the soon the aunual increase may be very earnest words of appeal, written five llluch larger. Pray that only Spirit- years ago, which have to-day, on the eve. of great changes and of great op- help. • •• That the holy and loving portunities, still more urgent weight and Spirit of God may incline your hearts should lead to more vigorous effort. to respond to His call is our earnest The Conference said in 1890 : prayer." " Realizing as neTer before the magnitude of China and the utter inade- To the above extracts we will only quacy of our present numbers for the speedy carrying into execution of our add the last paragraph of the appeal of Lord's command, 'Go ye into all the the Conference for 1000 men: world and preach the Gospel to every .. We make this appeal in behalf of creature,' therefore " Resolved, That we, the 430 members 300,000,000 of unevangelized heathen j of the Missionary Conference, now in we make it with all the earnestness of session in Shanghai, earnestly and unanimously appeal to you to send out our whole hearts as men overwhelmed speedily as many hundreds as can possibly be secured of well-qualified or- with the magnitUde and responsibility dained men…• of the work before us j we make it with "We appeal to young men to give unwavering faith in the power of a risen themselves to this work, .•. to indi- Saviour to call men into His vineyard vidual congregations to greatly increase their contributions for the support of and to open the hearts of those who are one or more of these men ; to Christian men of wealth to prayerfully consider His stewards to send out and support the duty and privilege of giving themselves personally to this work, or of them, and we shall not cease to cry supporting their representatives. mightily to Him that He will do this "This Conference • • . would also present a direct appeal to the home thing, and that our eyes may see it." churches for lay missionaries. . . . ,It would point to the many millions of Time is passing. If 1000 men were our fellow·men who have never heard the Gospel of the grace of God j and to needed five years ago, they are much some millions more who, though tbey have possessed themselves of some por- more needed now. Of the 1296 mis· tions of His word, still fail to compre_ hend its meaning for want of some one sionaries in China, only 589 were men j and of them not a few have entered into to guide them. . • . .. We appeal, then, to our lay breth- their rest or have returned home from ren .•. to solemnly ask themselves various causes. In view of the new whether, for the greater glory of God, they are not called to meet this pressing facilities and enlarged claims of China, need and to devote themselves, their the next five years should see a larger service and their wealth to this missionary enterprise in China." reinforcement than that called for in To the above earnest words we add 1890. Will not the Church arise and the following extracts condensed from the" Appeal of 204 Lady Members of take immediate and adequate action to the Missionary Conference" : meet the pressing needs of this vast land? " We . . . come to you, our sisters in Christ, with an urgent appeal on be- On behalf of the Pel'manent Commithalf of the • • . women and children of J. HUDSON TAYLOR. China. . • • tee, "Beloved sisters, if you could see SHANGHAI, May, 1895. tbeir sordid misery-, their hopeless, loveless lives, their Ignorance and sinful- (Additional copies of this appeal may ness as we see them, mere human pity would move you tJ do something for be had at the Presbyterian Mission their uplifting. But there is a stronger motive that should impel you to stretch Press, at $1 per 100.) out a helping hand, and that we plead -the constraining love of Christ. We Rev. J. Hudson Taylor well says: who are in the midst of this darkness " We need persons who will consecrate that can be felt send our voices across their lives to foreign mission service at the ocean to you, our sisters. and be- home. It is for some to consecrate their seech you, by the grace of Christ our lives, their thoughts, their prayers to just this service. I believe that some Saviour, that you come at once to our of the best missionary work that is done to-day is done by invalids who never leave their bedrooms, or by old people, or by those who are very poor and have not much to give; but they give the Lord what is most precious-a true yearning heart, a constant remem- brance, a constant prayer."
W. Burns Thomson, M.D., F.R.S.C.E., FiR.S.E., was in some sense one of the fathers of modern medical missions. He accounted it his highest earthly honor to write "medical missiouary" after his name, for it identified his whole career They arrived in Yokohama without any with the Lord and His apostles. This place to live, but soon rented a Bud- godly man was God's elect servant to dhist temple for a house, and all the cOlhmunicate to the Church the medical idols were taken away and stored. Mrs.
missionary impulse after the way had Hepburn was the first American woman been prepared by Asahel Grant, Parker, who ever landed in Japan, and was con· Hobson, Lockhart, in various quarters sidered a great curiosity. She is pres of the globe, and when the Edinburgh ent with her husband here. Dr. Hep- Medical Missionary Society had been burn opened the first dispensary in that organized, and men like Dr. Coldstream country; and performed the first surgical and Dr. Handyslde had been the elo- operation. He worked for six years quent advocates of such forms of mis- before the first convert was made, who sbn work by both their tongues and was baptized in Dr. Hepburn's dispen- pens. sary. He assisted in the first transla- Dr. Thomson we have long regarded tion of the Bible into Japanese, a work as the finest specimen of a medical mis- which was completed in siX; years.
sionary we have ever met. His large Now there are 40,000 converts, and pos- brain and well-furnished mind was the sibly :t.oO,OOO under Christian instruc- handmaid of one of the tenderest and tion.
most sympathetic natures trained in Seven of the great missionary family suffering's school. And his passion for of Scudders were present. This famhis Lord and for the souls He died to ily counts five hundred and thirty years' save brought him into such identity service on the mission field. Dr. and with Christ that he was ever filling up, Mrs. Blodget have been in continuous like Paul, that which is behind of the service since 1853, and Dr. William Ashsufferings of His Master in his own flesh more since 1850. These men do not for His body's sake. With holy insight " die at the top." They are out on the into God's truth, rare singleness of aim, picket line of all the thinking and childlike simplicity of character, de- movement of the age. voutly prayerful l$bits, and a peculiar charm of personality, Dr. Thomson The Sunday morning service will be stands before those who knew him as ever memorable. The Fellowship and one of the most unique men of modern Consecration Meeting at nine o'dock history. furnished a fitting prelude to the ser- mon at 10.30 by Rev. W. E. Witter, These reminiscences of his life, edited M.D. The serVlCe for young people, a by Dr. J_ L. Maxwell, published by stereopticon composite lecture, the presi- Hodder & Stoughton, Paternoster Row, dent's reception on the lawn, and the London, E. C., will be thankfully read farewell meeting for those returning to by thousands. their fields before another annual meet- ing were all interesting. Forty-four of We cannot find space for the bio· those present expect to be once more in graphical sketches of the veterans. We the midst of the fray abroad within a give only one. Dr. Hepburn graduated few coming months. at Princeton, and in 1840 was appointed to missionary work, and he and his The officers elected for the ensuing young wife sailed in a whaling ship year are: President, J. T. Gracey, when there were only two steamers in D.D., Rochester, N. Y.; Vice-Presithe world. They went to Singapore, dents, Cyrus Hamlin, D.D., S. L. Baldand soon were transferred to Amoy, win, D.D., Rt. Rev. C. C. Penick, China, when they were associated with D.D., F. A. Cassidy, William Ashmore, many of the early missionaries. Owing D.D., Henry H. Jessup, D.D., Jacob to failing health they returned home, Chamberlain, D.D.; Secretary, Rev. and in 1859 were appointed to Japan. W. H. Belden, Clifton Springs, N. Y. ; Associate Secretary, Mrs. Dr. C. C. Thayer; Treasurer and Librarian, Rev. C. C. Thayer, M.D. ; Executive Com- mittee, Rev. J. A. Davis, Chairman, Nyack, N. Y. ; Rev. C. W. Cushing, D.D., Rev. J. L. Ammerman, D.D., Rev. L. R. Luther, Mrs. W. H. Belden, Mrs. Wellington J. White, Mrs. J. T.
Gracey.
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
lIDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign manam vres both on land and sea; has Periodicals. utilized ironclads for sea fights; has availed herself of the most modern type BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, of death-dealing weapons; and has seized on the most approved forms of MASS. high explosives. She has struck terror into the hearts of the Chinese, and has MISCELLANEOUS. pUed up dead Chinamen all over the neighborhood of Japan. What more -" Dr. Glover, in his valedictory ad· evidence is needed? Our brethren of dress, at the Baptist Union, to missiona- Korea are indeed civilized."-Catholie ries returning to the field, gave utter- Home JOU1'nal. ance to some weighty thoughts which are more and more coming to the front. -The brethren of the Rhenish Mis- He said: •If you could reproduce in sionary Society are, on the whole, India and China a churcb exactly on cheered by a steady progress of their our pattern it would be to your dispar- work: 50, 60, or 70 baptisms in a month agement and not to your praise. There seems to be a very usual report for It. are bits of the Gospel which only the missionary. heathen can see, and which, in this atmosphere of smoke, we cannot behold. _co Her Majesty's Acting Consul- Find those out, brethren. Let forms of General at Seoul, in Korea, Mr. C. T. church life be native to the place. You, Gardner, has published a pamphlet exin all your judgments, must be inde- pressing his views on the question of pendent of us, and you must teach your • How to lessen the recurrence of anticonverts to be independent of you. Christian and anti-foreign riots in You must decrease that Christ the Mas- China. ' Among the causes of dislike ter may increase, and that you may which actuate some of the Chinese serve Him. Your work, so great, use- against Christianity he instances jeal. ful, successful, has opened t~e way for ousy at the superiority in intelligence work still greater, more useful, and and morality of the Christians. He more successful. Go on, not with the says: • The Christian education of the idea of mere continuance, but walking children of converts undoubtedly proby the cloud and fire, and then become duces greater intelligence and a higher to others a pillar of cloud and fire which moral tone than the Chinese non-Chris· will lead them.' "-Bombay Guardian. tian education; the consequence is that Christian Chinese are obtaining a suc- -" That world which assumes to it- cess in life far greater than non-Chrisself the appellation of civilized awakens tians of the same class. There is hardly to a realization of the fact that the a ·high official in the empire who bas genius of civilization has retraced a not one or two ChrIstians in his employ course back to the farthest East, and as confidential servants. These Christhat the Zeitgei8t has possessed even the tiaus are equally successful in obta.ining heathen of those lands. Japan has at clerical and other employ in Governone bound stepped into the ranks of ment and commercial offices, such as the civilized powers. England has by the Imperial Maritime Customs, Mining treaty explicitly recognized it as such. and Public Works, the China Mer- What else could be done? Japan has, chants' Steam Navigation Company, as It were, passed a public examination etc. "~Chureh Missionary InteZZigeneer. and demonstrated its fitness for admission into the company of civilized pow- -The Tibetan, published at Toronto ers. She has displayed her skill in war
EXTBACTB AND TRANSLA.TIONS
by the Tibetan Missionary Union, baa in consisted for the most part of serfs and the December number a full notice of slaves; few of the noble or wealthy be- "The New Acts of the Apostles," longed to them, as Paul attests. Chris- which it pronounces "pre·eminent tianity always found a firmer hoid in a among the books iBBued from the re- people in proportion as it took hold of ligious press during 1894,." "The vol- the poorer classes. The successes of ume is 80 replete and complete with all Boniface in Germany would not have that concerns the extension of God's been possible without the previous toil- kingdom on earth that we feel con- some activity of the Irish evangelists strained to recommend it to the careful addressed to the insignificant and weak, study of all who have the interests of and of such men as St. Severinus, who, that kingdom at heart. A handsomely from 4M on, was, amid the hostile colored map showing the extent of pre- storms of the Volkerwandm·ung, a help- vailing religions of the world and the ing, comforting messenger of Heaven progress of evangelization forms a valu- to the sorely harassed dwellers in the able supplement to the book, being the ancient Noricum along the Danube, and most complete thing of the kind ever at the foot of the Alps, and in no mean published. " measure alleviated their distress. He -The Harvelt Field (English Wes- was one of those figures that remain unleyan) has changed its place of publica- forgotten in the memory 01 a people betion to Mysore. Wherever published, cause they knew how to grave imperit is one of the wisest and most valu- ishably into the fugiti ve current of time able of missionary publications, and one the characters of self·denying love. So of the freest from partisanship. also to.day is Ohristian Frederick Schwartz (t1798) unforgotten in South -" Some weeks ago we alluded to India, who for fifteen whole months in the increasing number of well-lo-do· Tanjore fed daily before his dwelling Ohristian men and women who enter more than 11)00 persons (heathen, Mos- the mission field at their own expense. lems, Ohrlstians), and, among other We referred also to the increasing prac- deeds, delivered, by his intercession, tice of missionaries being supported by the city of Ouddalore from destruction. {ndivldual friends. Our editor has re- ..• We may well say : The measure of cently been the guest in London of Mr. the active benevolence which a mission Benjamin Broomhall, the General Secre- exercises is the measure of Its success. tary of the Ohina Inland Mission. In If missions ceased to account benevoregard to the two subjects above men- lence as the soul of their work, assuredtioned, Mr. Broomhall says that there ly their results would become a soundare 82 missionaries of the Ohina Inland ing brass and a tinkling cymbal. This Mission laboring at their own expense; fundamental tone and attitude of mis- 87 are supported entirely by friends, sions is under all circumstances a social and 16 are partly so supported. One factor of the first rank. In the measure friend supports five missionaries; three in which the individual missionary suppornwo each; and 39 support one shares in this temper, his activity will each. In two cases two friends support be lure in some way to result in an abiLl- one missionary between them. "-BtIfn,. ing blessing. The application of this 11(1,1/ (}u(1,rdi(1,1I.. principle to definite individual rda- -" Everywhere it appeal'll in hi.tory tions demands great wisdom. "-HERB that building from below upward hu I!IToSCH, in Der Mi88icn, Freund.
greater 8UCcess than the revel'll!. The way to the hearts of the great goes -" The year 11191) finds Nicaragua in through the hearts of the wretched. So undisturbed possession of what has for was it even at the time of the apostles. so many years been the territory of the The congregatioDi founded by them HOIklto Indians. A free nation, the
GENERAL HISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. [Octobel'
majority of whom are Protestants, has from God the gifts needed for the crisis : now, contrary to its strongly expressed wise fearlessness and faithful endur- desire, been incorporated with its Ro· anee. Amid the waves of excit6ment man Catholic neighbor. This has hap· and anxiety, amid frequent disquieting pened in spite of the Treaty of Managua, rumors, amid arrests and acts of vio- which guarantees independence and lence, amid lawlessness and public inse- autonomy to the }Ioskito Indians sub- curity, amid the flight and emigration ject. to a limited and defined 80verelgnty of those around them, tbey have stood on the part of Nicatagua. The explana- like rocks, a comfort, a help, and a tion of the strange riddle Is the attl· strengthening of the faith of many.
tude of the United States In view of They have lived as they have prayed, American interests in the projected endeavoring, as far as consistent with Nicaraguan Canal. So it comes that the the Word of God, and teaching their most decisive word that has been spoken people to • submit themselves to every as to this incorporation of the reserve Is ordinance of man (yes, of their new Ro· Prellident Cleveland's message to Con- man Catholic rulers) for the Lord's sake, gress, January 3d, 1895. He accepts and to seek the peace of the place where the Nicaragnan representation of the they dwell.' Without cessation they circumstances which led to their, occu- have discharged all their regular offices pation, and supports the action of that as pastors and teachers as far as e'ver the rcpublic. The Moekito side of the ques- circumstances allowed. And when duty tion has never been heard. "-Periodical demanded. they have stood out boldly Accounts (Moravian). against the pride and unreasonableness – " Bound up as our mission has been of the conquerors, defenceless as they for nearly half a century with the best were, save for the might of the Spirit, welfare of this little seml.independent of truth, and of a good conscience."- country, we cannot but regard the Ibid. Nicaraguan occupation as a sore blow for Moskito. It will be many a day be· -The excellent Australian missionfore Bluefields and Magdala recover It. aryof the Brethren, Dr. James Ward, has been called home.
Several of their best citizens have gone, -We observe that De Vrije Kerk, of never to return, and their slowly revlv· Holland, describes the Parsees as fire· ing trade has to contend wIth the in· worshippers, and says that the cbief creased customs duties demanded by object of tbeir worship is the sun.
the new rulers. As ,to the cost of the They, however. emphatically deny the mission, whose maintenance in full effi· designation, declaring that they wor- clency is now doubly necessary, it:is ship God alone. They reverence all the plain that it will be very much higher elements as being the work of the good in the future than it has been in the God, and especially fire, but deny that past. "-Ibid. they identify it with God.
-" Not one of our missionaries has -The FJrije Kerk from time to time been touched ; not one has fled from his publishes valuable reprints on various post, though advised to do so by white missionary Bubjects, under the title of as well as colored neighbors; not one Zendingsrubriek. Among them have of them has sat for a single hour within been some excellent papers on medireval prison walls, though the intruding missionaries, drawn out with true Dutch • Spaniards' have shown them much thoroughness . distrust, and though varied calumnies have threatened to issue In violent meas- -The Abogado Ori8tiarw Ilu8trado ures of that kind. The brethren in very justly holds up to those Mexican Bluefields have had to bear the brunt of Catholics who will not give charity to this situation, and they have received anyone that cannot show a confessor·'s certificate the example of the present
ENGLISH NOTES
Pope, who is paying the expenses of a of the Bible.' "-RlJ1Jue au ltli,l1onI young Protestant art student in Roml', Oontemporainea.
saying th!lt his Protestantism has noth· -:-The Jesuit missions of Paraguay, ing to do with his profession. whIch fell ultimately into such unhappy -" As the hardest struggle of Paul's abuses of cupidity and tyranny that missionary life was with those who, Spain and Rome were obllged to pro- pretending that the heathen were not scribe them, have been succeeded J>y ripe for the Gospel, insisted on first missions of that simple, cheerful, bibll- making them Jews, so the missionaries cal kind which are not likely to need of our day are bound manfully to with· any proscription.
stand those who, under a similar pre· tence that the heathen need a special preparation, insist on making extraneous English Note8.
additions to the proper missionary com· BY JAMES DOUGLAS. mission."-Dr. F. M. ZAHN, in Allge· meine Mi8sions·Zeitach1-ij't. London Mi.Bionary Society-The I88a· -" The following official report, ad· mutti DiBtriet.-The Rev. W. R. Le dressed by the Chief Surveyor to the Quesne, who was recently entrusted President of the RepUblic of Paraguay, with the charge of this district, gives testifies to the results obtained by the an account of a visit lately paid to its South American Missionary Society three stations, Baduria, Goburdanga, among the Chaco Indians: and Bongong. At Bongong he found the society's agent cowed by a sense of " , Knowing the interest which your educational inferiority and unable to Excellency cherishes in the prosperity take the bold stand called for. At Go· of the Chaco Indians, I have the honor burdanga the outlook was equally de· to inform you that I have to-day reo pressing. Here some three or four yearl turned from an excursion into the inte· ago a convert of great promise had been rior, made for the delimitation of a ter· won, and after his baptism at Calcutta, ritory in which the S. A. M. S. desires had returned to his home. But since to establish a station. In traversing the then he has disappeared, whether as the country I have been struck with the se· result of foul play or not has never come curity which we can now enjoy in the to light. The ZemindarB are hostile to bosom of this tribe, thanks to the labors the missionary aim from mercenary and of the agents of the aforementioned oppressive reasons. What is needed to society. Six years ago, when I last withstand them is such a witness for traversed this country, I dared only Christ as adds to his faith courage. The venture into it accompanied by fifteen state of things in Badurla has not yet picked men armed to the teeth. We properJy entered the reaping stage. never dared to stray to any distance The good work has been carried on in from our camp; at night sentinels kept this place for many years, and there guard and we remained with our arms have been in the course of the years within reach. several baptisms, but the converts won have removed elsewhere, and there is as " , This time I made my survey with yet in Baduria no church at all. Thil Indian help and without fire-arms. At is trying to the workers, but out·door night we slept in full security, no mat· preaching and house·to-house visitation ter where we chanced to be ; instead of are maintained, as well as two schooll, avoiding the villages, as formerly, we one for boys and the other for girls. sought to encamp near them. . .. A missionary lady, a young unmarried Englishwoman, can traverse without Ohinese Oovenantera.-The Rev. J.
danger countrios absolutely unexplored, Sadler, of Amoy, has just made the dis- healing the sick and teaching the trutba covery that at Lohin there is a little
'788 GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
company of men who, for seven or eight funds not available for the society's years, have entered into a covenant with general work, have amounted to £272,- all diligence to stir up each other to 000, thus exceeding by more than £20,- right conduct. They are known among 000 those of any former year. Cause the Christians as Covenanters. One of for praise Godward is due for the mani- these writes: "The most lamentable fest evidences of the working of His thing is that vested interests of the fam- Spirit all over the world which is great- ily hinder one in obeying Christianity· ly in excess of former years. The total and getting itf:l instruction. What is in number of adult converts this year is my heart cannot be written by the pen ; 4200. including 1500 in India, 1400 in but the doctrine does not despise those Africa, 650 in China. Among these are less instructed. The great thing is a many individual cases of deep interest, holy life. This is the essential. Now, including a notable band of prominent though I meet that which fetters me, men in the Punjab, of whom Dr. Clark stm my heart keeps on hoping. Please writes: .. Such splendid fellows, with pray for me, so that what we say to one gentle yet strong faces; it is an inspira- another may not be without effect. In tion to see them." We felt special in- this way my grief may be assuaged." terest in the sentence, "Among the B4ptist Mi88iona'1'1f Societll.-The Rev. Ainu there are now more than 400 H. Ross Phillips, who has just returned Christians." The remotest outpost of to the Congo, writes in B most cheerful this society is occupied by Edmund strain of the hearty welcome received Peck, the intrepid Bailor missionary, and the missionary prospects. .. The who bas been conveyed in a whaler, people," he says, .. came a long way on with a young companion, to Cumberthe road to meet us, and Saturdayeven- land Sound, in the polar regions, where ing they crowded the station and ex- the Eskimo have put up for them a litpressed very heartily how glad they tle tabernacle twenty feet long. made were to see us. For several days I had of whalebone and sealskins.
people coming in to sec me from other We,leyan Mis8iona'1'1f Societll.-We towns, bringing messages of welcome glean the following particulars from from those whom I had visited when the abstract and general summary of out in itineration in former years. . . . the operations of this society during the The decided increase in membership, past year: Circuits, 328 ; chapels, 2104 ; the ever.deepening interest in the Gos- missionaries and their assistants, 349 ; pel in the outlying towns, and the ear- other paid agents, as catechists, daynest appreciation of the New Testament school teachers, and interpreters, 2587 ; in their own language, to say nothing full and accredited church·members, of the wider-spread efforts of the native 40.994; scholars, 80,791. More than Church-all these convince me that half the missionaries are natives of the there is every reason to thank God and countries in which they are working, take courage." and no part of the work is more steadily G!&urch Mis8iona;ry Society.-From held in view than that which is directed the general review of the year we cull toward raising an Indian ministry in the following particulars: Within Benn India, a Chinese ministry in CWna, and years the total number of missionaries an African ministry in Africa. Evan- bas almost doubled. In 1888 the num- gelization, as the primary and central ber reported was 888; to-day It is 684 duty of the missionary, is kept ever -in both cases exclusive of wives. prominent, and the number of those en- Financially. too, the result has been in gaged in it increases year by year. The accordance with the forward movement work among the children comprehends of faith. During the past year the total a total of over 65,000 in Asia and Af- receipts, excluding gifts to special rica.. Ital!/.-In an address recently given Kottedankada, four years ago heathen, on the subject of Wesleyan missions In and now transformed into a Christian Italy, the Rev. Hugh Price Hughes re- community. At the present time the lated the following circumstance of agents of this society are preaching the which he was an eye-witness: "I went Gospel in 54 different languages in vari- to our church in Rome and haw Capel- ous parts of the globe.
lini addressing a hundred young sol- Ohina Inland Mi88i0n.-As instances dIers. fifty of whom were received into of Chinese brotherly love, the Rev. the fellowship of our church that night. James Meadows relates the two follow- Later in the evening, one of them, who ing incidents: .. At Hsinghien, while was going to America, gave an account we were there holding services for canof his history. He said he had come to didates for baptism, news came that "ne them nominally Catholic, but really of our very poor brethren in the counagnostic, but that Capellini had brought try had just been burned out of house him into that hall, and bit by bit the and home. One of our earnest preachlight had dawned on his mind. Now ers broke into prayer for him and his he was rejoicing in Christ, and he was wife and family, but was so affected going to be a minister for Christ." that he could not proceed, and straight- Pre&byterian Ohurch oj Englarul.- way $16 were subscribed, $11 of which Speaking on the subject of Formosa, the poor men and women assembled Mr. Campbell, missionary from that contributed 1 The Christian affection uland, described the work there as in a existing among these country people is hopeful and encouraging state. " The often thus manifested in most practical Church," he said, .. was well advised ways. A widow could not get her fields by Dr. Douglas thirty years ago, when reaped, as all her deceased husband'.
she turned her eyes to that rich country, friends were opposed to her being a wherein mission work was commenced Christian. The brethren in a neighbor- by Dr. Maxwell.•. _ One thing that ing village heard of this, and meeting was beyond all cavil and criticism was together, deputed certain of their num- that whereas thirty years ago the island ber at once to reap the harvest for her, was a spot of unbroken heathen dark- while the remainder kept watch I"
ness, there was now a large native church." Mr. Campbell further said THE KINGDOM. that at a recent conference held with a view to form a presbytery on that island, -" Which is tbe 'foreign nation' in two intelligent young men were chosen the thought of God 1" pertinently asked to be ordaIned as native pastors. a foreign miBBionary in a great audience recently. And it is more than likely Societyj01' the Propagation oj the Gos- that not one in that multitude was able pel.-This society, which .will in the to make reply. course of a few years close its second century of labor and prayer, has many – A recent writer notes that the visit signs of increase. Special attention is of a very disagreeable and unappreciacalled to the venture into Kashmir; to tive Afghan prince recently cost Engthe expansion of the Church in Assam land the sum of $250,000. This amount and the Transvaal; to the independence would pay for 250 men, good, faithful of the Malagasy in building their own and agreeable, who would return the churches and restoring those destroyed visit each by a year's missionary work. by a hurricane without thought of aid – Ob8e1"/!e1'.
from the mission; to the increasing -The Westminster Gazette says that hunger of the people in the Telegu the popularity of Spurgeon's sermons is country for the privileges of the the most amazing literary success of the Church; and, further, to the village of century. The number of sermoDll published is 2396, and the total number of come was £2,477,132, a decrease of volumes sold is nearly 100,000,000. nearly a quarter of a million compared They are kept in sheet form in a large with that of 1892. Of the decrease, cellar in Paternoster Square, in long £31,000 is in English contributions, lines of cupboards, so that a supply of £18,000 in Scotch; the decrease in any particular discourse can be got at American over £200,000, The contri- once. Four fifths of the supply have butions from England amonnted to £1,- been sold in the United Kingdom; the 159,888; from Scotland to £197,856 i remainder have gone to this country from America to £614,594.
and to Australia. -" When the history of the Protes- tant churches, at the end of the nine- -Not long ago two Americans, trav- teenth century, shall be written, two elling in Alaska, approached the Kus- facts will have to be related, contradickokwim district. They heard the na- tory in appearance, and yet equally true. tives everywhere talking about the The first .is the sterility of religious " Kilbuckamuks," and expected to thought, the strange disintegration of meet with some tribe hitherto unknown beliefs. Criticism has so analyzed, disto georraphers. Presently they reached sected, and discussed the objects to a Moravian station where they found the which it has been applied that the facts missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Kilbuck, and which were formerly the most certain, It trsnspired that the new" tribe" con· the facts on which our most sacred slsted of those who had surrendered hopes repose, have become, as it were, themselves to the infiuence of the Gos- volatilized in our hands, and even the truest believers ask t.hemselves in hours no.- pel, the name of their teachers being at- of anguish: .. Am I really sure of that tached to them by the surrounding tlvel.
-India, like Ohlna, Is to have its own which I believe 1" This is one fact, medical missionary journal. Each of and it is a sad one. But there is an- the following countries have medical other which is very consoling: it is the missionary magazines: Scotland, 1; development in our Protestant churches England, 2; America, S. Two others of a multitude of works which are the in England are largely devoted to thIs product of faith, works of mercy, of agency, and several missionary journals help, of reformation, of evangelization, devote space specially to medical mis- and among all these enterprises the most sions. admirable certainly is the work of mis- -In May, 1890, the General Confer- sions. It is certain that never since the ence of missionaries in Shanghai, repre- first days of Christianity has the Gospel senting 1296 Protestant missionarIes accomplished more rapid and more asthen in China, issued an urgent appeal tonishing conquests than in our own for 1000 more men for China within five epoch. Missions march with giant years. At the same time the women-of steps, so that we can already foresee the conference appealed for more wom- the moment when the good news shall en workers. Rev. C. F. Reid, of Shang- have been carried to the very ends of hai, for a committee appointed to report the earth, and when, in accordance with the results of the call, states that in the the word of our Lord, the times shall five years there have been sent out 481 be ripe for the end. "-.M. Jean Meyer.
male missionaries, 167 wives of mis- WOMAN'S WORK. sionaries, and 505 single women, mak- ing a total of 1153. -The Intelligencer has this to say -Dean Vahl has issued his mission- with reference to the Church Mission- ary statistics for 1898, relating to no ary Society: "In Jnne, 1887, there fewer than 381 societies engaged in mis- were-22 women on the roll. Since that sions to the heathen. The entire in- date, more thaD 200 names have been entered; and after deducting a few home and abroad such a noble reinforce,.
deaths and retirements, 192 remain, ment of women filled with His Spirit, which does not incJude those lately ac- it is our part, surely, to render Him un- cepted togo out this autumn. We have faltering praise."
41 in West and East Africa; 39 in -The last report (1895) of the Lon. Egypt, Palestine, and Persia; 35 in don School of Medicine for Women ex- India; 11 in Ceylon; 32 in China; 30 hibits in detail the high standing and in Japan; 4 in the North Pacific." work of its IItudents. A steadily in· But in addition, at the stations of the creaSing number of the graduates are same society no less than 214 other being appointed to responsible official women are at wOlk, sent out by socie- pOllitions in Great Britain and the coloties in close affiliation. nies-iluch as medical officer to the gen- -As a result of such remarkable eral post-office; examiner for the govfeminine consecration and activity, to ernment life assurance fund; queen's quote again from the same magazine: lecturer on physiology to the National •• It has been said C. M. S. is becoming Association of Nurses; lecturer to the a women's society. If this referred to Technical Instruction Board, London our home circles, the word ' becoming' County Council; assistant medical offiwould be inadequate, for there is noth- cer, St. Stephen's Hospital, Delhi; resiing new in the fact that women take a dent physician, Kama Hospital, Bomlivelier interest in all Christian work at bay; lady principal female department, home and abroad, including C. M. S., Ceylon Medical College; and resident than men do. From the earliest days physician, Lady Aitchison's Hospital of the society, or at all events since for Women, Lahore. Last, but not least, 1813, when local associations began to we may mention by name the acting be formed, the larger part of the work house surgeon at the Kama Hospital, of spreading information and raising Bombay, Rukhmabaf. This high-caste funds-other than the actual preaching young Indian woman, after successand speaking-has been done by wom- fully resisting, through the English en. But the remark no doubt refers to courts, an attempt to coerce her into the increase of women missionaries; fulfilling 8 marriage contract made for and we have even been asked' why we her during infancy, came to England neglect the. men'! Neglect the men! to study medicine; she passed satisfacwhy, we are always appealing for them. torily all her examinations and took the Thank God, their numbers .have in- triple qualifications of the Scotch colcreased more rapidly than ever before leges and the M.D. degree of Brussels. during these very eight years that have -New York Evening Post.
seen the accession of so many women to -A paper, by a German zenana mis· our ranks; and the idea that men are sionary, in the Allgemeine Hi88ions-Zeit.
hindered from coming forward because schrift, gives a vivid glimpse into the women come forward is opposed to life of women and girls in the Moham· plain facts, besides being an unreason- medan harems of North India. This able notion in itself. It might as well woman was in the habit of visiting the be said that the Church of England is houae of a 1tlohammedan saint. One of becoming a female Church, because the his daughters was a bright: lively girl, large majority of workers in most par- to whom the visits of the missionary ishes are women, and that the' dearth gave the greatest pleasure. She over- of curates' is due to the increase of whelmed the .. Doctor Miss Sahib" with lady district visitors and lady Sunday- questions about the beautiful world school teachers I Seriously, when it which she had never seen. Her great has pleased God of late years to add to desire was to visit the missionary's our armies of Christian workers both at house, and as, in spite of her father's salntship. her notions of right and etoriea and basement, and containing 24 wrong were very elementary, she sue· rooms, was secured. The outlay, In.
ceeded at last, by feigning a aerlou! ill· cluding rent. taxes, and repairs, for the ness, in moving her lather to send her use of this property will be about $120 to the mission hospital. She was filled per month. The house is now being ,.ail with delight at the pleasant tlower gar. rearranged to make it suitable for the den of the hospital, a Bight ,he ne'lJeT' work.
8een before. But her fraud was discove~ It is expected that during the com· ed, and the poor girl had to go back to Ing fall and winter 21i students will be her cage. And even such 111 Moham· in residence. The co-operative board· medanism. Ing rate has been fixed at $4 per week, YOUNG PEOPLE. ea"h student to help with the work. The home Is at 112 Loomis Street, near -One of the most remarkable phases Jackson Boulevard, and is conveniently of the development of the Y. M. C. A. located for students attending the medimovement has been the increase in the cal schools.
number and value of the association -The BrooklynTimea evidently be- buildings. In 1890 there were reported lieves heartily in "practical politics,"
205, valued at $8,352,910. In the Year but has no stomach at all for such prac- Book of 1895 there are reported 805, tical religion as the Endeavorersof that valued at $16,091,780•. The increase in city display in their activity in helping five years is thus 100 buildings, or to enforce the law closing saloons on nearly one every two weeks; the total Sunday. This perturbed sheet would valuation being, In round numbers, have thoae youthful saints " go back to doubled. This remarkable growth in- primitive Christianity," and let good dicates two things chielly-that; the as· citizenShip alone I sociation movement has permanency – Yes, it is even so. "That in fourand that it meets with favor on the part teen years a single society, formed withof business men.- Young Men', Era. out any Idea of the future before it, but -An ~nalysis of .the attendance at the bent on a local work, should increase to recent World's Student Conference, at more than 10,000, and spread world- Northfield, shows these facts: Number wide, embracing a membership of 2,500,- of institutions represented: State, 10 ; 000, and generate a high enthusiasm and deuominational, 24; medical, 10; pre· consecration in Christian work, is a phe· paratory schools, 23; scientific, 8; nomenon not to be passed by with in- agricultural, 2; training, 8; theologi- difference or a sneer."
cal, 4.; unclassified, 39. Total, 118. -This table tells what the Presbyte~ Number of students in attendance, 459 ; rian Endeavorers have been doing for other delegates, 41 ; speakers and work- foreign missions : ers, 37. Total, 536. Amount subscribed to intercollegiate work, $2400. The de- Year Ending Societies. Amount. nominations represented were as fol- $5,265 April 30, 1891…. .. ….. . 864 14,228 April 30, 1892.. ………. 864 lows: Presbyterians, 120; Congrega- April 80, 1898….. . . . …. 1,269 24,808 tionalists, 89; Methodists, 76; Bap- April 30, 1894………… 1,856 29,244 tists, 78; Friends, 17; Reformed, 13; April 80, 1895………. ,. ~,487 38,161 Lutherans, 13; Episcopalians, 12; Total tor Aye year………….. '" ..S106,706 Christians, '1; no denomination speci- Increase of societies in four years, fied, 56. Total, 485. 2078 i average increase per year, 518, or -Chicago contains a home for young about Ii new societies for each day. men and women who have volunteered They are now supporting 45 missionafor the foreign field as medical misslona· ries.
ries. Last May a large tlat of three -The wide reach of the Endeavor
movement is Hown ia the fact that The first year the income reached but there is in Los Angeles a Chinese society 8187.62, with which only GO were sent of 15 boys and girls who aupport a na- into the country for two weeks. Since tive helper in China; one in Atlanta, then it has grown to near $80,000, with Ga., supports a free dispensary and a over 15,000 beneficiaries. In all about Bible training class and cultivates dOlV· $328,000 have been donated to this fund, ers for distribution among the sick and and almost 270,000 have been afforded aged. The society on board the Ohalrle8- an outing, one half for a aingle day and ton is planning for a seamen's mission half for a fortnight. with a reading-room and temporary home at NaillSaki, Japan. -The Christian Alliance, at its recent meeting lit Old Orchard, Me., raised -The societies in Cleveland have $72,000 for foreign missions. One memundertaken to set up about a score of ber gave land in California worth .10,- fountains or drinking-placeS in conven- 000, which rllpresented the savings of ient localities, and for the comfort of years, and a like spirit was shown by both man and beast, not omitting the others. Within a year this society has dogs even. lost 10 of its missionaries by death. The number now in the field or at home UNITED STATES. on furlough is 240, while 40 more are under appointment and about to take -General Carl Schurz is bearing a their departure. hand in home missionary effort in New York City by preaching righteousness -Rev. A. McLean, Secretary of the and sound sense to his brother Germans Christian (Disciple) Mission Board, hIlS in the current Parkhurst-Roosevelt sailed on a world tour to last a year, and campaign. He tells his fellow-Tcutons to include a visit to all the fields of that that they cannot afford to act as though society. they were the slaves of beer or the servants of the brewers in the controversy -During the last four yeara there over the enforcement of the excise laws. have been erected in the city of Chicago Also that they can .. get along better 41 new Methodist mission churches, without the opening of saloons on Sun- valued at nearly $500,000. Of these, days than without clean streets, a 81 have become self supporting. This plentiful supply of good water, good work has been accomplished through schools, public security, effective Bani- the efforts of the City Missioaary and tary arrangements, and the like, all the Church Extension Society. days of the week," IlS would be the case if Tammany government were re- -The Presbyterians can tell of " our stored. Quoth he: .. We should not twentieth church among the Sioux. " overlook the relative importance of this and other public interests, and espe- -To all appearance the American cially we should not make interests of Indian, like Dickens's little Jo, is fated more general importance dependent on evermore to be moving on. Even New this one thing." Metl&kahtla, which William Duncan, after being thrust out of .British Colum- -A recent I~pe~nt has an article bia, founded on Annette Island, Aluka, on the summer charities in New York has been invaded by a wild rush of City which traces them back to their miners, and his much·affiicted flock may beginning in 1878, when George F. be compelled again to abandon their Williams, of the Time8, was deeply homes. moved by hearing five ragged urchins in the City Hall Park say: II Let's play EUROPE. that we're in the country." The Tribune Fresh Air Fund dates from 1887. Great BritaiD.-At one of the recent meet.ings of the London Hissionary So- ciety, Dr. Wardlaw Thompson, the sec-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLI!'IENCE
retary, announced that since its com· work is done. Nine missionary socie- mencement the society has received ties share in this, and are represented £5,500,000 ($27,500,000) in contributions by 18 physicians, of whom 5 are natives.
lit home, and that nearly another mill- -Rev_ S. M. Zwemer, of Busrah, has ion had been contributed in the field by an article in the IntelZigencer entitled Christian friends, and especially by na- " There Is Much RulJbish," with refertive ChrIstians. In commenting upon ence to the Koran, to divers lives of this fact, he exclaimed," Why, we the prophet, and to Mohammedanism could buy six ironclads with that in general as a religion. And the text money, and in five years they would be of the article fully justifies the title_ obsolete. The first vote for the present French expedition to :lHadagascar was -Rev. R. M. Cole, secretary of the more than £2,000,000. They will spend Bitlis mission station of the American on that expedition more than all the Lon- Board, tells of their regret on the death don Missionary Society has spent for the of Rev. G. C. Knapp, who died of apoconversion and transformation of mul- plexy March 12th, after prolonged prostitudes during the century. Expendi- tration. He entered this mission fleJd tUfe on missions is the most economical in 1855 and continued in charge till channel for spending money, and yields 1890, when he was succeeded by his son, the largest return." As the ample re- George Perkins Knapp. He met with turn for such cost, 95,000 Malagasy are great opposition in his early days in the now members of the churches, with . field from the Gregorian Church. He nearly 500,000 under Christian instruc- lived to so win their esteem that they tion, While about 100,000 have cntered tendered burial for his body in their own church, which was, however, deinto the life of the redeemed above. clined. Mr. Cole says: <. The Lord -The medical auxiliary of the Church gives us this cheer of late, that the old Missionary Society gives this as a sum· Church people, who in early times permary of work accomplished: 29 fully secuted Protestants, even latterly lookqualified medical missionaries; 4846 in- ing askance, as if our only business in patients in the mission hospitals last the land might be to transmute Aryear, and 373,355 out-patients. The menians into noxious Protestants, now auxiliary proposes this year to relieve turn toward us as genuine Christians, the society's general funds entirely of having deep sympathy for abused huthe medical expenses of the missions, manity, so that our congregations and other than the personal allowances of schools are much increased of late. the missionaries and the cost of new Partly from this and partly from high buildIngs; to defray, that is, no less esteem of our aged associate a throng than £4000. of some two thousand crowded our -When recently Mr Wigram, so church and yard at the funeral, three long secretary of the Church Mission- leading priests, with their select singers ary Society, sent in his resignation, he and all the paraphernalia of a burial of enclosed in the letter a gift of £1000, their highest grade, taking prominent with which to start the fund for the part in the services at their own re- new Calcutta Divinity School, as "a quest. "
thank-offering for mercies and privi- India.-A live American Brahman leges enjoyed during upward of four- has been discovered, believed to be the teen years as honorable clerical secre- first of the gemt8 (may his tribe not intary." creaae) presiding at a shrine in the ASIA.. depths of the Himalayas. It is enough to know his name, which is Charles Islam.-In Palestine are to be found William De Rousette. He leads a her- no less than 14 stations where medIcal mit's life and one approaching to the asceticism of the average fakir. He and all, both young and old, some with becomes known to fame through an in- one eye, and some with the remains of terview lately published in the Phila- two, and some with terrific squints, and delphia Ti'TMII. baring their heads, proceeded to form a circle, with their hostess in the centre. -A calculation appears in the Indian Then all, with one accord, continued to Ohurch Quarterlv which figures it out shriek piteously for the space of two that, at the present rate of progress, at hours, while they beat their thighs and the end of four hundred years it will temples alternately with both hands. be found that Christianity has made ad- This is the customary mode of public vances in India equal to those made in mourning, though usually practised Europe during the first four centuries. only on the death of a husband or a son. A woman, to show her excessive -Rev. F. L. Neeld, in charge of the grief, will frequently go on day after Bareilly Methodist Theological Semi- day for a month, inflicting blows on her nary, India, reports that that institu- temples in the manner described till tion now has: Seniors, 22; middle blood flows and severe inflammation is class, 23; juniors, 30-total, 75. He excited in the eyes, accompanied by inemphasizes the necessity of training a tolerable headache. And now follows native ministry on the field. ulceration of the cornea, followed, after months of suffering, by cicatrices and -F. J. Martin gives this well-nigh opacities, and frequently as not by cata· incredible story of the lengths to which ract and all but total blindness. And Hindu women carry their" grief." He all this for the sake of, not genuine lays of the sex: II As a rule, one eye is grief, but for the sake of making an imgone, or both are red, bleared and tear· pression of mourning on the neighbors. ful; the eyelashes have turned inward And though aU the neighbors know it and have scratched the cornea till it is is sheer hypocrisy, yet each and all will, opaque and nearly sightless and past in her turn, do the same thing, iDlbginhealing; or a cataract has formed in ing she is imposing on the rest." one or both the eyes. On inquiring the cause of all this, the usual reply is that China.-Miss Ford, of the Canadian she has lost a son, and has cried till she Methodist Mission, gives this bit of obhas literally cried her eyes out. It is servation and experience: "One has to always a son, sometimes a husband: learn to have the Easter joy in the but a daughter-I never heard of a heart, and not depend on outward cirwoman crying seriously for the loss of cumstances out here, where • on every a daughter. In the present case, how- high hill and under every green tree' ever, the patient I was called to see, are shrines, pagodas and images. For both eyes had been sacrificed for neither a few days past we have been noticing son nor husband, but, by way of vari· an image very different from any seen ety, for a buffalo. Gurmukh Singh in- before, and wondered what it was. formed me that he had lost a valuable This morning Mr. Cady asked the wife buftalo for which he had paid the ex- of the boat-owner, who explained that travagant sum of seven times twenty there are a great many devils around rupees, and that his wife had been in- the section of country we are just passconsolable ever since. The women of ing through; so these images are more the neighborhood would come in to re- numerous than in other parts; and at mind her of her loss, exaggerate it as regular intervals a rooster is sacrificed far as possible, and finally their advice to them, after which process the idol was that she should cry about it as long has knowledge of the devils, and proand loud as possible. In fact, in the tects against them. These devils are discharge of this duty they were pre- mimy of them spirits of people who pared to assist her. So the dames of Mrs. Gurmukh's acquaintance came, one h&ve committed suicide, and are waiting Chinese idolatry and superstition. In around to torment those who troubled consequence of this the mission W81 al- them while they were on this earth." most given uP. but just when things -A story is told by Rev. Hr. Adams, looked darkest a ray of light shone of the American Baptist Mission in Cen· which has steadily increased. In 1861 tral Chlna,ot a Mr. Tsen, formerly a 3 men came out from idolatry and dewealthy merchant, but who, ruined by clared themselves followers of Christ. oplum·smoking, became a low fortune· and to-day in that one province there teller. He came afterward under the are no lesa than SO,OOO converts to Chrilinfluence of the Gospel and burned his tianity, 12.000 of whom are connected magical books and BOught· to reform. with the mission of the Church Mis- The sufferings he endured while seek- sionary Society. This society has at ing to break off the habit were intense, present 10 ordained Chinese clergymen, but Wf'J.·e borne patiently. Thetempta- 170 churches. 120 catechists or lay readtion to seek relief by returning to the ers, 110 Christian schoolmasters who use of the drug was such as few could have charge of as many schools. and a have resisted, but he would not yield large number of trained Bible women though he died. And die he did, stead- carrying on effective work among the fastly refusing to yield again t<' the women of the province.
seductions of the drug which had blight- Korea.-A private letter from Rev. ed his life. T. H. Yun, dated Seoul, says: ., The -Rev. Mr. Ament writes: "As to government is now more firmly settled China, people may talk of great internal than some months ago. The Japanese reform and a general renovation of the influence Is strong ;it makes for prog- government, but there Is no evidence of ress. and therefore for good. On my any change at present. Personally I first returning to Korea. I was appoint- expect no reforms except under compul- ed private secretary of the prime minis- sion. No sledge-hammer blows from ter. A few weeks ago I was promoted without will break the hold of this em- to the position of vice-minister of edu- pire on the past; but the little plant cation. I thank the Church and the truth, working from within, will do this friends in the South. who made it possi· some day. If there is any growth in ble for me to get such a position, and I China I am afraid it will be more in the shall try to make my fidelity and con- line of military enlargement and a de- 'scientiousness show that a Christian is sire to get even with Japan. The war not one who forgets his own country.
has utterly failed to arouse the nation; as he is often charged out here with in fact, the nation as a nation knows doing. I am the only outspoken Chris- nothing about the war. and no lesson tian in the Korean Government."
can be taught the officials before the -Mrs. Underwood writes in Wompeople are instructed. The growth an's Work for Woman of A II Baby's must be from the lower strata upward. Visit to the King," as follows: I II as it has been in all lands. Hence I went to the palace yesterday. taking look for a patient continuance in the little Horace with me. who had a fine usual lines of work, being assured that time of it. The palace ladies caught our first duty Is to sow the gospel broad- him up in their arms and fairly ran with cast and let the truth do its own perfect him into the presence chamber. The work." king and queen and prince hugged and -Rev. Llewellyn Lloyd, of the kissed him. exclaiming how beautiful Church M.issionary Society, says that he was and how pretty his hands. The for nearly eleven years missionaries king had him lifted into a chair and labored in Foochow Ilnd its neighbor- . ~hen got down on the floor on his knees hood without one single convert from in front of him and talked to him, pet· ting and caressing him. The queen than ever before for the conquest of took him in her arms in a motherly this kingdom for Christ. grasp, smoothing his hair and saying anxiously, 'His head is too hot.' They " The war and attendant alarms have ordered about four quarts of Korean in no way interfered with the wondercandy, as many nuts and about a hun- ful prosperity God has granted the work dred oranges, and had them sent home in Korea. In faith, hope, and charity, for him. The queen also gave him an· n eincerity, steadfastness, and patience, other of tIle pretty little embroidered the Korean Christians are a constant bags full of beech nuts, which means source of joy and gratitude to God, to 'long life and happiness.' When we the missionaries. The Korean Chris. came away the palace ladies whirled tlana are distinguished by simplicity of him off, and about tifty of them got faith in God, and patience, endurance around him. petting and caressing him. of aspersion, both by the heathen na· I could not get near the child. The king tive and the unsympathetic foreign. himself put on his hat and coat and er. We need reinforcements. The mis· buttoned it up for him, kneeling on the sionarles spend many an anxious hour floor in front of him." because they are not forthroming ; the native Church goes half shepherded be· -The Korean boy at tirst sight can cause of the lack ; the highest authori· easily be mistaken for a school-girl Gut ties in the land ~y, 'Send us more of doors without her hat. His hair is teachers (missionaries).' " parted in the middle and hangs in a heavy braid down his back. When he , AFRICA. is married, his hair is twisted in a topknot on the crown of his head and adds -There is considerable perturbation much to his dignity. You may see a among the French authorities in AI· boy with his hair querIed on top of hi!! geria, owing to the work of the North head making mud pies by the road- Africa Mission, which Is chiefly carried side, and feel sure that here, at least, is on by English young ladies. The gen· an exception to the custom, but on in· eral council of the department of COI1quiry you learn that he is a married stantlne has addressed a note on the man. He enjoys his sport none the less subject of the supreme authority, in for the dignity of his topknot. which it states that the safety of Algeria is menaced by the work of the English -Rev. George Heber ~Tones writes Methodists (sic). .. The English danger from Chemulpo, Korea, June 10th, becomes from day to day more serious 1895: "Just one year ago to·day the in Algeria, as its agents become more tirst Japanese troops landed in Chemul· numerous. The Methodists and the solpo, to begin their astonishing campaign diers of the Salvation Army work under against China. What changes a year the guise of benevolence and charity, has witnessed I China is tOOay a beg- and thus attract the natives. They dis· gar among the nations, with few tribute money, clothes, medicines, Ara· friends, and a sad prospect of internal bic books (among others, translations of dissension, rebellion, and anarohy, and the Bible), and in appearance they only the certain prospect of being stripped occupy themselves with proselytism; of some of her territories by foreign but in reality a vast net of espionage is powers. Korea has reaped great benefit being drawn around us, and a propafrom all the changes of the year, and ganda of disaffection among our native especially the infant Church of Christ, subjects Is being carried on." The which has rode safely and steadily the council, therefore, petitions the Mlnl8try waves. We have reached a position of the Interior to put an end to these where we can Btrike mightier blows manmuvres.-.Re1JU8 deB Miuio1l8 (Jon. temporainu. -The New York Sun, in an editorial speaks specially of one of them who ia on climatic conditions and health in Ar- now the leading man among the Zulu rica, gives the following data: "In preachers, saying, " When r first came British India the annual death-rate to Umzumbe this man was a naked, among Europeans in the early part of scrofulous, hard boy, with a dirty sheep- this century was 84 to the 1000; but in skin thrown over his shoulders. We 1890 it was reduced to 16 to the 1000. cured him of his scrofula; then the So in the Dutch East Indies, the Euro- Lord cured him of his sin·sick heart, pean death-rate has been reduced from and to·day he stands up among our 170·to the 1000 in 1828 to 16-much leM churches as Dr. Storrs stands among than the native death-rate, which in 1892 your churches-a lsader of men."
was 23 to the 1000. In the basin of the -Sir Gilbert Carter, Royal Governor C.:>ngo the death·rate among white men of the British colony of Lagos, has rein 1893 was 70 to the 1000, but this em- cently given some interesting figures braced many mere adventurers and respecting the extent of the gin and rurn campaigners deprived of the comforts traffic on the west coast of Africa for and conveniences of life. In Leopold- tbe year 1893. The colony of Lagos, ville and Boma, white settlements, where with a population of 85,000 souls, imgood homes are available and fair sani- ported $450,000 worth of ardent spirits tary conditions, the death-rate is but 32 -more than $5 worth to each inhabto the 1000." itant I The Gold Coast, a British col- -In June, 1869, the missionary Ram· ony with a popUlation of 1,500,000, im- seyer, of the Basle Missionary Society, ported gin and rum to the value of was dragged as a prisoner into Abetifi, about $500,000. Sierra Leone, another then a city of Ashantee, with his wife British colony, with a population of and child. They spent three days in a 180,000, imported liquors to the value miserable hut, with their feet in chains. of $100,000.
Human sacrifices were then common in -At the recent annual meeting in Abetifi, which was under the tyrannical Londonof the Native Races and Liquor rule of the Ashantee chieftains. To- Traffic United Committee, Sir George day, in the same streets, under the same Goldie, Governor of the Royal Niger shady trees, instead of the bloody exe- Company, stated that in the Niger reo cutioner going his rounds, a Christian gion 1,100,000 gallons of spirits were congregation gathers together every imported in 1892,1,'700,000 in 1893, and Sunday, followed by a troop of Sunday about 2,000,000 in 1894. He said: scholars. Christian hymns, such as .. There is ample evidence of this extra " Who will be Christ's soldier 1" ring liquor finding its way to the Mohamjoyfully through the streets of Abetifi. medans of the interior, whose nominal The people come out of their houses, religion is no barrier against drunkenthe chieftain is invited ; he comes with ness. " Furthermore, this royal govhis suite and listens to the joyful tid· ernor said that after sixteen years of ings of salvation. And it is not in experience in administration :n Africa, vain; many have become the disciples he was prepared to affirm " that if steps of Jesus. Many even dare to tell their were not taken to prohibit the liquor fellow·countrymen in the streets what trade, a state of things would be brought joy and peace they have found in Him. about that would lead to the total aban- Who would have dreamed of this donment of the country." twenty-five years ago ?-.t1Ugemeine Mis- 8ions-Zeitaehrift· -Dr. J. E. Hine gives a ghast- I.Y account of a witch.burning near -Mr. Bridgman, of Umzumbe, in Unangu. The" boys" came and re- writing of the five Zulu preachers who ported. that a witch was being burned have been raised up under his care, alive at a place two miles from the sta· tion. He was incredulous, but went to young fellows from Borneo, Sumatra, see. "When I got a little nearer," he Java, Celebes, and New Guinea are says, "a sudden whiff as of burning eagerly studying the Scriptures in the flesh made me suspicious that the story Malay language, under the tutorship of might ,be true, and a little farther on I a German scholar and hisnativecoadju. saw it was. The body (of a woman I tors. Looking into the faces of those was told) .was lying on a heap of ashes, two men from Dutch New Guinea, of face downward, with the charred re- those converted Bataks from Sumatra, mains of the skull and hands projecting how his heart was moved by the from the end, and fastened to a small thought that the Gospel had brought tree, the feet apparently having been together here in this Christian semfastened to another tree behind. All inary the descendants of cannibals, the flesh on face and arms had been de- east and west, and of savages of all this stroyed, but the body was still burning, Asiatic archipelago I The Bataks on frizzling and spitting in the flames-a the west coast of Sumatra have furhorrible sight, such as I never thought nished 100 missionaries already for the to see in my life." army of our King.
-J. E. Burdett Meakin has told in ISLANDS OF THE SEA. the London Ohri8tian a most remark- able story of the rise and spread of tllC -The seamy side of the work of the kingdom in a portion of Java. Fifty Gospel in Madagascar is seen in the years ago the son of a Russian colonist persistence with which the converts and a Javanese woman was converted still cling to slavery. In particular the by a dream that he was called to evan- English Friends are urgent in seasollj gelize the nations, and forthwith set and out of season to end this" relic of about the task and continued, though barbarism," but hitherto with slight sharp persecution befell. Later the effect. The Malagasy conscience is dull Dutch Reformed Church came to his at this point, and strong feeling is aid, and now a Christian settlement of stirred by exhortations to let the op· 2500 is found with 1000 besides in out- pressed go free. stations, 725 children in school, a kin- dergarten, hospital, etc.
-The Methodists have been at work in Singapore for ten years, and are able -Dr. Schreiber writes thus of the to report substantial progress. Rev. W. success with which the Rhenish So- F. Oldham has a school, with an average ciety is meeting in one portion of the attendance of over 500. In 1880 only Sumatra field: "When we began our 10 natives were connected with the mis· work six years ago in the almost entire· sion, and these were Tamils from South ly Mohammedan district of Padang India; but by the end of the next year Bolak, a Dutch official of high position, 31 adult Chinese were members of the who was friendly to our work, assured church, and now the number has in- us that it was a most foolish step, that creased to more than 200, with the addi-' we could not accomplish anything in tion of 80 Tamils and 30 Malays and the Padang Bolak, we were too late Malay-speaking Chinese. there, since Islam had already occupied the whole region. This was the uni· -The late J. L. Phillips, M.D., versalopinion at that time about work wrote to the Sunday-&lwo~ Timea of a among the Mohammedans in Sumatra.
visit to a seminary for the Dutch and But we did not allow ourselves to be German missions of Malaysia, at Depok, discouraged : the work already done by south of Batavia. Here 40 bright a capable native missionary, Marcus, gave us good ground for hope, and a – -New Guinea has a missionary col- zealous and experienced missionary, lege well started with buildings, stu- Irle, took possession of the field with a dents, etc. W. G. Lawes writes of it : cheerful courage. And what has been .. In aU the work that has been done we the result? Missionary Irle, who works have had the ready help of a number of with a nati ve preacher and /) teachers at natives from the surrounding villages. one central and 4 out·stations, an- Every piece of timber used in our buildnounces in his last report that he has ings has been carried up from the coast baptized 350 persons, and haa no less (two miles) on men's IIhoulders. We than 500 preparing for baptism, among cannot always get help wben we want them a large number of Important chiefs. it ; but the people have been TOry good Earnest requests for teachers are con- and willing. Of course we have had to stantly coming from new districts; even pay them for their services, but the rate formerly fanatical Mohammedans have of wages is not high, and as waist-cloths turned to tbe Gospel; and from several and shirts are most in demand, we thus villages the Mohammedan mollahs have help the people in their efforts to get already retired in confusion because the ell!ternals of civilization. I ought, they see that they have nothing more perhaps, to explain more fully our purto hope; and the impression is becom- pose in establishing the college. The ing general that, over a great part of name may appear mi6leading, and yet the country, Islam is breaking up." it.ls the best for the object we have in view-viz., to train and fit young men -The friendly attitude of many gov- to be _teachers of Christ to their counernment officials toward missionary trymen. Before we receive a candidate, work is a feature of the time. Tho work we must have evidence that he is a sinin New Guinea, whore tho London Mis- cere Christian, and then he must be able sionary Society has no less than 114 na- to read in his o~ language. That is tive teachers and 57 students, has re- all. The minds of the most advanced ceived marked commendation from Sir are only just opening, and the time has William Macgregor, the governor of not yet come when any, except a very the British portion of the island, who select few, will acquire ,knowledge eays, .. Several years' work of the Lon- from books." don Missionary Society has greatly changed the habits of the Lese tribe. A -At the missionary devotional meetbrief glance at the work done by the ing of the Jamaica English Baptist London Missionary Society from Maiva Mil!lBionary Society, attended by memto Carama was considered to reflect the bers of the Baptist, Congregational, greatest credit on Rev. James Chalmers. Moravian. and Presbyterian denomina- Under the firm discipline practised at tions, an addre88 of much spiritual pow- Dobu in the schools and services estab- er was delivered by Rev. D. J. East, lished there very extraordinary progress who has had fifty-seven years of minis- terial service. His reminiscences of has been made. Rev. Mr. Abel is en- misaion work in the West Indies, where he has labored for forty years, were of couragin« some of the young men in his district to form Industrial settle- a atfrring character. He emphasized menta tor the cultf"ation of cotton and such-like commodities. an attempt that the fact that the Baptist churches in duerv" enry enooura,emant the 10"- Jamaica lon, ago became self-llupporternmlnt can give to it." It is only ing, and are now contrlbutin, 8. larie twenty years since the missionaries sum every year tor home and fonilgn landed among these cannibals. and took missionary work. MOlt ot the conpossession of thofr island ill the llama ot JUUI.-TM OlvrUtian. tributora give over a dollar each, thouih they receive lC&uty wage&.
The Missionary Review of the World — February 1889
THE VINDICATION OF MISSIONS
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD~ VOL. XI. No.2-Old series.–FEBRUARY.–VoL. II. No. 2.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS. THE VINDIOATION OF MISSIONS.
[EDITORIAL.-A. T. p.] ALL along the lines Satan seems to sound the signal for an assault on mISSIOns. Perchance the day has dawned, foreseen in apocalyptic vision, when" the devil is come down, having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short time'" (Rev. xii: 12). Oertainly there is, just now, a very unusual commotion among the foes of Ohrist and His Ohurch, and it is manifestly caused by the unparalleled progress of Ohristian missions.
Satan is a master strategist. His favorite device is to employ respect~ able agents, and, best of all, professing disciples, to do his business. He disguises the personnel of the attack by getting them to hold the bow while he directs and discharges the venomous arrow. And so we find leading journals of America and Great Britain, and even a Oanon of the Anglican Ohurch, indulging in unfair and unfriendly criticism, and actually trying to prove" Ohristian missions a great failure" !
As to that" distinguished clergyman of the Ohurch of England," too much notice has been taken of him already. lIe has bought a cheap notoriety by his antagonism to missions, without ever earning a costly reputation by his defense of the faith. In the November issue of the Ohurch Missionary Intelligencer our friend" K." has given him and his paper an examination and an exposure so searching, so skillful, so analytic, so critical, that it leaves nothing for any other reviewer to do., . That scholarly article we wish everyone might read. It is at once a dissection and a castigation, reminding us both of the scalpel and of the scourge. The accomplished writer, with keen analysis of character and thorough knowledge of missions, cuts quick and deep beneath the cuticle of snperficial information and professed impartiality, and reveals the real ignorance of facts and perversion of the truth which vitiate th':) Oanon's essay. lIe calmly and coolly exposes and elucidates the entire structure of that misleading, if not malicious, paper, and justifies the judgment already pronounced upon its author by a very competent observer, that the" like of him for pretentious inaccuracy was hardly ever seen." In another aspect that reply isa terrible castigation. Long before "K." gets through, his victim is, figuratively speaking, dead under the scourge; and we wonder why the whipping goes on, unless it be on the principle of the boy who kept on beating a dead dog, because, as he said, "he wanted to show all living dogs that there is punishment after death." We hesitate to refer further to the Canon's essay, for it is not magnanimous to kick a foe who is already hors du combat, not to say lifeless. But while an author may not be worth notice, his false and fallacious statements and inferences may demand contradiction and exposure. 'Ve may not hope to overtake error, which" runs around the earth while truth is pulling on his boots," but we will do what we canto undo the mischief already wrought. Even out of the bramble may come a fire which, jf not quenched, sha1l devour the cedars of Lebanon; and so we undertake to address to candid minds some of the mighty facts and weighty considerations which, to every careful observer, are a triumphant vindication of missions.
It needs but little learning and less logic to see that the basis, on which the Canon rests the great missionary failure, is unsound. It will not bear investigation. First, as to the facts, so far as they are facts, there is nothing new. No intelligent student of Christian missions is taken by surprise or trembles with alarm. The main body of the. statements, based on comparative statistics, the most ardent advocates of missions, and even missionaries themselves, have not only conceded but furnished. He who has read Christlieb and Croil, Anderson and Stevenson, George Smith and Thomas Smith, Gammell and Goodell, Laurie and Livingstone, Bainbridge and Bartlett, Doolittle and Dorchester, Warneck and Wilder, Gordon Cumming and James Johnston, has seen these" vital statistics," facts and figures, fully set forth; indeed to Dorchester's" Religious Progress" and Johnston's" Century of Christian Progress," Canon Taylor probably owes no little of his own material. But while we concede the facts we dispute the inferences. Many a good scientist or statistician proves a poor philosopher or logician ; and even those who have gathered and classified these very facts follow them with no such induction, as is plain from their attitude toward missions, some of them being the foremost leaders and most eloquent pleaders of the whole mission host!
That is a false maxim that" facts and figures cannot lie." They may be arrayed in a garb so delusive, and arranged in a relation so deceptive, as to justify the quaint counter-saying, that "nothing can be made to lie so badly as figures, unless it be facts." For instance, the increase of popUlation is contrasted with the increase of Christian converts, and the former is shown to outstrip the)atter by ten millions a year; and this is one of this Canon's shots, by which he proposes to demolish Christian missions. But look at the comparative agencies producing these respccyve results. Suppose we estimate the unevan· gelized population of the Eastern Hemisphere at 1,000,000,000, and their annual net increase at 10,000,000, or one per cent. The whole Christian Ohurch at home sends into the mission field only some 6,000 men and women, and last year the "Ohurch 1-fissionary Society" alone reported 4,000 converts, or sixty-seven per cent. upon this whole force; while the entire gain from the whole mission field, in the last fully reported year, was more than 150,000, or tlOenty-five hundred per cent. If now we count into the working force the 30,000 laborers who .. are converts from heathenism, even yet the results are amazing; for, while the popUlation of these non-OhI'istian countries grew by one per cent., the number of converts advanced by over jour hundred per cent. upon the whole number of workers in the 'field! Does that look like failure?
But while we find fault with Oanon Taylor's figures and his worse .inferences, we most of all find fault with his sinking the Ohristian in the mathematician. Figures cannot exhaust facts. ~'here are results that cannot be reckoned by numbers or reported in figures, and the greater part of the actual fruits of missions cannot be thus estimated . or tabulated. Think of the direct results in the elevation of man as man, and in the creation of Ohristian communities in the very heart of heathenism and paganism! The gospel lever has lifted whole peo- ples to a higher level during this century of modern missions: new dignity has been given to manhood and womanhood and honest toil; new sanctity to marriage and family ties; new security to life and liberty, property, and happiness; cruel customs, degrading supersti- tions, caste distinctions, have been modified and even abolished; and there has been a wide diffusion of snch ennobling conceptions as the Universal Fatherhood of God and the Universal Brotherhood of man!
To. all tbese and many other direct results, we must still add the indirect influence of the gospel-refining, subduing, civilizing, even where it does not renew, sanctify, Ohristianize. There are many changes which stop sbort of conversion, which are both invaluable and inestimable. Dr. Lindley declared that when a naked Zulu got so far toward Ohristianity as to put on duck pants and a calico shirt and sit on a three-legged stool nine inches high, he was about nine thousand miles above his nude neighbors. Before Ohristianity entered India, lepers were treated with shocking inhumanity, many of them being buried alive. Not only has a stop been put to this cruelty, but for fourteen years there has beon a special Ohristian mission to the 135,000 lepers of India. Rev. James Ohalmers, the veteran missionary, after twenty-one years of experience among cannibals; after visits to the Loyalty, Samoan, Society, and New Hebrides groups; after ten years of life in the Hervey Islands, and almost tcn more among the savages of New Guinea, declares that he has never yet seen a single mall or woman that has been civilized without Ohristianity's influence; and he declares that the gospel is the only true civilizer, and that if this wel,"e all, it is worth while to send Christian missionaries to the field.
If Canon Taylor thinks missions a failure, he ought to have been wrecked, like a certain Scotcl~ seaman, on that islanl! in the South Sea, where, eight years before, a whole ship's crew were thrown ashore, escaping the devourillg jaws of an angry sea only to be roasted in can- nibal ovens and eaten by remorseless savages; yet here natives in English dress and with English words of welcome now. pulled their canoes toward htohsepitsainblkeinCgl~'isshtiipal, l eager to reseue the perishing and invite them tG homes. lIas CarlOn Ta,ylor heard Mr. Calvert and Mr. 'Yebb tell the story of Fijian missions? How heathenism has been so swept awuy that the visitor canllot believe that those people, polite as Parisians and honest as Norwegians, were wild cannibals a generation ago! How, out of less than 112,000 Fijians, over 100,000 are attendants on Christian worship! How, where fifty years ago there was not one Christian, there is to· day not one avowed hcathen 1 How there are over 1,200 placcs of ChriRtian yorship and not one cannibal oven or heathen temple! And yet Christian mi~sions are « a great failure"! Is it not rather the Canon himself?
ThG argument by which the Canon wonle1 reduce CIJristian missions to an absurdity is itself capable of an easy reductio ad absurdum. He calculates that at the present rate it would take from 300,000 to 1,000,- 000 years to convert the worh1-a result 'rather remote for any of us now living to hope to see! What a shallow argument against missions!
Shall we haul down the flag of the cross before this noisy cannonade?
Beholl! the logical inference as to all other work-reformatory, benevo- lent, philanthropic. 'Yhat if it can be demonstrated that, notwith- standillg the Herculean labor of temperance reformers, it would take, at the present rate, 1t million years to male every man a total abstainer or even to clear the world of drunlmrds, ronld that prove the temper- ance work a failure or lessen the value of mdivjdnals already rescned and homes already redeemed from this curse? Give the Canon's argu- ment a broad enough application, and all existing philanthropies would cease to-morrow! There arc in operation a thousand forms in which unselfishness ministers to want or woe-asylums for the blind and deaf, the incurable, the cripple, the insane; refnges for homeless orphans and midl11ght missions for lost women; soup-houses and cof- fee-rooms for the poor, lllght-schools and lodging-houses for bootblacks and newsboys. Blindness, prostitution, crime are said to be on the increase. All our best efforts canJlot overtake human poverty and misery. Shall we then pronounce all beneficent work a failure and abandon all eleemosynary institutions?
'fhis is a "distinguished clergyman of the Church of England."
'VeIl, how does he measure values? After the law of a carnal com- mandment, or after the power of an endless life? Hesults that affect a human soul-its character, history, destiny-are not to be gauged by quantity, but by quality; not to be counted by numbers, but weighed in the scales of God. Who shall measure the worth of one human being, of one human life, of one home redeemed from poverty and misery, lust and filth, rum and ruin? One child's possibilities for evil or gooel suggest a profound heig1lt alH1 depth which even the mind of a cherub and the heart of a seraph could not sound or explore. Even if eternity be left out of account, for the sake of benefits accruing in this life we shall still run the uneqm>l race with human sin and suffering, though we never supply all nleds or banish all crime and wretchedness.
Oanon Taylor's preaching, it is to be hoped, saves here and there one out of the thousands about him. Does he consider his ministry a failure? If so, why not doff his canon's robes and take up some work that pays better than preaching? The fact is, if he be a true disciple, his heart is better than his head, his love is sounder than his logic, and so he goes on patiently, rescuing here and there one soul from the awful wreek of faith and hope and love and life- because he cannot help, it. And so Ohristian missions are the necessary vent to a pent-up fire in our bones which makes us "weary with forbearing, so that we cannot stay" from the telling of the old story. It is because love, the expansive, expulsive, explosive law of the new life, will work to save, though the more abundantly it be lavished the less we be loved!
This question, "Do missions pay?" is a characteristic sign of our materialistic and commercial age. We have a supreme contempt for such methods of measuring duty and responsibility. A dIvine command is our authority for Ohristian missions, and their sufficient vindication. With results we have nothing to do, however discouraging. But since this Canon and oth~rs like him set up such standards of measurement, we cannot forbear to show that even on this basis mis- &ions are triumphantly vindicated. The witnesses that testify to the magnificent successes of missionary labor are legion. They may not, in the Oanon's eyes, be men of the highest learning, but they speak what they know and testify what they have seen; and their knowledge, however limited, cannot be offset by his ignorance, however extensive.
This paper in the Fortnightly Review hints that the quality of converts on mission fields scarcely justifies the expenditure in lives and treasure. Is the m'erage very high in the home churches? Where is the pastor who does not mourn over the dead driftwood that somehow gets into the current and then lodges in some bend of the stream to block all progress? Half of our church members give no sign of vital godliness. In a land wher~ the yery "atmosphere" is Ohristian, professing disciples trample on the whole decalogue, and even the churches are the shrines of idols. Oan we reasonably e:xpect a higher average of genuine a~d steadfast l)iety where the whole atmosphere is poisoned with paganism? But what are the facts? Whether judged by holy living or by ample giving, by faith or by works, the average convert in Turkey and Persia, Siam and Burmah, Ohina and Oaffraria, is far beyond the home standard, as the best missionaries testify with re- markable unanimity. Out of their poverty they give with an abun- dance of liberality that }mts to shame the gifts of our richest and most generous donors; and while Protestant Ohristendom sends to the direct mission work abroad only one out of every 5,000 members, these small churches, gathered on heathen soil, give at least one out of every hundred. .
In all.Oanon Taylor's comparisons of Ohristian life on these differ4 ent fields, there is the same obvious warping of facts by the determina- tion to make out his case. He repeats the common error of those who would applaud morality at the expense of piety, and who uniformly appropriate for the contrast the best specimens of the former with the worst of the latter. If the converts in the home and foreign fields are to be compared, we insist upon fairness and equity. Let us take for our examples those whose education, capacity, environment, oppor- tunity, most nearly correspond; and even then let us take into consid- eration every circumstance to which charity would accord a hearing in the court of reason and conscience. For a plant to live at all in a desert is a greater proof of vitality than for the same plant to thrive with lux.
uriance in a well-watered garden; and only they who, on pagan soil, where even the language has no terms for spiritual ideas, have seen the plants of godliness grow like flowers of Eden, can feel the full force of the proof that a divine Husbandman has been at work I But here, again, something besides numbers is to be taken into ac- count.. '1'he most subtle substances evade analysis, and the most im- portant results defy representation in the crude colors· of the mathe- matician or statistician. Theodore Parker rose from reading Judson's life to declare that if missions had produced but one such hero, all costs were repaid. With as profound persuasion do we affirm the same of multitudes of single converts in the foreign field. Foreign missions would be a grand success had they produced no results beyond creating, out of materials found in such soil, such men as Asaad Shidiak in Syria, .
Deacon Guergis in Persia, Kho-Thah-Byu and Sau Quala in Burmah, Africaner in Namaqualand, Kamehameha III. in Hawaii and Rona- valona II. in Madagascar, Tawai and Miti in New Zealand, Tubou and Bulu in Raabai and Finau in Vavau, Motele and Moshesh in Basuto- land, Pomare in Tahiti and Papeiha in Raratonga, Kayarnak in Green- land, Aquilar in Mexico, Leong-on-Tong in Ohina, and Brindelbund and Das Maitra in India; not to mention hundreds of others who are not individually named, like the converts of Uganda, who sang of Jesus till their tongues were crisped in their martyr fires! One might as well try to weigh in a scale the worth of a sunbeam as to estimate by mere arithmetic the value of transformed men and women, who in the ceuters o.f pagau, papal, heathen and M()hammedan communities shine as lights in the world holding forth the word of life. The unconverted pagans themselves often confess amazement at transformations of character so radical, and, with Pharaoh's magicians, are compelled to say, "This is the finger of God!" When the vindictive Indian learns to forgive, the brutal cannibal to be compassionate, the cruel savage to be gentle, the treacherous Turk to be faithful, the sordid Ohinaman to be unselfish, the vile Hottentot to be chaste, there is a creat-ive energy at work. This is more than ;eformation or transformation' it is a miracle. It contradicts nature and natural law, and argues a new nature, a new birth, a new creation. He who does not know how repeatedly and unmistakably such transfigurations have been realized, even amid the habitations of cruelty and the shadow of death, is not a competent witness as to the value of missions, and no man who does know these facts can or will pronounce missions a failure.
Moreover, when a man writes on the great missionary failure, first of all we would like him to settle the meaning of terms. What is a failure? Manifestly the opposite of success. And what is success? This is the accomplishment of a plan or purpose. In the last analysis, the success or failure of Ohristian missions must depend upon the real purpose of Ohristian missions.
Weare constrained therefore to raise the question, What is the purpose of the gospel in this dispensation? There is a grand distinction which even students of the Word and advocates of missions often overlook. With the work of conversion we have nothing to do, and for that we are not responsible. Our mission is one of evangelization. "Go ye into aU the world and evangelize-preach the gospel to every creature." Our Lord Ohrist never said that it was our duty to convert everybody, nor did He promise such a result. We give the community a free school, though not every boy that goes to school will turn out a scholar. Weare to give the community a free 'gospel, though not every hearer does turn out a convert.
"This gospel must first be preached for a witness in all the world." This means no superficial, hasty, formal proclamation of the good news of grace. It means thorough work, the implanting and erection of all the institutions of Ohristianity. Everywhere men are to be confronted with the Ohristian church and home, school and college, society and civilization. They are to see demonstrated before their eyes, and by the logic of events, what the gospel of Ohrist can do for the man, the woman, the child; what it can do to elevate labor, dignify humanity, abolish cruelty and eve!! discourtesy, supplant caste by a true equality, and lift all society to a higher level. The contrast will thus be made to appear between the religion of the Nazarene 'and all other faiths. The Mohammedan, heathen, pagan, will be compelled to confess the I immense superiority of a gospel that is not satisfied with mere evolu.
tion, but demands revolution; and that, not out of ruins but upon them, rears a temple to God, in which unselfishness, benevolence, ch:J.rity and purity arl' the white-robed priests. That is pr~aching the gospel as a witness, and it gives to all men a fair chance for intel- ligent choice. Such is the purpose of the gospel in the present age, and such is the commission of the church during this dispensation, viz., worrd-wide evangelization; and so far and so fast as the church accomplishes that mission, however few or many be the professed con- verts, so far and so fast does the church succeed in missions, for she is doing the very work her Lord has given her to do.
While it is not promised that everybody who hears the gospel shall be converted during thIS age of gospel wItness, great reAUlts have accompanied, and greater WIll follow, the missionary efforts of the church of God. Already results that rival Pentecostal wonders have been realized. McKay at Formosa gathered 1,200 converts at the Lord's table on the twelfth anmversaryof his advent to that island,.
William Johnson saw Sierra Leone transformed into a Ohristian state within seven years. Dr. Clough, at Ongole, baptized 10,000 converts in three months in 1878. The South Seas were Ohristiamzed in forty years, from TahIti to New Gumea. A thousand spires dIsplaced can- nibal ovens, in the Fiji group, in less than half a century Transfor- mations have taken place within the memory of men still living, that are as inexplicable by any human philosophy as the creation ·of a world out of nothing. Madagascar, Polynesia, the Karens, the Zulus, the Maoris, even the Japanese in our own day, furnish modern miracles as astounding as the cleansmg of a leper, the empowermg of the Impo- tent, the exorcising of the demoniac, or the raIsmg of the dead.
The fuller exhibition of the fruits of missionary enterpnse must be left to a future paper on the "ExpOSItion of Missions." But, as a specimen both of the success of missionary labor and of the witness of impartial observers, we refer the reader to the recently published" Life and Letters of Oharles Darwin." In contrast with Oanon Taylor's as- sault, let us OLce more summon this apostle of materialIsm from his grave, to give his testimony. Mr. Darwm, though not a Ohristian, had the. greatest reflpect for the good in Ohristianity, and was great enough to.acknowledge it. 'l'his isthe way in which he answered some shal- low critics of foreign missionaries. We give space to his testimony be- cause it deserves to be quoted in full. After his visit to Terra del .Fuego, he wrote : "The Fuegians are III a more miserable state of barbarism than I had expectpd eyer to have seen a human being. In this inclement country they are ahsolutely naked, and their temporary houses are like what children make in summer with boughs of trees. I do not think 'any spectacle can be more interesting than the first sight of man in his primitive wildness. It is an interest whioh cannot well be imagined until it is experienced. I shall never forget this when entering' Good Success Bay'-the veIl with which a party received us. They were seated on a rocky p~int, sur~'ounded by the dark forest of beech; as they threw their at'ms wildly around th,eir heads, and their long hair streaming, they seemed the ;troubled spirits of another world. . • . There is in their countenance an expresion which I believe, to those who have not seen it, JlJust be inconceivably wild. Standing on a rock they uttered tones and made gesticulations than which the cries of domestic animals are far more intelligible."
'Admiral Sir James Sullivan testifies that JUl'. Darwin" often ex- pressed to him his conviction that it was lltterly useless to send missionaries t~ such a set of savages as the Fuegians, probably the very lowest of the human race." But subsequently, about 1869, he wrote to the Admiral" that the recent accounts of the mission proved to him that he had been wrong in his estimates of the native character and of the possibility of doing them good through the missionaries, and he requested the Admiral to forward to the society an inclosed check for £5, as a testimony of the interest he took in their good work." Yet later, in 1874, 187'9, and 1880, he wrote: "I am glad to hear so good an account of the Fuegians, and it is wonderful; the progress of the Fuegians is. wonderful, and had it not occurred, would have been ,to me incredible. I have often said that the progress of Japan was the greatest wonder III the world, but I declare that the progress of Fuegia is almost equally wonderfu1. It is truly 'wonderful about their h<?nesty and their l::tnguage. I certainly should have predicted that not all the missionaries in the world could have done what has been done." * Again Mr. Darwin writes: "In our passage across the Pacific we only touched at Tahiti and New Zealand. Tahiti is a most charming spot. Delicious scenery, climate, manner of the people, all in harmony. It is moreover admirable to behold what the missionaries both here and at New Zealand huyc effected. I firmly believe they are good men working for the sake of a good cause. I much suspect that those who have abused or sneered at the missionaries have generally been such as were not very anxious to find the natives 71w1'al and intelligible beings. They forget, or will not remember, that human sacrifice and the power of an idolatrous priesthood; a system of profligacy unparalleled in any other part of the world; infanticide, a consequence of that system; bloody wars, where the conquerors spared neither women nor children-that all these things, have been abolished, and that dishonesty, intemperance, and licentiousness have been greatly reduced hy the introduc- tion of Christianity. In a voyager to forget these things is a base ingrati- tude; fOJ' should he chance to be at the pointof shipwreck on some unknown coast, he will mo~t devoutly pray that the lesson of the missionary may have extended thus far."
Weare compelled to leave the "pretentiously inaccurate" paper of Canon 'I'aylor with these brief comments on the" facts" it presents and the inferences it draws. Its answer must be found in the mis- * Vol. ii. 307, 308.
MISSIONS TO THE LEVANT
sionary annals of the entire century since the pioneer English mis- sionary went to India. There is not a true worker on'the field who will for a moment be disturbed by the recklelOs shots from this eccle- siastical gun. Nor will the missionary enterprises of the ch,urch be for one hour arrested or delayed. Infidels have been trying for cen- turies to overthrow the Word of God by scientific speculations. So soon as some new "fact" or "law" is discovered, they make haste to load up their guns and fire, expecting to see the defenses of the Christian faith totter and tumble under the tremendous shock of this scientific artillery. But 10 ! the 'fortress stands, with not even a hole or breach in the wall. And when we come to examine what was hurled against the walls, we find not some huge, heavy shot of solid fact, but a mere paper-wad of fanciful theory that took fire from the powder before it was out of the mouth of the gun!
We seriously apprehend that in this noisy assault on missions there is more flash and roar than force and nre. This gun kicks so badly that it were better to be before it than behind it. And when the smoke c1ears away and the effect of the assault is seen, this" distin- guished clergyman" will find himself famous only for his blunders, while his inexact statements and illogical conclusions may have led many a reader, like Nathanael, to come and see whether any good thing can come out of Nazareth, and to confess that the despised Nazarene is the Son of God and the miracle worker among the nations! These attacks, whether from nominal friend or from pro- fessed foe, are like the wild dash of the birds of the night against the crystal inclosure of that superb light that shines on the colossal statue in New York harbor: the assailants beat themselves into insensibility, while the light shines on undimmed, and the grand statue, reared on granite pedestal, stands unmoved and immovable, still guiding the watching sailor to a peaceful harbor.
MISSIONS TO THE LEVANT: THEIR PROBLEMS, METHODS . AND RESULTS. .
BY REV. EDWIN M. BLISS. [Our readers will be interested to know that the writer of this int~resting series of papers has but recently returned from Constantinople, where he spent several years as assistant agent of the American Bible Society for the Levant. Hence his thorough knowledge of the subject which he dis- cusses.-EDs.] UI. THEIR RESULTS.
IN considering the results of missions in the LfJ,ant we note: 1.
The development of the agencies employed. 2. The direct· effect ot those agencies in the establishment of evangelical communities and churches. 3. Their indirect effect upon other communities in the line of intellectual, social, and religious life. 4. The type of character developed as a foundation for the future. 1. The development of the agencies employed. The success of an undertaking is often measured in a degtee by the amount invested in it. The work: of the American churches in the Levant, commenced by the little band who sailed from Boston under the auspices of the then infant American Board, is now carried on by seven organized American societies-six representing the Congregational, Presbyterian, United Presbyterian, Reformed Presbyterian, Southern Presbyterian, and Methodist denominations, and one, the American Bible Society, representing all, and helping to unite all upon the one foundation of the Word of God. There are also two colleges-Robert College at Constantinople, and the Syrian Protestant College at Beyroot-independent in endow)llent and management of the societies. Three more, at Harpoot, Aintab, and Marsovan, in Asia Minor, with endowments and boards of trustees, but practically under management of the societies. Two more, at Oroomiah, Persia, and Osiout, Egypt, under direct control of the' societies. There is also the Bible House at Constantinople, connected with no society, owned and managed by a board of trustees in New York, the income from which goes. toward Bible work, supplementing that of the societies. The Disciples of Christ and the Baptist Union are represented by a few native preachers, whose work has been, so far, almost entirely among the existing evangelical churches.
These different organizations are represented oy 133 American gentlemen, mostly ordained and married men, and 119 single ladies. They are located in 42 central stations, and have nearly 500 out-stations connected with them. Over 1,700 native preachers, teachers, and colporteurs work under their superinte·ndence. There are 185 churches with 15,226 communicants; 763 schools with nearly 33,000 scholars; 43,000 copies of the Scriptures, in whole or in part, have been distributed in one year. Unfortunately the statistics of religious and educational books are not kept distinct by the different societies. A general estimate of 50,000 books, 100,000 text-books, a.nd 400,000 tracts would perhaps represent the work of a year. Aside from these are the periodicals, 5 weeklies and 6 Ip.onthlies, the latter chiefly child's papers. One weekly in Bulgarian reached a circulation of over 4,000. '}'he medical work has assumed great proportions. Herc again no statistics arc given, but to say that 25,000 cases are attended yearly would probably be within the truth. These all involve an annual expenditure of Amel"ican funds amounting to nearly $500,000. How much the native communities contribute in salaries of preachers and teachers, tuition, cost of books, and general community and church expenses, it is impossible to say without better data than are furnished as yet. The value of property in land, buildings, school, printing and binding apparatus, stock of printed sheets, bound books, etc., is very great. In Constantinople alone it is over $400,000. These figures indicate the amount of the investment that the American churches have made in evangelical wo.rk in the Levant. The question then CDmes, Is this investment so. placed as to. secure the widest pDssible returns? The 42 central statiDns include nearly every city Df size and impDrtance in Bulgaria, RDumelia, Asiatic Turkey, NDrth Persia, Syria, and Egypt. AttentiDn has been paid especially to centers of pDpulation. There is prDbably no. country where the annual shifting Df the population is so great as in Turkey. Oonstantinople, Smyrna, Adana, even such interior places as Harpoot and 'Oesarea, are thronged by men who. leave their village homes for a few months or a few years to earn a little and then return. These are the peDple that are most easily reached, and there is scarcely a hamlet, frDm the Balkans to. the Persian Gulf, from the Oaucasus to. LuxDr, that has not some one or more Df those who have been reached by preacher, teacher, or colpor-. teur in the larger cities. There is also a regularly organized system by which the whole field is visited each year. The results are brought into. discussion III native presbyteries and uniDns, and then into annual meetings of the missionaries, where plans suggested on the field are scrutinized mDst carefully, matured, and put into. actiye operation. In fact, as a matter of business management Df the sums committed to their care, the missions of the American churches to the Levant have often won the highest encomiums from those who have taken the pains to examine into the matter.
2. The direct effect of these agencies in the establishment of evangelical communities and churches. The statistics already given show 185 churches with 15,226 communicants. Of these abDut 1,200 were added during the past year. If we follow the style of arithmetic in vogue with Oanon Taylor and others, this would give a cost to the American churches of about $400 per convert, tofay nothing of native contributions. Of course it is easy to say that this cost includes the expense of a vast school system, a large amDunt Df publication, etc. But as all these have for their aim the actual conversion of men, the number of such conversions must constitute, it is claimed, th(> real test of succelOs. Education, publication, etc., are all good, but are legitimate for a missionary society only as they have direct results in Ohristian life. What are these direct results, as shown by open connection with Protestant evangelical Ohristianity? Are they accurately measured by the membership in PrDtestant churches alone? NDt in the Levant, any more than in America. Hardly even as much. The position of the evangelical churches there, is not unlike that of the Puritans of two and three centuries ago. Membership in the old Oriental communions is a mere form, even more civil than religious in its character. A man partakes Df the sacrament very much, as he registers his name as a voter here. This, Df cDurse, is not true of all, but it is true to a great degree. When men leave the:se churches to CDnnect themselves with Protestants, they are actuated by differing mDtives. Some do it under the pressure of the longing fOl' a closer communion with God than is possible for them in the formalities of the old service; others from intellectual conviction that the Protestant worship is -purer an.d represents a truer faith than their own; others in disgust at the corruption of the priesthood; others in protest against ecclesiastical domination in civil as well as in church life. Were all these to be gathered into churches and enrolled as communicants, as they would have been by Xavier and the Moslem mis3ionaries over whom Canon Taylor waxes so eloquent, there would be 500 churches, and the communicants would be numbered not by tens but by hundreds of thousands. 'fhe missionaries in founding these churches have realized that the acceptance of Ohristian doctrine, the practice of Ohristian worship, amounts to nothing without Ohristian ll/e. With the exception, perhaps, of the first class referred to above, most have joined the new community with little or no conception of what Ohristian l~fe meant. They have come, for the most part, with old views, old practices, still in full sway. To bring them at once into the young, uneducated churches would have been to bind all to the level of those around them, with little or no hope of a pure, elevated Ohristian character. There have thus grown up around the churches large communities with many strong, intelligent men, accepting to the full, evangelical doctrine and worship, but remaining noncommunicants, because the heart does not seem yet to have accepted what is clear to the mind. 'fheyare passing through a process of education, and it is from their number chiefly that the additions to churches come. How to guide the churches so as to admit to thorn only those who have some conception, faint though it may be, of a true Ohristian life, and a genuijle purpose, however weak, to lead that life, has ever been a most difficult task, akin to that of Gideon in his assault upon the Midianites. 'fo gauge the direct effects of Ohristian missions by the membership of native churches alone would be as incorrect as to claim that Gideon's three hundred represented the whole result of Mosaic teaching.
3. The indirect effect of these agencies upon other communities-in the line of intellectual, social, and religious life.
At one time, Rev. Dr. Van Dyck, the veteran missionary to Syria, said, as he started for a village on Mt. Lebanon, "I am going to – – – to start three schools." "What do you want of three schools there?" "Oh, I am only going to manage one. But just as soon as I get mine started, the Maronites will start one and the Druses will start one. 'l'hat makes three." So it has been all over the Levant. Wherever the colporteur or evangelist has gone the teacher has followed. With the advent of text-books" things new and old" have been opened up out of the storehouses of ancient history and modern science. Ohildren have learned that the world is wider and older than they had supposed. Parents have learned from their children and have begun to
TO THE LEVANT
question the correctness of the views in which they have been trained. A very large percentage of the geographies, histories, and general text~ books have gone, not into schools but famllies, and families too not in any way connected with the Protestant communities. The result has been a general quickening of intellectual life. The old communi. ties found that men were beginning to think for themselves, and real~ ized that they must guide that thinking or it would wander far from their control. Hence, on every hand, schools have been started- Armenian, Greek, Bulgarian, Maronite, Moslem. These have been in some cases heavily endoweu, furnished with the best modern appli~ ances available, yet even so they have not been able to keep pace with the evangelical schools, as is shown by the fact that, periodically, anathemas are hurled from the old altars against those who dare to place their children under the baneful influence of Protestant teachers. Not long ago there was a most earnest appeal in the Turkish papers of Constantinople for teachers who could meet Protestantism on its own ground, could grapple intelligently and successfully with the questions of modern thought. They said, "The time is past when the dictum , of an Imam carries with it conviction. Men are thinking for them- selves, and if we would hold our young men true to the faith in which they were born, we must show them that we are the equals in thought of those who would entice them away." 'l'he result was a series 01 statements about Protestantism of much the same grade of accuracy as certain recent paragraphs on missions in the Evening Post of New York, and renewed press censorship so severe as almost to destroy the character of mission newspapers. No one can go through even the remoter sections of Turkey without seeing on every hand the signs of an intellectual life such as has not b8'en since the days when Byzan- tines fought over Greek prepositions in the baths of Constantinople; and there are few, even of those opposed to missions, but will admit that this is due primarily to them. The influence of Christian missiOl1E on the social life of the East has been most marked.
Scarcely, even under the caste systems of India, has the power of social custom been more severe than in the Levant. Fifty years ago ,there was little or no family life. The men during the day were at work, in the evening at the coffee-shop. rrhe wOmen bore children, cooked and served meals. The wife could not sit at the same table or tray with her husband, shared in no way the responsibilities and honor of the home. Marriage was a matter of barter and sale. Social entertainments were of the lowest grade. Oonver3ation turned almost solely on pyrsonal scanda1. Personal purity had not sunk as low as in some other countries, but it was by no means high. Business was purely a matter of keen wits, never of fair profit. He who could cheat most was the best man. This has not all changed. Else America might go to school to Asia. There has been, however, a wonderful
MISSIONS TO THE
improvement. There are comparatively few Turks now who would consider it an insult to receive inquiries after the health of wife or daughter, and the rigid, seclusion of the harem is more and more a thing of the past. In many a home the mother shares with the father the honor of receiving a passing guest, and the daughter feels free to express her feeling toward the suitor for her hand. The evening finds books and newspapers on the table, and the Vermont farmer who astonished Dr. Hamlin with his inquiries about Fuad "Pachy" finds his counterpart in the Koordish Sheik who talks intelligently about Bismarck and Giers, Gladstone and Boulanger.
The power of Ohristian missions over the religious thought and life of those who do not openly declare their adherence to evangelical Ohristianity is shown in many ways. Up to the present year there have been distributed by the Americ11ll Bible Society not less than 800,000 copies of the Scriptures. Add perhaps 700,000 by the British and Foreign Bible Society, and we have one and a half millions of copies put into the hands of the people. These have been in about the pro- portion of 1 Bible, 3 Testaments and 5 Portions, i.e., single Gospels, Psalms, and Proverbs. When it is remembered that the immense majority of these have been sold, and that certainly not more than one-half, if more than one-third, have gone into evangelical families; when it is remembered too that book-purchasing is not in the Levant what it is so often in America-that it almost uniformly represents a genuine earnest interest in the book-some idea may be gained of the unseen influence that is being exerted all over that great country.
A Bible Society colporteur in the inn of a small village on the Black Sea coast, was challenged to argument by a group of young men thoroughly versed in European infidelity. Being an uneducated man, he found it difficult to meet them. 'fo his utter surprise, a Turkish priest sitting by, asking him for a Testament, took up the argument, and utterly silenced the young men, who left acknowledging their defeat. To the colporteur who expressed his thanks for the timely aid, he said: "Go tell the gentleman at the Bible House not to be discouraged. There are many like myself who read this 'good Book, accept its faith, and are trying to lead the life of Ohrist. We do not openly confess Him, for we feel that the time has not yet come, but it will come, and then you will see the fruit of the seed you are sowing." Among the most significant facts in the religious life of the old Ohristian communities of the Levant are the changes that have been brought about in not a few places in the church services. Worship before pictures has been very generally discouraged, and in some cases the pictures have been taken down. It is becoming an increasing ambition on the part of the clergy to be known as good preachers, and many an earnest gospel sermon is given from pulpits where, until recently, nothin~ 'Yll,tlheard but an intoned liturgy in an unknown tongue. Sabbath-schools and Bible-claSiles have been established, and at the present time the Am~rican Bible Society is printing in Con- stantinople ail edition of the ancient Armenian Bible, at the com- bined earnest request of Gregorian and Papal as well as Evangelical Armenians.
4. 'rhe type of character developed as a foundation for the future. The en,rnest, thoughtful supporter of foreign missions will and must meet this question: What relation have these results to the ifuture? Weare glad of what has been and is being done; glad for every soul brought to a truly Christian life; glad for the growth in intellectual, , social, religious life of those who cannot see their way clear to join our numbers; but America cannot [tlways snpport the East. Foreign missions must inevitably have something of the exotic in their nature. A real live Christianity must be in a sense indigenous to the land where it lives. Is the character of t-qe native evangelical Christians such as to warrant the belief that in due time they will be able to develop their own life,' normally, successfully, and independently? For the answer to this we must not look to statistics of increasing or decreasing contributions. 'rhese are very apt to be misleading. Fam- ine, war, pe8tilence, emigration, taxation, all enter in as dlSturbing elements. In not a few cases increased missionary expenses are coin- cident with decreasing demands from native churches, because new doors are opened and new work commenced. Neither is the increase in church membership a very safe guide, as may easily be inferred from what has already been said. ,The correct flnswer can be funy gained only as we go into the churches, attend the meetings of pastors and helpers, learn their methods and their spirit, and this must be done, not only along the seaboard but in the interior. Anyone who will do this will find large churches managing all their affairs, financial, executive, religious, with skill-and success; local unions and presbyteries consulting earnestly and courteously in regard to the interests of the one great work; home missionary societies snpporting and conducting operations in outlying districts; Young Men's Christian Associations, not patterned after those here, but developed according to local needs and opportunities. Undoubtedly much is lacking. A single generation under such con- ditions as obtain in the Levant can hardly suffice to deyelop a Chris- tian people of the highest grade. There are not a few native pastors that are overfond of foreign money, seek unduly to copy foreign life. But they do not represent the great number of those who from pulpit and desk, by the roadside and in the home, are seeking men to lead in the life of Christ. There are church members who do not give of their substance as they shonld, but the proportion who give conscien- tiously the tithe, and even more, would put to shame many an Ameri- can congregation.
1889.J DELITZSCH'S HEBREW NEW TE:STAMENT
It.is easy for the chance traveler or" superficial observer to find occasion for legitimate criticism. Not so easy for even the carefnl sympathizer to judge accurately the forces that are working for the development of communities. 'fhose who know best and most intimately the local internal life of these communities and churches have the most faith in them. They recognize that mistakes are made, but they believe that throughout these lands dear to every Christian heart the life planted by the apostles, nourished by the church fathers, almost overwhelmed by the adhesion of an unconverted empire, held in bond for centuries by an ignorant ecclesiasticism, is now reasserting itself, and will erelong more than regain it.~ pristine purity and strength.
THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF DELITZSCH'S HEBREW NEW TESTAMENT.
BY PROFESSOR GEORGE H. SCHODDE, PH.D., COLUMBUS, O.
ALTOGETHER the most remarkable and unique work in modern mis- sion literature is Delitzsch's Hebrew translation of the New Testament. According to the latest reports, officially sent out from Leipzig, the modern headquarters of Jewish Christian enterprise, the British and Foreign Bible Society, since the first appearance of the new version in. 18'1'8, has published no less than nine editions, making a grand total of 80,000 copies. The literary success of the work, aside from its great merit as a mission agency, is indeed phenomenal. Fully 60,000 copies have been disposed of among the Jews of Southeastern Europe and Western Asia, and have all been employed in the gospel cause among the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 'The present is an exceedingly timely moment gratefully to call attention to this great literary monu- ment of modern mission enterprise.' It was in 1838, or just fifty years ago, that the first specimen chapters of the new translation were given to the world. For forty years the now venerable veteran labored incessantly and with characteristically German diligence, perseverance, and scholarly accuracy on his important task. In 1870 he published a translation of the Epistle to the Romans, with a full introduction on the history and present status of the Hebrew New Testament problem, together with extensive notes from the Talmud and the Midrashim! " in which he elucidated the methods and pri.nciples pursued in the work and gave the reader a clear insight into the intricacies 01 the problem and the thorough and scientific manner in which the author was solving it. It is accordingly now just one-half a century since the labor of love for Israel was undertaken by Delitzsch. It is proposed to celebrate this peculiar literary and mission semi-centennial in a manner suitable to the cause. An appeal has been published, addressed to the pupils and friends of Franz Delitzsch, asking for contributions toward the estab- lishment of a permanent fund, the income of which is to be used for the spread of this New Testament in Israel.. The appeal is signed by Pastor Wilhelm Faber; the energetic young leader of the Institutum Juda£curn of Leipzig, who has for the last six or eight years been giving his whole time and attention to this work, and has made eight long mission tours among the Jewish Diaspora of the East. A jubilee of this sort is certainly deserving of the sympathy and co-operatioh of active mission frienJs everywhere.
Another reason for drawing attention to this work now is_the fact that the version. is now to be issued in permanent shape and form. While the first nine editions were going through the press corrections of greater or less nnmber and extent were made in each edition. Hebrew scholars all over the world have taken a deep interest in the literary character, correctness, and finish of the work. Suggestions have been made by some of the best,specialists in this department, and these have been duly weighed and measured by the translator, who himself is doubtless the greatest Hebraist of this generation, if not of this century. How carefully this has been done by him is clear from a report, published in English by Delitzsch some six years ago, in / which he discussed some of the principal suggestions made, and made special acknowledgments to Professor Driver of Oxford for his valuable aid. In this way it can be candidly saia that probably no work issued within our day and date has been so searchingly examined under the critical microscope and has for so long a time been constantly before the eyes of our unofficial college of Hebrew scholars all over the world as has this Hebrew version of the New Testament. Accordingly it is a work of rare literary and critical correctness. It 1S now thought that it has reached the stage in which it can be given out in a permanent shape, and the coming tenth edition will be the first in that form.
The work is issued i.n two sizes. It ori.ginally apl)eared in a small 12mo form of 471 pages. The type was very small, but still clear-cut and easy to read. In this shape alone the first six or seven editions appeared. Later it became clear that its mission value would be enhanced if it could be published in the same type and size as the Old Testament Hebrew text and be bound with the latter, thus constituting the one Holy Writ of the two covenants in the sacred tongue of the chosen people. This was done, and it has proved to be a wise undertaking. The Jews in examining and studying the writings of the New 'l'estament do so solely with an eye to their relation to the Old, as the fulfillment and completion of the latter; To have the two together in ono cover naturally facilitated this work a good deal. As this edition of the t.wo Testaments in Hebrew can be had for about one dollar and· a half, no pastor able to understand this venerable tongue should be without a copy.
It would probably be hard to say from which side this noteworthy pUbhcation presents the greater number of attractive features-from its literary or its mIssionary. No doubt our readers are interested more in the latter, and these in themselves constitute an interesting chapter in the annals of this present mission century. On the face of matters it is certainly remarkable and almost beyond credence that a book written in Hebrew should be the most widely circulated specimen of the non-popular mission literature of the day. Jnd yet when certain facts, not all of which are generally known, are taken into consideration the strangeness of the phenomenon at least in part disappeared. It is generally accepted that the Hebrew is a dead language. This is one of the many popular mistakes of the times. It is true that for the Jew as we see him in America. and Western Europe the Hebrew is only a sacred language, which he uses pro forma in his synagogal worship and often does not understand any more than the Roman Catholic does the Latin of the mass. But the Jews of the western world and Western Europe are modernized, more or less superficially, and are by no means the representatives of genuine Judaism. These must be looked for further East. Of the six and one-half million Jews constituting the Jewish Dispersion, about four mil1:ons are found in the East, and for all of these the Hebrew is the only literary language in which they can be approached. They themselves generally speak not a pure Hebrew, but a jargon; but the pure Hebrew is the language of their books, papers, etc. It would be worse than a waste of effort or time to offer them a defense of the claims of the Ohristian faith in any other than their own literary tongue. They are a most peculiar people, and in the mission efforts among them this peculiarity must be taken into con-' sideration as a most important factor. They are the exact opposites of the Western Jew, who is ever willing to compromise with modern thought, if it only accrues to his social or financial benefit. The Eastern Jew is a conservative of the conservatives. The adherence to the ways of the fathers, so characteristic a feature of all Semitics, is especia~ly strong in him, and has made his system of religious beliefs and customs little better than a petrified formalism of the Talmudic centuries that have gone before. For them religion and religious instruction is unthinkable except in the sacred tongue.
It is for this peculiar people that the Hebrew translation of the New Testament has been made. The underlying principle in the undertaking was that the New Testament is the best commentary on the Old, and If the erring children of Abraham in the Orient could be persuaded to compare the words of the New Oovenant with those of thO Old they would, more readily than by any other way, learn that, as the Old is the necessary foundation of the New, so the latt~ is the necessary completion of the Old.
The adoption of this method of reaching these people was not a new discovery, nor is Delitzsch's the first Hebrew translation of the New Testament. Away back m the first Ohristian centuries there existed a Gospel for the Hebrews, which was doubtless a Hebrew translation (not the Hebrew original) of our present Matthew. During the Refor- matIon period a translation of this kind was made. Later portions were again translated, espeeially under the influence of the original InstUutum Judaicum of Callenberg, in Halle.. The present century witnessed repeated efforts in this direction. Especially was this true of the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews.
With much expense and labor edition after edition was issued, 'until the final issue of 1863. This last is in general a good production, but not by any means equal to the work of Delitzsch. Shortly after the pUblication of tHe latter, an entirely original Hebrew translation was published as a posthumous work of the Jewish missionary Salkinson, and was edited by the Jewish scholar Ginsburg, the editor of the Mas- sorah. This, however, has not proved a satisfactory work in all par- ticulars. It also is extensively used for mission purposes.
How wise it was to select the Hebrew as a literary language for the mission work among the Jews of the East is apparent when we lo~k at the extensive use made of this language for literary work in general.
8alkinson himself has published a magnificent Hebrew translation of Milton's "Paradise Lost," and also of Walker's" Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation"; S. Hoga, a Jewish convert, has translated in ele- gant style Bunyan's" Pilgrim's Progress" and the "Old Paths" into Hebrew. The Book of Enoch has been translated into this tongue, also the Koran, Goethe's "Faust," and even Sue's "Mysteres de Paris." Periodicals, both religious and secular, in large numbers are published in Hebrew; some of them, as the IIamelliz of St. Peters- burg, are very influential. .
Just what the extent of the blessing achieved through this New Tes- tament is and will be of course no man can tell. That it has done great good is certain. There are ministers in the Lutheran church of Ger- many and America now who were converted in Russia from Judaism through studying this translation. It is also certain that the demand for the book is great among the Jews, and that there are many Nico- demus souls there who come to Jesus by night, but fear publicly to proclaim their newly found faith. As no Testament is given or sold to a person unless the missionary or colporteur is reasonably satisfied that the person receiving it will read and study the book, it lS evident that there is a real and not an imaginary demand for It. And this willing- ness and eagerness to search for the truth in the New Covenant book is the most pro~ising feature ln Jewish mission work in the Oriental lands. Faber's reports, published under. the auspices of the Leipzig Institutum Judaicum, are filled with accounts of eager anxiety on the part of these people to read of the M9ssiah. To bring them this news in an acceptable manner has been and is the great mission of Delitzsch's Hebrew New Testament. He has aided materially in solvmg one of the most intricate of mission problems.
A PILLAR ON THE BORDER OF EGYPT
A PILLAR ON THE BORDER OF EGYPT.
BY CRAS. S. ROBINSON, D.D., NEW YORK.
"PEOPLE are SO wofully like sheep I" thus once wrote Thomas Carlyle's piquant wife: "all running where they see others run-all doing what they see others do; have you heard of the wonderful Bishop Colenso! Such a talk about him too! And he is not worth talking about for five minutes-except for the absurdity of a man's making arithmetical onslaughts upon the Pentateuch with a bishop's little black-silk apron on !" This outburst of the indignant woman, made twenty-five years ago about an almost forgotten prelate, reminds us of the French proverb so often quoted: "It is always the unexpected that happens." Only we now propose to parody it by saying tl,lat it is always the absurd that grows popular. Just now it is the wild attacks on the books of Moses, forced forward by a desperate skepticism, which are drawing the crowd. It is God's own wisdom which has snddenly unearthed the mummies of Rameses's dynasty, making Egypt for a while the most conspicuous of lands.
In a previous article we have spent some space in showing how an irresistible pressure of Western ideas and civilizations is continually changing the face of Egypt and turning the people away from Oriental customs and worship. At that time it was announced that some sort of illustration must be adopted to serve as proofs of the prophet's open prediction that evangelization would immediately follow in the advancing steps of civilization. New Testaments would soon begin to arrive upon the cars. t can make that my theme in the present paper.
Still it seems to me that I can reach my end more safely by taking my readers with me again in a kind of tourist's ramble. We are to think with our eyes now. Arguments are not to be spun for an indoors debate when the question is one of fact and not at all of philosophy. Let us take a railway trip, the first and the simplest the country has to offer, going up the usual course after landiI)g on the frontier. It is worth while to keep looking out of the car-windows, from the moment when an Arabian official receives us at Alexandria to that when an enthusiastic American missionary welcomes us into his home in Cairo.
Of all the unearthly-looking fellow beings you ever herded with, you may be sure the people, eastern and western, who throng the trains and pour forth at each station are the most inexplicable and the most indescribable. Dresses in most Oriental countries denote rank, lineal descent, nationality, and occupation. Bnt who can interpret the inexhaustible variety of shades and discriminations presented in even this one day upon such a thoroughfare as the overland route to India across Egypt I Persians, Armenians, Copts, Turks, Frenchmen, British, Syrians and Greeks, besides the aborigmes of the region itself-aU of these our careful dragoman pointed out one after another in the single crowd we saw at the midway station-I cannot put down the Arabic name they called it by-lazily watching our arrival, halt and departure.
Dean Stanley, in speaking of the usual presentations hereabout, uses a most apt similitud~. He compares the lines of camels, the solio tary traveler who shows himself now and then, the stiff trees, few and far between, to the rude views of a magic lantern. Anyone who has o in the old times before photographs came in vogue ever seen tilOse preposterous paintings on glass for the Sunday-school exhibitions which were offered during such historic years as Biblical illustrations, will recognize some original models immediately. So clear is the atmos- phere that any object in the wide reach of landscape seems startlingly vivid and plain, even at a great distance. Along the tops of the low ridges and swells of land caravans are outlined upon thl) blue sky with an almost miraculous distinctness; and ~o stately and rigid, so precise in step and so ungainly in proportion, are the camels especially, that an observer can hardly refram from imagining they are mere figures shaved along, like so many fancifully-colored slides, into the groove of a lantern poorly focussed and dimly lit. Occasionally a lonely Arab appears in the field of view; then a company of merchantmen, resem- bling perhaps the Ishmaelites of old who bought Joseph; then a big 'rurk upon a small donkey; and all are so angular and awkward that anyone (if he has ever Leen in the stereopticon line) feels like begin- ning a lecture.
We became commentators upon this ride as usual, receiving at many points a happy explanation of some Scriptural text. A new building attracted my attention, and as upon nearer inspection I found that the walls were filled with cut straw, it became worth our while to ask the question as to customs in such matters; this resulted afterward in our visiting a quite extensive and busy manufactory of brick rIose by the station. There we learned with the aid of our eyes all we needed to be told; for the men were at the moment molding the square blocks of wet clay and chopping the stubble with which to mix them, while stretched out over the field were great patches of levelland covered with those which were already drying in the sun. No one can know the thrill that comes over the mind of a tourist when he sees such things, until he is in the midst of surprises, all going to prove that the same processes, the same habits, the same traditions, are found now as in Moses's time.
The maidens were coming in as the blazing noon drew on, with an awkward weight of some sort of grain which they had been industriously gleaning, done up in huge bundles and carried on their heads. This we noticed had not been cut with scythe or sickle, but the damsels had in their own fashion pulled it up roots and all. 'l'hus the proper untitheses of the royal preacher was reached in exact language when he spoke of "a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is . planted."
We observed also that large areas of land which had evidently at no great time back been covered with water were now ,baking under sun- ' shine as hot as if it had been the glow of a blast-furnace. Some portions of the soil had hardened as it dried; workmen were actually cutting up the caked ground with axes, and the plow was following along behind. Then first we really appreciated the admonition of the man of God: "For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your {aUoio ground, and sow not among thorns." These are the words of Jeremiah, and no doubt he addressed them to the Jews; indeed; Hosea says the same thing under the same figure: "Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you." But scholars have ;;ettled 10:J.g ago that Jeremiah wrote his prophecy in Egypt, in full sight of what he daily interwrought into the forcible rhetoric he was wont to employ.
These are good exercises for a weary railway ride in desolate Egypt, especially if one is really jammed up against the uncleanest sort of things most of the time! As the day waned we drew closer, evidelltly, to some great center of population. A grove of palms appeared now and then; a few tamarisks with feathery branches; occasionally a white tomb with a diminutive dome over it ; then a train of camels, or a Mussulman cn a donkey. Just before our tickets were taken preparatory to an arrival, far off upon the right our attention IYas arrested by three vast masses of majesty, pinnacling their triangular shapes against the clear blue heaven, silent yet speaking, tranquil yet fllll of exciting history. And he must be tame of heart and dull of spirit tvho can now without emotion look for the first time on the Pyramids of Ghizeh!
Piazzi Smyth, astronomer-royal for Scotland, has prefixed to his interesting book, "Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid," a verse from Isaiah's prediction concerning this kingdom of the ancient Pharaohs-a verse which he makes the motto for the whole volume: "In that day shall there be an altar to the I.ord in the midst of the land of Egypt; and a pillar at the border thereof to the Lord." He considers that the great pyramid is what the prophet intended by an "altar" or "pillar "-that is, a monument acknowledging the true God. The commentators do not agree with. him in this. Addison Alex- ander calls attention to the usage of the Hebrew language;. he the rather accepts the "altar" as a sign of devotion, and he does not refuse such a "pillar" as the sign of monumental or commemorative' acknowledgment. 'But he quotes other passages to show that an altar in the midst of the land, and a pillar at its border, denote altars and pillars throughout its whole extent. He translatesone· of the verses: "And Jehovah shall be known in Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know Jehovah in that day."
Josephus has been quoted as saying that he was the one who gained permission from ptolemy Philometor for Onias to erect the temple in Heliopolis for Jewish worship, and that he did this by showing him the passage from Isaiah under our study now, for this convinced thp, king.
At this point we must pause; thus much of the verse is absolutely fulfilled: Egypt is beginning to speak the language of Oanaan; civilization is changing the East into its own likeness. The rest of the prediction will be brought to pass soon: Egypt is to be converted unto God. The declaration of Isaiah is very explicit: there shall come one day when the land of Egypt shall change its form of religion, which is now that of the prophet of Islam, and receive the service of the Lord, the gospel of Ohristianity; then its life will be laid on God's altar. We have the fair permission to strengthen our faith with this prophetic promise that the cities of the Egyptian land will soon begin to see the true light that is shining for them; they will cry unto the Lord a great cry because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a Saviour.
Our illustration is just at hand. In witness of afact so specially welcome to every friend of foreign missions, and so honorable for a testj… mony to the zeal of one branch of our American Presbyterian d~nom ination, I shall close this article with a note lately received and published in the public prints, written by one who has been familiarly acquainted with Oairo itself and with its vicinity for many years: "Years ago, right opposite Shepheard's Hotel, was au open space, where dragomans piched their tents, so as to show travelers intending to take the trip across the desert to Sinai, or through Palestine, how the thing was done.; Now the dragoman's occupation is mostly gone; the railway and the steamship have made him a 'lost art.' Where the tents were pitched in front of and beyond Shepheard's are magnificent blocks of buildings, one of whichis the large edifice (covering a square) of the American United Presbyterian Mission.
" There is no thoughtful man but will rejoice when religious toleration, under the regis of England, shall cover this land as this day it covers India. Our United Presbyterian brethren hll.ve not awaited that time. Their works for the Lord here are already known in our own land. It is a proud sight for me to look upon the British soldiers flocking to the mission church in Cairo to attend the Sunday service, the week-day prayer-meetings, and the temperance meetings; but it is a grander sight to see the schools of these American United Presbyterians filled with Copt and Moslem children-to see large audiences of converted men and women on the Sabbath day come .up to the house of the Lord; and it is a thing of the moral sublime to find that now not a year goes by in this ancient land without more than two hundred souls converted to the Lord. What is especially encouraging is
A MISSIONARY l'OEM
that within a comparatively short time some forty Mohammedans havecome to the knowledge of the truth, through good report and evil report (mostly the l,atter), and some through persecution, and have taken their stand for the Master.
"Truly this work of our Benjamin among the American Presbyterian churches commends itself to all our brethren of the great Pan-Presbyterian band. We thank God and take courage when we think what He has accom- plished through His servants Lansing, Hogg, and their companions here. This day more than' five cities in the land .of Egypt speak the language of Canaan,' and the prophet's words have been fulfilled, which he pronounced 2,500 years ago: 'In that day shall there be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of'Egypt ' (Isa. xix: 19). The altar is erected, and thanks be to Him who has done this through the instrumentality of this faithful little . band of American Christian men and women."
A MISSIONARY POEM.
DEAR DR. SHERWOOD: It seems to me that the following, from Frederic Myers's "St.
Paul," is an exquisite description of the missionary work. It is put into the mouth of the A.posLle of the Gentiles. CHARLES C. STARBUCK.
EAST the forefront of habitations holy Gleamed to Engedi, shone to Eneglaim ; Softly thereout and from thereunder slowly Wandered the waters, and delayed, and came.
Then the gt'eat stream, which having seen he showeth, Hid from the wise but manifest to him, Flowed and arose, as when Euphrates floweth ; Rose from the ankles till a man might swim.
Even with so soft a surge and an increasing, Drunk of the sand and thwarted of the clod, Stilled and astir lind checked and never-ceasing, Spreadeth the great wave of the grace of God: Bears to the marishes and bitter places Healing for hurt and for their poisons balm'; Isle after isle in infinite embraces Floods and enfolds and fringes with the palm.
Ay, and afar to realms and to recesses Seen in a storm, discovered in a dream, Fields which no folk nor any power possesses, Oceans ungirdled of the ocean stream.
Yes, or if loose and free, as some are telling (Little I know it, and I little care), This my poor lodge, my transitory dwelling, Swings in the bright deep of the endless air.
Round it and round His prophets shall proclaim Him, Springing thenceforth and hurrying therethrough Each to the next the generations name Him, Honor unendingly and know anew.
MIRACLES 01l' :MISSIONS
MIRACLES OF MISSIONS.
MISSION TO THE HALF MILLION OF BLIND IN CHINA.f [EDITORIAL.-A. T. p.] ANOTHER of those marvelous adaptations of history which so signally evince and evidence a divine plan has recently appeared in the Celestial Empire.
William H. Murray was bOl'n at Port Dundas, near Glasgow, and, as the only son in a family of ten children, would naturally have entered the saw- '
mill of his humble father but for the loss of his left al'm by accidental , contact with the machinery when only about nine years old. This occur- rence, which determined his future as outside the sawmill, was the begin- ning of a series of providential events which have made him the most conspicuous benefacbr of China's blind people that has ever appeared in that vast empire. With but one arm he could not labor physically to much purpose; but though he lacked bl'awn he had brain and he could study. He improved his mind, and before long' was employed in the l'llI'al districts neal'
Glasgow as a letter-carrier. His conscience was not asleep, and remon- sh'ated against the Sunday work which this occupation required. To avoid compromise with his moral sense and at the same time retain his position he surrendered two shillings out of each week's wages. His self-sacrifice was not only blest to himself, but sowed the seeds of that extensive reform now in progress to secure for government employes in the postal service a Sabbath respite ft'om work. , Brain and conscience thus being busy, young Murray found his heart awaking to a new longing to be of service, He felt witllin him a conscious- ness of a call to some mission among men, he knew not wllat. He applied to the National Bible Society of Scotland for work as a colporteur. The secretary felt drawn to the modest but persistent lad, but hesitated to have him give up a good position In government service for a venture which might prove a failure. But William lIfurray "pmyed himself" into the work of the society. His long daily walk he divided into three parts: a third of the way he studied the Scriptures in the original Hebrew; another third of his monotonous tramp he gave to New Testament Greek; and the last part of his walk was emphatically a walk with God, consecrated to daily prayer that he might be fitted for some sphere of personal, direct missionary service.
He longed to be pl'omoted from a royal mail-carrier to a messenger of good tidings to the King of kings. In 1864, now almost a quarter of a century ago, he was accepted as a colporteur of the Bible Society and began work on the Clyde, among the sailol's and seamen. Here was a new link in the chain which connected the sawmill in Scotland with this great work of opening the inner eyes of the blind in China.
The Bible Society soon found that" it neyer had such another colporteur"
as the quiet young man who, without any great mental endowments, graces of person or gifts of speech, was dmwing to himself the men that go down to the sea in ships to do business in great waters, and was rapidly picking up such phrases in various foreign tongues as enabled him to effect more sales of Bibles among sallors of all nations than any of his predecessors had done.
The colporteur was evidently a divinely called man.
As this work occupied him only in winter months, he was free in the sum- mer season to push his Bil;lle-cart along the rough roads of the Scotch Highlands. One-armed as he w~, he had two legs and a brave heart, and "''' Work.for the Blind in China." C. F. Gordon-Cnmming. Gilbert & Rivington, London, Eng. , so he patiently carried on his work, getting inured to hardness as became a good soldier of Jesus Christ. How many a mighty workman and winner of souls has been trained like Milne and Morrison and Curey and OnckeIJ, and Livingstone and McAuley and Johnson and Marshman and Buchanan and Clough, in a very strange school.
And now comes another link in this providential chain. William Mmray's unusual aptitude for languages attracted the notice of some of the directors of the Bible Society, and arrangements were made for him to attend morn- ing classes at the old college in H,igh Street. A friend hel ped to pay the necessary fees, and MUl'ray managed his studies so that they did not impinge upon other duties. He rose at 3 A. M. and studied till 8, then attended his classes till 10, then stood in the streets beside his Bible-cart till evening, .
when after a frugal meal he studied again till bedtime. .
Seven years of apprenticeship were accomplished, and in 1871 he was free to carry out his heart's desire. He sailed for China, where he was to spend half a year at Che[oo trying to learn to distinguish at sight the 4000 intri- cate, complicate characters by which the Chinese language is represented on paper. It has been quaintly said that he who would master the Chinese tongue needs a head of oak, a constitution of iron, lungs of brass, nerves of steel, the patience of Job, and the lifetime of Methusaleh. But Mr. Murray was not to be easily discouraged. He had tackled Greek and Hebrew char- acters, and· he was· not dismayed at the still more elaborate mysteries of Chinese words. He applied himself diligently, and in four months he acquired about 2000 characters. The Bible colporteur started on his work.
He devised a mule litter to carry his books, and ovel' mountain roads and facing cold winds made his first journey 250 miles in,to the interior of Shang- tu province.
Sixteen years of untiring work as a colporteur passed away, during which this one-armed man undertook journeys even into Mongolia and Manchuria, fording rivers, daring perils, enduring hardship, feeding on wretched fare, sleeping in rude sheds, or perhaps favored with more palatial accommoda- tions in the shape of the coffin which dutiful sons have with filial tenderness provided for their father in anticipation of h~s need, and which the generous host put at disposal of the traveler. Mr. Murray sometimes found himself in the midst of a riotous rabble, but again surrounded by those who clamored for the foreign" classic of Jesus," and on one occasion he found at evening that his sales had reached 3000 copies j then the people begged him to remain among them, and he did so for half a year. During his sixteen yeal's in China he has sold over 100,000 books, containing wholly or in part the Scriptures in the tongues of China and Tartary. These Bibles have found their way into humble huts of poverty, and even into the imperial palace j have been borne to gl'eatdistances by merchants and scholars who have bought them at fairs and public gatherings, and so this modest man has been permeating this vast empire with the Light of God.
But now we come to another link in this strange story of a useful life.
Mr. Murray saw in the thronged skeets hundreds of blind men, sometimes in groups or gangs of eight or ten, each one guided by another blind man in fl'ont, and the foremost guiding himself and all the others with a long stick- "the blind leading the blind." On one occasion a company of 600 blind beggars was seen waiting for a free distribution of rice! It is thought . that there are half a million of blind in China, and that this ,'ery nnusllal proportion of blind people is traceable to smallpox, leprosy, neglected ophthalmia, uncleanly habits, and the dense'smokecreated in their dwellings by the dried grass with which their ovens are heated. For generations these sights have been seen in the Celestial Empire-blind beggars, hungry and un. clad, beating gongs, singing songs, yelling in chorus, squeaking with flutes, or otherwise torturing the defenseless ears of bystanders until" cash" was given them simply to induce them to move on and torture somebody else.
These blind legions of China awaken a sort of pity and even reverence by their very infirmity and misery, and are addressed by title of "Teacher"~ Hsien-SMng-but the most of the adult blind are so hopelessly vile that Mr. Murray himself has never ventured into their night refuge in Peking, but seeks to isolate and educate the blind lads, beginning with them when but seven years old.
But we are anticipating. His soul was strangely drawn out in behalf of these thousands of blind children. His appeals to others in their behalf were met by the usual response, that the work already on their hands was too great to be done with the few helpers and slender means at their command. And so his only way was once more to " walk with God" in prayer for guidance and help. The Bible colporteur must himselfunderiake to help these sightless crowds.
Here we touch another link. Mr. Murray, before he left Scotland, had mastered Professor Melville Bell's "System of Visible Speech for the Deaf," and had found it so great a help in his Chinese studies that he had prepared a. pamphlet upon it for use of foreign students. The thought flashed on his mind that this system might be modified so as to become eyes to the blInd as well as ears to the deaf. He saw that the fingers of the blind must take the place of eyes, and that the first step was to reduce the sounds of the language to symbolic!orms. These he made in clay and baked, and from these the blind wei'e first taught to read. But two difficulties presented themselves: first, the system lacked simplicity, and, secondly, as the Chinese adore their written characters, they might worship these clay symbols.
While in Glasgow Mr. Murray had also studied Moon's "System of Embossed Alphabetic Symbols" and Braille's" Embossed Dots." Perhaps these might be adapted to the perplexing" tones" which make it possible for one word to mean a dozen different and absurdly contradictory things. How to bring all these linguistic mysteries within the touch of the blind was the problem over which William Murray thought by day and dreamed by night. One day, weary with work, he lay down for a noon nap, when, while yet awake though with closed eyes, he saw outspread before him the whole system he has since put in available form for use, and perceived that it would enable the blind to read accurately and in a short time the Word of God. He believes that vision to have been a revelation to him from above. He made no attempt at an alphabetic system. but employed numerals. He found that inst'ead of the ordinary 4,000 characters, a little over one-tenth of that number would suffice to represent the sounds of the language, viz., 408 dis· tinct syllables. Instead of figures he uses mnemonic letters, and ingeniously contrives that not more than three syllables shall be used to represent the longest word, corresponding to units, tens, and hundreds. He found Braille's system to be more helpful than Moon's, as being fitted both for writing and musica.l notation.
So pl'acticable has this method proved that a thorough acquaintance with both reading and writing may be acquired by a blind boy of average faculty in from six weeks to two months, whereas six yeal's of study would be required for seeing eyes to recognize the 4,000' distinct characters of the ordinary written language. For eight long years Mr. Murray worked to perfect the system which he saw in theory in that day-vision, and it must be remembered that he could devote only odd hours not already taken up with his Bible w<;>rk. His first practical test was upon "Wang," a rheumatic blind cripple, who soon learned to read for himself the blessed Word. Then a poor blind patient, who had been severely kicked by a mule, relieved the hours of suffering by studying the Murray system, and within two months even his callous fingers could feel the precious truth of God. Then a poor blind lad, left on a dunghill to die, after three months' nursing was restored to health and learned to read and write. Ne:Xt a blind beggar boy, an orphan taken in out ofthewinter's cold, within six weeks read more accurately and fluently without eyes than many do with eyes in a score of years.
Miss Constance F. Gordon-Cumming, to whose golden pen missionary literature owes so much, visiting Peking, was astonished as she stood at the door of a dark room to hear the Scriptures read by the touch by men who, not fOUl· months before, begged in the streets, half naked and balf starved. And the marvel is that this Bible colpodeur, this consecrated workingman, has been doing this work alone, from his slender income boarding, lodging, and clothing his poor blmd pupils! He seemed to hear the Master say once more, "Giveyetbem to eat," andsohe brought his barley loaves to Him to be blessed and multiplied, and they have strangely sufficed for others' wants as well as his own. One boy of twelve, left in his charge by an elder brother, and then left on his hands, though blind, not only rapidly learned to read and write, but became his main dependence in stereotyping and all other work, and developed such musical ability as to become the organist in the chapel of the London Mission.
The rumor of thlS wonderful school for blind pupils has spread far and wide, and some have come 300 miles to study the system. One pupil developed singular fitness for the ministry and was sent to Tien-Tsin as a candidate for the work. Another has undertaken to stereotype an embossed Gospel according to Matthcw, in the classical Mandarin dialect of scholars throughout the empire. The work is but at its beginning, for there must be at least eight different versions reduced to the dot system before the blind of the different provinces can find the system available to represent'the various colloquial dialects. The ingenuity of Mr. Murray reminds us of Bezaleel and Aholiab, whom God by His Spirit endowed for the mechanical work of the tabernacle. He has so simplified stereotyping in connection with his method of instruction that a Chinese lad will produce in a day more than three times as many pages as an ordinary London workman by the common method. Thus God is using the special sensitiveness of the fingers of the blind and their proverbial aptitude for music, to raise up blind readers of the Word and blind singers and players on instruments, who may make music the handmaid of evangelism. The system, as we have said, is singularly adapted to represent, not only the sounds used in speech, but in music too. The Peking pupils write out musical scores from dictation with such rapidity thlt an ordinary" gospel song" will be produced in· a quarter of an hour. By means of embossed symbols pasted to the keys they also learn to play the piano and organ. The written score being read with one hand and the music played with the other, the student soon learns both to sing and play by note. Then these Christian songs are made a means of attracting an audience, to whom one of the blind students tlien addresses his exhortation, and whom he recommends to buy and study the Bible for themselves. And-so a blind boy will often sell more books in a. day than the authorized agent Of the Bible Society.
Here we reach another link in this chain of providential purpose. We see why Mr. Murray was sent to China as a Bible colporteur. His bookselling and street preaching bring him and keep him on familiar and friendly terms with the natives and prevent his being thought a mere magician or conjur~r who by some weird power turns fingers into eyes. Moreover, the superl>titious respect felt for written characters and all who can read them, togeiner with the reverence and pity toward the blind, seem to open a new and wonderful avenue of usefulness to these blind Scripture readers and singir.g evangelists. Mr. Murray ought to be enabled to devote at least half his time to this work of instructing the blind, and abundant means ought to be given him to multiply his schools in every part of the empire. This new development in China suggests a key that may open the doors to 150,000,000 secluded Ohinese women. A blind woman taught to read the Scriptures may find her way to homes from which all missionaries are practically excluded. As yet popular prejudice has prevented Mr. Murray from teaching but one blind woman, who in a few months mastered reading, writing, and musical notation.
Mr. Murray, having often found genuine converts who had found salvation solely through reading the Word, and who sought of him Christian baptis,m, has been granted ordination and so returned from his visit to Scotland in 1887 empowered to do the whole work of a Christian minister, and will devote his time to the preparation of books for the use of the blind and instructing those to whom God has denied the girt of sight. Who can foresee to what extent the Providence that raised up this man for this unique work may be pleased to use him for the evangelization of the hundreds of millions in China, transforn:ing blind beggars into Scripture readers and teachers of others blind also, so that it shall be h;ue in a new sense that the blind lead the blind, but not into the ditch? The words of Isaiah shall be fulfilled: "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight." Isaiah xii: 16.
For the sake alike of completeness to this paper and for the information of those who are specially interested, we append a brief resume of Murray's "System for Teaching the Blind of China."
The plan that wonld most naturally commend itself to one wishing to teach the blind, would be to adopt phonetic spelling. I fonnd, however, that" numeral" spelling was greatly to be preferred.
Chinese, as a spoken language, may be reduced to 408 syllables. Now I take a representative written hieroglyphic of each of these 408 syllables, and for my own convenience place them in alphabetic order in a horizontal line. The Chinese know nothing of alphabetics.
Then in a line running parallel above that line of representative .sonnds, I write its equivalent in numerals; but instead of figures I use mnemonic lelters, viz. T or D represents 1, N .tands for 2, M is 3, R is 4, L stands for 5, 8h is 6,.;K is 7, F or V means 8, P or B is 9, and S stands forO.
Then, as the Chinese have no alphabet, I choose simple. syllables, as Ti for simple T or D, Ni or No for Q, etc. Therefore the two lines run thus: Ti Ni, Mi Rhi Li :-mnemonics. Gna Gnai Gnan Gnang Gnao :-Chinese. Shih Kei Fei Pei Tze:-mnemonics. Cha C'ha Chai C'hai Chan :-(Jhinese.
EXPLANATIoN • • These are the first ten mnemonic words. Chinese equivalents that stand for the numbers, and written in a large character, begin the sentence, which, according to the custom of ordinary Chinese bookS, is written perpendicularly, and is read from top to bottom.
The under line represents tell of the 408 Chinese syllables, and these, also in a larger character
WOMAN AND, WOMAN'S WORK
than the intermediary ones, are at the oottom, and finish the sentence. Thus: TI, sh1h, !lInan. tsai, t'ien, shang, che, hua, shih, nan, hsin, GNA.
There are thus 408 simple sentences. and the pnpll is reqnired to commit theAe to memory, a)ld thenceforth, to write the one, and read it as the other. This he does like a chain of events, and in a very short time, at the rate of aoout twenty sentences in a day. This is, in fact; his spelling lesson. I know that this description must appear complicated, but in daily practice it is found to oe qnite the reverse.
The superiority of this method over" spelling" is immense. As an example of its adyantages I would instance the Chinese word" C'huang Q" – a oed. It would require eight letters to spell this word, but by this plan I only need three, i.e. units, tens, and hundreds. There are no spaces or contractions to be a burden to the memory.
Then we only require. ten num erals for our "alpbaoet. '~_ But I saw the advantage of employing the other letters thus: namely, nSing the deep lettt!t's, as K, L, Y, N, in four sets of four to stand in the first space to represent tbe hundreds, and by that means they would answer a double purpose, namely, indicate also to which of the four" tones" the word belongs, each having a choice of four letters for each of the 408 sounds.
Let the sound and the number of its tone be indicated along with its aspirate, which is thus- C'huang Q, and be understood to be the hundredth iu the order of the syllabary; and as regards tbe four .. tones" to belong iu that sense (i.e., a bed) to the second. The letters K, L, M, N eqnal 100, and in that order indicate the 1st, 2d, 3d, or 4th tone. Then LOO equals C'huang Q. A person acquainted with the Braille alphabet will perceive that as only three letters are thus requit'ed, the L takes top, middle and lowest points, while the first line of Braille, which supplies tens and nnits, has only top and middle points, and consequently the word has always one deep letter and two hollow, making a wedge·like form; hence there is no need to separate the words in writing, and thus all space between words is saved, which of itself is no small gain, and at the same time greatly simplifies the fingering to the reader.
When time, material, expense, storage, and porterage are considered, it will be seen how important are all these points which tend to reduce the inevitable bulk of books for the blind. The fact lof each word being represented by three letters, and having thus a definite length and somewhat triangular form, is a great advantage in stereotyping.
It occurred to me that I could simplify the process of stereotyping; so instead of holding the punch in one hand, and having only the tip of the little fingEr to guide, while the other hand holds the mallet, I designed a table with a lever at one side, and a mallet to work by a treadle-the mallet always to strike the center of the table, and squared off the plain over which the block would have to describe. The treadle is of course worked by foot, and with side woods, the width of two words, and woods the width of a double line, which exaclly correspond in size with the latter; for the guide in shifting the block npward in the plain of the fixed mallet, as the other, the side woods keep the position sideways; the stereotyper moves these as he finishes two words at a time, the top piece, at the finishing of the double line, is taken from the top, and pushing up the block, he puts that wood at the next foot, and then the block is in proper position for striking the next, and is firm and fast in its position.
Thus the right hand, which would otherwise have had to hold the mallet, is left free to handle the manuscript, and to relieve the tip of the little finger and take. to guiding. Now, with us the process is so simplified that the operator can pell·mell with great speed and pleasure.
The advantage will appear best in the result, when I tell you that the boy can do with ease in one day what would take three men and one-third in England to 'do in the same time. So what a sighted man would take twelve months to do, my blind boy will do in three months, and the quality of the work is struck more perfectly.
WOMAN AND WOMAN'S WORK AT rHE LONDON CONFERENCE.
BY MRS. DR. J. T. GRACEY, BUFFALO, N. Y.
THE first missionary conference with representatives from various mission fields convened in the city of New York, May, 1854, That notable missional'y, Dl'. Duff of Calcutta, was visiting America, and the churches had been stirred by his eloquent words. His presence was the inspiration of this conference, which had an attendance of one Itundred and fifty members and was in session only two days. This meeting was the beginning of a new era in missionary work. Othel' conferences then followed in England and in the various mission fields of the world.
In the year 1878 a conference was held at Mildmay Park, London, at which thirty-five societies were represented, and this meeting was notable from the fact that for the first time missionary women took part in the proceedings. Mrs. Weitbrecht read' a paper on "Christian Vork Among the Women of India," and Miss E. J. Whately one on" Female Missions in, the East," and "English Mission Schools in Cairo" was read by Miss M. L. Whately. Several missionary ladies took part in the discussions which fOI– lowed the reading of these-papers.
Woman had gone to the isolation, the dreariness and monotony of heathen life; for years she had braved dangers and made all sacrifices, had established schools and been a transforming power in darkened homes, had aided in the translation of God's Word and Christian hymns, had given to heathen mothers a loftier idea of motherhool1, had been imprisoned for the gospel's sake, in loneliness and weal'iness had she patiently and lovingly toiled, yet only ten years have elapsed since she had a voice in the deliberations of a missionary conference. When she appeared she appeared to stay.
The General Conference of Missions, held in Exetel' HaJI, London, in June last, with more than twelve hundred delegates, has been universally conceded to be one of the most remarkable gathering~ ever held in the history of foreign mission work. It was notable for the presence of so many missionary women, and for the great prominence given to woman's work. Women were present from neat'ly all mission fields, and when one day the announcement was made that Mrs. Hannington, wife of the martyred Bishop of Africa, was in the audience, the applause was loud and prolonged.
Of the eighty-four American and continental societies represented, twenty-two were "Woman's Boards," each of them sending their own accredited delegates, more than fifty in number. On Saturday evening, June 9, the meeting was opened by a service of prayer and praise, and tables were set capable of accommodating hundreds of persons. At this opening session the Earl of Aberdeen presided, with his wife Lady Aberdeen on the platform at his side. Ecclesiasticism and doctrinal differences had no place, for the very introductory speech by Dr. Thompson of Boston sounded the keynote. "What have we come here for?" said he. "Not to see the old country, nor its cathedrals, nor the British Museum, nor the Tower of London, nor palaces, nor objects of art, nor to listen to the eloquence of Parliament, but to hear what the Pauls and Silases of the day are doing in the name of Him who made of one blood all the nations of the earth." "All one in Christ Jesus" was the prevailing spirit from the beginning to the close.
In the prepared programme Woman's W Qrk was tRe assigned topic for two of the regular sessions for delegates, and for one of the large public evening gatherings. Then there were meetings held exclusively for ladies, and women were made prominent as speakers at a number of public meetings, and some were even called upon for responses at lunches and breakfasts. From many lands the missionary woman was present, and told het· sweet and thrilling story, that reached all hearts.
Arrangements were made to hold the morning sessions for women in the •. Annex," a hall holding about two hundred and fifty; but the" Annex" was too small, and it was necessary to adjourn to the large hall to accom- modate the large crowd. Some one writing of these meetings said: "The women excelled the brethren in the directness and clearness of their state- ments, and the practical presentation of their work." Almost every phase of mission work was discussed at these sessions. As China was represented, it was claimed that in no country is woman's work so valuable as in the Celesttal Empire; others claimed that Japan most needs woman's help; 9thers maintained that of all countries India needed her, and the statement .vas made that one married missionary, with the feminine influences of home, is worth more than twenty single men, and that often the missiona.ry's home had been the first object lesson of love in heathen countrieR, and the wife has been the great helpmeet, carrying on work which her husband could not do.
Sir Robert Phayre presided at one meeting. " His thirty years' experience in India," he said, "convinced him that it is impossible to attempt to convert a world of men, leaving out the women, as that is clearly contrary to God's manifested will." He referred to the great amoupt of misery behind Zenana walls, as having come to his knowledge in connection with his official duties, but said, "There is no amount of oppression and evil-doing that cannot be removed by prayer."
Miss Rainy of the Free Church of Scotland spoke on "The Place of Female Agency in Mission Work." She said: ., Women should take up this work because it is evident on many grounds that the Lord will have it so. The scheme is of Him, and the way to carry it out has been made clea.r by Him. Missiona.ry women giw their attention to teaching in Sunday, weekda.y, industrial, and boarding schools, taking charge of orphanages and seminaries, Zenana mission work, or house to house· visitation, evangelistic work in villages and country districts, holding Bible classes and mothers' meetings for converts, training and supet'intending native agents, preparing a verna.cular literature for women, and last, but not least, laboring as medical missionaries among women and children."
Miss Marston, M.D., read a paper on "Woman's Medical Work." She said the work was most hopeful, that "the hospital is an institution of increasing vaIUl'>, and both there and in the dispensary the people are pleased rather than otherwise to listen to the message of the gospel. The difficulties of Zenana medical work were enlal'ged upon, and, in conclusion, several suggestions wel'e given. Specia.lists being, a.s a rule, inaccessible, a.~d consultations being out of the question, medical women in India. must either be able to undertake all and sundry cases, or have the pain of occasionally rejecting them. Experience led to the recommendation that, in addition to the usual cUl'l'iculum, there should be a year's study of special subjects."
A number of ladies took part in the discussion that followed the reading of this paper. Miss Cross spoke of the shocking condition of the women in government pl'isons and hospitals, and gave an account of a visit she paid to one of the prisons, where she saw a large number of women condemned for the crime of murdering their female children.
Mrs. Emmerson of New York read a history of the Woman's Union Missionary Society of America, a society representing all evangelical denominations, organized in 1860.
Mrs. Cappin of the African Church of America was eloquent in her justification of woman's work in many lines. She said that what was required for those women was not mere" book learning," but thorough technical education in the art of housekeeping, a.nd above all in the art of making bright, happy Christian homes. It must be remembered that their work was not merely to educate, however grand a'work that was in itself, but to win the precious souls of those women for the Lord Jesus Christ. The objpct of the society must be strictly evangelistic-that of carrying the gospel, whether by education, Zenana missions, medica.l missions, 01' whatever agency might be employed, to the homes of the East. She greatly deplored the small number of lady workers in the field, and she felt it her duty to speak out ~nd to tell ner Chfistia,l1, sisten; Qf the ~reat ~eed of worker!!, Mrs. Edge of China asked Christian mothers to put no obstacle in the way of their daughters, should the LOI'd call them to missionary work.
Mrs. Quinton spoke of the women of the Indian tribes of North America.
She said: "These 'women are hungering for spiritual instruction, and almost as soon as they hear the gospel they give their heart!! to God."
Miss Abbie Child of Boston, Secretal"y of the Woman's Board (Congrega- tional), spoke on the" Need and Preparation of Missionaries," saying, "The time is past when anybody can be a missionary."
Miss Jet'roam, for twenty-eight years a missionary in North India, said: "While preparation is of immense importance, yet missionaries cannot be manufactured; like poets, they are born, not made; nay more, they are called, and called .of God; only the Master can make a missionary. The training is in the Lord's own school."
"The Necessity for Trained Native Christian Teachers" was discussed by Miss Askwith of South India, under the following heads: Who are to be Trained?
What Objects must be Kept in View when Training?
What Methods Should be Employed in Training?
This paper disclosed the fact that there was great need ~for establishing a, United Training Institution for Zenana teachers, in which they may be taught and practically fitted for their special work. l1iss A., in closing, said: "If India is to be won to Christ, if its womanhood is to be raised from the bondage and degradation of ages, it must be greatly through the agency of Christian Indian women. We have intrusted to us the training and education of considerable numbers of these our young sisters, who, with God's blessing, may be a power for good in their native land."
Probably the" Relation of Woman's Boards to the General Boards" was among the most stirring subjects discussed. Everybody had an opinion, and both men and women said that women ought to be represented in the general boards. This was a perplexing question to some, and a special meet- ing was called to consider it.
DI·. lfurdock of the American Baptist Union" read 3, paper in which, while he placed great estimate on woman's work, he advocated that all female agencies should abide by the rules of and be governed by the poli- cies of the General Board; that it would be better for both and have a better effect on the natives when women' recognized the headship of man in order- i.ng the affairs of the Church of God,' remembering that 'Adam was the bead.' He dwelt very impressively upon the union of man· and woman in the work, though it would be a sad day for the church when diVIded by woman's boards eQ.deavoring to work independently."
A somewhat emphatic protest was offered by some of the ladies to the sentiments of the brave Doctor, and one-an American-remarked Botto 'l)OCe, "All buncombe!" Experiences were given. Some worked indepen- dently in a great measure, others jointly. One, a Nova Scotia board, helped the parent board by raising money for each "mission, and thus felt that they had an interest in all." Another complained that they were "hampel'ed in their work by male committees." while another, the presi- dent of a very large and influential society, said she "Vould rejoice to see their work lll,erged into one, for the burden and responsibility were great on women alone. She thought, however, that in that case woman should have a place on committees.
" The Evils of Child Marriages" was discussed by Miss Whately, for years missionary in Cairo, Egypt. She said "this custom was a p'eat hindrance to missionary work. There are now hundreds and hundreds of Mohammedans who attend my school and other schools, but no matter whether it be a native Copt or a Mohammedan, the girl is taken away at twelve."
Bishop Crowther, the rescued slave boy, now a bishop of the Church of England from West Africa, said: "Long ago, among the freed slave children at Sierra Leone, invaluable services were rendered by ladies. Men were helpless with their threats and scoldings, but by kindness the ladies enticed the children to school, and taught them with great succ~ss. To-day, also, ladies are filling very important posts in the Niger territory. Often children had to be whipped into school by the native :schooimaster, till a white lady came, who brought pictures and lesson sheets from England, and taught the children to sing. Soon the news spread, and the other children of the station came with zest, and learned to love education. At Bonny it was agreed by the chiefs that $10 a year should be paid for each boy and girl who attended the school. When the time came the chiefs objected to pay for the girls, 3S they could not afterward earn money as boys could. The Bishop himself then agreed to pay for the girls, who were trained to read, and sew, and knit and make bread. etc. A certain day came when the chiefs were entertained, and Miss Susan Jumbo-daughter of Oko Jumbo-made the brea.d, whtch her father praised without knowing "'I'ho had made it. When informed, he was greatly pleased, and from that time native scruples as to the utility of investing money on the education of girls disappeared.
Lady Aberdeen presided over a special llJeeting, and in a clear rich voice that could be heard all over the large auditorium, said: "The missionary conference, with its many testimonies of the world's need and of God's gracious work among the heathen, should awaken all Cll'istian people from selfish slumbers. She regarded the sight of so many missionaries and their active friends as a grand' one, and when she thought of the great number of Bl'itish and American nationality, she could not but realize that God has committed to the English-speaking race a very high duty in the evangelization of the world. Last year, with Lord Aberdeen, she had the privilege of seeing some of the missionaries at work in India, and also of attending such conferences as workers can there hold for prayer and mutual encouragement and help. The experience was one never to be forgotten. While now thanking the American delegates for coming to this great conference, she cordially aclmowledged the vigorous work of their agents in the mission field, and also that America had greatly inspired and quickened England in missionary effort. The missionaries have all told us one thingof the power of love, the power of Christ's love when it takes hold of the soul. ,.
In reference to openings in Japan, Dr. Warren of Japan said: "The women have'not been in the degeac1ed position they have in other countries, but have long been a great power both in society and politics. The childeen are under regular instruction, and the way is gradually being prepared for the reception of the gospel. Higher educatibn is well to the front also, and the openings for missionary ladies at the present time are many and important. What is wanted is that this. educational work should be accompanied by Christian teaching. Many things combine to accentuate this call to service for Christ, and already much blessing has [attended the efforts of women in the country.
"There is a great opening just now for work in mission schools. The Americans have done a great deal in this and in other respects. First in the country by some ten years, the Americans have ever since kept to the front, Especially are they ahead in women's work. The laborers do not go over in ones and twos, but in sixes and dozens, and their schools have been remarkably successful. In evangelization, also, the women have been greatly blessed. In conclusion, the speaker earnestly begged for more female laborers for Japan."
Of the openings in India, Rev. Mr. Karney said: "India is waiting for Engbsh women to go to her, not mere educators, Dot mere Christians, but consecrated workers for Christ going in the power of the Holy Ghost."
Of openings in China, Dr. Swanson said: "That if the mothers, the wives, and the daughters of a country are secured for Christ, the men are sure to follow; and in no country has a woman more influence than in China.
"There are difficulties to face. Those who go have to go into a new civilization, and to tread on ground more dangerous than they sometimes are aware of; but in the work of education an immense service is being done, not only among the young themselves, but indirectly among their parents also. Therefore th'! speaker maintained that China, of all other countries, is the field for the mission of women. The empire is awakening, .and now is the opportunity. She must either start into life or be buried out of sight; but she is not going to be buried. Here is the chance for pious women, and the female population is constantly sending forth a wail which calls loudly for the light and liberty of the gospel as well as education."
Rev. Dr. Langford, Secretary of the Protestant Episcopal Missionary Society of America. said: "Looking back upon the past, with its record of glorious enterprise and results, and looking to the futm'e, with its blessed possibIlities and opportunities, the speaker thoroughly believed that woman is to take a larger part than in the past in the evangelization of the worldnot only by going out into the field, but by looking to things at home. In the work of organization, and in getting together and putting into shape the facts which may kindle the fire of enthusiasm for missions, the women have a sphere of great influence. The pastor cannot find time, and has not the aptitude to do many things that are expected of him. In America the women have realized this and they are taking the missionary interest quite into their own hands-editing papers, distributing tracts, sending out reports and circulars, and, having faith to believe that it was by the Spirit of the living God that great works will be accomplished, they have organized prayer unions, to present the matter continually at the Throne of Grace. In conclusion the speaker prayed that God would own woman's work by making it a blessing to the entire human family."
The many social gatherings afforded a rat'e opportunity for these worldwide representatives to catch a glimpse of the best circles of Christian England. Our American ladies received very marked attention, and made an impression in the meetings, because, it is said, "They spoke with such freshness of thought and ease of manner."
The meeting was a great inspiration to aU who were present, and marks certain great facts, viz. that woman is a great power in missionary work, and that there is no longer separation or isolation of nations, of denominations or of language. There is one Bible, one faith, one great desire, on the part of missionaries, to preach the" unsearchable riches" to the people of the earth that are in darkness and the shadow of death.
lS89.] MISSIONARY HEROES IN AFRICA
MISSION ARY HEROES IN AFRICA.
BY ROBERT N. CUST, LL.D., LONDON.
My subject is not so much Africa, its people, its customs and its misfortunes, as the Christian pioneers and their work, and to this I restrict' myself. The missionaries cannot speak of themselves; it is the last thing that they woul<Lwish to touch upon, except to describe their shortcomings. A particular church or society cannot speak of the whole class fairly, as of some they know too much, and of others nothing at all. We see them in the committee room, when they are young and ardent for the fight, scarcely knowing the difficulties with which they have to contend. 'We see them a few years on more thoughtful, more subdued and chastened, yet not less earnest; we see them still later on, broken down, unequal for further service in the rleld, yet still longing to laugh at the doctor, and go back to their life's work. Some we never see again, for they remain where they fell. Many of them are men of high talent, who in secular professions might have achi{'ved wealth and fame, or in the home church might have risen to dignity and influence, but, smitten with the wondrous love of saving the souls of the heathen, they have gone forth, and fresh candidates for the holy offioe are never wanting. What is their motive? A simple faith in the Word of the Lord, who bought them. Wishing that my hearers may carry away something that may cling to their memory, I ask them to think of the famous eleventh chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, in which he traces back to faith all the great events in the history of Israel, and I ask leave reverently to adapt his argument to the history of the pioneers of African Missions.
By faith the United Moravian Brethren at Herrnhut in Germany, more than a century and a half ago, were stirred up to send out a missionary to the poor Hottentots, who were treated as dogs by the Dutch colonists. By faith George Schmidt at once offered himself to go out, and suffered hardship with a persecuted race, and, having been blessed by the conversion of a few, was forbidden to baptize them, and summarily sent back to Europe by men who called themselves Protestants, and who were jealous of their own liberty. By faith, fifty years !:.tter (1792), the United Brethren sent out three more missionaries, who founded the illustrious mission of Genadendal, or Vale of Grace, on the very walls of the ruined house of George Schmidt, seven years after the great patriarch of African Missions had been caned to his reward, dying, like Livingstone and Krapf, on his knees.
By faith the London and Wesleyan societies, the Established Church of England, the Free Church of Scotland, and the American Board of Foreign Missions, took up a share in the blessed work amidst other races of South Africa, and out of their ranks by faith Moffat undertook to translate the Bible into the language of the· Be-Chuana, Wilder into the language of the Zulu, and Boyce, Appleyard, and others, into the language of the Ama-Xosa, or Kafir-Ianguages deemed at the time to be incapable of expressing simple ideas, but which, deftly handled, proved to be apt exponents of every variety of human thought, with an unlimited vocabulary, and an unsurpassed symmetry of structure.
By faith Moffat's son-in-law, Livingstone, abando:<J.ed his home, his chapel, and his school, and started off on his great missionary progress, which was destined to illuminate all Africa south of the Equator. By faith he bore up under the perils, the fatigues, the opposition and the bereavement of his deal' wife, who sleeps on the shore of the Zambesi. By faith he worked his way to Benguela, on the west coast, Kllimani on the east, and Nyangwe on the River Kongo to the north, discovering new rivers, new lakes, new tribes, and new languages. Fi"om the drops oC sweat which feU from his limbs in those grea': travels have sprung up, like flowers, Christian missions, founded by men of different denominations and different views of church govm"nment, but united in the fear of Uod, the faith in Christ, love of Africa, and veneration for Livingstone. To the impulse, given by this great apostle, must be attributed the missions of the Establh,hed Church ot Scotland at Blantyre, the Free Chm"ch of Scotland at Livingstonia, the London Society on Lake Tanganykia, and the Universities Mission at Zanzibar. To these must be added the missions of the Church of Rome. In an interview which some years ago I had at Tunis with Cardinal LavigEH"ie, to implore him to locate his Equatorial MisSIons at a certain distance from stations occupied by Protestants, to which he agreed in word, though his practice has been different, he spoke with admiration of Livingstone. But to this servant of God ~t was not conceded to seQ one single ft"uit of his labors. He saw no mission spring up; like Moses, he only beheld the promised land from Pisgah; he died without knowing of the secret of the source of the Nile and the Kongo. But even after death he seemed to have power to charm and to conquer, for by faith his bones were conveyed by his faithful Africans to the sea-shore, from Ilala on Lake Bangweolo, where he died, along a route never traversed before, as if the great discoverer had power to add to geographical knowledge after his death, and the great philanthropist wished te leave a lasting proof that the natives of South Africa can be faithful and loyal, and capable of high enterprises, if they are kindly treated.
By faith Krapf and Rebman sat year after year at the watchtower of Mombasa, waiting till the day should dawn, calling to each other, "Watchmen, what of the night ?". writing home descriptions of vast lakes, and snowcapped mount~ins on the Equator, causing themselves to be derided, both as missionaries and geographers; yet they lived to be honored in both capacities, they lived to see the day dawn at last, to hear of Frere-Town being es- tablished as a station for released slaves at Mombasa, to hear of those internal seas being navigated, and that snow-capped mountain being visited. In hi~ old age Krapf in tearful gratitude read Henry Stanley's challenge, which rang with trumpet-sound from the capital of U-Ganda, and was gallantly answered by the Church Missionary Society, and he lived to hear of the great Apostle's Street, which by faith he had suggested, being carried out from Zanzibar to the Great Lakes, to be extended westward down the Kongo, until hands are shaken with the Baptist missionaries working up that river from the West.
By faith the good Baptist Society established themselves in the island of Fernando Po, and, driven thence by the intolerance of the Spaniards, they crossed over to the mainland, and found what seemed once, but, alas! is no longer, a more enduring inhel"itance in the Kamerun Mountains. By faith here Saker lived, labored and died, translating the Holy Scriptures into the language of the Dualla. but leaving his work to be revised by his .young daughter, opening out a new field for the talent and zeal of women. Hence in fullness of time by faith Comber started to conquer new kingdoms of the Kongo. making, alas! the heavy sacrifice of the life of his wife at San Salvador, before he reached Stanley Pool, with the great heart of Africa open to his assault; for in their hands the Baptist missionaries had carried gentle peace, and their vessel with that name still carried them onward on their blessed and peaceful enterprise.
By faith our good brethren in North America were among the first to send out their agents to West and South Africa, to pay back the debt which they oweu, and to atone for the wrong which their forefathers had inflicted. The sun was thus taken baek to the East, to lighten those sitting in darkness. Each and everyone of their churehes by faith have vied in the desire to found strong missions, translate the Holy ScriptUl:es, and to press ,.forward the work of freedom, education, ciyilization and evangelization.
By faith the holy and humble-hearted Protestant churches on the Continent of Europe, less amply endowed in material resources. but more richly in intellect, industry and self-consecration, have sent forth a golden stream "- of missionaries from the centers of Basle and Canton de Vaud in Switzer" land; of Barmen, Br"lmen, Berlin, Herrnhut and Hermansbul'g" in Germany; from Norway. Sweden, Finland and France, to hold the fort in the most exposed situations, to suffer imprisonment, to achieve great literary works, to found living churches, and attract to themselves the affections of the African. The names of the devoted men and women who have lived and died for Christ may not be known to the world, but are written in the Book of Life.
By£aith Samuel Crowther was rescued from the captivity into which he, like Joseph, had been sold by his brethren, was restored to his country, to be no longer a slave, but a teacher, a leader, a benefactor, and an'example; by faith he was set· apart to give the lie to the enemies of the African, to stultify the idle taunt, that a negro is incapable, by his nature, of culture, piety, honesty, and social virtues; by faith -he was raised up to mark an epoch in the sad chronicle of his persecuted race, and to be the firstfruit of the coming harvest of African pastors and evangelists. By faith his son Dandison, Henry Johnson and James Johnson were blessed with the great grace of being allowed to tread in his footsteps.
If any of my readers desire to know the real worth of the African mission– ary, let them read the lives of 11rs. Hinderer at Ibadan, and 11rs. Wakefield at Ribe, and of many other noble men and women, of whom this self-seeking world was not worthy, who left comforts at home to labor among the Africans; who, in spite of overpowering maladies, have, been, like Hannington, unwilling to leave ihe country of their choice, and determined to return in spite of the warning voice of their doctor, or who, like him, have died as good confessors, counting not their lives worthy, but to fill up what remail!s of the sufferings of Christ. Such lives, in their simple eloquence, cannot fail to chasten the proud heart, to drive out selfish egotism, and to sustain the sinking spirit; they leave a ray of tender light behind them, showing that the age of chivalry and of self-abnegation has not entirely passed away; that the nineteenth century, in spite of its wbrldliness and infidelity, is still able to supply crusaders to fight the battle of our 1I'£aster.
We read often in secular books, and too often in missionary biographies, how our Heavenly Father is supposed on some occasions to have graciously interposed to save the life of one of His poor children; in Roman Catholic accounts this benevolent interference is always attributed to the Virgin 11ary, or St. Teresa. Not a sparrow, indeed, falls without His command; but if sur:h interference is presumed when a good man's life is saved, how shall we account for the absence of this providential care when the good man is cruelly killed, or cut off by premature disease? Such is but a narrow view of God's providence. His ways are not our ways; He has chosen His servants for particular services: some to honor, some to dishonor. Some are selected to -live and work, to others is conceded the peculiar grace to die nobly and set a gloriolls example. Deaths are required as well as lives to complete the picture of the new life. Some may follow the steps of our Lord in a life of beneficenM and mercy; to others is granted th'e sweeter lot of filling up that which is behind of His sufferings. And in the last struggle how by grace they have been sustained, doing nothing common or mean in the last memorable scene of their earthly passion, but sealing their faith by their manner of meeting death!
Hear some of the dying words of these soldiers of Christ. In the hour of death all things are terribly real. There is no room for deception or false enthusiasm there. I have selected these words without distinction of country or denomination, but their number might be multiplied indefinitely. Arrhenius, the Swede, had only a few months of labor in the Galla country after years of preparation for his duties. His last words were: .. Jesus, help me I Jesus, help me I Amen."
Prretorius, the Swiss, was sent out for a few months' inspection of the missions on the Gold Coast; he called upon me on his way out, and promised to call again on his return; but after a few weeks in Africa he fell. His last words were: .. Is it true that I am going home to-day 1"
Of all the smaller English missions, the Livingstone-Kongo was conspicuous for its overflowing (If zeal and life and promise, and of all its agents McCall was the brightest; but he was struck down in mid-work. His last words were recorded by a stranger who visited him. Let each one of us lay them to our hearts: .. Lord, I gave myself, body, mlnd and soul to Thee. I consecrated my whole life and being to Thy service, and now, if it please Thee to take myself, instead Q/ the work 1vhich I would do for Thee, what is that to me 1 Thy will be done I"
He had hoped that his destined course might have been among- the brave [wd strong, to toil with high pUl'pose in the service of the African; but God had chosen another part for him, and as a true Christian he recogI).ized that God had chosen it well, and no weak mUl'mul'S escaped the lips of one who was ready to liv:l or ready to die. Golaz, of the French Mission to Senegambia, as well as his young wife, died within the year after their arrival. His farewell words were : "Do not be discouraged, if the first laborers fall in the field_ Their graves will mark the wall for their 8uccesSorS, who will march past them with great strides."
Pinkerton, of the American Mission in Zululand, was ordered to lead a new mission into Umzila's kingdom; he conveyed his wife and children to North America, and returned joyfully to his task. He met with many obstacles and rebuffs, but at length found himself well on the road. His last written lines were to his wife: "Thefutnre will bring its needed light, and work, and solace. My thoughts turn sadly to you and our children. All well. We go right on."
It was to him, indeed, all well, for in a few days he breathed hill last sigh alone in the African jungle; he had gone right on into glory I .On the other side of Africa, Bagster, of the same mission, had been sent to found a mission among the Ambandu; a few months before his death he had proposed to write on" The Missionary's Joys." In the last page of his jOUl'nal we find: .. We hear His voice of cheer: Go forward: one mau of yon shall chase ten thousand; the Lord your God has promised yon .the good land, which be has given to yon; most joyous is the service of our King I "
Thomson, of the Baptist Mission in the Kamerun country (that famous mission which has during 1885-86 been uprooted and destroyed by the late German Emperor), a few weeks before his death in September, 1884, unconscious of the l'uin which was so soon to come upon the scene of his labors, on his chapels and his mission schools, wrote as Collows : "I am sustained and upheld amid many and heavy anxieties by the growing conviction that the dear Master is, in His great condescension, nSing me here for the settlement of many difficulties; and llook forward to;the future with more hope than I have known for years. I believe the work here will soou assume a better and a brighter aspect, aud my heart glows within me, as by faith I see the time. Oh for more and more of grace to cast all our burdens upon the divine bnrden-bearer I Onr hope and trust are in Him alone I "
With such men (and these few are but types of many) Africa and the whole world can be conquered. Such deaths are great victories. Such words tell us that some portion of us is immortal. These confessors saw the promises afar off, and were persuaded of them, confessing that they were strangers and pilgrims, and desiring a better country, that is a heavenly.
Still, they were men with like weaknesses, and cravings for love, as ourselves, and it is with heavy heart that I read of the last moments of such servants of God, dying sometimes without the solaces of religion, with no fond breast to lean upon, with none of the ordinary necessities of civilized life to sustain and comfort and smooth the path to that bourne, which men call death, but which indeed is th~ portal to everlasting life. The last journal of Hannington (who was present when I read this address four years ago) brings this point of view vividly before me. I can see that faithful Christian in the midst of his sad environment, oppressed with anxiety for the future of the work to which he had consecrated himself, still sustained by the daily reading of, and meditation upon, the Psalms of David. We find in these pages, so wonderfully preserved, no rebellious murmuring, no cries for vengeance, no appeal to the arm of the flesh. Still, as he lay tossing on his unsavory heap of straw, before his feverish eyes, during those sad days and weary nights, would rise the vision of the peaceful home, the pleasing duties, the loved companion, the little children, whom he had voluntarily left, obeying the call to serve his Master; and not in vain, for a still voice would whisper to him: "It is the Lord's will: obedience is of the essence of true courage and true love. The battles of the Heavenly King are fought in suffering as well as doing, and in dishonor, in prison, and in shameful death, as truly as In the mission chappel, the mission school, and the center oj a Christian village."
We seem at this period of the history of our missionary churches to be living over again the trials and persecutions of the early Christians in the first century. Do we not seem to hear the echo of the words of the Virgin-Saint, who at ArIes in France was slowly let down feet-forward into a vessel of boiling oil, becauRe she refused to deny her Master?
.. Jesus Christ, help me! Praise be to Thee! Lord Jesus, grant me patience! I sutrer for Thy name's sake: I suffer for a little time onlll; I suffer oJ '~1I own accord: Jesus, let me never be confounded! take me ! take me ! ..
Time would fail me to tell of Schlenker, and Reichardt, and Schon; of Goldie and Edgerley ; of Casalis, Mabille and Coillard; of James Stewart, of Lovedale, and his namesake on the Nyassa; of Grant and Wilson; of Ram-· seyer and Christaller ; of Mackensie, the Bishop who died on the River Shire; and of Steere the Bishop who sealed up the translation of the last chapter of Isaiah ready for the printer, and then fell asleep at Zanzibar; oC Parker, the Bishop, wise and gentle, holy and self-restrained, who was called to his rest on the Southern shores of Victoria Nyanza; of Wakefield and New; of Stern, Mayer and Flad; of Southon, the medical missionary, who died at U-Rambo; of dear Mullens, who could not hold himself back from the fight, and who sleeps in U-Sagara; of many a gentle ladies' grave-for women have never been found wanting to share the honor and the danger of the Cross.
NOTES ON NEW BOOKs OF AMISSIONAlty CHARACTER
I have seen and known so many of them. A few weeks before we were holding sweet converse, and then the tidings of the death of Fome one of them came floating back by letter or telegmm. They had, indeed, all gone into a br country, and to me they seem to be all there still; and, when I am musing about Africa, or studying some point connected with thatcou~try, and I look up from my paper to my African library, the forms of departed fdends seem to enter at the open door, and I seem to see theil' faces again, and to ask them their opinion. Young Riviere, a Jesuit priest, who had been turned out of Algeria and taken refuge in North Wales, used to corre- spond with me about Afdca. One day he called upon me in London and told me that he had received his orders to start at once to the Zambesi Mission field, to take the place of a dead colleague. He pl'omised to write to me from Tete, and to clear up many questions for me; but he never reached his des- tination, for he sank under his iil'st attack of fever at the mouth of the Zam- besL Differing as I do from the Church of Rome in every principle and detail of their evil system, I can still recognize and thank God for the zeal, and love of souls, and total abnegation of self, which distinguishes hel' mis- sionaries. Oh, when they are such, would that they wel'e ours!
I often think of that famous scene in one of Walter Scott's romances, where the clansman and his seven sons all fell for their chieftain, stepping forth, one after the other, gladly into the gap, and Cl'ying: "One more for Eachim !" So it is with the reserve forces of missionaries. "One more for Christ!" And how much better to have young lives and treasure spent by the missions in trying to save African souls, than wasted by the English nation in slaughtering the unoffending and undaunted freemen of the Sudan, for the purpose of main taming an imaginary prestige of having the strength of a giant without the grace of knowing how to use that strength as a Christ- ian. Wherefore, seeing that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and press forward more and more upon our bounden duty aud service to evangelize Africa. We owe this debt to those who have gone before, that they should not have diedin vain. The .Missionary is indeed the most glorious outcome of 'the nineteenth century; the honest God-fearing man in the darkest corner of the earth, where he is most wanted. to represent the highest type of 'Christian patience and mo- rality.
.. Oh I that we now had there But one ten thousand of those men in Engla.nd, Who do no work to-dall ! ..
NOTES ON NEW BOOKS OF A MISSIONARY CHARACTER.
[EDITORIAL.l Report of the M/,8sionary Conference, London, 1888. Edited by Rev. Jas. Johnston, F.S.S., Secretary of Conference. Vol. 1. London, Jas. Nisbet & Co. This is the first volume of what promises to be the most perfect encyclopedia of missions in the world. We can say no more. We would not be without that report ifit cost $100 instead of $2.00. The most distingni,hed men in tbe world, in the departmcnt of Oriental languagcs, rellgions, philosophies, and ~nstom., as well as the specific history of missions, are among the contributors to these volumes.
This first volume contains exhaustive papers on Islam, Buddhism. Roman Catholici.m, Relations of Home aud Foreigu lIfissions, Commerce, etc. Then Part II. gives the mission fielus of the world-India, Ceylon, Burmah, China, Japan, Africa and Madagascar, Turkey, Oceanica, North and South America, etc. The second volnme will be eqnally comprehensive and valuable, let us rather say invaluable. I have bought twenty-five copies myself to give away, and if I had the money would pnt a copy in the hands of every minister and theological student III the country. The Arner lcanedition is issued by F. H. Revell, Bible House, N. Y.; Chicago, 150 Madi~on St.-A. T. P.
Life Of John Mlson, D.D., F.R.S. By George Smith, LL.D. London, John Mnrray. This is another of Dr. SmIth's masterly bOoks on missions. We intend to give hereafter a review article
ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK
-on this remarkable man, but for the present advise every lover of heroic life and labor to read the volume. The following landatory notice from the leading journal of the world, the London 7'imlJ8, we adopt verbatim: "Dr. Smith's life of the late Dr. John Wilson of Bombay is without exception one' of the most valuable records' of missionary work in India ever submitted to the English public, and equally worthy of its subject and its author. • • • Dr. George Smith's mature knowledge of Indian affairs has enabled him to give an admirable presentation of Dr. 'Wilson's life and labors in con- nection with the great public improvements and progress of the years, extending over two genera- tions of official service during which he resided in Bombay. Dr. Smith has given us not simply a biography of Dr. Wilson, but a complete history of missionary, philanthropic, and educational enterprise in Western India, from the governorship of Monntstuart Elphinstone,1819-27, to that of Sir Bartle Frere, 1862-67. He has arranged the many subjects with which he has had to deal and the materials placed at his disposal with great simplicity, clearnesr, and efIect."
Distinguished Witnesses. By Rev. John Liggins. New York, Baker & Taylor Co. This book is timely. It fits the need of the day as tenon fits mortise in a good joint. To decry and even deny the good results of the work of heroic missionaries is easy; but the logic of events will convince any candid mind, and in this book there is a mighty massing of testimony. Nehemiah is not alone in his experience. He met manifold forms of antagonism: apathy and lethargy on the part of Jews, maliciOus enmity and derisive ridicule upon the part of Ashdodite and Ammonite and Arabian. But he simply held his tongue, minded his own business, and built the wall, hung the gates and established law and order. "A light word is the Devil's keenest sword;" there are still many that are willingly ignorant, and if all that they do not know were published, the world itself conld not 'contain the books that would be written. We must disregard the assaults of ridicule and enlighten ignorance. Let us give tae people the facts, and the facts in abundance. They may become to some the fingers of God.
In this valuable 'l'olume the high character and grand influence of missions are established in the mouth, not of two or three, but of hundreds of unimpeachable witnesses. Representative men and women, whose names carry the weight of authority, and from every class in the community, here appear on the witness stand, commanding a hearing in the Court of the Judgment. They speak what they know and testify that they have seen, and only those whose eyes are blinded by prejudice or whose hearts are hardened by willful hostility, will refuse to receive their witness. Modern missions have little to fear from the harsh or hasty words ofa few like Dr. Oscar Lenz, Winwood Reade, Sir Lepel Griffin, J. J. Monteiro, Mrs. Scott Stevenson, or even James A. Froude and Canon Taylor, while such as R. H. Dana and J. P. Donovan, JamescRussell Lowell and Alfred Rugsell Wallace, Robert N. Cnst and James B. Angell, Wm. Elliot Griffis and Wm. Fleming Stevenson, Sir Bartle Frere and Sir Thomas Tancred, and Sir Richard Temple, Lords Lawrence and Loftus, Napier and Northbrook, Generals Edwards and Haig, Wallace and Wilson, Taylor and Gordon, Admirals Wilkes and Sullivan, Foote and Gore; nay, where Darwin no less than Dutrerin, and Keshub Chnnder Sen,.no lessthan Constance Gordon Cummiug, feel constrained to give testimony to the unspeakable value of Christian missions.-A. T. P.
Ohristianity and Humanity. By Chas. S. Eby, B.A. This is a course of lectures delivered in Meljis Kuaido, Tokio, Japan, and addressed to the young Japanese mind. The author is a wideawake ~tndent of the great problem presented by a people just losing faith in the traditions and religions of the p·ast and in danger of embracing any plansible errors which offer themselves. The house is empty, swept, garnished; and now the question is. Shall it be abandoned to the occupation of a sevenfold worse infidelity, or preoccnpied by Christian belief? The author says that a short time since the cry was" No religion" ; then another cry was heard, ~'Give us some religion " ; and now the question is, " What religion?" These lectures are an attempt to answer this last inqniry. They were delivered in English and Japanese on alternate Saturdays. Two of the lectures are contributed to the volume by Prof. J. A. Ewing and Prof. J. M. Dixon, respectively. It seems to us that this outline of Christian apologetics is a very thoughtfnl and fresh one, calculated to awaken attention and well repaying careful reading. Not a few Occidental students will find in them much strong meat for thought.-A. T. P_._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ II.-ORGANIZED MISSIONARY WORK.
Missionary Society of the Methodist turns from the various Annual Con- Ohurch (Oanada), ferences show an aggregate gain in the membership of the church of SIXTY-THIRD annual report, 1887-88. over 10,000, and a fail- proportion of The General Board in their report this gain has been won on mission fields. On the financial side there is say: "The results of the past year's an advance of some $18,000, sufficient, work call for devout thanksgiving to the Head of the Church. The reat least, to show that interest in ality and zeal, and should lead us to mission work is by no means on the consider whether the time is not near decline. . . . Since our foreign work when the church should turn hereyes was begun fifteen years ago, the in- toward yet another part of the negcome of the society has steadily risen lected field of foreign heathendom. from $108,000 to $220,000, and such Verily, the fields are" white unto showers of blessing have fallen upon harvest," and the demand of the hour the home churches that there hasbeen is for reapers to gather in the Eoheaves. an almost continuous revival. The reports this year from Japan willgive After a full and detailed statement a further stimulus to missionary liber- of operations, the following summary isgiven: DlCOlllE A]iD EXPENDITURE FOB 1887-88, COMPARED WITH THAT FOR 1886·87. Income.
Increase. Decrease. Toronto Conf~rence. " ………………………………….. '" $44,488 15 $62009 London………………………………………………… . 16,810 44 54042 Niagara …………..•…………………………………… 25.788 71 Guelph ………………………………………•………. 17,883 01 1,09230 $3io'oo Bay of Quinte Conference …………………….•…..•…… 19.387 29 21824 ~~~t[~~! ~~df~~~~.w~~i C6riti~eric~'::::::::::::::::::::::::: 34;70833 2,001 15 272'4R 6,59536 1,131 94 British Columbia Conference ……………..•……………. 2,.33 17 Nova Scotia Conference. . …………………………… . 11,594 88 New Brunswick and P. E. I. Conference ….•………•..•…. 8,736 15 750'99 92 15 Newfoundland Conference …………………………….. . 5,405 42 30132 Legacies •………………………………•…………….. 14,802 38 12,89608 Donations on annuity •……………………..•………..• 1,500'00 Indian Department ……………………………………. . 8,875'58 Miscellaneous …………•…•………..•……………….• 2,01807 4oo'7i 17240 Total iucome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .• . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. $219,480 00 $19,953 2.'1 $2,34759 Net increase……………………………… . 17,605 66 Expenditure. $i60' 95 $4.55079 TorontoConference, including Japau …………………….. $29,21804 London Conference…………………………………….. 10,034 61 154'94, g: ~:e~~a:::::::::::::::::::::::.,…… ','.:::'.:::::::::::::::::::::: ~:!~ 532 99 2754 2;66993 Bay of Quinta Conference . …………………….. '" … .. .. 10,752 55 1,055 57 Montreal Conference, including French Methodist Institute.·. . 25,165 79 Manitoba and North-West Conference…………………… 29,681 70 1,426'si British Columbia Confereuce…………………. …..•…… 17,765 28 Nova Scotia Conference ………………………….. :. . . . .• 6,615 91 685 81 New Brunswick and P. E. I. Conference…. ……………… 7,587 51 51018 28 Newfoundland Conference… .. .. …………•.•…•……….. 12,678 42 Mouut Elgin Industrial Institution……..•..•• , ••.• , •. •• •. . . . . 3,458 33 2,03049 Sundries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . •. .. .• •. . •. . . •. . . . . . . • 18,359 28 Cost of management……………………………………. 10,571 51 33305 2,227 12 1,62898 Total expenditure …….•…•…•……•….•… " $195,469 5! $12,343 17 $6,15978 Net increase….•……••……………..•….•…•……….. 618,339 Leipzig Missionary Society. the mortality has beeu so great that it has less European missionaries than stations at present. Number of stations…………………….. 23 Ordained European missionaries………… 22 British and Foreign Bible Sooiety. Native preachers ………… '" …•……… H Candidates.. . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . '" THE eighty-fourth report of this Catechists.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . •. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 57 noble society is a voluminous book Teachers……………………. : …•••…• 267 and one full of interest. The circu- I ,ferior assistants of varions sorts………. 130 lation of the Scriptures last year was the largest in the history of the so- Total force ………………………472 ciety, the total number of Bibles, Testaments, and Portions being INCOME FOB LAST FISCAL YEAR. 4,206,0::12. The gross total of re- ceipts amounted to £250,382 lOs. 5d. C) ltributions ………………….. $69,61440 The total of expenditures, £224,823 lItere.t on legacies, profits of the Mis- 98. lid. This pays the debt of previ- ous year, over £10,000, and leaves sionsblatt, etc…………………. 4,098 72 Balance in treasury•….••…… 10,440 240 £15,000 in the treasury toward a.n- Total. ……….•….•..• ,. …..$84,153 a6 other year's work. Expenditures ……………………$7!,825 60 Balance in treasury…………. $11,835 60 This shows a falling oft" of nearly $4,000 from 1886. The society's chief work is in South India, where it numbers more than 13,000 church Imlmbers. Notwithstanding it has sent out in the last three years eleven missionaries, . 125 The society a.fl'ords essential aid to tion cif the revised Rarotongan Bible. a large number of missionary soci- In Northwest America the work is eties by liberal grants of Bibles and .chiefly "among our own people." Testaments for distribution in their respective fields. Thus in West By the important work o~ giving Africa the society's work blends with grants-in-aid to missionary societies that of the Church Missionary and for the employment of Bible-women Wesleyan Societies' work. Develop- in the East, 300 Christian women ment is the law of South Africa, and were occupied in making heathen Bible work keeps pace with it. In and Mohammedan women better ac- East Africa the society works largely quainted with the ·Word of God. with the Universities' Mission, par. Translations in six fresh languages ticularly at Zanzibar and Lake Ny- were added to the list in 1887-88, and assa; it also helps the C. M. S. In with the com pletion of the version for Egypt direct colportage work has Japan last year it is believed that for the first time been commenced the entire Bible now exists in all the among Moslems. In no part of the great languages of the world. So society's work are the accounts more mightily grows the Word of God and discouraging than in Syria and Pal- prevails! estine. The Government opposes, the people are ignorant and unawak- Seventh-day Baptist Missionary Sooiety. ened. In Abyssinia but little work was possible, owing to the Italian THE forty-sixth annual session was military occupation; while Arabia held at Leonardsville, N. Y., Aug. 23, seems ready to be more largely oc- 1888. The society maintains a succupied. From Persia comes the rec- cessful mission in China. The staord of the sure though gradual ad- tistics of the evangelistic and school vance of the kingdom of God, while work there are encouraging. Mr. and there are indications of the disinte- Mrs. Randolph have been added to the gration of Mohammedanism. The Shanghai mission. The society also work in India is carried on by six has a small mission in Haadem, Holauxiliary societies-those at Cal- land. Also mission work is carried cutta, Madras, Bombay, Bangalore, on in Austria, and on alimiterl scale Allahabad, and Lahore; it is charac- among the Jews in New York City. tel;ized as wide and resistless, though But the society's efforts are laJ'gely gradual in its advance. Threeauxil- expended in home mission work, iaries, Jaffna, Colombo, and Kandy, chiefly at the South and West. work in Ceylon. In Burmah the society gives grants of Scriptures to SUMMARY. the Burmah Bible and Tract Society. In Malaysia the work is only in its , Ohina.-3 American missionaries; 2 native sixth year, but is vigorously advanc- preachers; 2 native teachers; 1 Bible woman; ing. In North China the agent con- 5 other native helpers; 5 baptisms; 4,220 pa_ siders that Bible work is the most tients at the dispensary; 82 medical visits; 40 extensive seed-sowing of all the forms snrgical operations. of missionary enterprise. In Mid- China there is cause for much en- Holland.-l paid missionary, bnt really 3 couragement. So also in South workers, and 5 additions. China. No message of the year is brighter than that received from Mission to Jews.-2 workers; much persoual Japan. The sales have nearly quadrupl~d. In Melanesia and Polynesia work; nO baptisms, but several adherents. One event of the year is the comrle- Horne MissWns.-24 workers, including the secretary; 150 additions-85 by baptism; and 5 churches and 7 Bible schools organized.
Scandinavian MzssWn.-l worker.
Total fO'T' America.-26 workers; 150 addl- tions-85 by baptism; 5 cburches and 7 Bible schools organized, one church and one school being among colored people in New Orleans.
Total additions on the whole field, 100-91 by baptism, Reeeipts. age the funds needed for the sup. Balance cash In treasury, port of their Bethel and its w.ark, and perhaps a surplus to be sent September 12, 1887…… $247 35 to the general treasury in New Receipts by contributions and income from bequests and permanent funds, York. Where it is not possible to from September 12, 1887, raise sufficient money in the vicinity to September 20,1888…. 8,633 01 of the work, the parent society feels Received on loans ……. " 3,800 00-$12,680 36 bound to supplement the deficiency. " E:r:pens68.
Paid salaries and other ex- At present, says the Secretary, penses from September there are urgent calls to service in 12,1887, to September 20, behalf of the three millions of sea, 1888 …………………$9,700 98 men of all nations, and there is Paid loans …..•………. 2,800 00-$12,500 98 Cash balance September a great opportunity to enlarge this 20,1888………….. .. $17988 work. Men are wanted specially en- dowed for labor among seamen. We The Amerioan Seamen's Friend Society. need more money. We need collec- THIS society was organized more tions from churches. In arranging than sixty years ago. Its object is the list of benevolent objects we.
",to improve the social and moral respectfully ask church officers to condition oi seamen, by uniting the remember that our society is a Home efforts of the wise and good in their and Foreign Missionary Society to bellaH; by promoting in every port seamen, who would be largely neg- boarding-houses of good character, lected were it not for its efforts in savings banks, register offices, libra- their behalf. We need gifts from ries, museums, reading rooms, and individuals. American shipping mer- schools; and also the ministrations chants who formerly helped our of the gospel and other religious caus,e are few in num.ber compared blessings. " with other days when there was an At the present time there are 17 American marin/e. But the seamen, laborers at 14 home stations, and 19 whether on sailing vessel or on laborers at 17 foreign stations, repre- steamer, whether American or for- senting this society. eign, are swarming over the world, The Loan Library work is efficient exposed to moral temptations, phys- and useful, the society having sent ical hardships and corrupting influ- out nearly ten thousand of these ences.
libraries to entertain and instruct Finances.-During the year ending seamen. It acts also as an agent of March 31, 1888, the cash receipts of the Bible and Tract Societies in dis- the society from legacies, donations, tributing the Word of God and relig- loan library contributions and other ious publications among the men of sources of income amounted to $45,- the sea. It has published 56,900 027.08. The disbursements for mis- copies of the Sailors' Magazine, 20,- sionary work, publications, loan hbra- 000 copies of the Seamen's Friend, ries, expenses, etc., amounted to and 124,200 copies of the Life Boat $41,004.81.
during the past year. In some ports The society owns a Sailors' Home the society is aided by local Sea- in New York, in which 111,326 sea- men's Friend Societies, auxiliary to men have found, since 1842, the com- this society. These develop local forts of a home and protection from sympathies, utilize local energies, the sharks which prey upon "pOel"
choose competent missionaries and Jack" in a great seaport. It is the superintend their work. It is ex- policy of the society to foster by its pected of these, wherever possible, influence homes, orphanages, savings that they will raise in the vicin- banks, reading rooms and similar ad·
OORRESPONDENOE AND GENERAL INTELLlGENOE. 12'7
juncts to the fundamental work of for the sailors' legal rights, hying to preaching the gospelandsavingsouls. secure them by legal f'nactmentsand It also stands up, as far as it can, to vindicate them when violated.
III.-CORRESPON DENCE and GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.
Africa. to the mission, and at a very low rate. It is toaching to print the fol- LAGOS, WESTERN AFRICA, Sept. 30, 1888. lowing response from a far-off mis- DEAR EDITORS.-Although I am unknown sionary, Mrs. Dr. Metheny, though her own mission· is in great need.- to you in the 11esh, yet I beg to write to you EDS.] that I have been traveling all over West- MERBINE, July 30, 1888. ern Africa conducting revival meetings, MRS. M. E. BEALL-DEAR SISTER: I read and delivering at the same time some tem- your appeal for funds in THE REVIEW. It perance lectures, and so try to deepen the stirred my heart so that I felt that though Ilpirituallife of a few who are only satisfied I could only give a little, I must give that, with mere formal Christianity, and to save and perhaps the Lord would put it into the some from the cursed rum and gin traffic, hearts of others who were more able, to give which is daily slaying its thousands in our according to their ability. We are in debt streets. I desire humbly to appeal through ourselves somewhat for our own house, your kind infiuence to a few or all of the which we built large enough to accommo- Religious Tract Societies in the United date our boarding-school and preaching ser- States, for a free grant of Gospel and Tem- vice. Onr Board was not willing to go to perance tracts, which will be of great use the expense of building, and we felt that we in my evangelistic work. The part of the could not do without the buildings. so we country where I am now conducting mis- took the savings of my husband's life-time, sion services is totally in want of $2,000, and $800 of'a legacy which his danghtracts and wall sheets of Scripture texts. ter left me. The $2,000 was all swallowed up I shall be exceedingly thankful, and my in the lot, so in order to complete the house poor African brethren will be g-rateful to we borrowed money from the Board, to be you, if you will supply us with these. Before repaid by the rent of the house. The mission this gets to your hands I shall be at Accra has the use of the first and second stories. for revival services, where you will please Our work here is new-begun in 1883-though addresame. I have been sixteen and a half years in the field-ten and a half in Latakia, Syria; six I am your faithful, humble servaut, as a teacher. My husband has been twenty~ four. There are now 171 communicants in GEORGE ROSE. and about Latakia. The force there con- sists of Rev. Easson and family, Dr. Balph East Oentral Africa. 23, 188~ and family, Misses Wylie, Edgar, and Dodds of the girls"school. We here are all one BANDAWE, LAKE NYASSA, Aug. family-Dr. and I, our four children, Misses Sterrett and Joseph. We have some Roman DEAR EDIT<»IS : In the article, •. The De- Catholics, but more Maronitesandstill more Greeks. Our special work is among a pagan' serted Mission," in the May number of THE sect, nominally Moslems, but really a secret sect. We also do some work amonlr bona_ REVIEW (p. 361), I notice the following: fide Moslems. For this reason we a~e bit_ terlyopposed by the Turkish Government. "Exclusive of • . . efficient help rendered One of our teachers has for more than three months been in prison for teaching among without compensation by the African Lakes these people. Our life is one continual strain of anxiety on account of our poor Co." people. Since coming here we have had a great number of people under instruction, Work done" without compensatirm" means a.nd we have a congregationol church mem.. bers, and their children, numbering 60. Bework done at the expense of the 8hareholders, sides these some have died and some have gone away. In all 30 adults have been bnt I venture to assert that au exnmination of brought in from.heathenism. How could any the books of the Livingstonia Mission will ie Of Us endure one had not the fure Word of prove, in the most conclusive manner, that the statement in THE REVIEW has not the slightest fonndation in fact.
School work is at present in fnll swing at this station. A staff of 36 native teachers is kept well employed; abont 1,000 children attend the schools dally to receive religions and other in· strnction. Yonrs trnly, ROBT. GOSSIP, Jill.
Asia Minor.
[IN the July number, 1888, p. 530, we gave a brief appeal from Mrs. Beall of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, for help to purchase property essential God to rest on t Dear sister, I hope your selves exceedingly well off if they could· get fur- work may be abundantly blessed. Please lough as orten as the average civil servant get~ remember our work (Reformed Pres. Cove· it, not to speak of the three months' privilege nanter) in your prayers. leave which the latter can enjoy once in three years withont his right to furlough being af- "!Oour sister in Christ, Cected. A good deal might be said abont the devotion of the average civil servant to his MARY E. METHENY. work; bnt my design in writing is purely de- fensive. In di a.. Dr. Cust complains that the domestic affairs [WE admit the fo!owing from a of missionaries bulk too largely in official re- worthy missionary in IIl(lia as but ports. Sometimes it may be so; but that evil fair. In the September number we conld be easily remedied. Let no such subjects printed an able article, written by be referred to in official documents, except in Dr, Cust, entitled" The Heroic Mis- so far as they affect the work of the mission. sionary Society." Some of its criti- Onr critic may allege _that they ought not to cisms we thought at the time" un- affect it. Would the general of an expedition, duly severe," and so expressed our- or the governor of a province, allow them to sel ves in a footnote, p. 669. Our COl'- affect his work? Perhaps he might. The com- respondent, in a private note, says: parison, for which I am not responsible, is not "I know that you have given no a very happy one. When do you find generals sanction to the opinions which I con- or governors living with their families, as you demn, but rather the reverse. All often find missionaries with theirs, in isolated the same, I think it a pity that such places. where in times of illness no ejfic :ent help statements as Dr. Custmakes should is to be had for love or money? A general or go unchallenged. A good deal of governor can easily find a competent nurse to this kind of writing has appeared wait on his Wife, even if she do not happen to lately in Scotland, and I think it is have a European lady's maid with her; this a fitted to do no little harm to the miSSionary caunot always do, even if he could afford to pay for her services. Many mission- cause of missions." In the end we aries have to send 100 miles or so for a nurse believe such discussions will do good when one must be had, and when she comes rather than harm to the cause of she is often no acquisition; but all the same he missions.-EDs.] has to pay her an exorbitant fee, besides giving her food and drink while shei. in his house, and Il'IDIA, Sept. 25, 1888. more money for her traveling expenses than he DEAR EDlToRs.-Is it quite true that" mis- would ever think of spending in such a journey. siouaries have not a Warmer friend than Dr. Cust"? Was he practising the charity that What is a missionary to do in such circum- .. thinketh no evil" when he insinuated that stances if his wife take serionsly ill? He can missionaries .. take a worldly view" of their scarcely hope to have a nurse in his house till a w-'rk, .. and mix up a mission to a dying world week has elapsed, if he be able to get one at all. with visions of early matrimony, social advan- Is he to leave his wife to languish, and perhaps tage, and a pleasant career"? Individuals may to die, all alone, with no one to minister to her, do so; but I do not happen to know them. in order to preach to the heathen? If he may Most missionaries of my acquaintance might not leave his work for a time tl> attend to his have rlone better in respect to this world if they wife when she is really ill, is he entitled to give had remained at home. Again, each man must np preaching when his own health is such as to judge for himself whether or not he should indicate ueed of rest? If a missionary ought to marry, and if so, when. The primitive Church act in this way, ought not every Christian in knew no restriction in this matter, nor should every land to do the same? In that case, what we, beyond what is .. needfnl for the present" are we to understand by the words of Christ, exigencies ofeach. .. Go ye and learn what that mean.eth, I will lie says: "lIow often the Indian official or have mercy and not sacrifice" ? soldier has to ~hip off a sick wife, and cannot accompany her." In my experience this has Dr. Cnst further thinks that the attention of been quite as often done by missionaries, in pro- the mission committee is too mucb taken np portion to their nnmber. One would fancy with affairs of missionaries' familie., ., as if they from such remarks that Indian civil servants were a board of guardians of the poor." This is – were either more devoted to their work than not true of all committees. One committee that missionaries are to theirs, Or that their oppor- I know of acts on the prinCiple of paying mis- tunities of going home on furlongh' or short sionaries well, and leaving them to look after leave were fewer. Now I think the most self- their own wives and children. If all missions indulgent of missionaries w01lld thinlt tbem- were to act on this principle, they woulcl be re- lieved of this trouble, but at a pretty large in- crease in expenditure. As I understand it committees take tbis trQuble on themselves on grounds of economy, so that they may decide urging them to remain firm to their purhow much should be given in each case to en- pose of working in foreign land's~' even able a missionary to "provide for his own" in a decent way. It does seem hard that a mi,- though their entering upon that work seem sionary separated, at no small cost of feelin!!" from his children, should be grndged what is tu them to be long delayed. ' necelJaarv for their snpport. There are people at home rolling in wealth, and enjoying "very The meetings during the five days Were luxury which it can command, who grudge tae small allowance made towards the board and held as follows: Each morning the meeting maintenance of children who are to all intents and purposes in the position of orphans for the began with a short song service, toen the sake of missions. sermon, followed by many short, earnest tes- We welcome fair, well-considered criticism; when we err, tell us our fanlt iu a brotherly timonials in quick succession. After breakspirit; but do not join the common enemy in mali!!:ning and misrepresenting us. We can fast at ten the children's meeting and the bear the tannts and contempt of the ungodly; now we are being wounded, and that most ministers' meeting. At twelve a. sermon deeply, by our friends-onr best friends, it seems. Our time will soon pass away; to our again, and at three a Hindustani service~ own Master we shall staud or fan; but let Christian critics beware, lest by their harsh In the evening the opening song service treatment of us they discourage others from entering ou the work, and S3 injure the cause and the sermon. followed by an exhortation they seek to serve. It would have been easy to write at much greater length; but I forbear, from the leader and an invitation for all to as I do not wish to encroach unnecessarily ou your space. stay to the after-meeting. T-hen following LETTER from Miss Libbie C. Griffin: the benediction the precious after.meeting, BALASORE, ORISSA, Oct. 23, 1888. when sinners came to the altar and were Gon- THE Missionary Conference held each year at Lucknow, the capital of Onde, India, verted and missionaries and lay Christians began this year Oct. 10 and closed Oct. 14. They are held under tl}e auspices of the came and the Holy Ghost came upon them. M. E. lIfission in India, but attended by many missionaries of other denominations. Christians talked of rest, of complete sur.
Rev. J. H. Schiveley, pa.tor of the :r.r. E. render, and perfect trust. Some said that Church, Lucknow, leader this year, is a henceforth Christ should not only be with real evangelist. Sermons were preached by Rev. Tracy, Pres. of Etoma; Rev. Fore them but in them, taking entire possession, man, Pres. Fatipl'; Rev. Pa.rsons, Wesleyan, Lucknow; and Rev. GrilIln, F. Bap- and others that they believed that Jesus tist, Balasore; and by M. E. missionaries as follows: Dr. Johnson, Lucknow; Rev. would help them hereafter not only to con. Stuntz, Bombay; Rev. McCoy, Calcutta, Editor of the Indian TVitne88; Rev. Mansel, trol their tempers, but to lose them, so that Cawnpore; Rev. Marne, Calcutta; Rev. Hollister. Nagpur; Rev. Hoskins, Shah nothing would anger or irritate. A Church Jehanpur; Dr. Scott, Bareiley; and Rev. Thoburn, Simla. The sermons were strong of England missionary thought that he and spirit»al, aiming to bring sinners to Christ and Christians to an entire conse- should have grace to go home and treat his cration. The presence of such workers of many years as Dr. Scott, Rev. Mansell, Dr. servants better, and a Methodist missionary Waugh, Dr. Johnson, and Dr. Parker, was most helpful. Long may they live to help got back the peace of mind that he had lost not only the heathen. but the young missionaries who need their counsel so much_ in building a church and dealing with the Rev. Forman was doubly welcome because of his work in the home colleges. At the lying, cheating, thieving masons who per. Lucknow Missionary Conference a resolu- tion was passed telling of the tha.nkfulness sisted in putting mud where bricks and of the missionaries for the volunteers and mortar should be. Many missionaries knew from experience the ~emptations and trials of these two men and thanked God for the new-found power which should enable them to work with and for these heathen, so full of dark ways and vain tricks, and not be worried, or wounded, or made to sin by them. Saved to the nttermost even here, soldiers pledged themsehes to be as loyal to their new-found Saviour as to their queen, and men, women and children said. "I have found Jesus and mean to serve Him as long as I livp,." Thf':re was joy among the angels and gladness in our hearts for the wonderful things God did for us -all at Lucknow. And greater joy shall come when the beathen for whom we go now to labor shall yield to our God theirSaviour_ How to Make Missionary Wall Maps and Oharts.
(See MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD for December,p.962.) FIRST secure a carpeted room, sufficiently large for the purpose, and after removing all furni- ture spread on the carpet old uewspapers, lapping – their edges four inches. Upon these lay a sheet of muslin. 2ay 8×12 feet. This musliu is double- width ordinary sheeting muslin, and while the lIIap !s necessarily limited to 8 teet ill width, It can be 89 !nany yards long as is Wished, all in New York City. one piece, no seam.. A CONFEIlENCE ON MISSIONS TO TR!!= JEWs. This piece of muslin tack at the corners and midway of the sides and ends. Then take ~ of THE First lIebrew Christian Church in a pound of white glue and dissolve it in one gal- America, Rev. Jacob Freshman, pastor, lon of boiling water, and with a Jlat three·inch- which worships at 17 St. Mark's PIa."", New wide varnish brnsh apply it rapidly and York, recently entertained a" conference" smoothly to the muslin, and as soon as the mus- of friends of Jewish missions. The conlin is covered quickly untack it and remove the ference was opened with a sermon by Dr. papers that are sticking to its back (the glue hav- lIoward Crosby, from the text, .. Salvation ing goue through the muslin), and then relay it is of the Jews," which he maintained to be on the «arpet (a cushion of air underneath pre- not only an original but a continuing and venting its sticking to the carpet) and retack it, an ultimate fact; the Jews, pervading all taking care to keep the edges parallel with the the populations and speaking freely aU the washboard, the room beinglarge enough to allow languages of the world, are destined, with a passage all around the muslin. Donot stretch their matchless aggressive energy and abil.. it too tight. The sizing will dry in four hours. ity, to become the pre-eminent apostles and Next take a straight·edge as long as the map the predominant agents of the King whom and draw with lead pencil parallel lines for they have hitherto rejected. Among the latitude and longitude, and with these as guides speakers on succeeding days were Drs. Aloutliue the map with a lead pencil. Then color bert Erdman, James Morrow of Philadelthe land portions, etc., using Fletcher & Co.'s phia, JaB. M. King, H. Friedlander of Jeruinks. These come in powder form, in small salem. J. 111. Buckley, Wm. T. Sabine, Geo. packages, 25 cents each, and comprise nine col- Alexander, Henry Wilson, and others. The ors, but by combiuing them a number of addi- audiences usually crowded the little chapel, tional colors can be made. These powders are which accommodates about 200, and manireadily dissolved in water (Yo pint) and can be fested absorbing interest and great earnestkept bottled for an indefinite time. Pour some ness for the restoration of God's not-castof the color out in a saucer and dilute it and ap- away but temporarily blinded people. ply with a fiat bristle brush. Care must be taken not to let it dry on you, and it is best to Perhaps the most striking feature of the put thA color on a light tint and by repeated conference, next to the report of Jewish coats darken it to the right shade. The coloring evangelization in New York and other cities will then look smooth and not smeared. When from this center, was the Rev. Dr. Friedall the coloring is on, then take liquid India ink lander's account of the Jews in Jerusalem (25 cents a bottle), andwith a small ~-in6h rOltna at the present time. They are divided, he sable brush blacken the outlines and lines of said, into three classes: latitude and longitude, and make a wide border for the map. Use the brush as you would a (1) The Spanish-speaking Jews, descendpencil, drawing it toward you and backing ants of ancestors who Were expelled from away. Of course these maps are made on your Spain four centuries ago and took refuge knees. If the India ink is too black or too in Jerusaiem; filled to this day with the thick, dilute a little with water. submissive complaisance which ages of oppression had taught them, together with Next take a lead pencil and outline the letter- the extreme Oriental courtesy which they ing (make it bold), block letters, and then fill in have assimilated from the Turks, and which with India ink. If you choose you can buy two makes them the most agreeable (while yet sizes of stencil letters and outline your letters no less impenetrable) listeners to Christian with them, and then fill in with the India ink argument and the New Testament Scripafterward. The India ink must be the last color- tures. They number '1,000, more or less, or ing on, for it will wash add biur if colored over. about one-third of the JeWish population of Jerusalem. Wheu your map is finished, trim the ends only. Leave the selvage on edges to prevent the (2) German – speaking Jews, who began map from tearing. If you are careful to draw voluntarily to emigrate to Jerusalem from your lines with a straight-edge and parallel and southeastern Europe as missionary pilgrims at right angles to each other, you will have a about fifty years ago on the removal by the pleasing-looking map. If the sizing makes it Turkish Government of the restriction on stiff, fold it up until about two feet sqllare, and Jewish families in Jerusalem to 300; always then roll it. The creases will all come out. You proud and fearless to beJews in their native can thus carry it anywhere, and in use suspend it countries; drawn to Jerusalem by intense trom the two corners and middle of the upper religious zeal, for the purpose of devoting edge. themselves solely to devout exercises, to the exclusion of business, and supported in P. S. In using the Fletcher inks it is best to their austere lives by contributions from keep the maps rolled up, as the colors fade those they had left behind; in these devslightly after long exposure to strong .l!unlight. otees the missionary eocol/nters all the fierce intolerance of militll.nt Judaism, and ~NQTr ~~UAlIE! PA, QLME~CE l/4lIl!;XN. it is even dangerous, Bometimes~ toapproo.ch remaining on bond and mortgage,and some them in the hated name of Jesus; they pur_ $5,000 have also been paid for repairs, al- sue with extreme ardor works of super_ terations, and furnishing, which have COD_ ,erogation to acquire surplus merit before verted the lower part of the house into a God, and make the greatest possible sacri- tastefnl and inviting place of worship, with fices to maintain, as they do, among other reading and prayer-meeting room, the upper things, scores of Hebrew libraries and read- fioors serving as the pastor's residence. The ing rooms in the city, tending and mending property is vested in a board of trnstees, of every book with scrupulous care. which Drs.Crosby, Deems and Vincent,Ralph Wells, Esq., and a number of other well- (3) The latest comers, who in recent years known Christian laymen are members, and have been driven out in utter wretchedness the work enjoys the auspices of an advisory from Russia, Roumelia, etc., and kllew not committee, in which to the above-named where else to go but to the land of their clergymen are added Drs.•T. M. Buckley, fathers, a shipload of them having ev..n Wm. Ormiston, Wm. M. Taylor, Wm. T. been turned back from New York. These Sabine, R. S. MacArthur, and others. people are more accessible from having im- bibed something of the modern spirit, and Mr. and Mrs. Freshman serve unitedly also from the contrast of Christian truth without salary, depending solely by faith and love to the combination of superstitiou on the offerings which individuals may be and cruelty which forms of nominal Chris- moved to make expressly for their support, tianity had presented to them in Europe. the collections and general donations going This last migration Dr. Friedlander was to the payment of ordinary church expenses inclined to regard as a beginning of the and of such assistants and publications as return, analogous, in the poverty and lowli- can be afforded for the almost unlimited de- ness of the exiles, to the earlier period of mands of the work, the expenses of con- the return from Babylon. All these Jews verted Jews preparing for the ministry- speak from three to six languages; but, said of whom there are now ten so engaged or Dr. Friedlander, you need not greatly ad- laboring under Mr. Freshman's direction mire their learning, for they get their six in other cities-and to the bnilding fund. languages in infancy as naturally as they A beautifnl bi-monthly paper, called The learn to sneeze or eough. Hebrew-Christian, is published at the mis- sion, at 50 cents a year. The story of the mission in New York under Mr. Freshman may be summarized Mr. Freshman is a preacher of terse and as follows: Mr. Freshman came here in 1881 thoughtful as well as impassioned eloquence from the Montreal Methodist Conference, and usually gives the Sunday morning to after some years of successful pastoral ser- the presentation of the cause of Israel in vice in Canada; following his conversion other churches to which he is invited, with (with that of his father, a Jewish rabbi of the highest acceptance, whether to cultured Hungary) from Judaism to Christ. Having or uncultnred hearers. In his own church a strong impulse to engage in evangelizing he preaches in English on Sunday evenings, the Jews in New York, he commenced l'ublic and in German on Saturday afternoons to services in the small lecture hall of the full audiences of Jews. The pathos and Cooper Union on the first Snnday in Jan- power of the testimonies heard in these nary, 1882. In two months he was enabled meetins-s from the Jewish converts are to organize a Hebrew-Christian Church such as nothing less than the" great trib- with ten converted Hebrews, the number ulation" through which they enter into the required by Jewish custom for a congrega- kingdom of heaven could elicit. " tion. During the succeeding struggles with poverty the little church was tossed about, WILLIAM C. CONANT. occupying at different times the lecture room of Dr. Howard Crosby's church, of THE following letter from Rev. the Seventh Street Methodist church, and Geo. S. Mott, D. D., will explain itself : again the room in Cooper Union, and one at the corner of Grand and Allen streets, where FLEMINGTON, N. J., Oct. 26, 1888. preaching, Sunday-school and prayer-meet- REV. A. T. PIERSON, D.D.: I am greatly in- ings were conducted in the German lan- terested in the missionary intelligence guage. The church is denominationally which you furnished for The Homiletic Re- Hebrew-Christian and nothing else. view, and now in THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE'VORLD. You have for so long a time At length, in 1885, the buildiug No. 17 St. made this a specialty that you must be famil- Mark's place was purchased for $20,000, by iar with the many sources of information re- the aid of such men as Hon. Wm. E. Dodge, specting the foreign field, and I have go.th- Rev. D. Stuart Dodge, Hon. SamnelMorley ered a large amount of material which prob- of England, and others, who contributed to ably you have not given to the churches. I the initial payment of $5,000. The indebt- take the liberty, therefore, of making this edness has since been reduced to $10,000, suggestion to you: There is very much needed for us pllrstors a. good eyclopredia of foreign missions ual harvest; but as Mr. Grenfell was combrought up to the present time. Probably ing down the river, on his way to England, you have seen "The Cyclopredia of Missions" he met a band of native evangelists going by Newt.omb. This was published in 1834, forth on an evangelistic tour. They had set and this statement shows at once that it out of their own accord, without even th~ does not meet present wants because of the knowledge of the missionary, evidently takmarvelous advance in the work. The defect ing upon thclll8elves the Lord's command to of the work is the details. At the time it go and preach the gospel. They had not only was published these details were perhaps forsaken their own superstitions, but were desirable, but much respecting climate and vigorously seeking to propa.gate their new geography and natul'al history can be ob- faith.-Mi8S. Herald. tained from other sources. But my idea is that the articles "ould be wrought over, and' -George Schmidt. Foremost in the fight that they furnish much valuable material with ignorance and evil in South Africa for a new book. In the early days of my stands the figure of George Schmidt, pre_ pa"torate I often consulted it, and even now pared for the hardships of his missionary it is nsMul as a history of early missionary life by six years of imprisonment for conwork. In my opinion a work of this charac- science' sake in Bohemia. during which his ter would be of vast benefit to the cause of brother in tribulation, Melchior Nitschforeign missions. I believe many pastors mann, died in his arms. Whence came the aTe deterred from presenting foreign mis- zeal whkh moved Schmidt to make his way sion work because they cannot get the ma- alone to South Africa in 1737, and to dwell terial without a qnite laborious search, and among his little colony of Ho'ttentots in they have not the time for that. Bavianskloof, until in 1743 the persecutions of the Dutch settlers and clergy drove him There is another work containing very val- from the country, and their intrigues preuable information-" History of the Propa- vented his return? Whence came the argation of Christianity Among the Heathen," 'dent heart's desire, which led him day hy by Rev. Wm. Brown. This is a history, and day to a quiet spot near his German home, not, therefore, in the serviceable for,n of a and there poured itself out in prayers for cyclopredia. It was pubJished byWm. Black- his orphaned tlock far 'away, until, like wood, London, 1834. It is an extensive trea- Livingstone, he died on his knees pleading tise spread out into three volumes. for Africa.? Such burning Ijve and such persistent prayer are not of man, they are I write to you because I do not know any of God. And though the answer tarried one who can so well perform the task. We long.-yes, fifty years-it came before this have cyclopredias on almost every subject. century commenced. George Schmidt was but not one that has come to my knowledge no longer on earth to hear the reports of adequately meeting the needs of the grand the three men upon whom his mantle fellmovement in foreign missions. how:they found the spot which he had cul- tivated, the ruins of his hut yet visible, the GENERAL INTELUGENCE. whole valley a haunt of wild beasts; and, Africa.-The Congo Tribes. Those who better, ho'Y they found one, surviving become intimately acquainted with' the member of that little congregation of 47 negro race as found in various parts of who had long waited and hoped for the re- Africa bear testimony to its good quali- turn of the beloved teacher. This was an ties. The coast ne"ro who has learned aged blind Hottentot woman, who welcomed some of the vices of civilization is un- them as Schmidt's brothers with" Thanks doubtedly a sorry specimen of human- be to God." and unrolled from two sheepity ; but where native tribes can be found skins her greatest treasure, a Dutch New uncontaminated by contact with foreign- Testament which he had given her. Soon ers. they exhibit sterling qualities. Rev. this so-called Bavianskloof (i.e. Baboon's George Grenfell, who has visited all the Glen) was changed into" The Vale of Grace" tribes along the Congo, says that the negro (in Dutch, Genadendall, and where Schmidt's would stand his ground before the white poor hut stood there is now a. la.rge settleman. "There is a vitality of race and ment, with a congregation of more than power about him that is going to make him 3,000 members. From this center the work take bis place some day among the nations has spread over Cape Colony, and beyond of earth." In support of this opinion, he its borders into independent Kalfraria. gives several incidents showing the vigor Now its two provinces include 16 stations and fidelity of the natives, and especially with their filials, where 60 missionary mentioned an incident which he witnessed agents have charge of 12,800 converts. at Banza Manteka, the station at which the American Baptists have recently received Lib..ria.-On the 22d of November last the so many converts. Three years ago their Secretary of the Manchester Geographical Sociplace was a stronghold of grossest supersti- ety read an interesting paper contributed by the Hon. G. B. Gudgeon, consul-general for Liberia, tions, and there seemed no hope of a spil'it- 1889.] ,CORRESPONDENCE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 133 in London. It was stated that the famous preach the gospel and couduct mission schools ,negro republic of Liberia was founded by the for from 15 to 45 rupees per month. They have American Colonization Society in 1822. The made this choice· out of love to Christ, whom work of civilizing and Christianizing the inbab- they greatly desire to serve. itants of that almost unknown country was en- tirely carried on for more than twenty years by It is now proposed to enlarge the college, add this society. The missions established along to its staff of professors, and extend its coorse, the coast and at various points inland had de- of study. The additions will include a fnlly veloped iut'? Liberia's prosperous towns and equipped medical department, with ho.pital and settlements. It became an independent state in dispensary. Bursaries will also be founded in 1847. Nearly 2,000,000 sonIs were subject to the aid of poor studeuts professing the Christiau role of the Liberian Republic, consisting of faith. The rising generation demands the about 40,000 freed slaves and their descendants, higher educatiou, aud it Is hoped by this means the remainder belonging to numerous aboriginal to provide it iu connection with Christian pre- tribes. While the state possessed a seaboard cepts, sanctions and influence. There is reason of 500 miles and an interior extending over 200 to believe that J affna College will yet be a great miles, she had acqnired no territory except by blessiu!!; to the Indian Empire. The directors treaty, purcbase, exchange, or barter. 'Bishop have appealed for £30,000. £3,000 ha. already Taylor had described the country as healthy and been subscribed. its climate salubrions and enjoyable, without a plague of flies and with few mosquitoes. Many China.-There is a party of progress in travelers had confirmed the bishop's testimony. China as in Great Britain and Irelaud, and The RepubliC of Liberia stood before the world ma.ny difficulties and discouragements as the realization of the dreams of the founders are enconntered there by those 'who of the American Colonization Society, and in resolutely'· go forward. ' For many years many respects more than the realization. Far a woman has rnled the Chinese. The Re- beyond the recognized limits of the country, gent till some two years ago, and since the and hundreds of miles a way from the coast, the Assistant Ruler, the Empress has been in- efl'ects of American civilization were to be wit- vested with immense power, which she has nessed. Men of color entirely governed the nsed to help rather than hinder the pro- republiC, an< if any proof were wanting of the gressive party. Within her pa.lace grounds, capacity of fteedmen to govern, Liberia was an says the North Ohina ,Herald, there are interestiug illustration. The ability, learning, steam-launches on water and model rail- and skill of many of Liberia's citizens were ways on land, and no doubt in the palace found in their code of laws, which for human· itself there are other products of Western ity, justice, and morality nO other country could civilization. The Empress has not refused excel. The Euglish tongue is spoken through- to listen to the VOIces Which speak to her out the republic.-From our English Oorre- from the West, nor has she shown indiffer- spondent. ence to the suggestions of change coming from the same quarter. It is now an· Ceylon.-Education. An important center nonnced that in the second month of the of Christiau activity in Ceylon is the Jaffna Col- next Chinese year the Empress will retire lege for the training of native helpers, which from office and leave the youug Emperor originated iu a spontaneous effort on the part of to reign alone. He has come to the throue the native Christians in 1867. Abottt £l,~OO at a critical time. The first railway ha.s toward its cost was raised in Ceylon, and £6,000 been opened, and may be followed by the contributed by American friends. Iu 1872 the inroads of the iron horse, with its inevita- college was opened under a board of directors ble following in the overthrow of old cns- securing its undenominational character. Never- toms and the introduction of new condi- theless it is a distiuctly and decidedly Christian tions of social life and trade. We find, too, institutiou, and has from the beginniug been that the Chinese Telegrapil Company is presided over by Rev. Dr. E. P. Bastin!!;s. successful, paying a good dividend in the sixth year of its working. The young Em- There is a flourishing preparatory school. All peror, in a decree, acknowledges with filial students reside on the premises, and are thus gratitude the services rendered by the re- separated from heathen associations and brought tiring Empress during the last thirty yearll. ander Christian influence. Every year there and promises, "with awe and care, to have been conversions, and the majority of those give his whole heart to the mnltitudinons who graduate do so as Christians. There is a affairs of the nation." Should yonng China Y. M. C. A. in connection with the college, and pursue an onward and upward course, being many of the members are good workers in the duly conservative of all that is good in the town aud neighborhood. A goodly number of present, and yet earnestly amending and the graduates have become pastors, catechists, reforming and perfecting the institutions and teachers, not onIy in Ceylon, but also iu of the empire, the future of China is as- India. Some of those who might have been re- sured. For ourselves we look hopefully to ceiving salaries of from 80 to 150 ropees per days to come. There will be disappolat- mouth iu secular employment are content to meuts and reverses. These cannot be avoided in taking new departures. But if penditure in India., and not engaging in righteousness and good will are shown in wars as they have done in the past. relation to foreign countries, and at home proper respect be paid to public opinion, Hawaii.-Since publishing the report on and as much regard to whatever can pro- Polynesian missions we have received a furthel' mote the well-being and prosperity and letter on Ha wail, from the very highest Amer- social happiness of the people, China will ican authority. It confirms aU that is said in maintain her place in the great East and the previous letter, and enlarges on One or two win the confidence and alliance of the more points. ., The American missionaries in Ha- powerful West. waii regard the Anglican mission there as an intrasion, except as a single American Episcopal India.-How the Opium Traffic Arose. Mr. minister might have been serviceable near the David Maclaren, who h"s been identified palace. . . . I am not aware that there are with anti-opium agitations since 1840, gave any Episcopal Hawaiians, save a few, particu- a brief account of the traffic. First of all larly near to royalty, and they have a pretty the East India Company, which was the surry time of it now that the kine; has become Government of India a.t the time, made so utterly degraded. While Queen Emma lived opium from the juice of the popPV. Then they had some show of respectability; she was that company sold opium to China. Thirdly, s gaod· woman. they withdrew from the shipping into China, and left that to private merchants, who .. The alienation of the roysl family from the were imprisoned, with the consequence that ecclesiastical attachments of their country has the Chinese war took place. After that the deprived the latter not only of a valuable ele- introduction of opium was legalized, and ment of moral leadership, but of moral influ- the Chinese began to grow it for themselves. ence. The adoption of Christianity by the king In due course the English Government took and the chiefs had great inlluence on the over the government of India, and now the masses, and led many, douhtless, to a formal largest manufacturer in the world is Queen profession of their faith. Victoria. Then the Chinese began to draw a revenue from opium, not only from that .. There has been developed of late, largely imported, but from that grown in the coun- through the influence of the king, some disposi- try. So the Government which had said it tion to revert to heathenism, not very widely, would never draw a revenue from the misery but in some cireles. The king, as you know, of the people, has been induced to do so. has introduced heathen customs abont his pal- We are responsible In the sight of God for ace, and this tells on the weaker natives."- all these evils. How shall the united influ- Charle,. O. Starbuck. ence of missionary societies and churches be brought to bear? I do not know what Japan.-Japanese Views of Christianity. .we can do. We can say to the Government, Several eminent publicists of Japau are however, when the Chinese treaty expires, carrying on a. very interesting discussion that the Chinese shall be at liberty to do as just now. The object is to determine they wish. The Indian Government are still whether or nat it is adVisable for the the makers and producers of the article. people of Japan to embrace the Christian Samples are brought from China, and ex- religion. The Japan Weekly Mail, in a lmined chemically, in order that the same recent issue, summarizes this discussion. kind may be produced. If we say, .. Give it It states that those connected with the up," then bd.nkruptcy seems to stare the movement say that Christian dogmas are a Indian Government in the face, because of bitter pill to swallOW, but advise that it be the failure of revenue. If the opportnnity swallowed promptly for the sake of the after for repentance is not accepted, surely God effects. Mr. Fukuzawa. a well-known wri- will take the matter into His own hands. ter, urges this course, a'though he says he Tberefore, I think, we must teach the peo- takes no personal interest whatever in re- ple of this country, EO that when God's ligion. and knuws nothing of the teaching judgment falls upon us we may be able to of Christianity; but he sees that it is the recognize it. The country should be warned creed of the most highly civilized nations. that the judgment of God will descend upou Professor Toyama of the Imperial Univer- Us in respect of this. At the same time we sity has published a work to support his must use our endeavors to induce the Gov- view. He holds that Chinese ethics must ernment to stay tbe evil. It is said, .. The be replaced by Christia.n ethics, and that 'government must live." That is what the the benefits to be derived from the intro- poor outcast of the street says. Do we ad- duction of Christianity are (1) the improve- , mit it in her case? Is the argument more ment of music; (2) union of sentiment and valid, then, in the case of a !,overnment? feeling,leading to harmonious co-operation; I do not see the way o.ut of the difficulties and (3) furnishing a medium of intercourse involved in doing right, unless it be by our between men and women. It is argued by government considerably curtailing ex- others that the youth of Japan, being free from the thraldom of~reeds, aud free to act according to reason, are so far in advance of Europeans, and instead of talking about adopting a foreign religion, Japanese should number as representatives to act along go abroad and preach their religion ot with an equal number of represeutatives of the Foreign Mission Committee in the manreason to foreign countries. Other writers agement of the mission. 2. The Foreign urge the same views. The writer in the Mission Committee should be approached at Yokohama newspaper says that those who its meeting on·the 17th inst., and requested urge the teaching of Christianity represent to appoint a sub-committee with powers to an influential section of educated Japanese complete all arrangements as to details opinion: theyare sig-ns of the times. "To wi.th this Committee, so as to secure that Japan, in an emphatically agh~stic mood, the mission may be undertaken by the came Western science, with all its marvel- Guild at asearlya date as possible. 3. That ous revelations and attractions. At the the salary of the Guild missionary be fixed shrine of that science she is worshiping to begin at rs.3500 [equal to about £240 per now." annum at present rate of exchange], which the committee understand is the minimum Moravians.'-Among the marvels ofChris- salary paid to ordained missionaries by t:anity must surely be reckoned the missionary the Foreign Mission Committee, and that work, trom century to centory, of the Moravian the terms of the appointment be otherwise brethren. At their formation they cOjDmenced the same as those in use by the Foreign to send out missionaries when they had only Mission Committee. 4. That the Rev. J. 600 members. They labored for fifteen years in A. Graham, M.A., should be formally ap- Greenland without a convert, and yet in dogged pointed soon, and arrangements ma.de "for f.ith and patience they went forward, and to-day his ordination, so as to allow of his 1I"0ing there is not a professing pagan in the whole out to India in autumn. 5. That the Foreign district which they missioned. Their work Mission Committee shall be responsible for among the Hottentots is of a similar character, seeing that the mission, before being trans… and true to their traditions they are once more ferred to the new management, is in posses.. the pioneers of an apparently impossible mis- sion of suitable buildingsfor carrying on the sion. Four of their uumber are at work right work. 6. As already arranged, the ultimate up on the borders of Thibet, and have estab- control of and responsibility for the manlished three small churches. At one of these agement of the mission shall vest with the churches they have been at work for eighteen Foreign Mission Committee, and the joint years and have made eight converts. Here is a committee elected for its management will chance for doubters like Canon Taylor to connt he in the same position as the corresponding up the cost of each convert. But let Canon Committee of the Universities' Mission. 'laylor wait until the Lord of the harvest has 7. In the mean time, and until such time as brought in the sheaves by and by, and he will the new management can be instituted, the no doubt find that, as in Greenland, so in Thibet, present Guild Mission Committee shall carry the time is coming when" a nation .hall be born out all the necessary arrangements on bein a day." The never-tiring patience of the half of the Guild." Moravian brethren has won many a hard-fought field for Christ.-Bombay Guardian. -Alexander Duff… There was an old man I wanted to see when I first went to Europe ScotIand.-The Church of Scotland in 1867. I was told not to fail to go to Edin- burgh and See Dr. Dull' of the Assembly. I Young Men's Guild held a seventh stayed inEdinburgh a week, to gel; a little of the old man's fire. He pleaded for an honr annual conference of delegates at and a half once for India, and at the end of that time he fainted away. They took him Kircaldy in November last. The at- up and carried him to the vestibule. When he revived, he said, 'I didn't get qaite tendance was large (170). Its prog- through; let me go back and finish,' They said, 'If you go back, it will cost you your ress has been marked. The aim of life.' 'Well,' he said,' 1 shall die if 1 don't.' So they carried him back. As they passed the guild is to keep young men from upthe aisle the people rose, and tears Jlowed falling into temptation. The report down every cbeek at the sight of the old of Mr. M. G. Thorburn upon the veteran. He said to them, 'Fathers and mothers ofScotland, is it true that you have Guild Foreign Mission recommended: got no more sons to give to India? I have spent twenty-five years of my life there, "1. J:c"or the work of organizing in support a.nd I have comeback to die. Thereisplenty of the mission there should be a large and of money in the bank. but your sons are not representative Guild Mission Committee, willing to go. If a call comes from the Queen consisting of, say-1 member elected by each to go there in the army, they are ready. Is Couucil of the Guild,15; 10 members elected it come to this, that the Lord calls for reat the annual Conference, 10; 10 members elected by the Committee of Management, 10–35. The duties oC this committee would be: (1) The advocacy of the mission throughout the Guild and the Church. (2) The completion and working of the organization already instituted in support of the Guild Mission. (3) The election of 12 of their
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT. [F~B
cruit..for His kingdom, and they will notgo l' England to help her to resist what wa.s un- And turning to the moderator he said, • If just and unrighteous in the aggression, and ithere is no one to go to India, I will re- with England's help the Syrian chnrch had turn to them, and will let them know that restored to her those liberties which she there is one old Scotchman that can die was on the point of losing. The Lord had for them if he can't live for them."'-D. L. till this day preserved the faith of the Syri- Moody. an church, which was as strong and stead- fast as ever it was. Those who belonged to Syria.-Ancient Syrian Church. Bishop that church believed in Him in whom they Mar Gregor.ius has been making an earnest were first taught to believe. Manyadvanappeal in England on behalf of the Syrian tages, however, had been in great measure church. His remarks in Arabic were inter- taken from them. Their written books preted by Mrs. Fynn, widow of the late con- were few, and of printed books they had sul in Jerusalem and daughter of the late none. There WOUld have been no schools at Rev. Dr. McCane, prebendary of St, Paul's all but for the help which was given some and professor of Hebrew. The bishop refer- fourteen years ago by the late Archbishop red to the persecution to which the Syrian of Canterbury to the Patriarch, who then church had been subjected from the earli- visited England in company with the bishop. est times, and to the great destruction of Since then the Patriarch had been able to precious mannscripts and printed books. open elementary schools, with such native which had taken place. That persecution, teachers as he could command, to teach he said. had come down the ages, through reading1 writing. and the first doctrines of the Mohammedan occupation of the coun- Christianity to some 2,400 children of Meso- try, and even within the last forty years potamia. On the other side of the Euphra- there had been Christian martyrs among tes, where the bishop is located, no schools his people. Not long ago the Egyptian had yet been established. Educationally, Government tried to annex Syria to Egypt, that part of the country was dry and and along with that there was an attempt parched. He appealed to the people of Eng- to bring the Syrian church into a subordi- land to help him to establish schools and nate position, if not to extinguish it alto- the printing press in Syria, in order that a .gether. This was a cause from which the knowledge of the truth might be spread far Syrian church had often suffered. When and wide among the populatiou.-li'rom our the Egyptian Government made this at- English Oorrespondent. tempt the Turkish Government called upon IV.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D., OF THE "INTERNATIONAL MIS- SIONARY UNION."
The Character of the Chinese. and attach shameto vice. It is often BY REV. J. H. ROBERTS, KALGAN, said that vice iii never deified in CHINA. China. Yet a few such cases have THE character of. a people is of been found. There are gods of cru- chief importance to tl;:le missionary. elty, of revenge, of fornication, and I propose, therefore, to delineate of gambling; but no temples have the character of the Chinese, and I been eI'ected in their honor. In Kal- will first describe gan there is one temple to the god of I. GOOD ELEMENTS. wine. But these exceptions are so The first sentence learned at school few that they only prove the rule.
is, "In the beginning, man's nature If, among myriads of divinities, there is good." While this is false, as ap- are only four or five gods of vice, and plied by the Chinese to the individual, those not regarded with honor nor it is true if applied to the race. Man, much worshiped, and among thou- "made in the image of God," retains, sands of temples there is only one to when fallen, some lineaments of the the god of drunkenness, it is seen divine likeness. More of these traces that in general the Chinese do not of primitive excellence seem to have worship vice. The idols mostly rep- been retained by the Chinese than by resent great and good men of yore, other heathen nations. who are worshiped for their virtues 1. The first good element of their displayed when they wet'e on earth.
character is that they honor virtue '1'he ancient empet'ors, Yaoand Shun, who lived soon after the deluge, were hundred feet high. Her mother did' patterns of virtue, and are still re- recover, and she fulfilled her vow; garded with reverenee by all the and now her image is carved on the nation. The Emperor K'ang Hsi, face of that cliff, and is worshiped who. died in the year of our Lord with divine honors. She thought 1721, is to this day loved and honored she was saving her mother's life., not chiefly for his success as a war- While her zeal was misdirected, was rior, but for his justice and sincere not her motive most noble? Reverlove for the people. He often jour- ence for parents is a root from which neyed through the country in dis- many other virtues may grow. It guise, to learn whether the govern- hallows the family, it honors marors and judges were doing their duty, riage, it encourages economy and and to see what could be done to ben- temperance, and it prepares the mind efit his subjects. Once, on sll;ch a to reverence a Father in heaven. journey, when in Mongolia, his presence became known, and an attempt S. A third good element of their was made to assassinate him. character is subordination. They know how to obey. As children they A servant offered to exchange ob~y their parents, not merely till clothes with him, and was killed in they themselves become ofage,but as his stead, while the Emperor escaped long as the parents live. Theyounger to Kalgan. For this devotion the brother obeys his older brother, and servant was deified, and is now wor- never expects to be on a strict equalshiped as the tutelary divinity of ity with him. The people obey the the (Upper City of Kalgan. Other Emperor as the vicegerent of heaven, instances of servants dying to save the embodiment of justice, and the their masters might be mentioned. compassionate father of them all. The virtues of self-sacrifice, brother· Disobedience to his commands is ly love, and chastity, exhibited by often punished with death, or with the few, are admired by all the !la- death preceded by tot'tme. While this tion. Memorial tablets and arches leads to cruelty on the part of the are erected in honor of heroic men, magistrates, it enforces obedience on – vil·tuous women, and filial children. the part of the people; and the latter The way the peopJe cherish the believe not merely that the rulers memories of such persons shows that have power and must be feared, but' there are some good feelings in their that they have the right to rule and hearts. ought to be reverenced. So a law- abiding spirit is a common virtue 2. A second good element of their among them. Socialism and anarchy character is that they honor their never enter into their thoughts. parents. Filial piety is the chief When mobs and riots occur, as they part of their religion. In infancy sometimes do in China, it is always they are taught to worship their par- with the connivance of the magisents; when older they serve them trates, never in violation of their devotedly; and when the parents are commands. The people feel that to dead they offer sacrifices annually at violate the law would make them their graves. Some have been known become rebels and traitors. The law to lay down their lives for their par- was published once for all, at the beents. A hundred years ago in a vil- ginning of the present dynasty, 244 lage among the mountains east of years ago, and as it is never altered, Kalgan a girl was in grief because it is honored as the expression of her mother was dangerously sick. absolute right. What the people She vowed that if her mother might lack in independence and liberty is only recover she would sacrifice her- balanced by their gain in hearty self by leaping from a precipice two allegiance to their rulers, and in makes them willing listeners to our unquestioning submission to the law. preaching. They have a great affec- Their love for their country is in- tion for birds and flowers, which tense, and is the source of their hos- shows a kindly disposition in their tility to foreigners. But their patriot- hearts. They are very industrious. ism does not lead them to try to direct They are always at work, and are the affairs of the government, but sure to havp. a gl'eater influence in only to submit to its control and to the world than an ease-loving peoobey its commands. This obedience ple would. They have a lively coninclines them to be peaceable, patient, science and a ch'ar knowledge of right and contanted, and to obey the law of and wrong. In every quarrel some God, when they learn what that law peacemaker will come forward, who is. will appeal to the innate sense of justice in both parties. Anyone who 4. A fourth good element of their will not listen to such appeals is recharacter is the feeling of personal garded as a bmte. Again, they have responsibility for their actions. This a gl'eat longing for immortality. feeling is stronger in China than in Some of them eat pills to ward off America. If it is proved 'that a death and make themselves immorcriminal did not know the law, he is tal in this world, and others perfoI'm considered less guilty; but no plea acts of penance in order to obtain would be made of hereditary predis- happiness in the world to come. di~position to cOInmit crime; and an Their actions show a human nature insane person, if harmful to others, like ou!· own. Their pain and sufferwould be punished the same as other ings, their bereavements and afflicmen. The feeling of responsibility tions, are as real and as sad as any pervades all classes and affects all which we have to endure, but are a the affairs of daily life. If you sus- thousand times more pitiful because pect that a man wants to steal your they have no comfort and no hope. goods, put them in his care and they will be safe. He can be held respon- 5. I will mention one more good sible for anytlung that has been com- trait of their character, and that is mitted to him fOl' safe keeping. The that they have a worshipful spirit magistrates are considered respon- toward anythin/r that seems worthy sible for all public calamities. They of di vine honors. This leads them blame themselves if there is drought, to worship many idols, many objects or famine, or inundation, regarding of nature, and the good and gt'eat men it as a sign of the displeasure of Hea- of the past. But the worshipful ven on account of their sins. While sentiment is good in .itself, and exthe idea of responsibility is carried tremely valuable in relation to our too far, its result is good. The missionary work. The Chinese are Chiuese expect to see virtue reward- often said to be materialists and atheed and wrong-doing punished, both ists, but they are utterly unlike the in this life and in the life to come. perfected atheists of Western lands. They want to worship some divine It would be easy to enlarge on their being, only they do not know whom politeness, which, with all its abuses to worship. They believe that there through hypocrisy, is a form of good- must be a deity to worship, 01' else ness, and enables them to appreciate, there would be no impulse to woras a savage nation could not, the ship; and they know that a divine gentler Christian virttws, such as being is as necessary to the human meekness, patience, condescension. heart as light is to the eye, or food to and humility. They are an affable the hungry mouth. So their spil'it people. They enjoy being talked to of adoration and of trust in a divine on any subject whatever, and this being is very strong, but it finds tory, an extensive and beautiful litamong the gods of China no object erature, and polite manners. Being worthy of exclusive worship. Now ignorant of the greater civilization let the infinite power and wisdom of Europe and America, they natuand love of God be made known, and rally became self-conceited. They the worship which has been divided know that foreigners have greater between many false gods may be unit- mechanical skill than they, but beedly given to him. It is a naturalJine lieve that they are our superiors in of thought to their minds, when they morals and religion. They despise grasp the idea of the creation of the us on account of our short, tight-fitworld, that the God who could make ting clothes, which are as ridiculous the heavens and the eal"th is so far to the Orientals as their long flowing superior to the false gods as to be garments are to us. They despise alone worthy of praise. Many will us for using a knife at the table, confess the greatness and goodness which they regard as a sign of barof God who are hindered by fear of barism. They despise us for our lack persecution from becoming' Chris- of reverence for Confucius, and fOI' tians; and all the people will admit, our attempt to teach them not to at least in theory, that religion is of worship their ancestors. The wicked the utmost importance, and that the conduct of foreign sailors and mersalvation of their souls ought to be chants in China has sometimes the chief object of their lives. brought disgrace upon aU foreigners, and upon the Christian religion. All GOOD TRA.ITS ILLUSTRA.TED. foreigners are hated and feared, as enemies and kidnappers. The Port- The good traits of the Chinese are uguese traders at Macao, near Canillustrated in their treatment of for- ton, enticed the natives on board eigners who reside among them. their ships and sailed away with Theil' feeling of superiority to for- them. American and English ships, eigners was natural in the circum- as well as those of other nastances. For thousands of years tions, were used for this purpose. they have shown themselves supe- In 25 years, ending in 1875, those rior, in arts, in etiquette, in litera- traders stole and sold into slavery ture, in war, and in the science of five hundred thousand coolies. government, to all the nations with whom they came in contact. The The hatred of foreigners was in- Koreans, Mongols, Thibetans, the creased by their connection with opiaborigines of China, and the people um. The Chinese had a prohibitory of Anam, have confessed their inferi- law, and supposed that they had a ority by sending tribute to China. right to keep that poisonous drug out When new races from the distant of their land. They captured over lands of Europe, with light hair and twenty thousand chests of opium, blue eyes and a strange language, worth six million dollars, which the came to China with gifts for the Em- English, in violation of the law, had peror, it was natural that they brought to Canton; and they dug should be regarded as representa- trenches by the seashore and detives of barbarous tribes seeking the stroyed the opium, by mixing it favor and protection of the" Son of with lime and salt water. It was an Heaven." This title is applied to the outburst of indignation against a Emperor, and" all under heaven" is great wrong, like the Boston Tea one name of his realm. A civilized Party, just before the Revolutionnation in the midst of ruder ones ary War. But the British bayonets has reason for self-gratulation. The in 1842 compelled the Chinese to Chinese are a vigorous race, with a permit the trade in opium, and to large and fertile country, a great hisrefund the value of the opium which BEARING ON MISSIONS. they had spoiled! To this day the English Government has been rais- The good elements of Chinese char- ing opium in India and sending it acter and the generally kind treat- to China! No wond,er that the Chi- ment which foreigners have received nese have hated foreigners I If you are of great importance in their bear- or I were in their place we should ing on the future ot missions. They feel as they do. A foreigner can strengthen our hope of the salvation hardly ever go out on the streets of that great empire. It is evident without being reviled as "a foreign that there is a sturdy race, with devil," and the native Christians are many noble haits, in some respects called "slaves of devils," but the peculiarly prepared to receive and term denotes fear of foreigners as believe the word of the Lord. The much as hatred, and is a sign of op- Chinese are a grand material of position to us coHectively and on which to make Christians. Their / political grounds, but not individu- conservativeness, though now a hin- ally, nor because of our religion. In drance, will lead to a thoroughly 1860 the French and English soldiers reasonable faith and to a firm adher- scared the Emperor out of China ence to the truth. Apart from all propel', burned his summer palace conliiderations of the worth of the near Peking,and forced open the gates soul, are not these people, when of Peking by threats of bombard- compared with other heathen, well ment, and it would be strange if worth saving? And is it not evident such a war had left no bitterness that the consecrated money and the in the minds of the defeated peo- lifelong labors of the missionaries. ple. given for their conversion to Christ, will not be spent in vain? The war in 1884 was considered by most of the foreigners in China as un- II. BAD TRAITS. just on the part of the French. Yet, while the war was being waged, at a Secondly, let us consider their time when no Frenchman had a character as depraved and degraded right to expect safety in China, the by their sins. Let no one think from Roman Catholic priests and other what has been said that so good a peaceful Frenchmen residing in ev- nation needs nothing more. There ery part of the land were protected is another side of the subject-a sad from violence by a special decree of and painful one-and the facts may the Emperor. Other instances might well call out all our sympathy. The be given of kindness shown to for- last words of Confucius were: "The eigners. The Chinese idea is that great mountain is broken! The foreigners in their country are their strong beam is thrown down! "The guests, and ought to be welcomed wise man is decayed!" These words and cared for with the utmGst of truly symbolize the ruined condition hospitality. "When foreigners suffer of China. If you scan the faces of from a Chinese mob, it is generally the people you will see an expres- the result of their own imprudent sion of moral degradation. Tbere conduct; 'but the government is are no radiant faces except those of ready to pay the damages and pun- the little children. Vice among the ish the offenders. If a foreigner boys, and pain, from their bound should be murdered in China, the feet, among the girls, make the feat- criminal would pay the death pen- ures wrinkled and sour at the age of alty. Would that a Chinaman's from eight to twelve years. With death from violence in America all their pure ideals and lofty aspira- were equally sure of being avenged! tions and clear knowledge of their duty, they live very wicked lives. As soon as a child learns to speak it learns to revile, to deceive, and to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But lie. The impulses in us to do the those who become well acquainted same are checked through the wise with us do trust us, and the people training given us by our Christian as a whole are learning to trust forparents, but there is no moral gov- eigners where they would not trust ernment in the family of the average their own countrymen. The impe- Chinaman except that of caprice and rial custom-houses, along the coast, passion. The adults often bring upon are in the charge of foreigners, who, themselves severe diseases merely by unlike their Chinese predecessors in fits of uncontrollable rage. They office, collect the taxes without stealmake little 01' no effort to subdue ingthem. their own tempers, and bow can they teach the children to control theirs? The skill of the Chinese in cheating is well known, and exhibits at once Theil' character is thol'Oughly theirintelligence and their depravity. insincere; This is a fruit of Con- Chinese workmen need to be watched fucianism. Confucius deliberately as much as any in the world. Every told a lie; and a motto of his dis- shop or store has two sets of weights ciples is that" a lie is the excellent and measures, one for buying and subterfuge of a perfect gentleman!" the other for selling. The houses The result of such teaching is a na- are surrounded with walls instead tion of liars. Theil' heart and theilT of fences, to keep off the thieves, tongue are utterly false. Only a few but the thieves will come through questions are replied to truthfully, the gate unless it is constantly such as asking which road you should watched. If you hire a man to take, but if you do not ask with all watch your gate he will lay a tax on the forms of Chinese polite~ess, you everything that comes through your will be answered with a lie. From gate. If you hire a cook he will lay being insincere they have naturally a tax on everything which comes become suspicious of each other; into your kitchen. As it is impolland experience in dealing with them sible to avoid being cheated, each deepens one's conviction that their man tries to cheat others the more, suspicions of each other are well to make up for his own losses. They founded. Supposing the mission- are willing to be deceived, if thereby aries to be like themselves, they at- they may learn how to deceive othtribuM an evil motive to everything ers. One man asked me to sell him we do. We cannot take a walk for some eye-salve-he was sure that I exercise, nor pick up a pebble to look had it-an ointment which would at it, without being suspected of make the eyes lustt·ous and which, if searching for their hidden treasures rubbed on the skin, would remove 01' of stealing away their good luck. every wart, or sore, 01' ft'eckle, or It has been commonly reported and other dEifect. He expected that I believed in China that foreign resi- would sell him some soap, 01' somedents dig out children's eyes to make thing like it, and was willing to pay medicine of them! and a cellar under a good priceforit, expecting to more the foreigner's house is believed to than regain his money by palming conceal human skeletons ! One cannot off the same fraud upon others. A ignore such suspicions on the part of great amount of petty thieving is his parishioners. To deny the crimes done. You can see the rascals steal-· imputed to us would be useless. So ing on the pJrblic streets in the day- we take our visitors down-stairs and time. The thieves are in Jeague show them the cellar. It is a great with the police, and pay them a trial that they cannot trust us. We share of the spoils for the privilege want thelli to trust us, so that they of pursuing their calling u~molested.
will believe .out' message !J.nd have .A bo1<'t man will punish the t4ief by beating him, and a wealthy man can which he treats. It represents one have the thief arrested,bambooed, family in poverty and wretchedness and even tortured to make him con- as the result of using the ordinary fess and restore the pl'operty. An native liquor called" sake." In con- honest person, if falsely accused, trast with this is another family would be tortured in the same way. where temperance prevails, and they Wine-drinking and gambling are al- are enjoying every comfort.
most universal. The best of the One of these tracts came into the Chinese feel free to gamble during possession of a wealthy and influen- the first five days of the New Year. tial man named Nakayama, living in A man who earns eight cents a day the town of Fujioka, in the province will eat four cents' worth of fooct of Joshiu. He was much addicted to and dt'ink two cents' worth of wine, the use of "sake," and was, in fact, leaving only two cents 10 feed and a real drunkard. When under the clothe his numerous family and to influence of liquor he was very cross clothe himself. Drunkenness is not to his family, and it quite destroyed often seen, but is the source of a the peace and comfort of his home.
great deal of crime. All forms of The reading of the tract made a deep vice are extremely prevalent, espe- impression upon his mind, and he cially in the citIes, but also in the resolved to reform. The result was villages. It is surprising to find, in such a happy change in himself and the midst of such general wicked- in the condition of those around him ness, some places of the utmost de- that he wrote to Mr. Tsuda to express pravity, so vile and so violent as to his obligations for what he had make the other places seem virtuous learned, and to tell of the great ben~fit by contrast. One such notoriously that had accrued to himself and his bad place is Ni Chiianz, which ffieans family by abstaining from the U!';e of ]',fud Springs. A man went from intoxicating liquor. Mr. Tsuda wrote there to Kuan Ch'ang to see what he to him in reply that unless he believ- could steal. He stole a leg of mut- ed in the God who made and keeps ton from a poor shepherd in a neigh- us all, and trusted in Him for boring village. The latter found the . strength, he might not beable to re- mutton at the thief's house, and sist the cravings of his depraved merely asked whence he had got it. appetite, and continue as he had For this insult the thief beat him till begun. Mr. Tsuda also told him he was almost dead, and fined him about Christianity, and urged him to to the amount of twenty-six pounds accept its teachings.
of mutton, to be divided between After some months Mr. Tsuda went two temples, as an acknowledgment to Fujioka on business, and called of error in even suspecting the thief. upon Mr. Nakayama, who received This villain is the next-door neigh- him very cordially. Then Mr. Tsuda bor of one of our Christian families, told him more particularly about the ana persecution by such men is truly true God, and Christ the {)Illy Saviour to be dreaded. from the guilt and power of sin. Mr.
[Concluded in next iB8U8.] Nakayama is a man of good eciluca- Incidents of the Work in Japan. tion and intellectual abilities, and BY A RESIDENT MISSIONARY. quite readily understood and fully A JAPANESE Christian, named accepted all that he heard.
Tsuda Sen, has written a tract From that time he began to attend against the use of strong drink, the Christian services, together with which is having a considerable circu- his family; and his faith and love • lation and influence. On the title- have been (ncreasing ever since. page is a picture illustrating (in the Such has been the influence of the style of the Japanese) the evils of gospel upon his heart that he has become, in tt'uth, a new creature, and is attached to the parents on account the cHange is apparent to all. As an of such sinful and cruel practices. It illustl'ation of the power of religion was formerly sanctioned by the Gov- in his daily life, his wife had been ernment, and even while the laws somewhat careless about a quantity have been modified the public senti- of silkworm eggs, and they were ment is so corrupt and the morals of partially destroyed. The loss invol v- the people so utterly vile that but ed was a considerable sum, and she little change has probably been ef- tl'embled in fear that he would become fected. The life of such poor girls violently enraged, as was common is often one of untold bitterness.
heretofol'e, and would punish her Many are the cases in Tokyo where severely. But to hel' gl'eat astonish- they have become desperate and ment, wilen lie found out what had gone and thrown themselves into happened he remained perfectlycalm, the river in order to get" anywhere, and did not reproach her at all. anywhere, out of the world."
After a little thought he said, " We One of the great and blessed results can distribute them among our poor of Christianity is the elevation of the and unrortunate neighbors, and so morals and the creation of a better they can secure a larger Cl'op the public sentiment in regard to the coming season. Thus it will perhaps treatment of women. The result of be bcttel' than if we had sold them Buddhistic teachings makes wom!l,n and taken all the money otm;elves."· a mere appendage to man, and her This conduct on the part of her . only use to minister to his comforts.
husband so astonished and impressed Some years ago a bright and pretty his wife that she said, "This mnst be girl, who had become a Christian due to the power of this Chl'istian and was attending one of the mission relig'ion and the help of God. If this schools, was informed that her par- is the resnit of Cl1l'istianity, then I ents were unable to met all their want to become a Christian also." pecuniary oblig-ations and she had From that time she became an ear- been sold in order to satisfy their nest seeker after the blessing of God's creditors. She was very happy in the saving- presence, and now she and all school, and the tidings was to her the family are rejoicing in a Chris. like the sentence of death. Such tian's hope and a Christian's peace. were the customs of her people that The geeat change for the better she felt there was no hope. But that has come to Mr. Nakayama's when her teacher, Mrs. John Bal- home has been seen and felt by his lagh, heard what had happened she neighbors. In this way many have went to the girl's home, and found been led to a conviction of the bene- her there in a state of most perfect fits that result feom following the wretchedness. Mrs. Ballagh em- teachings of Christ, and have thus ployed every means that she could become. seekers after the same bles- to get the girl released, but no argu- sing. Some time ago one of the mis- ments or entreaties would move the sionaries visited that town, and found heaets of the cruel creditors; and, in ten persons who were awaiting bap- fact, the parents looked upon it as tism. A good Christian church is an act of filial piety on the part of a now growing np in that place. daughter to thus sacrifice heeself for One of the worst things that is met theil' benefit. Mrs. Ballagh tried to with in this heathen land is the sell- move the hearts of the parents with .ing of their daughters by the parents pity for the poor and helpless chiltl; to lives of sin and shame. It is a she told them of the great sin which.
custom that has been long established they were committing against God, and is so common that it is done,with- and ihatsuch acts would surely briug OJl.t !Shame, and no lll,rti<mla.r disgrace His jJl.dgment upon them~ but it wa.s
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS. [FEB
all in vain. The reply was simply; one to procure her release. One day she happened to hear the preaching "It has been done, and there is no of the gospel and was convinced of her sin and need. She was also truly help for it." penitent, but was in great trouble, as she saw no way to escape from her Mrs. Ballagh then turned to the present sinful and sad condition. Her only way to get free was to pay girl, who sat weeping, andsMd, "Fol- the price for which she had been sold, and f01' some time she remained as low me." Both then rose and passed she was, but in great sorrow and try- ing to devise some means to escape. out of the room and into the street, At last she resolved to sell all she had, even her clothing, and thus purand thence to Mrs. Ballagh's home. chase her release. When she was set free she came to the preacher There followed a demand that the and announced her faith in God and her purpose to do His will. AHer she girl should be given up, but Mrs. had given satisfactory evide)1ce of her change of heart she was re- B:tllagh refused to do so. It was ceived into the church and is now a consistent and happy follower of finally arranged that Mrs. Ballagh Christ.
should pay the sum of $20 and the girl would be released. .
The girl then resumed her studies at the school, and at the completion of her course was married to one of the native officials. She has now a pleasant home and continues a faith- ful member of the church.
In one of the recent papers is an account of a pOOl' girl who had been sold in a similar manner and had no V ..-.:.THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
BY A. T. PIERSO:-r, D.D.
CHINA. The grand difficulty lies in the "tones." The language has "only SOME instructive and suggestive some four hundred and odd distinct facts and thoughts are all we have sounds" wi th which to express "ten space for. In the February issue of thousand words," and many of these 1888 the vastness of the Middle words are homophonous, although, Kingdom, the peculiarities ofChinese "by an ingenious system of infleclife and the religions of the empire tions of the voice, the number of were referred to at some length. separate sounds-to a Chinese ear, at We add here some matter of general least-is more than trebled. These interest and importance. The area inflections are the tones. In Peking of China is only one-third that of the there are only four of them, but in United States, yet China's popula- the south those who are knowing in tion is six times as large. The Uni- such matters declare there are twelve ted States if as thickly populated as or more. II' W here the sense of words China would contain over a thousand depends on nice distinctions in the million of people, or more than t wo- tflne of the voice, the opportunities thirds as many as now live on the for blunders become countless and earth. boundless. As instances of the mis- takes to ~hich foreigners are con- Language. Here missionaries con-. stantly liable, we may mention a front one of the mountain obstacles few cases. A man wishing to tell of which not even faith removes, a mountain two hundred" Ii" in without hard study, as we have height, used the expression "erh already shown in the article on the pai Ii," instead of "e·:jl pat Ii," ., Miracles of Missions," in this number. and by so doing gave the man to , Let his words be sincere and truthunderstand that the mountain was ful, and his actions honorable and ()f the height of two wMte pears! carefu!.' Such conduct maybe prac- Aga.in, Miss Gordon-Cumming tells, ticed even among the rude tribes of the south or north. When he is ain her charming book on China, of standing, let him see these two rules man, a resident minister, who told as it were fronting him. When he his steward to buy 400 poundsofMon- is in his carriage. let him see them at: golian potatoes, and the astonished tached to the yoke, then he may be steward brought him 400 pounds of able to carry them into practice." (b) eels. A lady ordered a pair of ducks, "The course of the mean cannot be roasted and served with gravy-sauce, attained to." (c) "To take example and her butler remonstrated that from others, to practice virtue is to they would not be eatable. She im- hold them in the same practice; patiently told him to do as he was therefol'e, there is no attribute of the told, and next day her guests saw a superior man gTeater than his helppair of her best gaiter-boots served ing men to practice virtue." (d) Subup for game, nicely roasted and ject for verse competition: " The moistened with gravy! You salute early morni~g red is harbinger of a man" My friend," and find you rain." Itmay be admitted at once have said" You fool," or address that these subjects are stiff, and we him as "My lord," and are cha- should especially like to see what a grined to discover you have accosted body of English competitors would him as "My pig." make of "The course of the mean cannot be attained to." The idea, Dr. MacKay of Formosa tells us too, of the two rules attached to the that the syllable to, in Chinese, has yoke of a carriage would form a eight different tones, while each tone puzzler to the majority of English has a different meaning. This is a boys. fair example of the many obstacles to be me,t with in this.extraordinary ,Filial Reverence in China. A mislanguage, that seems devised by the sionary of the China Inland Misdevil to keep missionaries out of sion tells an interesting stol'y of a China. mandarin who gave an entertain- ment a.nd presented a large testimo- Education and Competitive Ex- nial to the Christian hospital out of ammations. There are 10,000 cells gratitude for medical services renfor examination of candidates. The dered to his aged father. The son leader of the successfullistis led about was absent on duty and the father as Mordecai was by Haman. His was relieved from a sickness which name is graven on stone in the tem- was supposed to be fatal. His gratiple of Confucius, with all other suc- tude was 'boundless, and the memocessful candidates. rial tablet on which were inscl'ibed the thanks of the donor was eight Students preparing for competitive feet by four in size, suspended from a examinations may like to know the bamboo pole, carried by two men sort of questions with which the and preceded by a band of musicians. Chinese student, under similar cir- As theyapprolched the house large cumstances, has to grapple. The bunches of firecrackers were fired, Imperial Gazette is good enough to and the tablet was presented with publish the subjects for three prose very polite words. The most striking essays and a verse competition, set incident connected with this story is in the examinations for the degree that while the old gentleman was at of Metropolitan Graduate: (a) "Tru- the worst, a.nd when it was supposed Chang, being asked how a man should conduct himself so as to be everywhere appreciated, replied: that he could not recover, the wife of to the dead they are always written the absent son, acting in the place of and' fastenecl. upon the hands of the her husband, performed an act which paper men.
was supposed to propitiate Heaven Habits of the Chinese. Accord- and to secure the restoration of her ing to our notIOns of living, they father-in-law. With her own hand live on a starvation basis. Ex-SeCl'e- she cut a piece of flesh from her tary Holqomb of the American lega- own arm and had it cooked and ad- tion at Peking is authority for the ministered to her father-in-law that statement that in that vast empire he might recover. That such a thing 300,000,000 out of 403,000,000 of its in- is possible in these days, and that it habitants expend for food less than was done in the sight of mission $1.50 per month. This seems incredi- premises and by an educated and ble. These people appear to know prominent family, gives striking tes- how to make their mites go farther tinlOny to the df>pth of superstition than perhaps any other people upon in heathendom as well as to the sen- the face of the earth, timent of ~lial piety which exists Boots are an object of honor, es- among the Chinese. pecially if they have been worn by Ohinese Graveyard Customs. The an upright magistrate. When a Chinese in this country adhel'e tena- judge of unusual integrity vacates ciously to their old country customs. his office, crowds accompany lJim to To provide food for the dead, and the city gates, and his boots, dra'Yn servants to wait on them, is too fool- off with great ceremony, are enshrin- ish for any portion of the human ed in the hall of justice. A new pair race. But lately the time came for is put on and drawn off, five minutes this custom to be obsel'ved, and the on his feet being sufficient to conse- Herald says that every Chinese crate them!
grave in Woodlawn and Greenwood Chinese Religions. The most cemeteries has been decorated with leamed writer on Chinese literature incense paper, joss sticks, roasted holds the God of China to be our God, pigs, and othel' articles. At one of and as he ascended the "altar of the graves was laid a whole pig, heaven," he took off his shoes I But roasted beautifully brown and nicely if so theoretically, it is 'not so prac- spiced, the odor of which, when car- tically. ried past the Cl'owd that wereJooking Confucianism is really not a re1igio~ on, was so aromatic that it made at all, yet it is practically the relig- them hungry. The whole pig thus ion of China. Confucius was a Chi- roasted was a little over two hundred nese philosopher, who taught that pounds. After an hour's exposure man's duties al'e summed up in five before the spirits of the dead it was relations-that of king and subject, brought home in the evening. It parent and child, husband and wife, was cut up into three-pound slices {'IdeI' and younger brother, and that and sent around to the different of friend to friend. It does not shops on Matt street and eaten up. recognize the relati~n of man to The most peculiar of all the ceremo- God. Whoever cares to study this nies of the week was the sending of whole subject will find Rev. B. C.
servants to the dead. This is done Henry's book on " The Cross and the by making paper men and w~men, Dragon" one of the most fascinating which in the midst of the sacrifices and instructive volumes in,the whole are burned, the bystanders saying, range of missionary literature. It "Here are the servants who will , is published by Randolph & Co. So wait upon thee." If there are any also would we recommend Rev. H: important messages to be conveyed C. DuBose's volume on "The Dragon Image and Demon, or Th.e Three pl·esented four images, correspond- Religions of China," published by A. C. Armstrong & Son. The chapter ing to the four cardinal virtues-pion Confucianism is especialJy analytical and clear, and we have from it ety, morality, equity, wisdom, thus: I the best conception we ever had of the character and influence of this —, – -, —, – _. ethical system. From a double combination they The higher classes either embrace the doctrines of Confucius or of get eight signs, which respectively Lao-tse(orLau-Kiun), a philosopher. Both deny divine revelation, are little represent heaven, moisture, fire, winds, ,water, mountains, thunder, and earth, thus: – – -===-==-==, — —- ~. ~, =-=—-::::::::::=.=::::::= . Confuci~s arrang;d these i~~rcle; CJ ,CJ A HIDEOUS DOD IMAGE OCCUPIES ODD THIS CENTRAL CIRCLE.
CJ c::J more than systems of ethics clothed and this is held to be a complete dein a fantastical symbolism. Thus scription of the universe; and, corre- Confucius teaches that from the sponding with mental and moral original substance (Tai-ki) two prin- properties, he constructs his ethical ciples emanate: YANG, perfection, system! The whole thing strikes the the celestial, light and caloric, the Occidental mind as mere child's play, masculine principle symbolized by toying with blocks and making new the longer line – – – ; and YIN, i~ combinations out of one long and two perfection, the terrestrial, darkness short blocks. and cold, the feminine principle, representea by the divided line – -. By Hence comes one of the most curicombining these symbols, there are ous features of ConIucianism, the Ohinese Philosophical Ohart. We give a sort of diagram of this really bor a humble hut to live in ! While remarkable relic of the religion of a we are pla.ying at missions, here is a grea.t people. large and consecrated body of liIative evangelists being raised up from the Round this, rudely radiating in poor native converts of China, the eight directions, are the aforesaid house of a devoted millsionary their eight combinations of heavy dark thQological seminary, and their field lines or ba.rs, the difference being in the province of Shantung-with half the arrangement of the longer and as large a popula.tion as the United shorter ones. States-and their "wages" fifty to sixty dollars a year! A "Christian Mission Institution for Horne and Abroad" was estab- Tht' Medical Missions are very uselished Dec. 25, 1879, and is therefore ful, but have some curio;1s, experinowin its tenth year. The founder is ences. One day there came into the Pastor Samuel T. Davis, M.D., Den- dispensary a young man of twenty, ver, Col. It is a faith work, and one with a large wound, evidently cut or of its four departments is Foreign dug out with a dull instrument. His Missions. Itsupports native preach- father had been ill with dropsy, and ers in China, who at a very small the relatives decided that tile son cost preach to their kinsmen acc.rd- must. sacrifice himself to save his ing to the flesh. They are trained father's life. A piece of flesh was to preach, teach, and labor, under cut out of his left arm and cooked the direction of Rev. Dr. Hunter Cor- and given to the patient as the infalbett of Chefoo. For this life work lible remedy. Nevertheless the pagiven to winning souls they get only tient died. The relatives decided food and clothing, and travel in the that the lad must be lacking in puri- Shantung province with its 35,000,- ty of motive and filial piety. And so 000 souls. We know of no work the poO"r boy had not only to grieve more apostolic in plan and conduct for his father's death and a bad arm, on the fa.ce of the ea.rth. They but had to bear the reproach of unpreach in villages, by the wayside, cles and cousins. on streets, wherever they can get hearers; they guide inquirers, open In a temple outside of Peking is a I'Ichools, and do any work for which brass mule of life size, supposed to they are deemed capable. Dr. Cor- have wonderful healing properties bett furnishes annual reports of this for patient~ suffering fl'om every imwork. In 1887–88 twelve were sup- aginable disease. They first rub the ported by this "institution." The particular part of the brass mule cor- Lord's blessing attends their work in responding to the painful regioD. of a. remarkable manner. In one year, their own bodies, and then with the 1884, Dr. Corbett by this method same hand rub their own disabled gathered in, after careful examina- member, and the pain is expected to tion, 348 converts; while Dr. Nevius, go. Is your tooth aching? Just pursuing similar plans, gathered 260, scrub the mule's teeth, and afterthese two men together in one year ward your own, and the cure is coml'eceiving 608 new disciples. The plete. Have you an ulcer of the corself-denial of these poor natives-who nea.? Pass the tips of your fingers to are no sooner brought to Christ than and fro over the particular eyeball of they become evangelists to their fel- the mule, and then with well-regulow-Chinese-is something marvel- lated pressure rub repeatedly the ous. They live on about four or five dollars a month. One of them gave affiicted eye. True, the eyeballs ot his own house and, lot for a church and school, and then hired of a neigh- the mule hl,ve been gradually worn away by constant frictign, until now only the empty orbits are left; but the success is guara.nteed to be as 'verts come pri~cipally from the real as form~rly. The temple is cov- lower classes; we have never known ered with laudatory tablets in honor of a mandarin becoming a Christian, of the mule, which is patched in all who was in office at the time of his directions with fresh pieces of brass, conversion. Literary men areeeidom put on to cover holes produced by con- found among church members; but a stantrubbing; andanewmulestands very few Buddhist and Tauist pri,sts awaiting the day when the old one have been led to Christ. has fallen to pieces. The principal hindrances to mis- A Sketch of the Missions. When sionary work are: 1. The notorious this century began China was desti- conservatism which resists anything tute of the gospel. In 1807 Dr. Mor- foreign. 2. Self-satisfied pride. 3, The rison, first Protestant missionary to veneration paid to their sages, Con: China, landed at Canton, a few years fucius, Mencius, and others. 4. Evil Jater followed by Dr. Milne and oth- reports, spread among the people, ers. First these men sought to ac- poisoning their minds against the quire the language, constructing a. missionaries and their message. dictionary and translating th~ Scrip- 5. Superstition. 6. The opium traffic, tures; but thirty years after, there with its untold misery, leading to were only three native P"otestant enormous crimes. OhrisUans in the whole country, and only six in 1843; there were 350 in The main helps available to the 1853; 2,000 in 1864; 20,000 in 1875; missionary are: 1. The street chapel, ten years later fully 25,000, and now with opportunity after the preaching over 30,000. for personal conversation. 2. Itin- erary journeys for evangelistic pur- In 1885 about 60(, missionaries were poses. 3. Day schools, which influ- in China, in connection with thirty- ence parents as well as pupils and two societies in upward of seventy afford nucleus for meetings of a gen- cities and towns, in fifteen out of eral charlLcter. 4. The dispensary eighteen provinc_es, over 1,100 native and hospital, which afford access teachers and preachers being associ- gained in no other way. 5. Social ated with them in their work, in calls. 6. The bookstore, reading more than 500 stations. In 1875 there room, and guest rooms. 7. The wide were no missionaries west of Han- distribution of the Word of G~d and kow, on the Yang-tse-kiang, 600 of religious tracts and books. miles from the sea, but in 1885 fifty men and women were located in From all parts come reports of western China, somp of them 1,500 steady progress in Christian work. miles from Shanghai; and the jour- The Rev. Mr. Lloyd has labored in ney from that port to their stations Tuh-chow, under the auspices of the takes longer than from America, or Chul'ch Missionary Society,for twelve England, to China. In 1885 only two years. The' 1,600 converts whom he medical missIOnaries were at work had found in 1876 have grown to among the hundred millions in west- 6,000, him.self having baptized 1,000 lern China. in ten years.
During the l-ast ten yeaJ's the Bible Chinese Christians are, almost to societies have been making great a man, ready to pray in public, to efforts to scatter the Word of God_ exhort one another at their meetings, The most fruitful field is Fuhkein, in and to speak for Christ to their which are about one-third of the neighbors. Rev. Hunter Corbett whole number of converts; and yet bears witness to their childlike faith it was for eleven years before the in the power and willingness of God first convert was brought in. Con- to fulfill evel'y promise, to their un- shaken faith in prayer, their love for
PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS-MONTHLY BULLETIN. [FEB••
the ScriptUl'es, and their honest and Darkness overspread'!' the earth,andgr088 faithful effort to live blameless lives, Not a few have persevered in the darkness the people, but God's glory sha.ll study of the Scriptures untu they re- arise on thee and His glory shall be seen on peat entire chapters and !Sometimes entire books, from both Testaments, thee 1 We have only to lift up our eyes toand, better yet, they are ,able io explain them. dayand seeon the very summits of heathen- SUGGESTIVE PARAGRAPHS. dom, in the midst of the death-shade, the The Vision 01 the Cross. Late one sum- waving flag of the Cross! 'l'he glory of God mer afternoon there was a rain shower in Vi~ginia, Nevada. It was very unusual, for transfigures it, and while it waves and! during summer rains are almost unknown in Nevada. The rain lasted but a few minutes, burns, the strongholds of Satan are giving f but clouds and dense darkness overspread the sky. All thevasteastern slope of Mount way before the onset of the missiona.ry' Davidson that overlooked the city was covered with a pall. and the mountain could host I scarcely be distinguished from the cloud' masses that formed its background. As al! TEXTS AND THEMES. ' eyes looked in that direction, a little tongue of mellow golden flame could be seen upon I WHAT saith the Scripture f regarding tbe very summit, wavering in the midst of midnight blackness. It was very small, 1. Tile Condition of the World: "The whole but it looked large, by contrast with the darkness around it. No one at first under- world Iieth in wickedness."-l Jobn v: 19• stood what it wa6. It was thenation's flag waving from the mountain peak. It hap- .. The dark places of the earth 'are full of the pened that, through ' narrow rift in the clouds, the rays of the sinking sun had found hal>itations of cruelty."-Ps. Ixxiv: 20. ii. their way, and that flag was the only object theytoucled, It was directly in,their path The Divine Purpose and Command: .. God and they rested on it and glorifled and transfigured it. And for an hour that burn- our Saviour will have all men to be saved, ing banner of the Republic held the fascinated gaze of the multitudes. How strange! and to come unto the knowledge of the That sinking, sun that transfigured the nation's emblem had that same day looked on truth."-l Tim.ii: 4. "Goye into all the world the fall of Vicksburg and the victory of Gettysburg 1 and preach the gospel to every creature." -Mark x~i: 15. iii. The Divine Promise: .. In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."-Gen. xii: 3. .. I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy pos- session."-Ps. ii: 8. iv. The Grand Motive : .. For ye know the grace of onr Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."-2 Cor. viii: 9.
". Freely ye kave received, freely give."- Matt. x: 8. v. The Final Consummation: "1 beheld, and, 10, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Sa.lvation to our God which sitteth upon tbe throne, and unto the Lamb."-Rev. vii: 9, 10.-Selected.
VI.-PROGRESS AND RESULTS OF MISSIONS: MO~THLY BULLETIN.
Atrica.-Cardinal Lavigerie's mission for the northern portion of Natal about Greythe suppression of the African slave trade town. Most of the Boers belong to the has been encouraged by the Pope's gift Dutch Reformed Church, and while they of S60,OOOto his enterprise, accompanied by have a.ttended outwardly to Christian ora letter from Leo praising the Cardinal dinances, they have heretofore cared little for his crusade, and encouraging him to for the native population. Three years ago go ahead in his work. His plan includes a religious awakening began among these tbe raising of a volunteer corps to fight the Boers, and the genuineness of this interest ,slave traders of the Dark Continent with was shown by their de.ire to reach the Zucarnal weapons. About a score of chival- lus, whom they had regarded as little better rous young Belgians have alreadv formed than animals. There are now fifteen the nucleus of this new Salvation Army. preaching places where the gospel is pro- claimed, and which Mr. Scott says are -Scotch Free Church Mission Among the simply the farmhouses of the Boers. He Zulus. The Rev. James Scott of Impolweni, speaks of seeing eighty Boers and three or Na.tal, writes to the Free Church Monthly in four hundred Zulus gather together for reference to an interesting work among the worship. The Zulus come from kraals and Dutch Boers, and extending to the Zulus in villages, both old and young. some ,clothed, back to carryon mission work in his native but most of them heathen in their blankets. land. .
Over one hundred in Greytown have been Alaska.-The Moravian mission on the formed into a na.tive church in connection Nusbagak river is 8,000 miles from supplies and with the Dutch church. This work is now trained workmen. It was so cold there on the being carried forward under the direction 18th of December, '87, that the moisture in the of a committee of the Dutch farmers, em- smoke congealed and filled up the ohimney ploying three native evangelists. One of with frost so that Mr. Wolff was compelled these evangelists is the son of the Znlu twice to go up on the roof and clear out the warrior who in 1836, at the signal from Din- chimney so that the stove mil(ht draw.
gaan, the cruel tyrant, fdl upon the Dntch Burlllah.-The latestintelligilDce from Tavoy leader Retiefand his party of about seventy tells of great suffering on account of the scarcity men, murdering them all in cold blood. and higb price of rice. In the town it was sell- This father still lives, and is a member of ing for more than double the ordinary cost, the Christian church and listens gladly to while far in the jungle, where the Karens live, his son as he preaches the gospel of peace. it Was not to be had at any price. The govern- -The Baptist Mission on the Congo, ment was shipping it from Maulmain and Ran- West Africa, continue~ to prosper. Seven- goon, and sending it inland as best they could to teen were recently baptized at Batlza Man- save the Karens from starvation. It was not teke, the scene of the great revival, and given to them, but sold at a price much below seven at Palabala. All who have been what it cost. The carriage of rice a distance of baptized at Palabala are men. The drink fifty to one hundred miles On a jungle path, at'a traffic offers great hindrance to the prog- season wben the rainfall averages sixty inches ress of the gospel; per month, is no slight nndertaking. Some had -The Liquor Traffic. In Africa we have to already died, either Qf starvation or from eat- contend against the devit's mIssionary ing improper food, and there is little doubt that .agency. The liquor traffic is increasing, before their next harvest is reaped in December .and it is a gigantic evil-greater, even. many of these poor people will die.
than the slave trade-debasing the people -The Sgau Karen Mission at Rangoon, Bur- .and ruining legitimate commerce. In mah, bas been under the care oftbe Vintons from Wes~ Africa ithas deepened the degrada- its beginning in 1836, and now the na.tive tion of the negro instead of civiJizing him. Christians are to erect a large schoolhouse as a Over 1S0,OOO,OOO gallons of spirits had been .. Vinton Memorial." More than 3,000 rupees imported last year in the district of Sierra were subscribed at the first meeting.
Leone, and in Lagos it was far larger, while Ceylon.-Mission Work at Jaffna. News all the land was strewn with demijohns. from Jafl"na, Ceylon, tells of continned bleSSing The Niger Company imported 220,000 gallons following upon the recent awakening among the during the last two years,and 500 cases of chnrches. Believers have been quickened to gin and 500,000 gallons of rum were landed uew zeal in the work of God; and the conver- by the Caliban, in which I sailed from Liv- sions among the heatben bave been very cheer- erpool. The selling price of rum is less than ing: At a recent communion service six stu- a penny a gallon, and the gin sold at three- dents of the Jall"na CollAge were received into pence a bottle. The liquor so sold was of the church on profession of faith. Tl:e religions the most execrable character.-Rev. W. interest is deepening in this important educa- ..Ililan. tional iustitntion. Besides the two weekly -In the schools of the Scottish Free • prayer·meetings conducted among the profes- ()hurch Mission at Bandawe, Lake Nyassa, sors. tbere are now three such meetings held 1,179 pupils were in attendance the day be- weekly among the students themselves.
fore they closed for the vacation. Of these China.-Forty years ago Dr. Morrison was <)ne-third were girls. Thirty-eight native addressing in a locked inner room two or three teachers are a t work in the schools. Chinese, who listened in peril of their lives; -Basutoland has frequently been saved now tbere are in China some 50,000 converts.
l~om the destruction of its nationality by .. Do you think," asked the captain of the ship the intervention of the missionaries, and who took him out, .. that you can make an the natives blessed their name. The result impression on the 400,000,000 of Chinese?"
in respect to education is that we have 80 'No,~' he answered, "but God can."-Oanon elementary schools, having together 4,666 Farrar.
pupils, besides the normal school and the -The Blind in China. A half a million. it higher girls' school, :with 30 or 40 pupils,and is estimated, are totally blind. The sight- 15 industrial, biblical,and theological school less crowds at ·Canton present a pathetic .stations, 94 out-stations, 19 missionaries, 176 spectacle. A photogl·aph we have seen of native workers, 6,029 communicants, and a party of them before the Presbyterian .3,412 catechumens.-Rev. A. Boegner. Missionary Hospital, taken· last winter by -It is stated that a nephew of the late Edward W., son of Dr. Thwing of Brouklyn, King Cetewayo, after six years in Sweden is a. moving appeal in itself. Mr.J. Cros~ett, in theological and other studies, has gone a.t the United States consulate, Shanghai, writes, Oct. 10, earnestly begging for teach- denominations. One hundred new missionaries ers of deaf, dumb and blind Chinese. For- were last year sent ont to China, and already eign residents are willing toaid in supporting this year several parties have been despatclied_ schools for such. Wealthy natives will help, During the last three 1I10mhs 42 have left Engspecially those who are in commercial rela- land, and 16 more leave in December. News tions with foreigners. Mr. Moody at Chi- had just been received oCthe death of one of the cago, Dr. A Gordon ..nd Dr. Cullis ofBoston missionaries in China, Mr. Eldred S. Sayers, wh() are interested in this movement. Mrs. went ont in 1886, makin~ 3 deaths in November. GUTizslafl', a pioneel missionary-, secured the -Our English Correspondent. education of a Chinese girl and a Portugnese girl at London, both blind, to labor in China. England.-Turkcy Missions Aid Society_ The latter died, bnt the other, known aD The receipts of the society for the year 1837-88 Agnes Gntzlalf, founded an enterprise at were 813,980. The society conducts no missions Ningpo. A hospital at Shanghai was an- of its own, but III a spirit of broad catholicity other memorial she left at death. Teachers aids existing organizations in Turkeyt largely of like consecration are now urgently those of the American church. needed. A professor in the Government School at Korea has expressed a willingneis -When Garibaldi had been defeated 0.1; to come to China. Will not America send Rome, he issned his immortal appeal: "Solother teachers f diers, I have nothing to olfer you but cold and hunger and rags and hardship. Let him wh() -Rev. D. W. Nichols writes from Nankin, loves his country follow me I" And thousands Sept. 24: The grent examination that hll9 been of the youth Qf Italy sprang to their feet at tha~ going on for the paot two weeks has closed. high appeal. And will you, the trustees of pos- Students from ,,11 parts of three provinces were terity-will you tnrn your backs to the appeal here. There were three courses in the exami- of your Saviour Christ f I know that you will nation, requiring three days to each. When the not. You cannot all be missionaries; but some students enter the examination hall, they are of you may be called to that high work, and all not allowed to go out until the examination in of you may help it forward.-Canon Farrar. one conrse is completed. On Friday night, September 14, at midnight, the gates were -The Church of England Women's Missionopened, and the students began marching out, ary Association has sent out four ladies to Jerucontinning in solid phalanx for twenty-four hours. Twenty·nine tlwu8an d were enrolled a salem to form branch of Mrs. Meredith's work and entered for the ftrst examination. Early there, for education and sick nursing among Saturday A.M., Sept. la, we missionaries were on women and children in the East. Two mor.. ladies follow directly. There is work for many the ground with 15,000 books for distribution more as soon as they are ready to go. among the stUdents. Had we had 100,000 books we could easily' have given them away, -The Church Missionary Society has 33a and not more than one to each individual. At missionaries, and received more than three any time during the day we had a commanding hundred offers of service in the year ending view of from one hundred to one hundred and April 30, of which forty·six were from women. ftfty thousand people. So eager were they for the books that it was with diMcnlty that we Fiji.-From special information respectwere enabled to give them to the student•• ing this colony, anticipa.tory of the Blue- Thus 15,000 books have gone out in one day. book tor 1887, it appears that the total Many of these books will go to the remoter population that year was 124,658, eighty-four parts, where the voice of tbe servant of God has less than in 1336, the faIling olf being mainly never been heard. in Indian and Polynesian laborers. Educa- tion seems to be ina satisfactoryeondiUon. -The mission property both of Catholics and It is almost entirely under the care of the Methodists in Chungkinl!;, destroyed by the missionaries. In 1887, 41,724, children Were anti·foreign riois of 1888, is being replaced with at the Wesleyan mission schools aud abou1; costlier ouildings. 1,000 at the Roman Catholic schools. There is a Government Industrial School, at which -The missionary work in China seems to be youths are tra.ined, among other things, in everywhere becoming easier and more promis- boat building, house building, and cattle ing. If the Cbinese Government does not re- tending. In 1887, 102,890 persons attended taliate on Americans for the exclusion of the the Wesleyan places of worship, and 9,83() Chinese from this country and so obstruct the the churches of tle Roman Catholic mismissions, we may look for great results in the sions. The total number of pure Fijians in next rew years. 1887 was 110,754.-0ur English Corr8llpondent.
-China Inland Mission. Ou December 3 FInland.-Rev. Eric Jansson reports 180 Exeter Hall, London, was filled with a large baptized during the year in Finland. The audience a.sembled to bid farewell to a band of missionaries abont to depart for China under mission work encounters great opposition the auspices of this mission. Last year the in- from the priests of the state church, but come of the mission was £33,700, aud the stalf the progress among the people is encournumbered 324, includin~ representative. of six aging.
France.-There recently died at Montpel- ier, France. a.n old servant woman, who had l:iven in the course of some years no less than 10,000 francs, the result of most care- work of the publication department has heeD ful economy, to the French Protestant For- the issue of aeveral books for edncated Hindus._ eign Mission Society. She loved missions, regularly read the missionary journals, and -Special fO'ltures of encouragement in th& never prayed without mentioning by name work of the Inolian Female Normal School aad M. Coillard, a veteran missionary in South Instruction Society are the Zenana work a~ Africa.-Spirit of Mi8.i<>'M. Lucknow, where the pupils have increased from 400 to 500; the work at Patna, which has beel) -A second Baptist church is to be formed enlarged and consolidated; the school work at. in Paris, France. As the flrst church has Bombay, especially that of the Normal School. recently opened a new hall for evangelistic which has supplied teachers to East Africa. services, this will make four places for wor- Western India. Karachi, and other places; Mr•• ship in that city under the control of the Sorabji's work at Poonah, which is in a most Baptists. flourishing condition; and, lastly, medical work.
India.-Speaking in Edinburgh, at the -The prlOces of Rajpootana have abolished opening of the session of the Edinburgh the custom of infant marriages. In the futnre nO' Philosophical Institution, upon .. Madras girl shall be married under the age of H, and and Southern India," Sir M. E. Grant Duff, no boy under 18, unless prior to the adoption of' G. C. S. I., late governor of Madras, said that this law a contract of marriage had been en- the two great languages of the Madras pres- tered into. These princes hold the highest rank. idency, each spoken by about 12,000,000 peo- and their example will have wide influence. ple, were Telugu and Tamil, both Dravidian tongues. Less than 36,OCO people out of -The proportion of the native Christian 31,000,000 claimed English as their mother studenls ot the University of Bengal who hav~ tongue. As to nationality, the immense become Masters of Arts is 23 time. ~reater majority were Hindus; and next to them, than of the Hindn and Mohammedan stndents. but 'at an enormous distance in point of numbers, came the Mohammedans; then Italy.-We have,noted the publication of th~ came the Chrietiaus-far more numerous in Bible in Rome by Martini, the well-known pub- southern Iudia thau in the north. Among lisher, in penny parts. The experiment half the Christians 68 per cent. were Catholics been succe"sfnl beyond expectation. About 50,- and 32 per cent. Protestants. Among the 000 copies are sold every week. The book ilJ Protestants the Anglicans were the most well printed, and each part has been reduced numerous, and in Tinnivelly they had a to eight pages. large number of nati'e converts.-Our En- glish Correspondent. Japan.-Buddhism cannot long hold itlJ -November 2 three missionaries sailed in the ground, and Christianity must finally prevail Pavonia for the re-enforcement of those de- thronghout all Japan. Japanese Buddhism ,md voted toilers in that far-off land who labor Western science cannot stand together. They under the appointment of the Free Baptist are Inconsistent the one with the other.-Jap- Foreign Board. Rev. and Mrs. E. B. Stiles are an<!86 Gazette. known as the A. C. F. missionaries, becanse , their support is to be provided in fnll by the -One of the most hopefnl indications for th& new Free Baptist organization, which is com- fnture of Christianity in Japan Is the missionary posed chiefly of young people and known as the character of the native Christians. They arC' Advocates of Christian Fidelity. Rev. F. W_ zealous in carrying the gospel to their 0 IVn peo- Brown, it is understood, is to be snpported, d ple, and also to Korea and the islands dependent least in part, by the Missionary Board of Hills- on Japan. dale College. -N0 better proof of the genuine Interest of' -Pundit Raghumith Rao, the Dewan of In- our Japanese Christians in the new civilization dore, has put forth a catechism of the Ayran- could be given than their contributions the past Vedic religion, which has excited great atten- year for edncational and religious objects. tion, taken 'llJord fer word from the West- amounting to over $41,000; and it is not pro- minster Shorter Oatechism, leaving out the fessed Christians only that give, but others, im- references to Jesus Christ I This is certainly pressed with the character of the work in prog- the most remarkable plagiarism of modern ress, especially thonghtfnl parents, for the sak~ times. of the morlll cnlture obtained in our schools. A few weeks since word came from Mr. Neesima -The Christian Vernacular Education So- of $31,000 subscribed by a few Japanese gentle ciety reports that the Training Institntion at men, including two of the highest officials in th8' Ahmednagar has been in fnll working order government, toward the enlargement of our throughont the year 1887, with fifty-seven Doshisha school so as to make ita Christian uni– atudents in attendance; thirty students left the versity.-Miss. Herald. Dlndigal Institution with teachers' certificates. The system of inspecting and improving the -A revival has been going on simultane- indigenous schools in Bengal has been vigor- ously worked. Nearly 7,000 children are under ously in different parts of Japan. As a result. Christian instruction. The chief feature of the the increase in all the churches of Tokio cannot. be much less thana thousand. Yokohama has; also enjoyed a rich blessing, and reaped a glori- ons harvest. Many of the cities and towns ot the empire are now wonderfully stirred up. -"-A Worthy Example. An exchange says that a brewer who did a large business at Mish, teacher's use. The pup,i1s provide themsulves IIi 1ms, Japau, has become a Christian and joined with a primer, a copy of the New TestamclIt, the church. He had a long and hard struggle to the native Christian newspaper, a catechism, ,give up his profitable business, but at last the grammar, and geography. The teachers are .grace of God triumphed; he gave up brewing supported in part by the natives. The object and gave his large arid costly building to be used of these schools is to teach the children to read as a church. the Bible, and so these schools become the chief auxiliary to the direct preaching of the -Japanese Mission to Christendom. A gospel.-Chronicle of London MiB8. Soc. .Japanese paper published at Kioto, called the -At Tamatave, the capital of Madagascar, 11iJO'U of Asia, has a report of a proposed mis- Mrs. Mary Clement Leavitt, representing the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. recently ,gion for the conversion of Europe and America addressed an audience of 1,500 natives, the lecto a "purer faith." Its conductors say that ture being translated by an interpreter. The they have noticed that Christianity is on the Tamatave paper gives a full account of the occa- .decline, and that, as religion is indispensable to sion, and thanks God for the arrival of "that man, this mission is projected. There is al- grand woman, Madame Mary Clement Leavitt ready a Buddhist mission in the United States, of the United States." and something of a literature has been created. The Watchman says: "Whereabout the evi- Mexico.-The Presbyterian missionaries -dence of the' decline' of Christianity has been 'noticed' we caunot conjecture, but it was in the city of Mexico have recently located seven -probably in some of those pessimistiC utter- preaching stations in the outlying wards and auces now and then put forth by weak believ- districts. In this way they touch the people ·ers, or the still more insignificant boastings of who could not be brought into anything known unbelief." as a church edifice. Lay talent is utilized, one- half of these services being sustained hy native J a va.-Missionary work began 40 years ago. elders. Seven societies of Holland are represented by 26 missionaries, having 25 mission stations, Paraguay.-The South American Missionnumbering 12,000 native Christians. The Brit- ary Society has started a new mission under ish and Forei~n Bible Society has one agent in very favorable auspices. ·east Java, and will soon send another for the west. Not only Java, but the whole Dutch Persla.-Dr. Bruce writes to the Church India, including Java, Snmatra, Borneo, Cele- Missionary Intelligencer: "We have no oppobes, has a strong claim not only on Europe, but sition from Moslem priests or people worth <ou Christian America for the gospel. Twenty- mentioning; the latter, in nine cases out of ten, ileven millions of people and only 69 Christian gladly receive our colportenrs and evangelists, missionaries to give them the glad tidings I In and welcome their visits. The Moslem priests .all Malaysia, with its 35,000,000 people, there now ha"e lost all their power for good or evil is only one Ame"ican misBwnary. in Persia. The Persian Government is also liberal iu its treatment of Christians and Jews, -In the central district of Java there are but through the intrigues of the Roman Catholic ,some 5,000 native Christians in connection with and (led by them) of the American ecelesiastics, the Netherlands Reformed Missionary Society. it allows Protestant Christians to be opposed, For many years this field has been under the and thereby gives us great trouble. During all .exclusive care of one missionary, who is sta- my mission life among Mohammedans, every tioned at Poerworedjo. Receutly two other persecution and opposition to our work from mis~ionaries have been sent to Poerbolingo, one which we have suflered has been set on foot, <of whom is to be engaged in training native not by Moslems, but by nominal Christians." -evangelists and preachers. Still more recently :a young medical missionary has been sent out. -High Church missionaries from England He is to be supported by the Dutch Reformed are establishing schools and churches in utter Missionary Society in Londou. An attempt is indifference to the work done by American men being made to form the various churches or and women in past years, thus fomenting stations into a presbytery, presided over by a schisms aud divisions. synod. Meanwhile Christianity is spreading .also in the Djogjokarta district, and some 5,000 United States.-Indians of North Amer- natives have accepted the truth. ica. The amiual conference of the Dakota In- dian churches and missions of the Presbyterian Madagascar.-The growth ofth'e elemen- and Congregational denominations was held in -tary schools has been extraordinary. Twenty- September at Oakes, Dak. There were repre- five years ago they numbered seveu, with 365 sented there all the missionaries to the Dakotas scholars; in 1886 they nnmbered 1,005, with of the Presbyterian Foreign and Home Boards, 102,747 scholars. The several provinces are and those of the Congregationalists under the -divided into districts, and each district has a charge of the American Missionary Association. meeting-honse, used both as a church and There were present also 228 native delegates and ilchool-honse. Most of them are built of adobe, visitors, besides those from the Cheyenne River with thatched roof, and are very plaiu buildings, Agency. The attendance ran from 500 to 800. with mud 1I00rs. The school outfit consists of :a few lesson sheets and text-books for the -The American Baptist Missionary Union calls for eighty meu to fill vacancies and open new work on the various mission fields.
STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS
VII.-STATISTICS OF THE WORLD'S MISSIONS.
Foreign Mission Work of Women's Sooieties.
UNITED STATES.
Receipts.
Denominations and Societies.
1887-8. In aU.
– — —;—- 1861. . Woman's Union Missionary Society, New About york …………………………….. 53 i32' 27 $43,024 $1,000,000 1868.. Woman's Board, Boston (Congregational). 102 1,700 123,240 1,651.329 1870.. Woman's Board of the Interior (Congre- gational) …………………………. 62 1,500 51,117 481,175 1872.• Woman's Bo..rd of the Pacific (Congrega- tional) …………………………….. 5 75 4,045 45.151 1870.. Woman's Board, Presbyterian Church …. 133 111 2,725 1870.. Woman's Board, Presbyterian, of the 159,640 1,647,618 Northwest ………………………… 71 57 1,522 102,499 726,277 1870.. Woman's Board, Presbyterian, of New york ……………………………… 41 32 900 65,1'44 (30,346 1871. • Woman's Board, Presbyterian, of North- ern New York …………………….. 5 13 220 10,413 120.812, 7,193 1877 .. Woman's Board, Presbyterian, Southwest 7 376 28,968 20,732 Woman'sBoard, Presbyterian, Southern. 457 172,906 1879.• Woman's Board, United Presbyterian 43 15,619 66,273 Church …………………………… 7,658 1879.. Cumberland Presbyterian Church ……. 822 42,771 1869.. Methodist Episcopal, North …………… 75 4,383 191,158 1,680,000 ,1878 .. Methodist Episcopal, Soath …………… 22 '45' 2,399 6"9,729 355,345 000 7,100 1879.. Methodist Protestant …………………. 11,288 25,000 1861.. Friends ………………………………. 8 1,854 ……4.0.,0..0.0 Evangelical Association………………. 78 1875.. Christian Woman's Board (Home and For- 697 26,226 145,120 '"7" eign) •………….•………………… '"7" 315 "'i7:ii44 61,472 14,197 1875, . United Brethren ………………………. 1875.. Reformed Chnrch (Dutch) …………… 200 …..1.2.6.,8..7.4 1879 .. Evangelicwi Lutheran (Home a.nd Foreign) 436 27 1870.. Baptist Woman's Society (Northern Con- 1,859 75.369 780,606 vention) ………………………….. 38 44,846 1871. . Woman's Baptist Society of the West….. 45 313,628 Executive Committee Auxiliary to South- 15.554 80,000 ern Baptist Convention ……………. 7,200 1873 .. Baptist Free ….. __ , ' …………………. , 6 60,000 25,321 – -2-72,6-71 – – – – – – – 1871. . Protestant Episcopal …………………. – – – – Totals………………. 680 424 21,l134 $1,117,110 $10,307,990 CANADA.
1876.. Woman's, !,?o.ci"ty (Presbyterian), West- 475 $25,657 ern DivisIon ……………………… . 5,091 1877.. Woman's Society (Presbyterian), Eastern Division ………………………… . 6,182 1877.. Woman's Societies (Baptist), Ontario and 4,493 Quebec…… " ………….. ' …….. .. 189 14,197 Woman's Union (Baptist), Maritime Prov- illces •……•…………….•….•…. 1881.. Woman's Society (Methodist) ………. , .. .
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
1834.. Society for Female Education in the Eastl 40 $.%,000' 1852.. Zenana Bible and Medical Mission ……. . 202 50,000* 1859 .. Ladies' Wesleyan Missiollary SOciety….. ' 30 ';ii;' 35,000* 1860 .. British Syrian Schools ………………. .. 28 116 2.';,(lOIl* 18'18 .. Ladies' Association (Baptist) …………. . 44 105 3O.0no* 1~"3 .. Female Association (Irish Presbyterian).. 12 160 10,000* 1878.. Female Association (Presbyterian Churca of England) ………………………. . 13 8 10,000' 1830.. Church of England Zenana Missionary Society…………………………… . 88 49 1880.• Zenana Medical College……………… " U5,Oro 4,000* Ladies' Committee Auxiliary to London Missionary Society……………. '…. . 24 250 Ladies in Connection with Society for Propagation of Go.pel …….. , ……. . 71 300 Ladies' Free Church of Scotland ……… . 32 177 * About this sum annually. J.M.S.
View of the Missions of the A. B. O. P. M. for the Year 1888-89
MISSIONARIES AND ASSISTANTS. I PREACHING. CHURCHES. i EDUCATION.
g g ] .s MISSIONS. oi ~• I ~fr~C.lrl<n~tl 00 AMERICAN. NATIVE. ~'CI 'CI 'i0'<.:M: ~g• ~ –,–..,,—,.._ _ _1 -_–,,—;—;—1 .~S~ 00 0 ~QJ t~ . § :"8 .. oi 't1 ~. ;;~r.IJ. .-~!: bD .j..J Q,) 0 d~ oJ ~• aj 0~0 ~ .~~ ~~ 0 ..d U~l .~S ~Il <= §• :'~" dj ~ ~ ~.h ~.~ i ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ i ~ ~ ~.~ 'I'~ ~ n j ~o· g ~ ojr18Q,)_ 0 .~O ~ ~ ~:; '8t. ~ :; "" "" .., – – ~ ~ <= 0 tl .S 00 8 00 '§+3 … -< … tti'< '", Sw ~ ~ 6 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ !~.2 ~'g ~ :ags ~ ~ in .A 0 f 2 = ='3 ==-1 19142 150 =. = 115 E",st Central Africa. i883~ . do: ""' ~t] 1l ;, ""' e3:; p:; -I<> ..q z§ '" ~ a5 0 ~ r.r. -;: -§ o§ i:'5 :Zuuel~u-:M,tips~s:i~otnT.~.~.~.!.~.~.~. 1~8~3g5 .$ 0 'E-< 00 E-< ~8 "2197 -n-3 –17 2 12 •35 -1 -,8 25 1 .6,891 16~ '9'7'9" 108 -:-1' . '1'~; – 1 ";';' -:-2' – -2115 5 10 8 2~9~ 4 [3 82 uu 100 25 1,47! 1,655 2.548 19 51 '''6 'ii" 1 …. 12 2 100 100 14 "ii:i' 'i "i2 1 …. 1 2C' 20 . "3:508 I~ 2~ 1~ ~g 2~ 3~~ IH lk~~ 2.~ J~ ~ 3~ 'lll 5,ra~ 6,~~ Western Turkey …. 1819 8 121 22 2 64 17 m 16:g<fs 29 244 1 Ii 7 32,177 Central Turkey ….. 1847 2 51 7 3 7 9 26 19 27 110 4, 160 IIl6 60 10,000 1157,,0~5163 33 4,050 229 1 7 2 89 4 195 95 .,15 4,448 Eastern Turkev ….. 1836 5 115 Ii 1 15 11 41 27 51 170 48 296 337 124 11,010 41 2.542 151 1 526 5 2241238~III1I045543 5,261 6,392 7,9~5 1 8 14 553 3 24..0712'~; 2,802 Mar"'thi. ….. : ……. 1813 7 102 12 1 10 6 29 15 32 HI 67 255 284 88 3.076 3.351 27 1.823 157 1 9 7 514 5.680 , 13.508 Ma.dura …….. : .•.. ISH 12 234 10 •••. 10 8 28 20 144 2~298 31 423 451 234 7,214 11,881 36 3,233 239 1 10 7 6. 4,779 Ceylon ………….. 118~1863 7 25 5 .•.. 4 4 13 11 30 34 304 317 39 1,065 1.806 14 1,389 79 II 6 +57 2 132, 127 7,864 8,455' 6.545 Hong Kong………. 1 3 1 2 34 19 1 5.752 1 …. 3 8 …. 11 12 4 f 384 15 308 54 1 .. '2 "43 8 384 384 10 Foochow ………… 1847 3 21 6 1 6 6 19 2 12 21 1 41 00 26 650 1,250 105 2'''3 •• 17 299 388 349 13 12 42 92 4 976 161 North China …….. 1854 7 29 18 4 20 8 50 …. 17 26 684 2.485 11 2 -42 3 44 10 142 204 Sh&usi.. …………. 1882 2 …. 4 1 4 1 10 .. . …. …. …. …. 10 2 76 75 1 5 5 . . …. .., …. .. …. …. …… .. … 4 22 27 76 27 21 53 11 112 188 171 6,309 11.000 43 6.340§ 2,1l4§ 2 92 61.054 91.0eO…. …… 2,206 41.022 } ~':f..~h~r;,· j~pai{:: m.~ 8 124 23 1.486 Micronesia ………. 1852 3 46 7 1 7 6 21 12 2U 14…. 47 68" 103 7.785 12,300 47 4.844 549 2 30 2 58 2 64 41 1.933 2.085 2011 8 13 537 Western Mexico …. 1872 2 6 2 …. 2 1 5 1…….. 7 8 181 2 120 150 2 110l1~ 10 1 12…. …. 1 23 1 30 30 Northern Mexico … 1882 3 5 4 …. • 2 10 …. 3 3 2 9 194 3H 4 93 95 3,076 68.. 2 …. 3 ~~~~i~·::.:::::::::: }~~~ ~ ig ~ …. ~ ..~ ~ …: ~~ ~ n jg l~ ~~ ~:~ ~ ~ i M1~ 7~ 7~g "7' .. 19 'i "·S 1 4 656 === 19 166 268 17 50 Tota.I… No. Pacific Institute 1872 1…. 1 …. 1…. 2 …. …. …….. …. 2…………· .. · . . . . . · · …. · .. · 1 14…. …… ………….. H 90 960 167* 160 126t 472 448 1.253 2.135 2,607 1~161'188j100.914 33630.11461 4.388 25169 3.947 3.008 892 34.855 42.733U $124.274 * Of whom eleven are physicians. UInciudlDg 80mI' under IDstructlOn but not reported in school. , The CommonSchools of Jafl'na, connected with the mission. are under t Of whom four are physICians. the direction of a lloa.rd of Jl;<lucatlQIl, alld tho teachers are not reckoned as :I: Including Hawaiian missionaries. Ch~;be:,hich might be added 753 baptized believers not yet orpnized Into missioll helpeu.
•
STATISTICS OF THE'WORLD'S MI!,SIONS
Reoeipts of the lfissionary Sooietyof the Methodist EpiBoopal Ohuroh for Year. 1887 and 1888, AS REPORTED TO THE GENERAL MISSIONA.RY CO){M;:TTrlE, NOVEMBER 14, 1888.
RBCEIP'FS I'RO>l EASTERN CONFBRENCES.
CONFERENCES. IFrOW:O;~l'!FrOl8sr~~· I,! Increase. r Decrease. (List omitted.) Oct. 31: 1887. Oct. 3i, 1888.
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …. ….. $S8fI,673 92 3629.983 77 $27,517 5.3, $67,207 63 RECEIPTS FROM: WESTERN CONFERENCES.
CONFEItBI)CES. i8 Dec~ dFrl;t~~· l'!Fr0 8,fOt';; 1,/ (List omitted.) . Oct. 3i, 1887. Oct. 31', 1888. Increase.!_ Total…. ……………………. $375,121.00 Ji370,597 471 $12,068 28 $16,592 80 Total Receipts from November I, 1886, to October 31, 1881………. …… ..•…. $1,044,19591 18ST, to October 31, 1888………………….. 1,000,581 24 .. ..
Decrea.se .. eo •••••••••••••• eO ••••••••• " . eo eo •• 0' ••••••••••••••• eo •••••.•• eo •• eo. $44,21467 RECBIPTS DURING THE L4ST NINE YEARS.
Sundry t::;ources.
$22,47841 Conferences. – – – – – – – Legacies. ,3i,710 27 YEAR!!. Totals. Increase. $557.371 14 $5,511 84 1880 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $500,182 46 33.865 2f 20,83286 625,663 89 68,m 75 18~1. ………………. 570.96577 <l~,605 O~ IM~2 ……………….. 6:!1,38108 '18.091 ~ 21,67984 691.6M 01 00,00212 22,60604 751,469 90 59,803 89 1883 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 650,77254 49,970 O~ 28.966 85 731,125 86 20,34404* 188~ ………………. 652,18800 1885 ………………. 694,03495 101,901 8~ 30.891 5t- 8:6,828 36 95,702 50 1886 ………………. 836,592 37 932,20891 133,95821 21.577 89 992,12847 165,300 11 1887 ……………….. 935.12138 76,743 22 1.0~4.795 91 52,66744 1888 ………………… 35.843 7b – – – – – – 41,983 67 – – -23,4-76-19 1,000,581 24 44,214 67" Totals …………. $6,393,448 45 $558.PZg 4' <!!'?Rfl.':'1":2 /"IF $7.221.73078 NOTE.–A star (*) after amounts III the last COll" 1, '(l.teR a decrease.
-Gospel in all Land•• German Evangelioal Mis!ion Sooieties.
[For the following table we are indebted to Rev. Dr. R. (irundemann, of Germany., "'" ,;, .;.,.;.,. ..: …; <= () 'j:; of ",,=of OJ ~".,,,~'0" '2 ,,0 SOCIETIES. wi <=8 0. S" """.."~, OJ "s~":.l<A~= OJ'~ ~ ~ ~N~'" " .,: :0;; ~ .,; :,z;,. >4 o..~ 0 .'.c0c: "Il< >'I 8~ "00 '" " ..,00>'1 ———~———— Moravian ………………………….. 107 147 83,052 29,283 590 208 $17,407 $101,281 Easel, Evangelical Mission ………… 42 120 19,187 9.497 1,057 208 7.486 199,507 Berlin, Evangelical Mission………… 48 60 17.764 8.400 1,225 53* 3.377 71.611 Rhenish Mission (Barmen) …………. 53 66 29,125 9.666 1,100 66* 5,370 88.440 North German (I:!remen)…………… 4 8 325 114 5 199; 20.389 556 Gossner Mission …………………… 13 19 34,000 11,868 1,775 80* 1.685. 42,431 Evangelical Lutheran, Leipzig …….. 2"J 22 14,014 4.500* 796 129 3,993 67.596 Hermannsburg…………………… 61 71 11,196 5,000* ….. 88* 2,000 63,713 fit. Chrischonat……………………. 1 15 400 20 5 1* 120 8,132 40* ….. 4* 200 6,585 Jerusalems-Verein………………… 3 2 150 2* 43 14,914 BreckluD). (Schleswig-Holstein)…….. 4 8 ……. '''ii' 1* 40 8.773 Berlin Woman's Mission for China…. 1 1 81 80* 77 3* 74 2,523 Neukirchen Mission…. …. …….. …. 5 5 305 3,239 East Africa.. Vereln (Berlin)……….. I 2 2 ….20* 3.000 2 3,OCQ – – – – – – —- – – – – – – – – – – Bavarian Verein·for East Africa…… 1 CO.I. Prot. Mission Verein (for Japan). 1 Totals…………………………. 368 550 209.850 78,679 6.756 823 41,994 J700,1l4 " Estimated. t Statistics of Syrian Orphan Home only. -A. B. 0. F. M.'B Almanac of Mi88ion., 1889. Foreign Missionary Sooieties of the, United States, 1887-88.
Mission- ..: …. — .. .. " " ..s .n… aries. ,/, 8- .,./,, p.1. g.; … " <I <I .<:1 d! 0 5l <i C1l SOCIETIES. '" .si III 'a American Board•…•.•.. ,; I '" '" "" ~.d.,! .<:1 0 "" " ~ j ~ ~ s oj d!" " ~ ~ … <$ — — — – – _~.S Z 's, 0 — – – '" — — "" -rn- 0 Z .a &: <;) .. <!l '"p… .".<.I. <;) $667,289 90 g60 186 286 2,135 836 30.M6 4.386 1,018 42,733 Preshyterian Board, No. 901.180 112 400 205 297 1,126 311 23.740 2,~97 464 23.77() Preshyterian Board, So. 88,049 08 89 31 35 44 ' 39 1.897 305 20 1,2;{S Ref. Church (Dutch) …. 155.381 12 123 29 32 293 47 4,559 180 122 3,357 United Presh. Board …. 103,323 15 154 19 21 385 32 6.878 1.437 216 9.942 Cumberland Presb. Ch .. 15,265 3 5 6 8 13 8 500 225 6 283 Reformed Presb. Church Asso. Ref. Presho Church 21,133 ….. 2 6 4 5 50 2 209 44 32 1.165 Reformed Church of the 2,696 4 2 ••••• 8 8 206 76 2 28 U. S. German … '……. 20.000 3 12 5 7 18 8 1,170 420 5 21& Ref. Presho Gen. Synod.. 4,000 2 4 2 ….. 7 2 20 5 1 28 *Baptist Mis. Union ….. 390,83.5 60 831 101 161 1.798 642 61,062 5.070 754 17,.504 Baptist Southern Conv.. 86,38.5 14 72 24 34 59 48 1,967 344 17 610 Free Baptists….•……. ….. 3 59 6 13 15 10 654 62 85 3,058 Seventh Day Bantists… 15.2{4 1 2 3 9 1 23 5 3 76 Baptist Conv. of U. S, … 4.529 4.598 3 2 2 1 2 1 175 50 2 27 Q:erman Baptist Breth- ren (Tunkers) ………. ….. ….. ……. 1,620 2 ….. 826.7~* 6M *Methodist Epis. Chnrch ….. 234.584* 104t Meth. Epis. Church, So.. 3 …. 5 lliO 31i ….. 131; 192 2.0~1 505 22.535 2.711 694 22,448 28 23 80 42 3.786 450 54 1.545 Protestant Methodist… 3 3 7 4 2 229 84 5 350 18.000 Africa" ~Ieth. Epis()opal 12,000' 7 5 7 1 8 9 900 302 5 408 Free )[ethodist…. , ….. 3 14 6 3 ….. 2 45 Prot. Epis. For. Miss.Soc. 2.000 41 14.'; 75 28 227 32 6 "443 91 3.364 189,932 23 3 2,073 11,074 16 5 5 4 224 ..1.2..3 9 443 Evangelical Association 14,619 5 4 14 4.105 19 462 Un. Brethren in Christ.. 4 25 Evangelical Lutheran, General Synod ……… 30.000 2 2 4 3 147 101 3.436 1,178 161 3.,558 Evangelical Lutheran, 10.288 6 50 5 4 72 4 805 235 57 767 General Conncil ., , …. For. Chri.tian Miss.Soc. (Disciples) ….. , .. , …. 24 12 22 24 2,473 798 18 ….3.8..0 51.408 24 …..2 …..6..1 43 ….. Amer. Christian Conv… 2,000 2 21 1 6 3 ….. — — – — — — – – – – –7- – TFhrieenMdesn.n..o.n.it.e.s………………. …. ·22:700· 1 . ooii 3 9 6 4 392 671 ….. 100 7 6 —- Total. ………….. $3.906.967 1,1113 2,954 927 1,200 8,617 2.243 174.784 21,978 3.864 137.905 * Work of these societies in Protestant countries of Europe 1S not here reported. t Principal and subordinate stations. :(: The portion of the missionary receipts of the church appropriated to Foreign n Mis~ions. ple te re tu rn s. '
Incom Moravian Missions are included in the tabJe of British societies. -A. B. O. F. M. 's Almanac of Mi.sions. 1889.
Canada.-The Canadian Congre- tionality. In Oceania, including the Phil- ippines. the Malay Archipelago. Anstralia. gational Year-Book fol' 188~-89 re- and New Zealand. the number is 276; in America, inclnding certain specified States ports the following statistics: of the Union. portions of Canada, British Honduras, Brazil and Pern.l.130 ; the total Churches. St… Minis. Mf'm· number of Jesnits scattered over the globe tions. ter!;. bel'S. in purely missionary work being 2,377. These 26 49 6,300 are' of various nationalities, but the vast Ontario ………. 77 1,650 majority are French.-London Times. Quebec ………. 20 15 17 Nova Scotia…… ]7 21 7 858 -The Cherokees have in operation 100 11 341 common schools. with an aggregate attend- New Brunswick.. 3 4 ance of 4,049 pupils and an average of 200 2.486 ; a high school for boys. with an aggre- Newfoundland & o3 180 gate of 211 and an average of 156 students; Labrador … , .. . 5 24 a. female seminary. nearing completion, The Northwest.. . 4 with a capacity for 165 students; an orphan asylum containing 145 children,-Ghri.tian 126 75 84 9.529 Advocate. Nashville. -Jesuit Missions. In the Balkan peninsula there are. 45 Jesuit missiona.ries; in Africa, and especially E;;-ypt, Madagascar and the Zambesi region, 223 ; in Asia, especially Armenia. Syria, certain parts of India, and parts of China. 699. In China alone the number is 195, all of French na- Oontributions to Missionary and Bible -Statistics show that there are in Bur- Societies for rifty Years. mah at the present moment 502 Baptist IN view 'of the Missionary Conference, it may not be nnseasonable to present to your readers churches, with 28,559 communicants and the results of a carefrrl examination of the home contributious to the five great religiOUS institu- about 70,000 adherents. In 404 schools theretions named below during the first fifty years of the present reign. I have divided that examina- are 12,000 pupils, and during the year there tion iuto decenniums, bringing out the average amounts contributed in each, with the relative hl"ve. been 2,134 baptismsupon a profession increase or decrease upon the preceding period. With these it is unnecessary to occupy your of fmth. The report reminds the Christian columus. public that it is just seventy-five yea-rs. It may be interesting, however, to notice that -whatever it may be owing to- the decennium since Adoniram Judson, driven out of Cal- 1848-1857 differs from aU the rest in the lower rate of increase, while in the case of two of the cutta by the officials of the East India Comsocieties there is a positive decrease of two per cent. and eleven per cent. respectively. pany, arrived in Rangoon and established The increase of the avera~e annual amount the first Baptist mission at Burmah.-ChriB-· of home contributions, including legacies but excluding dividends, in the last decennium, 1878- tian Weekly. '57, over the first,l838-'47, was, in the case of the Baptist Miss. Society… £34,953 or 157 per cent. -The Methodist Episcopal Church have. Wesleyan Miss. SOCiety. 34.114" 45 .. Church Miss. Society .. 102,717 .. 118 .. 2: missionaries in Italy, 25 native prea.chers" London Miss. Society… 23,707" 3~ British and Foreign 883 church members, 16 Snnday-schools and Bible Society……… 62,101" 131 392 scholars. In lIIexico tney have 9 mis- A/!:gregate increase (five sionaries,33 native preachers, 995 church SocietietJ).. .. .. . …… 257,592" 86 The annual average amounts of the five soci- members, 740 probationers, 30 Sundayeties for the last decenninm was £556,631, and the total amount for the jifly year. £20,798.160, schools and 1,202 schools. being about the amount spent on drink in this country in sixty days at the rate of last year's Jews.-Between the years 1880 ,and 188& consumption. It ought to be stated that these amounts in- the Jewish population of Prussia has include both ordinary and special contributions, excepting in the case of the Church Missionary creased only 2,763. The proportion of the. Society, where the figures of the special contribntions for the whole period conld not be .0 Jews (366,543) to the entire population. easily ascertained. The annual average orthese, in that society, for the last jive years was £19,- shows a falling off of .04 per cent. The 115. ProbablY this was a high avera!':e. One feature brought out in this examination is diminution has been chie11y in the provinces. worthy of note. WhQn a large contribution has been raised for a special object, it does not seem of Posen and Silesia. There were only three to teU adversely on the succeeding years; rather the contrary. So at least it seems to be towns in the entire kingdom with a. Jewish. in the case of the British and Foreign Bible So- Ciety. In 1854 that society raised special con- population exceeding 15,000, viz., Berlin. tributions of almost exactly £100,000 for the JUbilee and Chinese New Testament Funds. 65,355; Breslau, 17,655; and Frankfurt, 15,- with the result that the aggregate ordinary contributions (exclusive of legacies) for the three SM.-Jewish Chronicle. . follouing years exceeded those of the three previous years by almost £30,OCO, or twenty-three -The various Protestant missionary orper cent.; and that notWithstanding that in one of the last three years a further special contri- ganizations at work in India have 249 mis_ bution of £10,000 was raised for these objects. sionaries, 317 native preachers, and 83,819' But when the speCial contribution is raised not for any definite object, but merely to make up .. native communicants. This is an increase deficiency in previous years, I apprebend the result is very different.-Davia McLaren, in of 67 missionaries, 76 native preachers, and British Weekly. 23,748 native communicants since 1881.
-The Lutheran Missions among the Ta- mils of South India amount to 14,000 adher- ents, 22 European missiol~aries, 12 ordained natives, 6 caudidates, 56 catechists, 241 teachers, 149 schools. and 3,653 scholars.
-The General Missionary Committee of the Methodist Episcopal Church has appro- priated for the coming year $1,200,000 fol'"
home and foreign missions, of which $100,- 000 is to meet outstanding drafts and inter- est. The receipts from the churches were· $2,900 larger than ever before, but the treas- ury was $78,340.13 in debt at the end of the year. The appropriations for mission wo"i-k are about fifteen per cent. less than last year. The foreign missions r"eceive $511,- 639.01, divided as follows: India, $109,300.
China, $108,019.01 ; Japan, $60,166; Korea.
$16,104; JlIalaysia, $6,500; Africa. $4,800; South America, $52,960; Italy, $47,000; Ger-· many, $30,300; Sweden, $25,068; Bulgaria.
$19,220; Norway, $14,000; Switzerland, $9,840 ; Denmark, $8.362. The new Malaysia.
Mission was regularly constituted. Dr.
Thoburn is missionary bishop of India and ¥alaysia. In al the foreign inissions there are 720 native preachers and 41.338 church.
members.
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS. [FEB., 18t!9
VIII.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
(The Ia.ck of spa.ce constrains us to layover a. mass of Bilitorial Notes already in type.-ED8.] Editorial Oard to the Publio. The Bound Volume for 1888.
IN the Jan. number of this REVIEW, TilE IIrstvolume ot THEMIssION.l.BY RETIIIW .(1888) we admitted an article from Bev. Wm. Clark, D.D., on "1I1ission 0:1' THE WORLD Is now bound loud on sale. It.
Work in Papal Europe,'" and in a appearance is certainly striking, and marks an prefatory note we warmly indorsed advance, it not a new epoch, in mlssionary"litthe writer and commended his cause erature. It is a royal octllvo, printed on heavy -the Female College /Lt Florence, and lirst quality of paper, making VT4 compact Italv.. Dr. Clark was a stl'anger to pages, and substantially and prettily bound in us, but he presented so many strong crimson cloth with gilt back.
teliltimonials from eminent clergy- No ODe can form a correct Idea. of the extent, men and others whom we knew, that t:vharroiuetgyhatnhdisqiumalpietyrioalf viotslucmone.tenAts btriilel fhBenlaolYok'iss we unhesitatingly gave full credence ~ will show that it i. in itself a IUrrary of mission liurature, containing matter equal to half a dozto hIS statements, and said what we -did in his behalf. We deeply regret en books, and al1 fresh and in"pirlng, and from the ablest missionary writers in the world. At to say that we have lately received the same time it is an invaluable cvclopOJdia Of ~vidence from the best sources of in- milsions, containing a vast amount of the latest and most accurate information on every subject formation that wI! were deceived and connected with Christian missions. 'rhe eight imposed upon Ly this man, and that departments are crowded with matter of inter- est and importance to the friends of missions, he is unworthy of confidence or aid, in al1lands and in aU branches urthe Church.
.and we hereby withdraw our indorse- I. Literature Qf M"tssions. Contains some 130 separate article., most of them original, and ment and forbid him to use it. From by the ablest writers at home and abroad. the American consul at Florence we learn that no such institution now II. Organized Missionary Work. Gives the ~xist!S in Florence. And Dr. Cyrus latest reports of over 130 of the leading mission- Hajlllin assures us that our statement ary societies of the world. .about his services at Constantinople is essentially untruthful. It grieves III. Corrupondence and General Intellius. tu make such a statement, but gence. From leading mis.ionarie. in all lands, truth and justice and the cause of a. well as intelliltence from the world-field. -Christ demand it at our hands. IV. International Department. By Dr. Gr,,- A Oorreotion. cey, containing 100 pages of great interest and value. IN our January issue we gave V. Moothlll Concert of MissWns. By Dr. A. .credit for the article-" England and '1'. Pierson. Full 01 stirring papers and sugges- Foreign Missions "-to Rev. James tive themes and thoughts.
.Johnston, "Secretary of the World's VI. P,ogre88 and Results Q.f Missions. A world of the latest doings and facts, gathered Missionary Conference." We were from every source and field. misled in making this statement in a VII. Statistic, of the Wcrld's Missions. A way that attaches no blame to any large amount of the latest and most authentic etatistics. Ma!lY invaluable tables, etc., etc. -one. But we -desire to state that, VIII. Editorial Notes on many current subthough possessed of the same hon- jects of missionary interest.
()toed name, our c;::ontributor is an- Aud to add to the value Ofthi8 bound volume, It conta.ins a full and skillfully prepared Indez -other clergyman, a resident of Bol- of Contents, 80 tbst every topic treated in it, and ton, England, who has volunteered every important faet or statement or table of to post us from time to time with the etatistics given can be readily found and made -current ongoings of missionary life available to the rietasdleirt.eraOrynemwerililtsbIeitasmvaazsetdn,eosns in Great Britain. He will continue examination, at his useful service and, when the topic of scope, and the plenitude and va ue of Its his- is too brief for a separate paper we torical and statistical information. It will adorn tihall append his simple initials, or Our English Correspondent, as in and be a valuable acquisition to anI library, the present number. private or public. The price is but $2.50, free delivery. It Is a marvel of cheapne!s.
Statistical Tables.
.. The :Miseionary Review," in the hands ofMr. Wilder, earned a deserved reputation for the ekill and pain.taking labor ebown in the matter of missionary statistics. "Wild…r's Tables" were Simply marvel. in their way and are cited ". authority everywhere. We had hoped and planned to carry on this good work unto perfec- tion, but our wishes and plans for the first year failed. But we still purpose to accomplish it a$ any cost, and are maturing arrangements tha$ will bring it about during the year. In tile meanwhile we avail onrselves of the results ot others' labors. The tables we give this month, published by the Ameri"an Board, are exceed- ingly valuable for reference, while onr own table on wom~n's work is full and reliable.