The Missionary Review of the World — January 1894
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VOL. XVII. No.l.-OldSeries.-JANUARY.-VoL. VII. No. 1.-New 8eriu.
THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION AT CHICAGO.
BY THE EDI1'OR-IN-CHIEF.
At the World's Fair the seven wonders of the world met to hold high carnival. The metropolis of the great Northwest achieved a grand success. To describe the superb splendor, the vastness and variety, the architectural and resthetic attractions, the overwhelming grandeur of this Exposition, is impossible. All adjectives fail, and even superlatives are weak. "Aladdin's lamp" may now be relegated to the oblivion into which the most gorgeous fancies retire when outdone by facts. The common verdict is, "The half was not told me."
Symmetry, in hug0 columnar and statuesque forms, here on every side saluted the beholder; and the combination of the colossal with the exquisitely delicate, of the original and the unique with the refined and poetic, left fal' in the distance any previous triumphs of human genius. When, at night, the electric lights illumincd and glorified the massive structures and allegorical figures that surrounded and adorned the Court of Honor; when the golden statue of Liberty, in lustrous robes, confronted the Administration Building, with its garlands of light and its coronal of glory; when the electric fountains shot rainbows skyward, and all this unearthly beauty and radiance was reflected and repeatcd in the mirror of the lagoon, it seemed reverent to ask whether the dream of Paradise were not become a reality, and the " Vhite City" were not at least the forecast of t.he " City of God."
Connected with this imperial display of the world's inventions, discoveries, achievements, and material civilization, there have been held several congresses, to three of which the pages of this HEVIEW might properly advert: The Parliament of Religions. the Congress of Missions, and the World's Evangelical Alliance. The daily press m{d religious weeklies have so far dealt with detail!'! that at this distance of time nothing remains but a re-view, II backward glance whieh lIIay serve to gather up and crystallize into permanence the impressiollfl of the geuel'lll ellaradcr and rCimlts of these three conferences.
THE COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION AT CHICAGO
As to the l'arliament of Religions-of which especially this paper treats -there was something thrilling about the conception of gathering into one fraternal assembly the representatives of the various religious faiths of mankind, and hushing all discordancies in one universal harmony. Charity seemed to have come down from heaven to sit upon her throne and sway all hearts j and yet, as to the utility of such a parliament, there were in many minds grave doubts which events have not dissipated. Of course in an open field, with a fair showing, Christianity has nothing to fear from competition with any other so-called" religions j" bllt such a parliament leaves on the popular mind impressions which are misleading and mischievous. Superficial people naturally infer that, as all the great religious systems of the world claim to have their" sacred books," and" sacred persons," and most of them their" incarnations," it is simply a matter of comparison and competition whether or not Christianity shall, in the race for the prize, come out ahead! There is, in the concession of a common platform-to which Brahmans and Buddhists, Confucianists and Taoists, Parsces and Shintooists, and representatives of every other typc of rcligious doctrine and practice are admitted upon an equality-something which looks very like the virtual abandonment of thc position held for centuries by the evangelical disciple, that there is but one divine religion, and that so unique as to defy all comparison or competition.
On the same platform, in the Hall of Columbus, were to be seen Christians of every name-Roman Catholic and Greek Church dignitaries, as well as leading Protestants of all denominat.ions; theosophists and materialists and deists, as well as theists; followers of every creed, however sublime or absurd-a great throng all gathered in one hall and rejoicing in the unity of their diversity, and that all-embracing bond of " charity." It was pronounced a " wonderful and impressive sight," even by the unimpressible newspaper reporters! Cardinal Gibbons delivered an invocatory prayer, and addresses followed from a Presbyterian" president," a Universalist female preacher, and a Roman Catholic archbishop; and everybody was supposed to be happy because the millennium of " peace on earth and good will among men" was at last inaugurated! Here,for seventeen days, those who glory in the" universal Fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man," and the universal affinity of all religious faiths and cults, sat down together at their banquet of love. According to the conditions of the Parliament, the principles of each faith were to be set forth by special advocates, without reply, rejoinder, controversy, comparison, or any form of counter attack, so that, as every mouth was muzzled, there was no room on that platform even for the exposure of error, sophistry, fallacy, or even falsehood. Such refutation must find its opportunity and facility outside the Parliament, if at all. No wonder if that competent and cultured Arabic scholar, Dr. George E. Post, of Syria, when he heard false statements made as to the teaching of the Koran, could not keep silence, but broke' through restraint and started for the platform, with an open copy of the Koran in hand, to refute the falsehood by reading from the book itself !
There is room for grave suspicion as to the final outcome of this Parliament. Many of the best men still question whether " charity" was not made to cover extremes of concession and unwarrantable fellowship; whether such levelling of alllandma.rks between creeds and cults was not a dishonor to the Christian faith and the Christian's God; whether the ban put upon all " controversy," and even rebutting testimony, did not leave error to run its race unhindered, and hamper truth in overtaking it, by compelling a resort to tardy and uncertain methods of exposure; whether the ultimate result will not be to countenance an unwholesome tolerance of false teaching, and open the door-as in fact is already the case-to a new era of propagandism of Buddhist, Mohammedan and other "mysteries" even in Christian lands j whether we are in no danger of misreading the motto, "Liberty, equality, fraternity" into "Laxity, apathy, and compromise. "
" The Moslem Wodd is a Mohammedan paper recently started in New York City, whose editor thinks the United States a'n excellent missionary field, and hopes to make many converts to the doctrine of Islam. He thinks the people here ripe for conversion, and that American women in particular will embrace the doctrine, because it makes woman free and independent. Islamism, the editor avers, will lessen licentiousness, purify the marriage relation, and banish adnltery! The morality of Mohammedanism will, he says, compare favorably with the morality of Christianity. He makes the Islam heaven appear very roseate. His paradise is beyond description, ineffable, iridescent and glorions. A Mohammedan may have as many wives as he can p1'ovide for: no more. That's good news. This prevents adultery, etc. With two hundred million Mohammedans already upon the face of the earth, what may we expect ?"
So says a contemporary journal. It is not strange if doubts of the expediency of such a Parliament will not" down atone's bidding." There is but one "religion" worthy of the name j only one "Sacred Book," sealed with the" seven seals" of God: fulfilled prophecy, general accuracy, faultless morality, exalted spirituality, divine originality, consistent unity, and saving efficacy. No other "religion" gives man a Saviouf? anointed of God, competent as prophet, priest, and king, the way of God to man, the way of man to God j no other faith, however ancient, and boasting however many millions of adherents, can supply such a firm standing place fOf life, slich a pillow for the dying head, as Spurgeon found in those "five words," which Paul would rather speak with the understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue : " CHRIST DIED FOR OUR. SINS."
Bacon's maxim was, that it is not worth while to discuss a matter with any man who does not agree with you upon first principles. ",Vas there no risk of an impression, even on those invited to present thllir " religion" in such a Parliament, that Christians do not regard their divergences from themselves as radical or fundamental 1 And is this a true or tenable position 1 Is it possible for an idolater, a polygamist, a materialist, a deist, a pantheist, a theosophist, a worshipper of Brahm or Buddha, or of 'his own ancestors, to have real concord with one who holds all idol worship to be sin, polygamy to be a perversion of marriage and the panderer of an unhallowed lust, and that he who denies the Son of God denies the Father also 1 Charity is not laxity. It covers a multitude of sins, but it is not to become a mantle of snow, concealing a fatal crevasse. Let us, as Augustine said, cultivate "unity in essentials, liberty in non· essentials, and in all things charity j" but, without unity on the essentials, liberty becomes lawlessness and looseness, and charity another name for the carelessness that' compromises with error and is indifferent even to vital distinctions. John was the" apostle of love," yet his pen wrote: "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God j and this is that spirit of Antichrist" against which the New Testament thunders perpetual warning. Even the apostle of love would have made a poor president of such a " Parliament j" he was too intolerant; for he protests, " If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him 'Godspeed,' for he that biddeth him 'Godspeed' is partaker of his evil deeds" (1 John 4 : 3 j, 3 John 10).
It was that same Paul who drew that sublime portrait of charity that still stands unrivalled in God's gallery, who asks, " What concord hath Christ with Belial 1 what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness 1 and what communion hath light with darkness? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel 1 and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols 1" And ihis same Paul enjoins: "Be not ye unequally yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Cor. 6 : 14.:..16).
Forbearance with errorists and evil-doers must not degenerate into toleration of their error or evil-doing. 'With cordial concession of the poetic beauties, moral truths, and even lofty models found in the false " religions" of the world, we must still insist that the unique charm and claim of Christianity are found in this, that it gives us the only infallible Book j tho only perfect Personality, and the only Saving Bond between the sinner antI his Saviour. 'What is religion but, as the word hints, the binding back of the alienated sonI to God, j and what other religion ever wrought snch reconciliation? and yet wlmt is- any religion without salvation? There may be room for comparison and competition among ethical systems and humanitarian theories j but there is "none other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved," but that of Jesus. And, as a fact, no other religion has ever yot answered the question, ". What must I do to be saved 1" This defect is so radical that to gloss it ovor is to daub a falling wall with nntempered mortar.
It is vain to pretend that the divergences between Christianity and other faiths are not radical. Mrs. Besant's definition of theosophy makes it " consist of three affirmations: 1. The universe is fundamentally spiritual, and matter is only an expression of spirit. 2. Law reigns everywhere, in morals as much as in physical nature-that is, every act and every thought produces its inevitable result, against which no prayer and no vicarious atonement is of the least avail. 3. The doctrine of reincarna- tion, declaring the persistence of intelligence which passes from life to life, thus gathering experience as it goes, and ever building up a higher type in man." What signifies it, if with much of this teaching the Christian faith is not fundamentally at variance, since at some points the believer must part company with such teachers ! We believe the Creator still rules creation, and that physical laws are but His modes of working. Call nature" clock work" if you will; but remember that an intelligent being may reverse the ordinary movement of the hand on the dial, apparently reversing also the law of the clock's uniform motion, and yet not damage or even interrupt its mechanism!
Without impugning the lofty motives of the projectors of this Parliament, one impression, already produced, especially upon these representatives of foreign faiths, is that Christians are ready to concede that theirs may not be the only J)ivine religion. Swami Vivakananda, in his orange robes, was emboldened to Iilay : ,. Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if anyone here hopes that this unity would come by the triumph of anyone of these religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say: 'Brother, yours is an impossible hope.' Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu q God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Bnddhist would become Christian q God forbid. If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity, and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion would soon be written, in spite of their resistance : 'Help and Not Fight,' 'Assimilation and not Destruction,' 'Harmony and Peace and not Dissension.' "
One of the last voices heard in the Parliament was that of Reuchi Shibata, of Japan, High Priest of the Zhekko sect of Shintoists. Here are his concluding words : " What I wish to do is to assist you in carrying out the plan of forming the universal brotherhood under the one roof of truth. You know unity is power. I may help you in crowning that grand project with success. To come here I had many obstacles to overcome, many struggles to make. You must not think I represent all Shintoism. I only represent my own Shinto sect. But who dares to destroy universal fraternity q So long as the sun and moon continue to shine, all friends of truth must be willing to fight courageously for this great principle. I do not know as I shall ever see you again in this life, but our souls have been so pleasantly united here that I hope they may be again united in the life her'lafter. Now I pray that eight million deities protecting the beautiful cherry-tree country of Japan may protect you and your governmentforever, and with this I bid you good-bye."
How will that do for a Parliament projected by Christian believers, one of whose first truths is, " There is but one God," and who hold that poly- theism is therefore treason against Him?
Bishop Campbell, who attended the conference, expressed publicly his regret that he had been identified with such a gathering, and says that "the answer of the Archbishop of Canterbury t.o the invitation was the one which all Christian ministers should have made: " 'The difficulties which I myself feel are not questions of distance and cOIlvenience, but rest on the fact that the Christian religion is the one religion. I do not understand how that religion can be regarded as a member of a Parliament of Religions without assuming the equality of the other intended members' and the parity of their position and claims. ' "
Bishop Campbell adds: " Whatever profit may have been derived from the meeting, we have to face the fact that, by participating in it, Christians have stood upon a platform from which the Lord Jesus Christ as ' the truth,' , the true light of the world,' and the only revelation of the Father, has been excluded. For the purposes of this gathering, followers of Jesus Christ as the only true God have practically admitted that Christianity is only one of many religious systems, and that Jesus was one of several religious teachers. The object of the Congress seems to have been to find common ground upon which the religions of the world can meet, and this I conceive to be an impossibility, so long as the inclusive and exclusive claims of Jesus are admitted. This meeting placed Christianity on a level with the heathen religions. "
As Christians, how can we consistently recognize any man as on a common platform with us, religiously, who does not accept at least three basal truths : The Bible as the rule of faith j the atoning work of Christ as the ground of salvation j and the Holy Spirit as the author of the new nature? Christofora Jabara, of Antioch, urged the appointment of a committee to investigate the claims of all great religions and formulate a creed which shall embrace the .truth in each and be acceptable to all. He particularly argued that the reconciliation of the Mohammedan and Christian religions is an easy matter. He maintained that the Koran is an inspired book, and that the Bible cannot be understood without it j and that God has allowed Islamism to endure because it is destined to correct the errors of Christianity. A new idea certainly! Hereafter we must have the Bible and the Koran printed on parallel columns, that each may be a commentary on the other! !tis as appropriate then to invite missionaries from Moslem soil as to send them to the followers of the Prophet of Mecca !
This is but one of many utterances at the Parliament openly advocating the " harmonizing of the great religions of the world upon the basis of common central truths," not only Buddhists and others who represented heathen faiths, but American clergymen pleading for such a broad plat- form! A new and universal creed. whose grand base blocks are to be the Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man. Professor W. C. Wilkinson, when discussing the "attitude of Christianity to other religion..," said unpopular but true words : " These erring religions the Bible nowhere represents as pathetic and partly successful gropings after God. They are one and all represen.ted as groping downwm'd, not groping upward. According to Christianity they hinder, they do not help. Their adherents' hold on them is like the blind grasp of drowning men on roots or rocks that only tend to keep them to the bottom of the river. The truth that is in the false religion may help, but it will be the truth, not the false religion. The attitude, therefore, of Christianity toward religions other than itself is an attitude of 1:tniversal. absolute, eternal, unappeasable hostility, while toward all men everywhere, the adherents of false religions by no means excepted, its attitude is an attitude of grace, mercy, peace, for whosoever will."
The suppression of truth and the repression of all contradiction and correction of falsehood are to some minds a fatal blemish and blotch upon the Parliament of Religions. The Pope's portrait over the platform and his letter of special blessing on the gathering, with the warning from His Eminence's emissary that no words must be uttered offensive to Catholics, served to put the Parliament well nigh into the hands of Romanism to begin with. And when the brilliant Japanese priest railed against the missionaries who, half a century since, incited his countrymen to rebellion and carnage, no voice was raised to protest that it was Jesuits and not Protestant missionaries who were 1eferred to, and Romanists were more than content to have the obloquy rest on Protestant shoulders!
On the whole, Humanitarianism, Unitarianism, Universalism, and Romanism triumphed at the Parliament, or we do not read the signs of the times. The creed that emphasizes nniversal brotherhood, human 'charity, alms deeds and culture, passes by the atonement, and holds to an ultimate salvation hy evolution, can of course clasp hands with heathen priests, ratlOnalists, free thinkers, and idolaters. Why not 1 But such a creed means a surrender of every vital doctrine, or a vague, misty faith fit only for a new sect that might well be called, Oonjusionists.
Two remarks will close this already extended paper. First, all religions are to be judged practically, not theoretically. Mr. Leightley ventures to say that" the attempts made to Christianize India are pure foUy. The Hindu has as elevated and noble a religion as Christianity, and he really assumes to know and understand more about the fundamental principles of religions than most Christians." It might be well to set opposite such estimates the remark of a very celebrated traveller, that" to discuss Buddhism ten thousand miles off, theoretically, in a Parliament of Religions, is one thing; but seen near by, it is the worst compound of filth and fanaticism, idolatry and ignorance, superstition and sensuality I have found anywhere. " An acute observer remarked that the sufficient answer to tbe Parliament of Religions was the "Midway Plaisance. " There is a story of a priest who used a walnut as his object-lesson to show the vast superiority of his own church. He stripped off the tasteless, worthless shell-that was one nominal body of believers; then the skin, nauseous and disagreeable-that was another; and now for the real kernel, the very meat, his own church. He cracked the nut, and out fell a rotten, worm-eaten mass! A cough to cover his embarrassment and a hasty dismissal of the congregation concluded tIle object-lesson.
Our second remark is that such a Parliament of Religions puts new hindrances in tbe way of Christian missions. "Vith what grace or consistency can we conduct a crusade for Christ against faiths whose followers we welcome to a common platform with us and salute as factors in the great" religious unities" and" seekers after a common goal" ~ A common platform must mean agreement on fundamental truths. Are we then henceforth to treat the distinction between evangelical Christians and esoteric Buddhists, Moslems, and fetich worshippers, as belonging to nonessentials ~ If these religions are fragments of one universal faith, or at least preparations for one ultimate faith; if the Shastras, Vedas, Zend- Avestas, Koran, are inspired of God, and Zoroaster, Confucius, and Gautama Buddha are apostles, and even incarnations of God, it is presumption if not insult to send missionaries to these peoples. But if Christianity is right in asserting a sublime monopoly; if Christ was true when He said, " I am the way, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me;" if these religion-s are only seductive theories, corrupted with gross error, and having no saving power; if even the truth they contain has never actually uplifted the peoples which tenaciously hold them j if we are to judge Mohammedanism and heathenism, not by essays in the Art Palace, but by the " Street in Cairo" and the" Dahomey Village," it may be our duty to wage uncompromising war against any religion that betrays men with false hopes of salvation.
One speaker thought he scored a victory because so few of his hearers were found to respond openly when he asked how many had read Buddha's life. No doubt many more had read it who did not choose to be put to a test which might prove the snare of a wily orator. But is it necessary always to read the lives of men in order to judge of the practical drift of their teachings and the actual influence of their systems 1 Zeno and Epicurus were both superior men, and their philosophies were in many respects lofty in moral tone; but the Epicureans and Stoics became awfully degenerate. Buddha was a heroic and unselfish Oriental saint, but when his personality was withdrawn his system sank to a very low level. It is the miracle and glory of Christianity that, when its Founder withdrew into heaven, there was and still is a Personal Presence whose influence is felt to the ends of the earth; and even the corruption of human nature has not essentially depraved the religion Hc taught nearly two millenniums ago Are we in no danger lest the new god of this age, Oivilization, may be another colossal image of gold, which all men are now called upon to worship, and may not another firm protest be the duty of God's holy children 1 This Parliament of Religions recalls a familiar incident, in the reign of Solomon, which seems almost a parable of the present day. The faiths of the world are all confessedly dead-have no vitality or saving power. Into the court of human opinion the one living faith is brought j and there are those who would lULVe it divided: they seem to think that, if the supernatural could be eliminated and the ethical left, if atonement by blood and regeneration by the Holy Spirit could be left out, the rest might stand. We could, perhaps, induce the world to accept one half of the body of Christian truth j but the true believer sees that this is like cutting in twain a living child-dissection is vivisection, division is death-and his heart yearns for the old. faith as it is, and will not consent to any compromise with error or any surrender of the truth as revealed by God. With the utmost " charity toward all and malice toward none," he still believes that nothing can be settled until it is ReWed aright j that all peace or fellowship that is not founded upon submission to God and acceptance of His dear Son, lacks firm foundation j and that partnership with those who teach error and practise idolatry is a sanction of what is wrong, and helps to blind their eyes to their sin and risk. It is not true that" it matters little or nothing what one believes, so long as he is sincere.' , Never was a maxim more a devil's lie, gilded over with the charm of apparent charity. Were this proverb a right axiom, it would no more be worthwhile either to search diligently to find the truth, or to embrace and obey the truth when found. If God has given us the Truth, and Jesus is Truth incarnate, we who possess this truth and know this Jesus, are bound to go into all the world, face error in teaching and unrighteousness in living, and bring the works of darkness to the light, having no fellowship with them j and proclaiming to men everywhere that the wrong, however sincerely held, is degrading, depraving, damning j that in none other is there salvation save God's appointed Saviour. If this were not so, the Bible would not be God's Book, for it would become the father of falsehood j Jesus could not be God's Son and the world's Saviour, for He would be setting up a baseless claim j and Christian missions would be unsound, unpractical, and even impertinent, for they assume that all ot.her "faiths" are false in essence and fatal in tendency.
Paul expresses the whole matter in a few words: "For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there be gods many, and lords many j but to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him j and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him" (1 Cor. 8: 5, 6). These words were written calmly, but with no hesitating hand, with reference to forms of religiout; faith prevailing in Paul's time, and substantially identical with those now claiming recognition; and this inspired testimony may well be repeated by us with even increased emphasis. The tendencies of our times are toward a fellowship broader than the Word of God allows. Paul might have formed a parliament of religions on Mar's Hill, but he could not meet, without a courteous rebuke and firm remonstrance, the errors of Epicureans and Stoics; and so the conference broke up speedily. He might have formed another parliament at Ephesus, but his uncompromising hostility to idolatry set the whole city in an uproar, and brought his own life into risk. James warns us that overtures for the friendship of the world IIlay become hostile assaults on that relation of a believer with God which, like marriage, allows no allegiance to another, no division of devotion. John incarnated love, but boldly called him " liar" and "Antichrist" who denied the Father and the Son. It may be doubted whether" orange robes," or " priestly" dignity, or " Demosthenic" oratory, or courteous suavity, or even a hiding of error behind half truths, could have prevented the beloved apostle from calling things by their right U:l.mes had he been present at the late " Parliament."
The convictions which find utterance in this paper we dare not keep back, for silence is sometimes treason and heresy. Edmund Burke, before the electors of Bristol, defending himself against the charge that he had pursued in Parliament a course opposed to the wishes of his constituency, nobly said: "I obeyed the instructions of nature and reason, of truth and conscience; I maintained your interests as against your convictions." Intrepidity and independence demand in these days an unswerving witness to the old trnths, which are in serious danger of being swept away before the advancing flood of a "new theology." In no age have the landmarks which inspired apostles set up, been more recklessly and rapidly removed. It seems to be taken for granted that whatever is new is true and whatever is old is false, or at least needs improvement; and that the goal of the gospel itself is reached when all men are united in one religious faith, even though it be a Christless creed. With solemn but unalterable conviction we write it, as before God: The Captain of our salvation leads us on in a holy war, in which the Word of God is to be used as a sword, and love itself is armed for the fight and goes forth not for compromise, but conquest. The Stone, cut out without hands, that grows into a mountain and fills the whole earth, takes up into itself not even the best material of human systems, but alike disdains the iron and clay, and the silver and gold j not assimilation, but comminution-all to be swept away together as chaff. There is to be no new and universal religion, an eclectic combination of what is best in all existing faiths. He who sublimely says, "I am the Way, the Truth, the Life," is the only 'Way, the perfect Truth, the sole Life; and our mission is to tell men that any path that goes not by way of the Cross leads to darkness, danger, death-· VIA CRUCIS VIA LUeIS.
"HREE WEEKS WITH JOSEPH RABINOWITZ
THREE WEEKS WITH JOSEPH RABINOWITZ.
BY A. J. GORDON, D.D.
Perhaps there is no man living whom the writer has more earnestly deRired to meet face to face than this Israelite of the New Covenant. Professor Delitzsch wrote several pamphlets and documents concerning him, evidently regarding his as possibly the most remarkable Jewish con- version to Christ since that of Saul of Tarsus. "Ve have followed with the profoundest interest the reports of his work in Russia since his confes- sion of Jesus as the Messiah; and we have read with no less interest his sermons and addresseR which have appeared from time to time in print.
Going to Chicago in July last, for a month's service in connection with Mr. Moody's W orId's Fair Evangelistic Campaign, we found ourselves at our lodgings placed in the next room to a Russian guest whose name was not yet told us. Hearing in the evening the strains of subdued and fervent Hebrew chanting, we inquired who our neighbor might be, and learned that it was one Joseph Rabinowitz, of Russia j and thus to our surprise we found ourselves next neighbor to one whom we would have crossed the ocean to see, with only a sliding door now between us. Introduction followed, and then three weeks of study and communion together concerning the things of the kingdom, the memory of which will not soon depart.
Before we detail the story of our summer Hebrew school at the feet of this Christian Gamaliel, let us repeat the story of his conversion as we have read it before, and now heard it verified by the man himself.
Joseph Rabinowitz was a lawyer residing in Kischineff, Southern Russia, a man of very wide and commanding influence among his Hebrew brethren as a scholar, a philanthropist, and a lover of his nation. . From a young man he had been a most diligent and painstaking student of the Hebrew Scriptures, of the Talmud, and of all related Jewish literature, so that at the age of forty, he says, "I was like 3 man living in a house furnished with every article of furniture which money could buy, and yet the shutters of that house closed and the curtains all drawn, so that I was in the dark, and knew not the meaning of my own learning till Jesus, the Light of the world, came in and illumined all as in a flash."
About ten years since Mr. Rahinowitz was selected, in connection with certain colonization efforts, to go to Palestine to secure land for planting Jewish emigrants, who desired to flee from Russian persecution. When fitting himself out with guide-books for his contemplated journey, he was advised to take a copy of the New Testament with him, as furnishing an admirable directory to the sacred places of Jerusalem and the vicinity. He did so, and while walking about Zion and gazing upon its historic sites, he carried in his pocket this yet unopened treasure. Going one day to the brow of the Mount of Olives, he sat down on that sacred hill and began' <:ontemplating the city as it lay at his feet. Then came a train of reflection and questioning: "Why this long desolation of the city of David ~ Why this scattering of my people to the ends of the earth? vVhy these fresh persecutions breaking forth against us in almost every country of Europe?" While he pondered these sad questions he gazed toward the reputed Calvary, where that holy prophet of his nation had been crucified.
As he did so his eyes were opened j he looked upon Him whom his nation had pierced. In a flash the truth entered his heart: " We have" rejected our Messiah! hence our long casting off and dispersion by Jehovah!"
He believed j he cried out to Jesus, " My Lord and my God," and almoRt as suddenly as Saul of Tarsus Joseph Rabinowitz, from being a Hebrew of the Hebrews, had become an Israelite of the New Covenant, a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. He took out his New Testament, a guide-book in a sense undreamed of, and read the first passag~ that fell under his eye: " I am the Vine, ye are the branches. Without Me ye can do nothing." "I saw it in the twinkling of an eye," said he j "our Jew- ish bankers, with their millions of gold, can do nothing for us j our scholars and statesmen, with all their wisdom, can do nothing for us j our coloniza- tion societies, with all their influence and capital, can do nothing for us j our only hope is in our brother Jesus, whom we crucified, and whom God raised up and set at His own right hand. 'Without Him we can do nothing.' "
We may imagine the sensation which was caused in Russia when this emiuent Hebrew returned home and boldly announced far and wide, pub- licly in the synagogue and openly in the columns of the press, his accept- ance of Jesus Christ as his Saviour and Lord. Persecution and obloquy were poured upon him from every quarter, and they of his own household became his foes j but he had counted the cost. He joyfully and boldly maintained his testimony, till little by little the enmity was softened.
Now he rejoices that one after another of his own family have joined him in confessing Christ, and preaching Him to their neighbors. By permis- sion of the government, surprisingly granted, he has built a synagogue, where he assembles a large congregation to listen to the Word of God from his lips j and he says that his entire time is occupied from morning to night, week in and week out, in answering letters from Jews who are distressed in mind concerning this great question, and in meeting inquirers coming sometimes hundreds of miles to talk with him of Jesus of Naza- reth. What wonder that such a conversion, attended with such results, should have led Professor Delitzsch to hail the event as " the first ripe iig"
on the long barren tree of rejected Israel, and as a cheering sign that for that people "summer is nigh." "Ve quote from this eminent Hebrew professor these strong words : "The movement of Kischineff is cp.rtainly a prelude of the end. No doubt the final conversion of the nation will be preceded by such testimony proceeding from individuals raised up by God and filled with His Spirit. Voices will be heard in Israel calling to repentance, to a return to God and His Anointed (Hos. 6: 1-3; 3: 5) ; many shall awake to new life, and from that portion of Israel to which blindness is happened a Jewish-Christian congregation will be gathered. The religion of the Messiah will then prove the Divine power which penetrates the spiritual and social life of the nation. Joseph Rabinowitz is a star in the firmament of his people's history. God keep this star iu the right path and continue its light in truth and brightness! One thing is certain, the history of the Church caunot reach its consummation until the prophetic and ap0stolic Word, predict,ing the conversion of the remnant of Israel, is fulfilled, an event which will bring an abundance of spiritual powers and gifts for the revival of the whole world."
It seemed to us as we talked with this Israelite without guile day after day, and heard him pour out his soul in prayer, that we never before witnessed such ardor of affection for Jesus, and such absorbing devotion to nis person and glory.vVe shall not soon forget the radiance that would come into his face as he expounded the Messianic Psalms at our morning and evening worship, and how as here and there he caught a glimpse of the suffering or the glorified Christ, he would suddenly lift his hands and his eyes to heaven, in a burst of admiration, exclaiming with Thomas, after he had seen the nail-prints, "My Lord and my God!" So 'saturated is he with the letter as well as the spirit of the Hebrew Scriptures, that to hear him talk one might imagine it was Isaiah or some other prophet of the old dispensation that was speaking. "What is your view of inspiration~" we aRked him, in order to draw him out concerning certain muchmooted questions of .our time. "My view is," he said, holding up his Hebrew Bible, "that this is the Word of God; the Spirit of God dwells in it; when I read it, I know that God is speaking to me; and when I preach it, I say to the people, ' Be silent, and hear what Jehovah will say to you.' " "As for comparing the inspiration of Scripture with that of Homer or Shakespeare," he continued, "it is not a question of degree, but of kind. Electricity will pass through an iron bar, but it will not go through a rod of glass, however beautiful and transparent, because it has no affinity for it. So the Spirit of God dwells in the "Word of God, the Holy Scriptnres, because these arc His proper medium, but not in Homer or Shakespeare, because lIe has no affinity with these writings." This sentence gives an instance of his vividness of illustration, of which he seems to be a natural master.
We spoke just above of his striking Hebrew diction, the lofty prophetic tone, tempered with exquisite pathos, with which he pleads with his people coucerning the Messiahship of Jesus. The following, selected from one of his sermons, will illustrate our meaning : " Lift up your eyes, my brethren, unto Mount Golgotha, and behold there the ransom which delivers our souls from the curse of God, prollOunced on Mount Ebal, and which bestows upon us the blessing on Mount Gerizim. Only behold the Cross of the Messiah, and you will sec clearly that here is the gate of Jehovah, into which the righteous shall enter; the only access opened unto all men, be they Jews or Gentiles, that in one Spirit they may draw near to our Father in heaven. Open your eyes and behold the Lord of glory, Jesus the crucified j how glorious is this High Priest, who Himself is the propitiation for our sins. How beautiful, how lovely is the Great Shepherd of the flock, who Himself is the Lamb of God, which beareth the sin of the world, and who comes as our Messiah, bringing peace to them that are afar off, and to them that are nigh.
" My brethren, if you esteem your souh~ precious, and if you desire to be citizens of the city, and to be numbered among the saints, and in the household of God, then bow this day your knees before the King of Glory, before Jesns, crowned for you with the crown of thorns j smite your breasts and confess your sins and the sins of your fathers, and the iniquity they have committed against the Son of God, Jesus the Messiah. Say then, 0 house of Israel, ' Surely we all, like sheep, have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way. but Jehovah laid on Him the iniquity of us all j for the iniquity of His people was He stricken. For only with Jesus, the Messiah, is redemption, and He shall deliver Israel from all his sins.' "
Some of Mr. Rabinowitz's expositions and explanations of Scripture were exceedingly interesting. "Show me a photograph of Kischineff,"
he said one day, "and I can tell instantly whether it is correct, for I have lived there all my life. So when I read the New Testamerit, how vivid are its pictures to one who llas lived for years in Jewish history and tradi- tions!" Opening to Rev. 16 he read: ., Behold, I come as a thief.
Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." "This admonition of the Lord affected me very deeply when I first read it," he said, " for I knew at a glance its meaning. All night long the watchmen in the temple kept on duty.
The overseer of the temple was always likely to appear at unexpected hours; to see if these were faithfully attending to their charge. 1f hc came upon any watchman who had fallen asleep, he quietly drew his loose garments from him and bore them away as a witness against him when he shouid wake. My Lord is liable to come at any moment. He may come in the second watch or in the third watch, therefore I must be always ready, lest coming suddenly, He find me sleeping, and I be stripped of my garment."
"Do you know what questioning and controversies the Jews have kcpt up over Zech. 12 : 10?" he asked oue day. '" They shall look upon Me -nN-whom they pierced.' They will not admit that it is Jehovah whom they pierced. Hence the dispute about the whom j but do you notice that this word is simply the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Aleph Tav? Do you wonder, then, that 1 was filled with awe and aston- ishment when I opened to Rev. 1 : 7, 8, and read these words of Zechariah now quoted by John : ' Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him;' and then heard tho glorified Lord saying: ' . I am the ALPHA AND OMEGA'? Jesus seemed to say to me, 'Do you doubt who it is whom you pierced? I am tho Aleph Tav, the Alpha Omega, Jehovah the Almighty.' " Rabinowitz is as clear as is Paul in the eleventh of Romans as to the Divine order and plan for the bringing the nations to God. After the present Gentile election and outgathering he holds that the Jews are to be converted and restored to God's favor in connection with the second ad- vent of our Lord, and that then will follow world-wide salvation and the universal ingathering of the Gentiles. He is very positive, therefore, as to the meaning of the passage in the fifteenth of Acts: "Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of tltem a people for His name." "That is what is now going on," he says. " During Israel's rejection the elect Chul'ch is being gathered." "After this I will return and build again the tabernacle of David that is fallen down," etc. "This is very plainly the conversion and restoration of Israel," he says. And when I urged that many spiritualize the words and apply them to the Christian Church, he replied: "It will not be easy to make a Jew believe that, when the words in Amos which are here quoted plainly refer to the restoration of Israel; and especially since the Jews have been praying this prayer from time immemorial, always repeating it at their yearly feast of Tahernacles, ' 0 Thou Redeemer, prosper those who seek Thee at all times: raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, that it may no longer be degraded.' "
" After the tabernacle of David shall be rebuilt and national Israel saved," he continues, " then and then only will come the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, in which all nations will be brought into obedience and SUbjection to Christ." Such is his strong conviction, and the reader may find that he appears to agree with Peter in Acts 3 : 19,20 and with Paul in Rom. II.
Indeed this Hebrew prophet is proclaiming most solemnly the impending advent of our Lord. He contends that without a clear proclamation of the second advent Christians have no common ground on which to meet the Jews; that to spiritualize this doctrine as many do is fatal, since the predictions are so clear of a glorious and conquering Messiah as well as a suffering Messiah. If you spiritualize the second advent you must allow the Jew to spiritualize the first, as he is always ready to do, and you have no basis on which to reason with him. Mr. Rabinowitz's view on this point is shared by another remarkable Hebrew Christian preacher, Dr. Adolph Saphir, recently deceased. In his valuable book just published, "The Divine Unity of Scripture," he says: " I will speak freely on this subject. It is the second advent of our Lord, when lIe will return with His saints, and when He will make Himself manifest to Israel and to the whole world, not in order that the last judgment may be held, but that another historical period may be ushered in, when God's will shall be done upon this earth as it is in heaven, and when Jesus Christ and the transfigured saints shall come to be seen and acknowledged, and then there shall be fulfilled the promises which God has given from the beginning of the world. vVhen He comes Israel will say, 'It is Jehovah, and it is His first advent.' The Church will say, , It is Jesus, and His second advent.' Israel will say, 'He has come to take possession of the throne of David, and Jerusalem wiII be glorified and will be His nation.' And the Church wiII say, ' He is glorified in the saints and admired in all them that believe, and we whom He has redeemed with His blood shall reign with Him on the earth.' This is what all the apostles taught and taught constantly, 'Looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. ' It is Jehovah who wiII appear to Israel. It is Jesus who appears to His Church-the same thing-' the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' "
Nothing could be more thrilling and pathetic than to hear this latter- day prophet of Israel dilate on the blessedness and glory of his nation when it shall at last be brought back into favor and fellowship with God . •, The Gentile nations cannot come to their highest blessing till then," he says, "nor can our rejected and crucified Messiah see of the travail of His sons and be satisfied till His kinsmen according to the flesh shall own Him and accept Him." Then, with a dramatic fervor and pathos impos- sible to describe, he said the following beautiful thing: "Jesus, the glorified Head of the Church, is making up His body now, my brot.her. Think you that my nation will have no place in that body ~ Yes; the last and most sacred place. When from India's and China's millions and from the innumerable multitudes of Africa and the islands of the sea the last Gentile shall have been brought in, and His body made com- plete, there will still be left a place for little Israel-she will fill up the hole .in His side, that wound which can never be closed till the nation which made it is saved."
Many other sayings of this remarkable man might be quoted had we space to insert them. He declares most confidently that the Spirit is moving on his people as has not been the case since their dispersion. lIe is full of joy at the prospect of their speedy turning to the Lord. Emphatically he preaches that there is no hope but in the crucified Messiah. He must be received; His blood must cleanse; His mercy must be gained before the Jewish nation can ever have rest. In one of his sermons he compares Israel to a little ship which has witnessed the wreck of many a proud craft-Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome-while this is the one nation that is never to perish, because of the unchangeable covenant of Jehovah. He says: " Two centuries a.go it was wrecked; broken were its malolts, bnt up to the present day it sails among modern nations-a strange, weird-like ship. Its mariners are often in despair, when the waves seem to swallow up their fragile vessels; many from among Israel seek to join other ships and find a home there, and try to partake of the treasnres of culture and modern development which adorn them. But soon the men of other nations rise against the mysterious strangers from the old Oriental ship, and not willing to tolerate them, fling them back into the waves, so that with difficulty and trepidation they return to the old wreck, on which the tears of their fathers have fallen abundantly. The storm rages, the clouds are dark, the hearts of the mariners fail them, they cry out, ' Lord, ~lwe us, we perish!' But the hour is coming wIten He who long ago rose ill the
IEMORIAL
TIIJ:o: Hon.r; 0 1" Pn.-YKlt. BETIHmK.ll. Synagogue of Congregation of hruclHl'~ of the }I;' cw Covenant at Kischt'neff, Bcssarabia.
'1894.] THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD
little ship on the sea of Galilee shall rise in the midst of them; He shall rebuke the wind and the waves-it will become perfectly still, and some shall sink down before His feet with the cry of Thomas: 'My Lord and my God!' And immediately Israel will be in the Haven of Rest, which is still remaining for the chosen people of God. "
It would not be possible to put on paper Rabinowitz's fervid and dramatic exposition of Christ's farewell to the temple: "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate; and verily, verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me until the time come when you shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of. the LOl d." He pictured a Jew sitting in the door of his lonely house in the evening. Suddenly he catches sight of a beloved and long separated friend approaching. He rises up and shouts out his salutation to him : "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." So shall Israel do when the Spirit of grace and of supplication has been poured out upon them; and they shall see Him whom they pierced coming to them. As they once cried, " Crucify Him! Crucify!" now they will cry, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord."
So when on parting I asked for his autograph, he wrote this in Hebrew as his farewell word, " Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord."
THE GOVERNMENTS OF THE WORLD.-I.
BY JAMES DOUGLAS, M.A., BRIXTON, LONDON.
In attempting a general survey of government as mirrored in the present condition of the nations of the world, it is needful, for the sake of perspective, to note certain broad lines of difference that distinguish the civilization of to-day from that of the old-world period. Beneath much that on the surface lies now politically apart, there is a kinship which shows a line of direction that is common, and a unity in spirit more significant by far than a unity in letter or name. The ideas at the base of modern polity are different in kind from those which were the recognized and controlling forces in the days when Sparta and Athens flourished. The political wheel rotates now in an opposite direction.
Broadly speaking, the individual is to-day a unit, whereas in ancient systems he was but a cypher. Leaving out socialism and other kindred movements which loom darkly on the horizon and constitute a menace of all government as at present in force, the trend of government, in all communities which are up to date, tends more and more to the recognition of the rights of the individual both as one who has person and property to be protected and a voice to be heard. It was not so in the old-world epochs; no, not even where absolutism was set aside and monarchy deposed. Ancient republics did not turn 011 the pivot of the individual. Under them, hardly less than under absolutism itself, individual rights were grouud down. The common weal, philosophically interpreted ann clothed with all-inclusive authority, was drawn, as a kind of Juggernaut, remorselessly over every form of individual right. The State in ancient days was not, as with us, a power that gives fixedness and protection to the complex organizations which modern civilization has engendered and is continually reforming; but it was a unifying machine in which all indi- viduality was sunk, and upon the shrine of which it was the citizen's honor to be sacrificed. The ancient republics, indeed, were patriarchal in spirit, only in their case it must be remembered that the philosophe1's were the patriarchs. Hence while intelligent moderns have come to regard with comparative indifference any variety of constitutional Iorm that admits of equally broad individual rights, the ancicnts, attaching small importance to the individual, separately viewed, merged thought and feeling in the comparative estimate of their respective political systems as philosophically deduced and fitted to render the State cohesive alike to make or repel attack. It was for this reason the philosophers of Greece were accounted the rightful politicians, to whose enactments the citizens of the varied States, willingly conceding the authority of law, complied.
All this, time, or, as we venture to think, the insensible action of Christianity, has changed. A man is now a man. He is no longer to be spirited away or philosophized into a chattel or a thing. ·Whether a king reign or a president rule, the position of the individual calls for recognition and demands respect. That minute jurisdiction which the State exercised, even under the freest forms of ancient government, to the curtailing of the liberties of the citizens has paRsed from the scene. The like applies to State exclusiveness. In ancient times, it is true, patriotism was intense, on the principle that that for which a man sacrifices everything must be dear to him indeed; but, on the other hand, such patriotism was extremely narrow and unjust. It acted as a grievous gag to commerce, and stifled all cosmopolitan feeling. There could be no fraternity on the basis of government as anciently conducted. There is not much of it in our OWR times; but who can deny that along with the right of the individual to be considered, there has begun to dawn among the nations a sense of their community and common humanity? These are aspects in the case which are like glimpses of azure in an otherwise murky sky. The governments of the world are very varied; and some, though Christian in name, ignore the cry for liberty, or seek ruthlessly to stifle it; still the record, on the whole, is one of surprising advance. ,Vhat is tantamount to a -revolution has taken place. Now, in contrast with early sentiment, it is generally held that there is a region of individuality, of subjective freedom, a wide circuit of opinion, action, and example over which the citizen should himself rule; and that so far from civil restraints furthering man's development, and being the effective means of perfecting the body politic, these ends are best consulted wherc State interference is reduced to a minimum, and scope is given, consistently with conscience and mora1ity, for the free play of individual powers. Summed up in a word, the modern trend in government has underlying it the conviction that the citizen everywhere has in him what the Greeks/ would call the ovra.(.w;, or capability of all positions. Such an idea was foreign to Aristotle, foreign to Plato, foreign to the schools. Christianity in its secret influence-and it is only as working in secret that Christianity retains its purest spirit-is to be credited with the find. As expounded by the philosopher, government was caste. The place of the many was to submit to the few. The masses were regarded as if they had no reason, no spirit j as if they were a compound of appetite only. Sueh an assumption Christianity, with its Gospel for all and its doctrine of "no difference," insensibly but surely sapped. The philosopher is not all reason j nor are the common peoplfl-the profanum vulgum-all flesh and no spirit. Humanity is not to be classified by a psychological law into ruler, warrior, craftsman, answering to reason, will, and brute impulse. Humanity is of the same blend under all suns and nnder all conditions. Intelligence is not to be conceived as if dead in the many and only existent in the few j nor is executive force to be viewed as the monopoly of a class for the enslavement of the multitude and the carrying out of the behests of the few. No. The dunamis of all positions is common to the race j and the gatherer of sycamore fruit may, after all, be the man for the times, even as Amos was God's prophet to the nation.
While writing the above we would not be understood to mean that there are no ominous signs in the political sky. There are. And were it our business to furnish a political horoscope, or to deal, either argumentatively or prophetically, with the schemes that would raze modern govemments to their foundation, we should have something to say to those who dream dreams, who think to redress inequality of condition at the expense of manhood, who foment anarchy and imagine that government can serve in lieu of Christ, or that unrighteousness between man and man can be stamped out by governmental portents j but this is not our object. Rather it is to show what the governments of the world are to-day in their varied forms and in their superficial and more radical discrepancies.
1. The governments of the world may be classified broadly nnder fonr heads: Monarchies, absolute and constitutional j republics and protectorates, including dependencies. The absolute monarchies embrace many oldworld forms, and are still represented in the councils of the leading nations.
In RUSSIA government is absolute. In the Czar all power, legislative, judicial, and executive, is vested. He is " the head of gold," for his will alone is law. Beyond the fact that the Czar may not appoint his successor, the succession being determined by regular descent, with preference of male over female heirs, and the further fact that the reigning monarch must be a member of the Orthodox Greek Church, there are, theoretically, no limitations j the Czar reigns in his own right.
There are four boards for the assistance of the Emperor in the administration : the first, a Council of State, in which the princes of the imperial house have seats ex officio. The number of members in 1889 was sixty, who hold their seats by appointment of the Emperor. This council is divided into three departments-legislative, civil and ecclesiastical, and financial. Their functions, however, are consultative alone, and are con- fined to the examination of projects of laws, the discussion of the budget, ~nd the arrangement of the expenditure.
The second board is the Ruling Senate, to whom belongs the right to promulgate laws. This buard is divided into nine sections, and at the head of each is a lawyer of distinction, who represents the Emperor, and apart from whose signature no decision has force. The third board, called the Holy Synod, has charge of all the religious affairs of the empire,' and consists of leading ecclesiastics alone; but the Emperor's will is supreme, for all the decisions require the Emperor's sanction and go forth in his name. The fourth board is composed of a Committee of Ministers who are heads of departments and communicate directly with the sovereign.
The Government of TURKEY is likewise autocratic, only on a more modified scale. The Sultan of Turkey is more conditioned, both by usage and religion, than is the autocrat of Russia. The probability, however, is that he realizes himself more in his limit than does his more powerful rival. For one so conservative in type and stereotyped in faith as Moham- medans usually are, it will doubtless be a small hardship to be bound by the accepted truths of the Mohammedan religion, or to govern in accord- ance with the " Multeka," a code of laws based on the supposed sayings .; and opinions of the false prophet. The Sultan's Government has been somewhat disturbed by the attempted introduction of IJtte years of forms of government after the model of Western Europe, but the results of the experiment have not been encouraging. The patch of new cloth on the old garment has rather made the rent worse. If the old spirit remain, experiments in government are worse than useless. There is no means of rejuvenating the old man politically or carnally. He must die to live.
Under the Sultan's direction the legislative and executive authority is exercised by the Grand Vizier, the head of the temporal department, and the Sheik-ul-Islam, the head of the church. The former is assisted by a Privy Council consisting of ministers of departments; and the empire is divided into vilayets or governments, subdivided into provinces and dis- tricts, and further parcelled out into sub-districts and communities.
In CHINA an old-world form of absolutism, based on the government of the family, is maintained. The Emperor's person is sacred, and well- nigh invisible. He appoints his snccessor, and has full control. There are seven boards: The Board of Civil Appointments, the Board of Revenucs, the Board of Rites and Ceremonies, the Military Board, the Board of Public Works, the High Tribunal of Criminal Jurisdiction, and the Ad- miralty Board. Over these boards is the Grand Council, in whom the f'npreme directioll of the empire is vested, while the Hdministratioll is under the direction of the Neiko or Cabinet, comprising four mcmbcrstwo of Manchu and two of Chinese origin-besides two assistants from the Hanlin or Great College, who have to see that nothing is done contrary to the civil and religious laws of the empire.
A feature of the times is the rapidly growing extent to which the absolute monarchies of to-day are being conditioned from without. The fate of AFRICA supplies the most notable instance. In that great continent there are still a few independent States of note that pursue their career untrammelhid by European intervention. Bornu, for example, the most populous Mohammedan State in Central Soudan, is governed by a Sultan under the official title of Mai, commonly spoken of as the Sheik, who is in principle an absolute monarch, and is assisted in the administration by a council of military chiefs together with members of the reigning family. The like applies to the Sultanate of Wadai, which is the most powerful of the Central Soudan States. This Sultan has a council of administration and also a college of Ulemas, by whom the Koran or Law is interpreted. The army is employed, in times of peace, as sheriff officers, to levy tribute in kind from the provinces and vassal States; but for the most part Africa is now partitioned into protectorates which have been ratified by treaty between the powers concerned and the varied Sultans, and made accessible to the civilizing, commercial, and evangelizing influences of European nations. Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, and Portugal have not only their colonies and possessions in tIle Dark Continent, but for the most part their Hinterlands also and vested rights in regions where their actual influence is as yet but distantly felt. When we speak of Africa's absolutism, we must remember the countercheck that is thus supplied. In what we see to-day there is the dawning promise and potency of, Africa's political redemption. Zanzibar, for example, while retaining its Sultan has now. by arrangement with England, under whose protectorate it has been placed, a regular government, consisting of a president and a responsible head for each department. On the mainland the Sultan's authority is virtually in the hands of England and Germany, who utilize it in his interests and their own, and make their power felt far into the interior, acknowledging, indeed, no limitation save that of similar appropriations. The change of government ~hich all this bespeaks is not seen so much in name as in spirit. The government is despotic still, but the spirit of it is progressive and the ends contemplated remedial.
Thus throughout the extensive possessions of the Imperial British East Africa Company, ceded by the Sultan of Zanzibar for an annual monetary consideration, slavery is being gradually abolished, while the chiefs and people are settling down to husbandry and to the recognition of the company as their rightful rulers. It cannot be doubted that similar results will accrue from Germany's protectorate. Abyssinia and Shoa, the political institutions of which were of a feudal character analogous to those of medireval Europe, are now under the protectorate of Italy, as are likewise the Sultanates of Abbia and of Mijertain Somalis. The Congo Free State is rapidly being modernized. Nominally ruled by the Kiug of Belgium, this State has a central government at Brussels, consisting of the king and three heads of departments, and a local government consisting of a govern1rgeneral, a vice-governor-general, a State inspector, a general secretary, director of justice, director of finance, and commander of the forces. The governor is further aided by white subordinates, who as chiefs of provinces administer affairs. There is also a native army officered by whites, besides a flotilla of row and sailing boats.
The colony of Mozambique, including the province of Louren90 Marques, is progressing toward self-government. Though as yet under the crown of Portugal, and administered by a royal commissioner appointed for three years and residing in the capitals of the provinces alternately, it was constituted as the Free State of East Africa on September 30th, 1891, and it is hoped that, with the development of the country, the basis of self-government may be laid.
MOROCCO may still be rcgarded as a monarchy, both free and absolute, though within the recognized range of French influence. This empire, which is ruled by a Sultan, has three capitals, and is the westernmost and largest of the Barbary States. The Sultan's rule is absolute, but the tribes south of the mountains are semi-independent, and, indeed, scarcely acknowledge his authority, being governed each by their own chief. The Sultan has six ministers, by whom he carries on executive duties. These are (1) the vizier, (2) secretary for foreign affairs, (3) home secretary, (4) chamberlain, (5) chief treasurer, and (6) administrator of customs. There is a <lisciplined standing army of cavalry and foot soldiers, besides militia and regnlar forces.
The Government of PERSIA has features similar to those of Turkey. The Shah ranks as vicegerent of the prophet, and on this high ground he exacts submission. Of late years the method of administration has been somewhat modernized. Instead of the Grand Vizier and the lord treasurer, by whom the executive government was formerly carried on, there is now a ministry consisting of nineteen members, eleven with and eight without portfolios, over whom the Minister of Posts presides. There are also governors-general set over the twenty-two large and ten small provinces into which the country is divided ; and nnder them as required, and at their appointment, are licutenant-governors, who are immediately answerable to the central government.
The kingdom of SIAM, now being shadowed by the power of France, partakcs of absolute features. The influence of "Vestern ideas, however, is becoming yearly more marked, and "centralization is being largely introduced. "
In AFGHANISTAN the government, while absolute, is unstable, and depends greatly on the executive force of the hereditary prince. Of foreign powers England lIas now the leading sway iu the councils of this kingdom. Looking at absolutism generally, it is evident that its run is rapidly sinking in the political heavens. Absolutism has no footing in the great continents of America, and with the exception of Rnssia and Turkey is banished from the Continent of Europe, while in the great continents of Asia and Africa its power is being more and more conditioned from with- out, modified by Vestern ideas, and put under tribute to governments that breathe a freer atmosphere. Notwithstanding, absolute monarchies have their clearly defined place in the governments of the world. They meet the felt need as regards barbarism, with all its chaos and consequent indi- vidual weakness. They are the first step in the ladder of civiliz'ation j hence the universality of absolutism among all peoples that are but one remove from the bottom of the scale. There is another gronnd that ex- plains the befittingness of this government under suitable conditions, and that is its ideal character. Hence in the Book of Daniel the most precious metal is taken to denote it, the reason being that this kind of rule gives a scope to kingly display and prerogative snch as is found nowhere else. It is as King Absolute the desire of nations shall come.
But, further, for the very reason that absolutism has this ideal char- acter, it eminently suits all nations, such as China, which are non-progres- sive in type, and which look upon the foreigner ill the light of an inferior creation. Accordingly, for absolutism to be at all settled as society now is, the scale of civilization must be either very low, as in Africa, or stereo- typed and non· progressive, as in China j for either this form of govern- ment represents escape from chaos, or it answers to the natural conceit that imagines that the kingdom of heaven is set up within its borders.
History, ancient and modern, bears witness to this. In order to the security of absolute government, one of two things must exist-either human thought is rudimentary or non-critical. This explains why Russian abso- lutism has such a stern warfare to wage. Criticism has awakened in the Czar's dominions, and refuses to give up the ghost j hence, though the crown of gold be still worn, uneasy is the head that wears it.
The same law applies to the Mohammedan power all over the world.
The influence of Mohammedanism lies outside the pale of progressive ideas, for there is nothing in the Koran to stimulate the intellect, but everything to palsy its powers and, by its philosophy of fate, to induce somnolence and decay.
(To be {)()ncluded.) Of the 1,500,000,000 of the earth's inhabitants, the Emperor of China holds sway over 405,000,000 ; the Queen of England rules or protects 380,- 000,000 j the Czar of Russia is dictator to 115,000,000 j France, in the republic, dependencies and spheres of influence, has 70,000,000 subjects j the Emperor of Germany, 55,000,000 j the Sultan of Turkey, 40,000,000 j the Emperor of Japan, 40,000,000, and the King of Spain, 27,000,000-tU'o thirds of the population of the globe under the government of five rulers.
THE MEETING OF THE AMERICAN :ijOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
THE MEETING OF THE AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMIS- SIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS AT WORCESTER, MASS., OCTOBER 10-18, 1893.
BY REV. C. M. SOUTHGATE, WORCESTER.
Three times before this, its eighty-fourth annual meeting, the Board has met in Woroester. A simple mention of the dates suggests striking contrasts. In] 864, instead of a world thronging to celebrate the discovery of America in an international exposition, the nations were watching the strife which was to determine whether there should be a United States. A resolution on the state of the country aroused great enthusiasm, the whole body rising and bursting- into "My country, 'tis of thee." 1844 carries us back to the year of the first electric telegraph and the annexation of Texas, when the railroad was a curiosity to the great majority. At this meeting three petitions were presented on the matter of slavery. But most impressive was the gathering in 1811. The Worcester of to-day, with its more than 90,000 inhabitants, was a vill~ge of 2500. It was the year after the organization of the Board. A single boarding-house entertained all attending, and its parlor sufficed for their deliberations. Here were examined and approved its first missionaries, Judson, Newell, Nott, and Hall. Famous fathers of famous sons are named-Jeremiah Evarts, father of William M. Evarts, Senator and Secretary of State; Dr. Jedidiah Morse, father of the inventor of the electric telegraph. One of the two pastors of the town was Dr. Aaron Bancroft, whose son George was to become the nation's greatest historian. An item of business was the appropriation of $100 toward the education of Eleazer Williams as a missionary to the Coghnawaga Indians, which was intrusted to Rev. Joseph Lyman, D.D., of Hadley, and Dr. Richard S. Storrs: the one represented here eighty-two years later by the eloquent preacher of the annual sermon, Dr. A. J. Lyman, of Brooklyn; the other, grandfather of the Board's honored president, who is ~he third of that name to render it distinguished service. This Eleazer Williams never went on the mission proposed, but became noted by his claim to be Louis XVII., the lost Dauphin of France. Many will recaJI the magazine article concerning him entitled "Have we a Bourbon among Us?" Note a Christian name prominent in these beginnings. Three of the five students who gave themselves to this work under the famous haystack at Williamstown in 1806 were Samuel J. Mills, Samuel Nott, Jr., Samuel Newell. The two divines who, in 1810, driving from Andover to Bradford, after consulting with the four students wishing to go as missionaries, formed the scheme of the A. B. C. F. M. and secured its adoption by the Massachusetts Association of Congregational Ministers, were Samuel Spring and Samuel 'Vorcester. The striking coincidence is but an illustration of the historical fact that modern missions had their origin in a pouring out of the Spirit upon godly parents. The lesson has meaning for to-day. Mechanics Hall welcomed the multitudes this year, its 2000 sittings being none too many. Even an outline of the four days shows the meeting to be memorable. The treasurer's report gave receipts, including bal- ance from last year, as $680,014.92, of which $205,683 came from the three Woman's Boards, and $14,000 from Societies of Christian Endeavor. For twenty years the average cost of administration has been but six and one tenth per cent-more than 93 cents in every dollar given going directly into the work. Expenditures of $768,333.66 left a debt of $88,318.74, chargeable, not to the falling off in regular donations, which was only about $2000, while those from the -Woman's Boards were $8000 in advance, but to the variable element of legacies, which were less than last year's by $103,000. But painful retrenchment has been necessary, and the Pruden_ tial Committee call for $250,000 beyond last year's gifts. A most pathetic documeut, entitled "The Cry from the Missions," presented the protests and appeals from men in the fields that their work might be not crippled, but advanced.
The report of the Home Department makes mention of campaigns among the churches to carry information and inspiration ; the preparation of lantern slides for illustrated missionary lectures, and helpful material to meet the growing demand of Christian Endeavor Societies and others for monthly concerts. Tlie Eastern Secretary, Dr. Creegan, also arranged for sixty-two addresses by Dr. John G. Paton, which secured to him $7500 for his work in the New Hebrides. " The Y. P. S. C. E. is doing a most important work in the way of educating the young people in the principles and facts of missions. " Gifts from these societies and the Sunday-schools have more than doubled during the year. Seven new ordained missionaries, one of them a physician, with twenty-nine assistant missionaries, have gone out since the last annual meeting, and thirty-six more have returned to their fields after periods of rest in this country. The annual survey by the foreign secretaries, Drs. N. G. Clark and Judson Smith, shows that the Board has under its care more than 1200 strategic points, amid a population of not less than 100,000,000 souls; engaging the efforts of 557 missionaries and 2738 native helpers; including 442 churches with 41,566 members, of whom 3570 have been received in the year; 48,585 pupils in schools of all grades, from kindergarten up through high school and college to the theological seminary; medical relief administered to 120,000 patients; the Bible and Christian literature distributed by millions of pages. The native contributions reported amount to $112,507, most of it given out of deep poverty.
The three secretaries presented, as usual, papers from the Prudential Committee. That of Dr. Alden was upon" The Personal Factor in the Missionary Problem"-the Personal Leader, the enthroned Lord; the Personal Messenger, the individual men and women who have each received a personal call from the personal Lord, and who have been by Him trained by special providence and grace, each for his particular service; the Personal Recipient of the Message, the salvation of the individual soul being the one definite thing for which the messenger is sent; the Personal Source of Supply, which is to provide and support the messengers. And especially "we want not only auxiliary societies, associations, conferences, churches, to be brought into direct fellowship with the administration of this trust, but more than all else, and pr8ctically including all else, every individual believer." Dr. Clark considered" Two Unsolved Mission Problems." First, Industrial Education, as supplementary to the spiritual work "More important than any result achieved in the lines proposed has been the lesson learned that civilization in any form does not precede but follows the Gospel." But this hm; been of great service in developing the native converts, whether as pastors or as business laymen in their communities. "Let education, including industrial education, keep even pace with the preaching of the Word, and a Christian civilization will mark the progress of the Gospel." "A possible unity in the presentation of the Gospel to the unevangelized world by so many denominations and schools of theology," was the second problem discussed. Christ crucified is the one mcssage to which all else must be subordinated. "Let the life that is in Christ have its free development and take on a form for itself, according to the characteristics and intellectual endowment of each separate people. Let there be no more jealous rivalry of denominational interest, no more waste of men or means in building up separate sects, but one Gospel, one Christian life, one united movement on the part of all evangelical denominations. Then would the Church be one in her mission enterprise; then would she arise and shine, the glory of the Lord being risen upon her." The impressive utterance gains redoubled force when we remember that it is from one who for long years has watched the working and progress of missions with a statesmanlike sagacity and apostolic devotion. The paper of Dr. Judson Smith took up the work of the American Board in Africa, showing how inevitable and how successful has been the share of this organization in one of the most fascinating chapters of modern history. "Amid all the 'stir and activity, in politics and commerce, in exploration and occupation, by which the leading powers of the world are vying with one another to cover and appropriate to themselves the resources and power of Africa, this aggressive advance of evangelizing forces is the supreme movement of the times, and holds in its plastic hands the long and growing future of the nations that one day are to fill and adorn these lands with a varied and progressive life and with a Christian CIvilization. "
The Woman's Boards crowded a great church with enthusiastic auditors of the story of efforts and achievements. Their specific work dates from 1868, when the Board at Boston and that of the Interior at Chicago were organized, followed five years later by that of the Pacific. Their present annual receipts are over $200,000, and their total contributions more than $2,000,000. It has been already noted that their gifts for the last year, instead of falling off, have increased by $8000, so that no re- trenchment has been necessary in the work under their charge. It is not strange that the Board voted to grant unmarried lady missionaries an equal voice and vote with men in affairs of their missions, and that the Pruden- tial Committee was instructed to inquire what changes in the constitution were needed to make women eligible on that body of central control.
The intimate relation of missionary work to international problems appeared in the vigorous discussion of complications with foreign nations, such as the unwarranted attack upon missionaries in Turkey and the burn. ing of college buildings j a strong resolution of protest to our Government against the Geary act j and an appeal for annexation of the Sandwich Islands, which the work of our missionaries lifted from barbarism to become the most productive spot of land in the reach of commerce. Men whose lives have been wrought into these achievements were present to discuss the questions with knowledge from the inside.
The greatest immediate interest and excitement gathered about" the Noyes case." It is now eleven years since, at the Portland meeting, the Andover Seminary teaching of a possible future probation for the heathen was denounced as being unsound and tending to " cut the nerve of missions." The first grcat discussion took place at Des Moines in 1886, leading to the adoption of a resolution condemning the doctrine as " divisive and perversive and dangerous to the churches at home and abroad," supporting the action of the Prudential Committee in carefully guarding the Board from any approval of that doctrine by appointing those holding it, and advising the continuance of that caution. At Springfield the next year, after a determined struggle by the liberal party, this position was reaffirmed by a vote of 95 to 43. The meetings at New York in 1889 and Chicago in 1892, while abounding in warm discussion, made no distinctive change in this position, although at the latter the Prudential Committee was requested to interpret the position in a liberal spirit, and to reopen the case of Mr. Noyes. This gentleman, while a student at Andover, had applied for appointment, but been rejected on the ground of statements concerning probation which were held unsound. Four years ago a council called by the Berkeley Temple Church, Boston, ordained him, and he was 'sent out as an independent missionary to Japan, where he has since then been supported by the church. A year ago the missionaries of the Board in Japan requested that Mr. Noyes receive appointment from the Board, affirming the value of his work, his earnest Christian spirit, and that if he held any peculiarities of doctrine, they had never appeared in his work or utterances. After correspondence with him, this appointment was voted by the Prudential Committee, accompanied with a minute stating that they understood him to withdraw from the position previously objectionable. Mr. Noyes replied that he chose not to withdraw that statement, but that he felt it had been interpreted more unfavorably than was warranted. Upon this the Committee withdrew its appointment, holding itself bound by the statement already upon its minutes. His own words before the Berkeley Council should be given: " Of the intermediate state I hold no positive doctrine. I do not know what effect physical death will have upon character. What I dread for my fellow-men is spiritual death. T am confronted with the tremendous fact that without the Gospel they are dying. Character tends to fixity. The Spirit of God will not !'ltrive with men forever. Then woe is me if I preach not the Gospel at once! ,,yith the Gospel message I believe there comes the decisive opportunity and obligation to repent. God help me so to present this message that men shall be saved by it and not lost!
" Those who do not hear the message in this life I trnstfully leave to God. I do not claim to know God's method of dealing with them. But I do not refuse to think about them. I entertain in their behalf what I conceive to be a reasonable hope that somehow, before their destinies are fixed, there shall be revealed to them the love of God in Christ Jesus. In this, as in every question to which God has given no distinct answer, I merely claim the liberty of the Gospel."
In a letter to the Prudential Committee of the American Board under date of June lOth, 1893, Mr. Noyes writes: "In regard to my general theological position, I suppose the vote appointing me was taken on the basis of my statement of belief made to the Council which ordained me. This is quite satisfactory, for that statement essentially represents my present position."
With all the documents before them, the opinion had spread widely among the churches that, although the Prudential Committee might have acted consistently with its records aud instructions, it was entirely competent for the Board to make this appointment upon the present aspect of the case. At the first session memorials from local and State bodies came in requesting such action. A special committee of fifteen was formed, to which all such matters were to be referred without debate. On this were placed men of differing views and most positive convictions. Should they come to an agreement, it was felt that all could agree, but few counted it practicable. They were in session continuously for fifteen hours, considering all memorials and hearing all parties who wished to appear, finally bringing in a unanimous report, with this as the crucial resolution: "that this Board, in response to the expressed wish of its missionaries in Japan, and in recognition of the successful labors of the Rev. William H. Noyes in that empire, requests the Prudential Committee to offer to him an appointment as a missionary of the Board. The Board declares that this action is not to be understood as in any way modifying its former utterances on the subject of future probatitln."
The session of Thursday morning was devoted to the report and discussion, and the resolution was finally adopted by a vote of 106 to 24. Some who had signed a conservative protest voted for the resolution, and others since then have recognized in it a safe gronnd for union. Within the last months a party of moderation has come to the front, composed of men wholly evangelical in faith, liberal in spirit, and wofully tired of a struggle so plainly disastrous, and, in their view, needless. Upon the declaration of the vote, a feeling of intense relief and profound gratitude to God for the manifest guidance of His Spirit was apparent. Eager declarations of loyalty to the Board came from all quarters, an earnest of which appeared in five subscriptions of $1000 each toward the special needs of the treasury. A solemn sense of responsibility and a prevailing conviction of spiritual brotherhood were apparent. No partisan victory was sought or gained. The votes of the strong conservative majority alone made the action possible. It is felt that the Lord Christ Himself has led this Board, with its glorious history and unmeasured opportunity, through a place where two seas met, and that its best years are now to come.
The report included a resolution that the Prudential Committee be in- creased to fifteen, to be elected in three classes for three years each, nine years being the limit of continuous service. A vote taken at another time was in the same direction of keeping the Board in close touch with the churches, by providing that the number of corporate members be increased from 250 to 350, nominations being made in part by State bodies.
Not wholly disconnected with the decision in the Noyes case was the resignation of the Home Secretary and two members of the Prudential Com- mittee. Secretary E. K. Alden has given nearly a quarter of a century to the Board, carrying into it the supreme devotion which marked him as a missionary pastor in his important church in Boston. Dr. A. C. Thomp- son, late Chairman of the Prudential Committee, has the perhaps unprece- dented record of forty-four years' official service. His wide journeys, always at his own expense, covering not only this land but foreign fields, and his remarkable command of its general history and minute events, coupled with unswerving loyalty to his convictions, have given him great influence. Mr. Elbridge Torrey has illustrated for seventeen years the value of a Christian layman in such a position, sacrificing the interests of a large business to bring to the committee the practical sagacity so essen- tial. The hearty testimonials and strong resolutions which recognized the power of these services indicate in part how noble are the gifts of life and spirit devoted to this work of missions, the quintessence of Christianity.
Mention should be made of the prayer without ceasing which antici- pated this gathering, and was evident in prayer-meetings and devotional exercises; of the communion services ; of the stately sweep of song in the great congregation ; of the high intellectual order of addresRes, from the opening sermon to the closing words of the president; of the impressive words of missionaries j of the pervading sense, usually apparent, of acting as under the Master's eye. Fitly chosen was the closing hymn, .. " We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand, an awful time; In an age on ages telling.
To be living is sublime."
AUSTRALASIA'S CONTRIBUTION TO MISSIONS
The closing prayer by Dr. Goodwin carried souls direct to the throne, and the benediction of peace pronounced by the president has its echo in thousands of grateful hearts.
AUSTRALASIA'S CONTRIBUTION TO CHRIST'S CAUSE IN FOREIGN MISSIONS. * BY REV. ANDREW HARDIE, RICHMOND, VICTORIA.
How far has Australia obeyed the last command of Christ ~ (Matt. 28 : 18-20).
Australian Christianity has, from the beginning of colonization, endeavored to keep in touch with the grand missionary moyements of our age. The early settlers kept up their connection with missionary societies in the home land till the colonial churches felt themselves strong enough to take up fields of their own. Whether their efforts have been as earnest, enlightened, and enthusiastic as they ought to have been, we can only decide when we know what has been done. We had hoped to be able to give a complete and accurate answer to the question, but have not quite succeeded. For as you cannot realize how great Australasia is till you have travelled from Melbourne to Cape York, from Sydney to Perth, and then taken the round trip, visiting Tasmania and New Zealand, so you can have no idea how numerOUll are the agencies for foreign missions now existing in Australasia till you have tried to get into touch with all. We can only present the inf~rmation obtained and make an approximate estimate from the known to the unknown in order to furnish a reasonable reply.
In the fulfilment of Christ's last command, the Wesleyan Conference takes a first place among Australian churches, if not in date of start, yet both in money spent and results seen. Her mission work was begun by the British Conference of 1815, and was largely sustained and entirely directed by that body till 1855, when the Australian Conference took full responsibility and control. Besides assisting in the evangelization of the aborigines and Chinese resident in the various colonies, the Conference spread her wings and carried the glorious Gospel to the <;annibal islanders of the South Seas. Employing 22 European missionaries, 95 native ministers, and a host of lay preachers and other workers in her mission churches, her expenditure last year came close on £16,000. Results of the most gratifying character prove that the Lord:s with her in the work. In 6 Chinese stations she has 150 members and upward of 400 adherents. In her latest enterprise (British New Guinea) she is aided by 20 native teachers drawn from Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji. In New Britain, New Ireland, and Duke of * A paper read at the United Missionary Conference, held in Melbourne, Aus- tralia, June, 1893. York islands churches are established, schools well attended, and over 500 are communicants. New Zealand gave golden harvests among the Maoris; but it is in the Friendly Islands and Fiji that the most conspicuous triumphs have been obtained. There the entire communities have been Christianized, settled governments established, and Fiji has become a British colony. In less than fifty years 100,000 savages, who found their highest joys in horrors of which we dare hardly think, have been made to sit at Jesus' feet j have exchanged the club, spear, and feast of human flesh for the tools, trade, and social joys of civilized life j and many of them stand ready to brave danger and death in carrying the standard of the cross to other islands. Well may this awaken new songs of praise, new hopes of victory for our glorious King all the world over!
Almost contemporary with the Wesleyan Conference stands the London Missionary Society. Through the Rev. S. Marsden, Church of England Chaplain, as agent in New South ·Wales, help began to be given to this noble, God-honored society about 1816. Since then contributions have steadily increased. In 1885 the Australian auxiliaries obtained the privilege of recommending candidates for service, and have fOent 8 missionaries from the colonies. At a cost of over £5000 a year they support 20 missionaries, who labor in Shanghai and Pekin, China j Salem, India j Raratonga and New Guinea, and" make their influence felt not only in the mission field, but iu the life of the churches sustaining them."
The British and Foreign Bible Society appears third in the race, so far as our information goes. From the diary of Rev. ·William vVaterfield, first pastor of Collins Street Indf)pendent Church, ~felbourne, and first secretary of the Victorian auxiliary, we learn that this society was formed in the Scots Church school-room, July 14th, 1840, Mr. Latrobe presiding. Rev. James Clow (Presbyterian) moved the first resolution, a committee was formed, and £16 collected. Since then £15,540 have been sent home as free contributions and £31,081 paid for Bibles. Auxiliaries exist in each colony, and together raise some £5000 per annum j 170,000 jubilee Testaments and large grants of Bibles have been distributeJ.. Seyeral translations of the New Testament into the languages of the New Hebrideans have been carried through the press by this society in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Church of England occupies the next position in chronological order of organized work, although she doubtless helped in mission work from the beginning of her history. Having no federal union, and apparently no central board of missions in each colony, it is difficult to ascertain all that she is doing. 'Ve have only secured returns from 8 missions-5 Victorian, 1 New South Wales, 2 general. lIer great Melanesian mission is supported partly by England and partly by Australasia. There are 6 white clergymen, 9 native ordained clergy, and 93 native teachers at present engaged. At the college on Norfolk Island 29 students are supported by New Zealand, which contributes some £1500 a year to the mission. England gave last year £1897, while the colonies raised £3763. There is an endowment of £35,000, to which the martyr Bishop Pattison left £13,350, so that the expenditure of £6266 for last year, though exceeding the contributions, is provided for. Good work is done at the training college j the workers are very devoted, and a goodly number of the islanders are walking in the light of life. In 1853 Victoria established 2 mission stations for the aborigines at Lake Condah and Lake Tyers. These have been carried on with satisfactory results, at a cost of about £550 a year. Two years later she started her mission to the Chinese, which has now 7 stations, 5 missionaries, and costs £744 pcr annum j 350 converts have been received into church-fellowship, most of whom stand fast in the Lord, some 8 of them being now ordained clergy or catechists laboring in China.
For the last fourteen years New South Wales has had a mission to the Chinese in Sydney and suburbs which employs 3 missionaries and spends £400 a year. Of 68 converts, 40 have been confirmed and 25 are now communicants. A Chinese has been ordained to the ministry. 1891 saw a united effort made to start a mission in New Guinea j 3 missionaries and several native teachers are now at work there, but find the diversity of dialects a hindrance to rapid progress. Victoria has contributed £2000 to this enterprise.
In 1892 a Victorian zenana mission was formed to work among the women of India and China, and 10 lady missionaries with 37 Bible women are now supported by it, at a cost of £1227 last year.
Mr. Eugene Stock this same year was instrumental in forming an association to work in fellowship with the Church Missionary Society, training and sending forth colonial missionaries to India. Victoria has spent £100 on the training of 4 men. New South Wales has also a similar association.
Probably the greater portion of the Church of England missionary effort still goes privately to help the Church Missionary Society j and all know that for many years the Rev. H. B. Macartney has shown what one earnest worker can do in this communion for Christian missions. To support native teachers, schools, and other agencies in India, China, and Ceylon, our brother raised last year £1259. Combining these missions, we reckon that over 200 paid agents are employed, at an annual outlay of under £11,000.
The Presbyterian churches have also about 200 agents, costing nearly £12,000 a year. On April 8th, 1859, the various sections of the Presbyterian Church in Victoria were happily united. Their first act was to ap- a point committee for Sabbath-schools, their next a board of missions.
Attention was first directed to the Chinese, for whom there are now a fully organized church at Ballarat, of which the Rev. James Cline, a Chinese convert, is pastor, and 7 mission stations at Little Bendigo, Beaufort, Ararat, Beechworth, Bairnsdale, Warmambool, and Coburg, with trained catechists in charge. A goodly number of adherents has been gathered, and many communicants show by their godly life that true converts make splendid Christians. For the aborigines, who were next taken up, the services of that able and zealous Moravian missionary, Rev. F. A. Hagenauer, now inspector-general for all the aborigines of Victoria, were fortunately secured. His mission station at Ramahynch, Gippsland, is a pleasing picture, well worth seeing, and the history of the mission has been full of interest-an interest, however, tinged with sadness, for the aborigines are a doomed race and are fast disappearing. But many of them die " in the Lord" and in great peace and joy. After these missions, the New Hebrides were adopted as a third field, and one of its missionaries, the now world-renowned Dr. J. G. Paton, has proved a mighty power for good. His thrilling adventures on Tanna, his successful evangelization of Aniroa, and his untiring advocacy of this field in all the colonies, the homeland and America, have greatly helped the growth of the missionary spirit. The Rev. D. Macdonald, at Havannah Harbor, Efate, has added hundreds of converts to the Church and trained EOme noble teachers, and at 5 different stations other men have done good work. But diversity of languages, races, and customs, entire absence of unity of a political kind and other causes have hindered the speedy conquest of these islands for Christ.
Aided by her Young People's Fellowship Union, the Church has begun a mission in Corea. Her first missionary, Rev. J. H. Davies, lies buried in Fusan, but his monument is the mission house ereded there, and now occupied by Rev. I. H. Mackay, M.A. There the Presbyterian Women's Missionary Union placed 4 workers, who are succeeding beyond expectation in winning the women and acquiring the language. This society has also 2 ladies at work in India and 2 among the Chinese women and children of Melbourne, and though only in their third year, are spending about £700 a year.
When the Presbyterian churches of Australia and Tasmania were federated about three years ago, the memorial erected was a new mission to the aborigines of North Queensland. For this 2 Moravian missionaries (Revs. J. G. Ward and N. Hey) were obtained from home, and have made an excellent start at Cullen Point, Batavia River, York Peninsula, among a very destitute and degraded people. As yet only ordained ministers and trained catechists have been employed, but medical missionaries and lay agents will be engaged as opportunity is found; 20 missionaries and 40 teachers are maintained at about £5000 a year, New South Wales joined in the New Hebrides Mission in 1869, taking a station on Malo. In 18'13 she opened a mission to the Chinese in Sydney and subnrbR, and for five years has carried on another to the same nationality at Newcastle. She also helps in the Federal Assembly's mission, and raises about £1300 annually.
From] 854 Otago and Southland Presbyterians in New Zealand sent help to the Free Chlrch of Scotland foreign missions, till in 1869 they beg'an work among the )JaOl·is. Having tasted Lha blessedness of direct effort, they took up both the Chinese and New Hebrides, and now support 5 missionaries and 70 native teachers, at a cost of £2000 a year. Their work has been abundantly successful.
North New Zealand Presbyterians have taken up the same three fields, and last year spent £200 more in the work than their brethren in the south. Tasmania and South Australia each began work in the New Hebrides in 1882. Their fields are a great contrast in results. South Australia has reaped but little fruit on Tanna. On Epi, Tasmania has sent 2000 gathered into the fold; they each spend about £350 per annum. South Australia also works in India, and both help in the Federal Assembly's mis- SIOn.
Queensland only took up mission work as a church in 1888, with one mission to the aborigines and another to the Kanakas, adding recently the Federal Assembly mission. But individual congregations were working among the aborigines at an earlier date. Especially among the Kanakas good fruit has been plentiful, and the interest in the work has been extend- 'ed by the pleadings of the Ormond College Missionary Society. This church raises about £400 a year.
Among the Baptist churches the Rev. J. Price claims for South Australia and Tasmania the honor of being the parents of all the colonial Baptist missionary societies-" the Furreedpore Mission, East Bengal, having for twenty-eight years been supported by the prayers and offerings of the colonies." Whether this claim is admitted we do not know; it is certain, however, that Victoria was then,' if not earlier, sending help through the home society for native teachers in East Bengal. In 1885 she sent out 2 zenana missionaries, and in the following year organized her own society. She now employs 6 missionaries and 9 native teachers. Some 80 converts have been admitted to church-fellowship, and the work in the girls' school is most hopeful. Annual expenditure for this and Furreedpoor £1200 each. New South Wales took up the same field in 1887, and spends £500 in supporting 3 zenana missionaries, 1 Bible woman, and an evangelist. Queensland followed in 1888, and has 2 missionaries, 1 native preacher, and 2 teachers, with an organized church. She raises £250 a year. Total, 40 agents; cost, £3150 a year. 1890 brought to our shores the Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, of China. His wonderful work of faith and love in the China Inland Mission awoke deep responses in the colonies, and led to the formation of councils with many branches. The centre is in Melbourne; a5 missionaries have already gone from Australia, and the society is spending £3000 a year. At one place in China a church of 120 members has already been gathered, and the grace resting on this work gives bright hopes of glorious harvests of souls.
Yet another new organization has found a home here-the East African Industrial Mission. Its special aim is to teach the arts of useful industry. This is well worth Christian attention, and has been too long overlooked for some fields, though there are others where it is unnecessary.
A MISSIONARY
Thus far we have presented facts-giving an aggregate of some 650 paid agents and an expenditure of £53,000. But remembering the many denominations Dot noticed and societies not reached-e. g., Church of England work among the Kanakas of Queensland; independent missions to the same people; the missions of the minor Methodist bodies; Bible Christians; Salvation Army, etc.-we may safely reckon that Australasia employs some 800 missionaries and teachers in the foreign field, and raises every year some £70,000 in response to her Lord's last command. In itself this is a gratifying and gladdening fact. But is this all that Australia could and therefore should do ~ Only consider the gloom of the heathen, the good of the Church, and the glory of Christ, and snrely you will say, " Forward," "Amplius." Think of the aborigines! Tens of thousands in North and Western Australia are still uncared for. Ought not· their present misery and prospective doom to urge us to do more, and that speedily, for those whose goodly heritage has become our own? Think of the 30,000 Chinese living among us-strangers set free from the pressure of ancestral traditions, with the heart hungering for sympathy, and readily responsive to kindness. Why let slip the opportunity of winning these for Christ? Think of India's child widows, of a million a month dying unsaved in China, and say, " Have we done enough ~"
Then recall the results of mission work. What heroic characters it has developed in Carey and Livingstone, Judson and Moffat, and thousands more! What blessings it brings to the churches supporting the workers! Would it not be well worth a greater effort to get more of this benefit?
Above all, remember Christ, His great love, His magnificent selfsacrifice, His earnest longing to fold humanity in the embrace of everlasting forgiveness and fellowship. Remember He has trusted us to place Him on the throne. The King cannot come again till we prepare the way before Him. Oh, if Australia transferred to her Lord her enthusiasm for sports, the millions she spends on strong drink, the love she has for gold, how soon she would become" the King's daughter, all glorious within, her garments of wrought gold," her attendant maidens, the converts of the missions, waiting with her, ready to enter into the King's palace and be forever the beloved of the Lord! May He grant her yet this glory !
A MISSIONARY HEROINE.
BY MARIA A. WEST, NEW YORK CITY.
There is a missionary lady whose story of entrance into Thibet and months of sojourn in that hitherto closed country thrilled every Christian heart that heard it, while she tarried a few days in New York, on her way to England, having come directly from Thibet and China.
Miss Annie Taylor was born and reared in London. The child of wealthy yet worldly parents, and without any special religio'us training in early life, she was led of God to turn away from earthly aims and pleasures and choose His service when but fourteen years of age. At that time she united with a Congregational church, but later with the Presbyterian Church, under the ministry of Dr. Sinclair Patterson. After some years spent at school in Germany, and in Italy, where she gave herself to painting, she began a systematic round of Christian work in district visitation among the p~)Or, for the Master's call continually sounded in her ears. This was also connected with medical study and attendance upon a hospital, when her rich clothing was gladly laid aside for the garb of a nurse. All this was not pleasing to the parents, who sought in vain to turn her heart back to the joys and pleasures of this world. But God was preparing His ." chosen vessel" to bear His name far hence to a people sitting in the densest darkness. Miss Taylor received her diploma for midwifery, and studied dentistry enough to aid in her future work. In God's own time the door was opened for her into a foreign land. Her parents, finding it useless to oppose her, gave a reluctant consent, and the joy of her soul was well expressed by a member of the council of the China Inland Mission: " It is like a burst of sunshine when she comes into the room."
Miss Taylor went to China, donned the dress of the people, learned their language, and then, led by the Spirit of God, settled alone in one of the villages on the Thibetan border, and began the study of that language, with the view to labor in that land. This step was not approved by her missionary associates, who deemed the undertaking rash and presumptuous, especially for a woman. Having means of her own, she was, in a sense, independent j and believing that God had called her to this work, she went forward in the face of dangers and trials that might well have appalled the strongest man.
After some time spent at Kansuh, in 1886-7, she went to a Thibetan monastery at Kumbum, and mingled with the Thibetans living there, wearing the dress of that people and studying them as well as their tongue. While there her health failed, and she visited Australia, where she met her mother, who was but recently converted. On her recovery, Miss Taylor was providentially led to Darjeeling, on the Thibetan border, in India, and there continued her study with a native teacher.
Visiting England for a few months, she returned to Darjeeling, in the hill country of lndh, and lived alone in a Thibetan village for five months, going later with six or eight Thibetan coolies, horses, tents, and provisions to Sikkim, a part of Thibet not yet made over to the English. She was taken prisoner by the government officials and most of her supplies seized, leaving her destitute and alone in that strange land. They tried in vain to turn her back, but nothing would induce her to retrace her steps. The hill men who callle with her built a hut of green bamboo for her shelter, and then went ou their way. Finding that she could not be persuaded to return, the chiefs endeavored to poison her, and almost succeeded several times. Finally she said she would go, but by another route, which took her through a wide portion of the country ; and most of that fearful journey, sometimes in the rain or snow, and often intense cold, especially at night, was made on foot, twenty and even thirty miles a day, without a fire at night to dry the wet clothing or warm the chilled frame, sleeping in a hole dug in the ground (sometimes with ,a layer of frozen water underneath), and often without food at the close of a long day's tramp. Yet He who feeds the sparrows never failed to send something sooner or later to His child when she cried to Rim. Her breath was one continual prayer going up to heaven; every place upon which the sole of her foot trod she claimed for God in Thibet! She was within three days of Gaza, the capital at one time. Being a woman, her life was spared-for womanhood is reverenced in Thibet-and her medical skill served her for many a good turn. Sometimes the women would secretly bring her a little food hidden in their garments, when the chiefs had forbidden anyone to sell it to her. Sometimes their popped corn would be strewn by the wayside, and she would pick it up like the birds of the air, thanking God for the timely supply.
And amid a people notoriously immoral, when she had no earthly protection by day or by night, God shielded His dear handmaiden from insult or harm. Day by day she was attended by an invisible guard, and the arrows of the Evil One were turned back by His shield! Unscathed by the enemy, 8he came out of that dark, dark country, having sown in some hearts the precious seed of the kingdom, * and bringing with her the " first fruits" in a converted young Thibetan, whose feet she had washed and bound up when he was suffering from a long journey, having fled from his chief; a native of Lhasa, where the people are hig-her in civilization, and where life is far more endurable, so that it can be made a centre for missionary operations in the future when the door .is widely opened.
Mter this entrance on the side of India, Miss Taylor went in on the Chinese side, and met with similar experiences. I may have confused the two, but it matters not. She will doubtless give the world her own story in due time; and this, which is by her permission, will only serve to whet the appetite of God's children for the full narration. I will add that Miss Taylor goes to England to secure at least ten or twelve men to go out and learn the Thibetan language at Darjeel.ing, India, so as to be in readiness for the work when the door of Thibet is opened to their entrance, as it must be soon. Rome is making preparation for its occupation; and why should the Christian Church be behind in obedience to its" marching orders" from the Commander-in-Chief? God hasten the day!
* The Moravians had prepared the New Testament and part of the Old in Thibetan; also a good dictionary. Blessed pioneers in making ready the way of ,the Lord are these Moravians I
THE RESPONSIBILI'l'Y OF YOUNG PEOPLE FOlt MISSIONS
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND THEIR SOCIETIES FOR MISSIONS. * BY REV. FRANCIS E. CLARK, D.n.
One of the most hopeful signs of the present day is the wonderful quickening of interest on the part of young people in the work of foreign missions. Mission work is no longer a novelty. The rosy light of romance has been largely stripped from the squalid wretchedness of heathenism. It is understood that missionary life involves not so much of adventurous iucident as of hardship. The days when Sabbath-school children dreamed of the missionary as sitting under a fruitful cocoanut-tree while the eager natives pressed around him to hear the Word of Life, while his own existence was a kind of happy combination of the life of Robinson Crusoe and the exemplary parent in the " Swiss Family Robinson," have largely disappeared.
Even the boys and girls have come to know that missionary work in foreign lands is very much like Christian work in any land so far as the spirit, and purpose, and determination, and grinding attention to details is concerned. It is frequently a life work in the slums, plus the deprivation of friends and pleasant neighbors and the joys of patriotic citizenship, plus isolation and loneliness.
The idea of physical hardships and romantic sufferings which used to inhere in the thought of mission life has also largely disappeared; there has taken the place of these romantic hardships the far truer idea of steady, constant, monotonous work among degraded classes, with the awful and appalling inertia of heathenism as a constant and discouraging background to all elforts.
Yet in spite of all this the tide of enthusiasm among young people for mission work has been steadily growing. This is indicated by the remarkable Students Volunteer Movement, which has spread into England as well as swept over America, and which enrolls UpOIt its lists thousands of those who are desirous, God willing, to carry the Gospel to other lands.
Moreover, this rising tide of enthusiasm is very plainly indicated at the conventions of young people which have been such a remarkable feature of the religious life of the last decade. It has been noted over and over again, at the huge international conventions of the Society of Christian Endeavor, that the most interesting sessions are those which are devoted to mission work; that the stirring missionary addresses called forth the largest enthusiasm, and that the eyes of the young disciples who represent this army, which is now nearly a million and three quarters strong, are fixed not only upon their own prayer-meeting, on their own consecration service, and their own committee work, but look out with an intense long- • Read at tile Ccngre•• of Missions. Cblcago, October 2d, 1898. ing upon the uttermost parts of the earth with the hope and prayer that He whose right it is may reign.
But this most gratifying enthusiasm should not surprise us if we study the trend of the times. It is the natural and normal expression of the religious life. ",Ve ought to be surprised if we find any other spirit manifested by these devoted young hearts who, in the freshness of their youthful zeal, by the hundred thousand every month renew their dedication to Christ.
The responsibility for missions of these young people and their societies rests upon several natural reasons. First, they, in common with all the world, have received the great commission j they too are under marching orders j to them as well as to the oldest veteran were the words written, "Go ye into all the world." They cannot escape if they would from Christ's command, " Disciple all the nations." But a peculiar responsi- . bility rests upon them because they are young. This is pre-eminently the mission century. More than all the sixty that have gone before it, is it the age in which Christ's command has been heard by all the world.
Uttered though it was eighteen hundred years ago, by some modern spiritual audiphone the command has been repeated, and emphasized, and broadened and thundered out, and heard and heeded as never before.
The young people who have been born in the latter half of this nineteenth century could not help hearing this command as their fathers never heard it. They have been actually enveloped in the sound waves of this mighty audiphone. Their responsibility is greater than the responsibility of their fathers, on the principle that to him that " knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."
" Weare," says Dr. Josiah Strong, "it seems to me, even more favored than those who are to follow us. Some one has said that he would rather be his own grandson than his own grandfather, and so would I; but I would rather be myself than my latest descendant, because I would rather have part in the glorious work of creating the Christian civilization of the people than to bask in the full radiance of its glory."
The millionaire has m;re responsibilities than the pauper. Every dollar is an added means of doing good, and for every dollar he must give account. All the light which has broken in upon this wonderful century adds to the responsibility of every man and woman whose birthday falls within it, and the responsibility is an increasing one as these birthdays draw near to the closing decade.
Again the responsibility of these young people's societies is indicated by the very nature of these modern organizations. The Society of Christian Endeavor may, without presumption, I suppose, be taken as the type of the modern young people's religious organization. Born but little more than twelve years ago, it has now spread throughout the world, has nearly twenty-eight thousand branches and an actual membership of not far from one million seven hundred thousand. Formed with no wisdom of man, but by the purpose of God, its scope and real mission are becoming more and more plain every day.
Its fundamental principles are CONSECRATION, LOYALTY, FELLOWSHIP. Its consecration is expressed in the weekly pledged prayer-meeting and in the monthly consecration service. Its loyalty is indicated by the fact that' the societies are always under the control of their own churches, and that the purpose of every committee is to do just what its own church and pastor desire to have done. Its interdenominational fellowship is exemplified by the vast union gatherings which bring so many of them together in loving accord upon the broad platform of service for the one Lord.
But all this consecration, loyalty, and fellowship must mean and does mean missionary zeal unless the very purpose and spirit of the movement is strangely perverted. The consecration of these yonng disciples means that they will go where Christ would have them go, that they will do what He will have them do, that they will be only and altogether what He would have them be. The true missionary spirit cannot be divorced from the true spirit of devotion. Their loyalty to Christ means the same thing. It is a mere empty profession if they do not hear His -command to " disciple the nations. "
Their loyalty is not only to Christ, but to the Church, their own Church and denomination, and part of the work of every church is the mission work. All worthy denominational activity is expended at home and abroad in furthering the kingdom. Loyalty to these interests inheres in the very nature and constitution of a modern young people's movement.
Loyalty to the Church involves loyalty to the denominational missionary treasuries. Not merely a passive wish that they may be full, but an active effort to fill their coffers. It is hoped and expected that during the coming year the Christian Endeavor Society will make a thank offering of not less than a quarter of a million of dollars for missionary purposes. This money will go through the regular church channels into the denominational treasuries, to be used as their own boards see fit. It will be a tangible expression of the genuine zeal which fires these youthful hearts.
Moreover, the world-wide fellowship promotes this same spirit. These soeieties are not confined to the narrow limits of one denomination or hemmed in by the boundaries of a single nation, but their line has gone out into all the earth. Eleven evangelical denominations in America have adopted or endorsed the Christian Endeavor Society. Four in England have done the same thing, and as many more in Australia and in Canada, and it is largely found in all the denominations in all these countries which have not formally endorsed it. A United Society of Christian Endeavor with many branches exists in China, still another in Japan, with its monthly periodical and its useful literature. In India the work is progressing with equal rapidity ; and into Tamil and Telugu, Hindi and Bengali, Marathi and Hindustani and Oordu the constitution has been translated, and the society is making its way. Into the Sandwich Islands and Samoa, Madagascar and South Africa, Burma and Siam, Persia and Syria has the socitlty spread. The cruel tyranny of the Sultan is not sufficient to cru~h it out of the Ottoman Empire, while in France and Spain and the nations of modern Europe it has been found to be, so far as it has extended, help and inspiration for young people.
In England and Australia the society is moving on with the same rapid increase as in the land of its birth. This broad and ever broadening fel- lowship must have its effect upon the hearts of the members of this organization in increasing their brotherly love not only for their fellow- members, whom they have seen, but for those of different climes and dif- ferent complexions, whom they will never see.
In the blessed interdenominational and international felbwship of this movement is found one of its chief incentives to missionary enthusiasm, for its members feel their peculiar kinship with Endeavorers everywhere. The motto which is engraved, not only on the ban,ners and the badges of this youthful host, but upon their hearts as well, "For Christ and the Church," really means, " For Christ and the Church and the world," for the Church is for the world, and the world is destined to be for the Church.
It is worth noting in this connection that the origin of the first Society of Christian Endeavor was closely linked with mission work. The organization which preceded the first society, and which was to an extent merged into it, was a mission circle, and the mission idea has never been foreign to the Endeavor idea.
Another point of contact between young people and missionary work is found in the innate heroism of their youthful natures. Every generous boy is an incipient hero. Every pure young girl is a heroine in embryo. The sordid world often makes sad havoc with these early aspirations, but with rare exceptions among those who are rightly trained they are sure to be present: The ideal heroes and heroines for which their minds blindly grope, as the morning-glory turns toward the rising sun, are found to-day very largely upon the mission field. The Moffats and the Livingstones, the McKays and the Patons and the Morrisons are the real knights of the nineteenth century. If in these piping times of peace stories of valor in a righteous cause can anywhere be found, they will be found in these lands to which our brave missionaries have gone.
All this is felt by the young disciples whosc lives are dedicated so completely to the Master's service. As the camel's foot is fitted to the desert's sand, as the bird's wing is adapted to cut the air, so the hearts of the young people of the present day, stimulated and stirred as they have never been before, are adapted to the heroic service for Christ, which in its highest manifestations is found to-day in mission lands.
Again, their responsibility for missions is indicated by the fact that their own spiritual life can flourish only in the atmosphere which is created by the enthusiasm for the salvation of the world. It has been truly said, " An enthusiasm for humanity is what we most need, not only that the world may be saved, but that we ourseh'es lllay not miss our salvation. Civilization is compelling an interest in others for our own sakes. Christ inculcated an interest in others for their sakeE. Christian brotherhood springs from something higher than common interest. In an ocean steamship the steerage and the cabin passengers have a vast deal in common during the voyage. If the steerage goes to the bottom, so does the cabin. If a deadly pestilence breaks out in the former, the latter is im- mensely concerned; but all this may be without one brotherly heart-beat between the two. Modern civilization is fast getting us aU into one boat, and we are beginning to learn how much we are concerned with the concerns of others. But the higher social organization of the future must have some higher and nobler bond than an enlightened selfishness. Even such a love for one's neighbor as will fulfil the second great law of Christ."
This" enthusiasm for humanity," of which Dr. Strong so eloquently speaks, which is but another and broader name for enthusiasm for missionary work, is necessary to the continual life and growth of these disciples who are banded together in these young people's societies. The spiritual law of self-preservation must compel their interest in these large concerns of the kingdom.
A few years ago the Christian people of Australia felt that their religious life as a nation was at a low ebb. The affairs of the kingdom Ian" guished within their borders. The demands made upon them to subdue and civilize and people a vast island continent occupied all their energies, and spiritual matters seemed to drop out of sight. Leaders of religious life were alarmed, I am told ; but just then came the thought, not, "'Ve must spend all our energies upon ourselves," not, " We must evangelize our own broad domains first," but, "We must do something for the nations beyond, for these vast heathen islands which lie around us, which are sunk to the lowest depths of superstition and cannibal ferocity." "We owe something to them as well as to ourselves."
So the island of New Guinea was partitioned between three or four of the evangelical denolllinations, and recruits were called for to carry the Gospel thither. It was known that going meant hardship and privation, and very likely death; that the missionaries would find no honored graves even, but, in all likelihood, would be served up at cannibal feasts.
It was known that a shipload of Chinamen, who had been wrecked on the coast for which this mission was bound only a year before, had all been killed and eaten; and yet, when the call came for volunteers, not only the four white men who were first asked for came to the front, but five times as many ; not only the forty natives of the South Seas who were immediately desired heard the call, but four times forty.
Those who were chosen were esteemed the fortunate ones, and the tears and the sorrow were all expended upon those who could not go, but were obliged to stay in their comfortable homes. From that time I have been assured more than once in many sections of Australia the work of many churches revived, the spiritual life of the people was quickened, and those who were willing to lose their own lives not only found them, but a great people renewed their spiritual zeal and lighted once more their torches at the altar where this missionary fire of devoted consecration had been kindled.
So it will ever be in America, as in Australia, among the young and the old. Those who would have life must give life. Those who would gain inspiration for larger service must be willing to expend all they have on present duties. Those who wo~ld fit themselves for larger things-yes, those who would escape spiritual atrophy and death must continually kindle anew their enthusiasm for humanity, their. love for the world for which Christ died.
It is becoming more and more evident, I believe, to .all these young people in societies of Christian Endeavor that they must" go or send ;" that there is no compromising with Christ; that His command cannot be trifled with, and that if for good and sufficient reasons they cannot dedicate themselves to this service, they must remember their responsibility for sending some one who can go. They have all been drafted into this war, and if they cannot personally fight the battle in other lands, they must fight at home and send their substitutes across the sea.
This sense of responsibility directly affects their pocketbook, and makes, the matter of proportionate and systematic giving a very real and vital thing. "When this sense of responsibility touches the pocketbooks of men, when every dollar that a Christian earns he feels is mortgaged for the advancement of the kingdom, then will come the glad day when" holiness to the Lord" will be written on the bells of the horses, and when the smallest things will be dedicated to Jehovah.
That glad day is coming, I believe. We can already see its early dawn in the East. One of these days there will be a vast revival in gh'ing. The purse strings of the world will be unloosed. God grant that the young people who are handed together in common forms of service may feel this quickening t011ch, may realize their responsibility more and more, and may know that upon them depends the fulfilment of Christ's prayer, " Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done."
The progress of the Christian Endeavor movement has been remarkable in its extent and rapidity. In 1881 there was one society and 48 members. Six years later, in 1887, there were 2314 societies and 140,- 000 members, and in 1892, 21,080 societies and 1,370,200 members. The progress will be much greater in 1893 than in any previous year, as a result of Dr. Clark's tour around the world. It is estimated that there will be about 30,000 societies and 1,700,000 members reported at home and abroad.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY BEY. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
David Zeisberger, the Friend of the fish and hunt, and found pleasure in the American Indians. hardy life of the pioneer. Near the Forks of the Delaware in Pennsylvania BY ARTHUR C. KEMPTON, ROCHESTER, a site was selected, and here they erected the first log-cabin of what has since N. Y. been known as Bethlehem, the centre of Moravian influence in America. It Let us leave the present and look waS in: this place, with its strong religupon America as it was two hundred ious sentiment, that Zeisberger was years ago. converted. His friends were one day singing a hymn, when Zeisberger sur- I. A Land of Da1'7cness. prised them by bursting into tears and What we now know as Chicago, the leaving the room. In the shadows of Queen of the West, was then a trackless the forest he struggled with the angel swamp; New York was only a small until he received the blessing, and in town; and no white man had yet seen the very hour of his conversion he rethe land of the Golden Gate. The solved to consecrate his life to the cause " settlements" scattered here and there of missions among the Indians. along the coast consisted merely of a few log huts in the midst of a small II. The Dawning of the Day. clearing which bore a scanty crop of In the following year he and another potatoes and Indian corn. The interior young man left their homes to live was a great Unknown. among a friendly tribe of Indians in Coming apparently from the west, the the Valley of the Mohawk, so that they red man had spread himself over the might learn their language. As a rule country, until the whole continent was missionaries are more hindered by their sprinkled with the ashes of his camp- own countrymen than by the heathen fires. Numerous tribes were engaged themselves, and this is certainly true in in unceasing warfare. The war·path the life of Zeisberger. These young was the Indian's delight, and in cruelty men had only entered upon their noble he found his greatest pleasure. work when they were taken prisoners Such was the country which David by the authorities of New York, who Zeisberger saw from the deck of the pretended to believe that they were ship which had brought him from Hol- French spies, but who in reality were land, and such were the people among moved by their hatred for missionaries. whom he was to spend his life. He But their hearts were not daunted. was now only seventeen years of age, Like Paul and Silas, they made the jail and was fresh from the Moravian ring with songs of praise and the voice schools of Germany and Holland, where of prayer, and covered the whitewashed his parents, who had crossed the ocean walls with verses from their hymntwelve years before, had left him to be book, as an expression of their faith in educated. But God was leading this God. After a period of two months they young man, for though he was not yet were released and returned to Bethleconverted, it was in these forests of hem. America and among degraded tribes It was several years before another that he was to accomplish a work effort of this kind could be made. for Christ that has seldom been sur- Zeisberger entered heartily into the passed in the history of missions, and work around Bethlehem, but he longed rarely been paralleled by Christian work to be among the Indians of the Six Naamong the Indians. tions. At the first opportunity he Zeisberger was delighted with his home in the new world. He loved to I).gain set out with the avowed purpose lips swelled with unearthly shrieks, and of living among the Indians until he their hands clutching the empty air.
had mastered their language and be- As Zeisberger rushed up the ladder they come familiar with their customs. He tore it from under his feet, but he thus lived for five years [1750-55 near grasped one of the cross·poles of the Cayuga Lake] in one of the huts of an roof and swung himself into his retreat.
Indian village in Western New York. Here the missionaries stayed till the At first he met with considerable prej· mad revelry was over; then they es- udice, and was exposed to constant dan· caped, while the exhausted savages were ger. A drunken Indian is a fiend in· lost in drunken sleep.
carnate, and these Indians were drunk These are but instances of the dan- a great part of the time. Frcquently gers to which they were constantly ex· Zeisberger and his comrade left their posed, yet they refused to give up their hut and fled to the forest, hiding some· work, and we see them kneeling to- times for days before they dare return. gether in the shadows of the forest and On one occasion the drunken savages vowing to be faithful even unto death.
burst into their lodge, and when the So month after month passed by. At young missionaries fled the Indians fol- last the barriers of heathen prejudice lowed with wild war·whoops, sending were broken down. Zeisberger became bullets whistling just over the head as familiar with the Indian langullges first of one, then of the other. This and customs as were they themselves, cruel sport continued for a mile or two and they esteemed him as a brother.
before the savages returned. They showed their confidence in him At another time, while on a preach- by making him keeper of the belt and ing tour, they came to a town (now wampum which comprised the entire Geneseo) in which the entire population archives of the Grand Conncil. His in- was intoxicated. Two hundred men fluence in the nation was great, and it and women in a frenzy of drunkenness seemed as though success was near; seized them with dark looks that boded but it was further from them than they no good for the missionaries. At last thought. An Indian war broke out, they tore themselves away from their and Zeisberger was compelled to return tormentors, and hid in the loft of one of to Bethlehem (June, 1755). Thus end· the huts. Here, almost suffocated with ed his work in New York State. For heat and burning with fever, they spent five long years he had labored and not the night. In the town cask after cask a single sonl had been converted, but of rum was drained, devilish laughter in those years he had gained an experi- and yells filled the air, and all the ence and knowledge that fitted him for abominations of heathenism made tlJat future trials and for future victories.
summer night hideous. When at last III. Olouds give plilce to Sunshine.
the morning came Zeisberger's compan- During his absence in Ncw York his ion was in a raging fever. His thirst fellow-missionaries in Pennsylvania had became so agonizing that Zeisberger reo founded several Christian villages solved to risk every danger to relieve among the Indians in the vicinity of his sufferings. The nearest spring was Bethlehem. Into this work Zeisberger half a mile away. He stole out, reached entered with zeal, and so~:m the clonds the spring in safety, and was returning are broken and dispersed by the bright with the needed water, when suddenly snnshine. Having he::trd of a distan!
he was set upon by a troop of naked Indian village that desired to hear the savages. Doubling his fists, and dealing Gospel, we see him with a single Indian blows to the right hand and the left, he . companion tramping through tangled drove the squaws aside, and ran for the forest,s and pathleRs swamps, until at hut. The Whole party followed, their last they reached the town. Here they long hair streaming in the wind, their found no time for rest. The Indians flocked together to h~r the Gospel. them. Zeisberger watched over them Da'y after day was spent in telling of with loving care, but during that sad the love of Christ, and in teaching the winter over half of their number were natives to sing Christian hymns in their buried in the Potter's Fleld. With own language. A deep impression was heavy hearts those who yet remained made. Tears rolled down the cheeks started for their forest homes as soon of dusky warriors as for the first time as peace had been declared. It was an they heard of a Saviour's love. Amid awful journey. They were so wasted the shadows of the forest, where the by disease that many were scarcely trees spread out their branches and able to walk. Their food-supply bebreathed gentle benedictions, Zeisberger came exhausted, and the heart of the baptized his first converts, and rejoiced poor missionary was rent with the cries more over them than if he had inherited of famishing women amI children. At a kingdom. another time they were almost con- sumed by a forest fire; but at last they But at the very time these Indians reached the blackened ruins of their were shedding tears of penitence and villages, and at once laid out another blessing the white man who had brought town. Again in their forest homes, to them the Gospel, the hatchets of the converts were filled with gratitude other fierce warriors were reeking with and joy. The new town which sprang the blood of palefaces. As the Indians into existence rang with the melody of watched the white men pushing stead- praise, and was named" The Tents of ily westward, clearing plantations and Peace.., Soon the first baptism took building cabins until the wilderness was place, and this was but the beginning dotted with fiourishing settlements, they of a great revival. From far and near feared that all their hunting grounds the Inuians came to hear the word of would be taken from them, and now salvation, and went their way to scattribe after tribe had joined in a mighty ter the seeds of truth in their own tribe. effort to exterminate these invaders. Hundreds listened as Zeisbergerstood in some forest sanctuary beneath the They were terribly in earnest. Nu- shade of the arching trees, and promerous scalping parties attacked the claimed the Saviour of the world. frontier settlements. Farms were laid Many a poor wigwam thus became a waste, homesteads burned, defenceless home of peace. and many a dying hour women and children butchered, and all was cheered by the Christian's hope. the horrors of Indian warfare prac- Some of these fierce warriors, whose tised. It was contrary to the ~Ioravian belts had frequently been hung with principles to fight, and the Christian scalps, were now seeu weeping silent Indians were threatened with extermi- tears. These were bappy days for nation, for by their neutrality they won Zeisberger. Many were baptized, and the enmity of both Indians and settlers. the town continued to prosper until it One night a band of hostile Indians at- excited the admiration of every visitor. tacked one of the villages, brutally It was a wonderful instance of the civmurdered ten of the Moravians, and. ilizing power of Christianity. Comleaving the town in flames, went off fortable houses were surrounded by with the bloody scalps as trophies of gardens and orchards stocked with their dp.ed. Again several Christian vegetables and fruit-trees. Stretching Indians were treacherously murdered down the river valley lay two hundred by the enraged" settlers," who accuseCl and fifty acres of plantations and meadthem of being in league with the other ows, in whose grassy pastures were Indians. At last Zeisberger appealed seen large herds of cattle. to the government for protection, ann his Indians were taken to Philaddphia. This peaceful town was now left in lIere they were crowded into the bar- the care of another missionary while racks, and small-pox broke out among Zeisberger went to win new victories often lasted until midnight. Many for Christ in mOfe' perilous places. came as champio;s of heathenism and When his friends told him of the des- went away as humble servants of Jesus perate character of the tribe to which Christ. Old and young were converted he was going. and plead with him to re- and baptized, until the mission num- main with them. he replied: "No harm bered one hundred persons. This was can befall me if my God does not per- the second triumph that had crowned mit it. Are the Indians very wicked? the effort of this master missionary.
That is just the reason why I ought to IV. Great Victories and Great Defeats.
go and preach to them." Having ar- This completed Zeisberger's work in rived at the village, he sent his two Pennsylvania. A messenger had come companions to announce a religious ser- from the Indians of Oltio asking for I!.
vice for the evening. An immense teacher, and he reso].ved to go. Ac- crowd gathered round the camp-fire, companied by sixteen canoes full of and as Zeisberger arose every eye was Christian Indians be started on his fixed upon him. Some most desperate journey stilI farther west, April 17th, characters were there. ruffians and mur- 1770. They paddled along the streams derers, noted even among the Indians and rivers until they reached their des- for their wickedness; but no one knew tination in Central Ohio. It was the better than he how to speak to savages. valley of the Tuscarawas, the place He told of the Saviour's love with such which was to be the scene of their great- power that his hearers did not dare to est victories and their severest trials.
oppose him. Some of their faces showed They laid out their town in the form of a the subduing power of the Gospel. while cross, and called it "Beautiful Spring."
some grew black as with the darkness While building it many Indians visited of hell. the place, and here Zeisberger preached On the following morning the inhab- the first Protestant sermon ever preach- itants of three villages crowded into the ed in the State of Ohio. He was so council-house, and Zeisberger and his eager to instruct them that he fre- companions preached from dawn of quently laid aside his axe, sat down day till midnight. His life was com- upon the tree that he had felled. and pletely in the hands of the villainous told them of the Redeemer of the world.
crowd, and a score of times did they Two towns arose amid the prayers of threaten to murder him, yet he con- the people, and the Spirit of the Lord tinued fearlessly to condemn their sin. God came upon both places. Zeis- Plot after plot was formed against his berger's plans for the future challenge life. but God protected him. When his our admiration. He aimed at nothing enemies were most violent and death short of a Ohristian Indian State. He seemed near, he calmly wrote: "They would establish a centre of religion and will certainly not succeed, for He that civilization whose benign influences is with us is stronger than they." His would stream forth and enlighten the faith was victorious. The opposition whole land. He would build for the was gradually overcome, and six fam- Gospel a stronghold from which it could ilies took their stand in favor of the not be driven. He would have all the Gospel. One of the Christian Indians, tribes acknowledge that a people of the called Anthony, became so zealous a living God had arisen among them.
worker among his friends, that Zeis- An old Indian chief named White berger said of him that he "was as Eyes was his chief supporter. With eager to bring souls to Christ as a hunt- tears running down his cheeks this man er's hound is eager to chase the deer." of war and blood plead with his people So was the power of heathenism to accept the Word of God. " We will broken, and a mission established in never be happy," said he, "until we this seat of Satan. Inquiry meetings are Christians." A season of unparalleled prosperity in front of him, and saved his life at now dawned upon the mission. The the peril of their own. At another Grand Council of the Delawares de- time an Indian entered Zeisberger's creed religious liberty. The Gospel had house with salutations of friendship, free course, and was glorified. Upon but suddenly he drew his tomahawk, this outward prosperity the consistent and crying, " You are about to see your life of the converts set a crown as fra- grandfathers," was in the act of strikgrant as the evergreens of their valley. ing the fatal blow, when one of the con- Indian visitors flocked to their town verts sprang forward and wrenched the from all the surrounding country. The weapon from his hand. Then Zeischapel at Beautiful Spring would hold berger sat down by his would-be assasfive hundred persons, and yet it was sin and spoke to him with such tenderoften too small to accommodate the ness and love that he was convicted of worshippers. These Christian settle- his sin and accepted Christ as his Savments were famed throughout the en- iour. tire West. Their plantations covered hundreds of acres along the rich bot- The oon/ve1·ts also bore these trying toms of the valley, and herds more nu- circumstances with great fortitude. merous than ever roamed through the One day a savage attacked one of them, forests or were pastured in their mead- and, aiming his rifle at him, cried, ows. Men coming from the Eastern " Now I'll shoot you. for you speak of colonies were filled with astonishment when they beheld Indians not only civ- nothing but Jesus r" But the convert ilized, but growing rich. But forces were at work which combined to crush stood firm and replied, ., If Jesus does this noble enterprise. The rumblings not permit you, you cannot shoot me." of the American Revolution had beeu The man dropped his gun and turned heard for some time, and now the away in silence. storm·clouds burst in all their fury. Their neutrality placed the missionari~s Zeisberger now found himself be· in great danger, but in the face of al- tween two great powers, the British and most certain death they resolved not to the American, each of which considered desert the converts. Their towns were him an enemy. The British fitted out continually filled with painted warriors, an expedition from Detroit, which was and their escapes were simply miracu- commissioned to utterly destroy the lous. Once the savages had cocked Christian villages and to take the mistheir rifles and were on the point of sionaries prisoners or to bring back their shooting down the missionaries, when scalps. This expedition was placed in their chief was seized with an unac- charge of two noted villains, and soon countable impulse of mercy, and per· reached the villages. They pretended suaded his men to spare their lives. to be friends, and were hospitably reo ceived; but their true purpose soon be· Even the settlers accused Zeisberger came apparent. Encouraged by their of being an accomplice with the Indians, leaders, the savages filled the towns and sent out a party of desperadoes with drunkenness and ruin, running with the express purpose of killing him. around with terrific war·whoops, danc- They met him all alone in the open for- ing and singing, and shooting down the est. "That's the man," cried their cattle for merc sport. The next mornleader, pointing to Zeisherger ; " now do ing was resolved upon for the destrucwhat you have been told to do." He tion of the towns and the massacre of heard the clic1dng of their rifles and the inmates. Death seemed certain, commended hi~ spirit to God, when but Zeisbergel' did not waver. "I care suddenly some Christian Indians burst 110t for myself," he cried, "but oh, my through the hn·,lwR, placed themsclves poor Indians r" As the appointed morning dawned, he ordered the chapel bell to be rung for the usual early ser· vice. Its clear notes sounded far out into the surrounding forest. The dis- of cattle were in the woods; their gartant scouts guarding the trails heard dens were loaded down with fruit, yet them, and wondered if that morning's they were mercilessly dragged away prayer would be the last the mission- and left without food or homes in the aries would ever offer; converts and midst of the forest at the approach of warriors heard them, and bent their winter, and this by order of the British steps toward the sanctuary. When authorities! The winter was the most Zelsberger entered the church it was severe that had been known for years, filled to overflowing. The converts sat and their sufferings were terrible. with solemn faces; the warriors looked Scores of them perished from starvagrave and sullen. Deep silence per- tion and cold. Corn was so scarce that vaded the entire assembly, but when it sold for $8 a bushel, and through Zeisberger announced the hymn there lack of food the missionaries were reo followed such a burst of song as never duced to mere skeletons. At last their before had been heard within those cruel captors showed some signs of walls. All were conscious that heaven mercy, and one hundred and flfty of was near. Taking Divine Love for his the converts were permitted to return theme, Zeisberger then preached a won- to their deserted villages, that they derful discourse. The Spirit of the might gather the corn which had been Lord God was upon him. Surrounded left in the fields. by his enemies, he fearlessly condemned And now we have to relate the IIlost their sin, and lovingly pointed them to heart·rending incident of this sad his· the Saviour of the world. Then, turn- tory. The Indians had reached their ing to the converts, he urged them to towns and were busily gathering the place all their trust in God, and He corn that they might bring it to their would not forsake them. Deep feeling starving families and teachers, when agitated the entire congregation. Tears the Americans heard of their arrival, of joyful trust in the Lord were shed and, with unreasoning hatred, sent out upon every side; eV4in the savages a body of militia under Oolonel Will· bowed their heads in shame. The meet· iamson with the avowed purpose of uting closed with a fervent prayer, in terly destroying these Christian se,tle· which missionaries and converts were ments. They were only too successful commended to the protecting care of in their work. They told the Indians their Heavenly Father, and His bene- that they had been sent to help them in diction invoked upon their enemies. their trouble, and that they would con· God heard that prayer, and saved the duct them to a place of safety, where lives of His children. The hearts of they should have plenty of food and the savages had been so touched, that clothing. The IndianR, thrown comthough their officers both bribed and pletely off their guard, placed themthreatened them, they could not be per- selves entirely in the hands of the solsuaded to stain their hands in the blood diers, even surrendering their weapons. of these servants of God. Thus thwart- The soldiers professed to be Christians, ed in the plans, the hatred of the offi- and the Indians gave them a Christian'S cers found vent in taking the mission· welcome. That night murderers and aries and the converts prisoners. For victims slept side by side like brothers, eight years they had labored in this val- the one dreaming of scalps and bloodley, and the towns which they were shed, the others of lIew and happy forced to leave have rarely been equalled homes. In the carly morning, at a. in the history of the Indians. As they given signal, these fiends arose and were marched away they looked back seized their helpless victims. Taken and saw their homes in flames. Five wholly by surprise, they were crowded thousand bushels of unharvested corn into two houses and strictly guarded, were standing in the fields; hundreds while the soldiers hesitated as to the mode of execution. Some wished to love for the Indians grew only the set fire to the houses in which they greater as his sufferings and disappoint· were imprisoned, and burn them alive; ments increased, and shone brightest others desired to tomahawk and scalp when the end was near. A few years them, so that they might have trophies more the devoted missionary struggled of the campaign. It was finally put to on, and then he was called to enter into vote, and scalping was decided upon. rest. As he lay upon his bed the Ind- ians gathered around his couch and No protests of innocence, no appeal sang in their own language, which had to their friendly services in the past grown so sweet to him, songs of the availed the helpless prisoners. They Redeemer, and of heaven until he fell were allowed until the next day to pre- asleep in Jesus, and then they sobbed pare for execution. Shut up in their aloud. prisons, they began to sing and pray and to comfort one another. At the first In an old, forgotten cemetery in dawn of morning their eager enemies Pennsylvania you will find his grave, asked if they would soon be ready. marked by a single marble slab as sim- .. We are ready now," was the an- ple as was his life; but underneath swer: .. we have committed our souls that stone there lies the dust of one who to God, who has given us the assurance was far more a hero than many whose that He will receive them." And now names are more familiar upon the lips converted heathens taught their Chris- of men. And when the nations shall tian slayers what it means to die tri- be gathered from north, and south, and umphant in their Saviour. They were east, and west before the Great White tied together two and two, dragged to Throne, among them will be hundreds the place of execution, slaughtered and who were led toward heaven by him; scalped. One man felled fourteen to and in that city where all sorrow shall the floor with a cooper's mallet, which be turned to joy few shall wear a he then passed to another ruffian with a brighter crown than David Zeisberger, brutal laugh, saying: .. My arm is the friend of the American Indians. tired I Go on in the same way! I think I have done pretty well !" Mass Movements in India.
Tomahawk and war-club, spear and BY REV. GEORGE w. JACKSON, WELscalping-knife did their awful work till the bleeding bodies of ninety-six Indians LAND, ONTARIO, CANADA. were piled in heaps upon the floors. Of these twenty-seven. were women and That large numbers of the people of thirty-four children, twelve of the lat- India, chiefly from among the poor, ter being infants. Two lads alone es- have become enrolled among the folcaped, one of them being scalped and lowers of Christ, is not only a matter left for dead; the other hiding in the for rejoicing; it is more: it is a fruit· cellar of the house where the blood of ful subject by which we may discover his parents streamed through the floor the methods to be employed, the prin. upon him. Search the annals of his- ciples involved, and the dangers to be tory and you will find no more hellish avoided in this great work of conquest deed than this massacre at Beautiful for Christ, so much of which remains Spring, yet it was carried on under the to be done. And just in passing let me 'stamp and seal of a " religious nation. " note the similarity which seems to exist between the silent, secret, and rapid V. Sun8et and Evening Star. spread of the information and plans Neither Zeisberger nor the mission which led to that almost universal and ever recovered from this blow. He simultaneous rising of the native army was now an old man, and his closing and people at the time of the Indian years were years of sorrow. Driven Mutiny, and the present apparently unihither and thither by his enemies, his versal interest of the poor of India in of concentrated evangelistic work in the Christian religion. Somehow, and connection with the London and Church no one seems to know just exactly in of England Mission stations in Tin- what way, the same class of people in nevelly and Travancore, and In the all parts appear to begin to listen ear· German mission of Chota Nagpore.
nestly, to receive favorably, and to obey And (3) the more recent and similarly more readily tban formerly the Gospel large ingatherings, as the result of pre- of Christ. Is there some secret means vious hard and comparatively fruitless of· communication by which word is toll, in the Baptist 1I1ission of Ongole passed from one people to another? among the Telugus, and the Methodist Or is it rather because the missionaries and Presbyterian Missions in North- in all places, after long years of patient western India. Other cases which toil among others more difficult to reach, might be named woulJ probably fall have only now begun work among the under one of these three divisions.
poor? In cases of famine and distress noth- It seems necessary to remark that ing seems more Christian and therefore those who have never had the honor of more natural under the circumstances taking part in the work under review- than that missionaries should hasten to I mean that of actually accepting for assist in supplying relief to the perish.
baptism large numbers of people from ing. and provide for the maintenance among the heathen-should be careful and education of the children thus left not to hazard opinions or offer criti- orphans. This was more especially true cisms unkind or adverse. Putting our- in earlier times, when the Government selves for a moment in the place of of India was not so fully prepared as it those who have had the above-named now is to deal with the flood and fam- honor, we shall feel that only on the ine. Such evils as have arisen out of spot and during the occasion for action these forms of missionary effort, and could all the circumstances be taken caused bDth distress to the workers im- into account. The public know afler· mediately concerned and occasion for ward how great actions should have complaint to those who are only too been fought better than the men who eager for such occasion, are no doubt did the fighting, or at least they think common to the work at home as well as they do. The public can teach diplo- to the work abroad. We, therefore.
matists the right home or foreign policy propose to pass over this first class of which should have been pursued in movements with the remark that tIle given cases, and this under the guid- next generation will be in a better posi· ance of newspaper editors; and such tion to appreciate all the results and opinions change with each additional fruits of that devotion to the training item of information received, and of orphans which has marked the lives would, no doubt, be radically altered of not a few of the best Christian work· were all the circumstances fully dis- ers in India.
closed. We, then, looking at these Passing on to the second class of marked events in the India mission- movements-viz., those resulting from field, should seek to learn rather than a definite and continuous evangeliza- criticise. tion of a particular tribe or tribes within These movements seem to be capable a given area, as in the aforementioned of a kind of classification: (1) There missions, the following remarks from were the earlier movementA, resulting, Bishop Caldwell's "Lectures on the partly at least, from famine relief and Tinnevelly Missions," pp. 166, 167, its accompanying work, in Krishnagar, should have full weight as proceeding Bengal; in the Madras Presidency; from one who was a most active worker and in the Mysore. (2) Next to these in the field under review: "Wherever may be named the now famous results we have gone we havc preached to the people the Gospel of Christ, in accord· mohullahs or district!', a special caste.
ance with Christ's own command; we In rural evangelistic work results sel· have known nothing nm:mg them save dom follow the general proclamation to Christ and Him crucified, and it is un· the assembleu populace; but when, questionable that the Gospel, without whether in a city mohullah or village the help of any extraneous influences, para, we address a distinct caste, our has again and again proved itself mighty aim being directed toward definite re· through God to the pulling down of sults as to that caste in particular, suc· strongholds. Still it is equally true cess more surely follows. Definite di· that in the greater number of instances rection in methods of work leaus to con· the conversions that have taken place tact with the poverty and oppressed have been the result, not of spiritual condition of the poor, and the most motives alone, but of a combination of vexed problems in this connection seem motives, partly spiritual and partly to be : (1) How can missionaries fulfil secular, the spiritual motives predomi. the demands of philanthropy in cl<ses nating in some instances over the secu· of oppression and injustice, and at the lar, in others the secular predominating same time keep strictly to the principle over the spiritual; aud this holds true of not holding out any temporal induce· not only with respect to Tinnevelly and ments to the acceptance of the religion the missions of the Church of England, they preach? And (2) how can they but with respect to every rural mission avoid repelling sincere inr}uirers, who in India, with whatever society it may profess good motives, while seeking not be connected, and whatever may be the to encourage those whose motives ap- idea of its condition which is commonly pear to be purely worldly?
entertained. May I not add that this has " Rhenius," says Dr. Murdoch, in held good of every conversion of tribes his "Indian Missionary Manual," p.
and nations, as distinguished from the 289, "employed a native lawyer to conversion of isolated individuals, plead the cause of thc oppressed con- which the history of the Church has verts. This, with the favor for a time … recorded?" of one or two of the European officers Coming now to the third and last class of TinneveIly, had a powerful influence of movements mentioneu, we have under in inducing people to place themselves consideration one of the most recent de· under Christian instruction. " And velopments of modern missions. Long. again: "In the early stages of the er periods of regular organized work of Travaucore Mission the secular element every variety preceded these move· was largely present. One of the mis· ments than any of the former. Schools, sionaries, till it was disallowed by the orphanages, bazaar preaching, and home soclety, acted as a judge; slaves evangelistic tours, combined with tract who became Christians were not com· distribution, medical work, and per· pelled to work on Sundays." This sonal effort, were sllstained ycar after practical philanthropy on the part of year with patient persistencc, and now the earlier missionaries, resulting as it the natural results appear in large num- did in large numbers of baptisms, is at bers of accessions. It remains to bring the oppositc extreme from the careful· out the reasons why similar results havc ness of those who would repel all who not followed in some other missions- need temporal assistance, which action for instance, -the English Baptist Mis· may account for the apparent sterility sions along the Ganges Valley. I will of some missions.
only venture to express the opinion Having thus glanced at some of these that direction needs to be added to the mass movements, and suggested some methods employed in order to insure of the methods, in conclusion I ask, success. In bazaars or business streets, Does the missionary experience of the there is always a mixed multitude; in past warrant any society in expecting a large and healthy and rapid growth of 'si~ht of me!l and her judgment of af· faIrs only lllustrate what an ewiOWthe Church apart from previous pioneer ment of common sense can come from unmixed religious consecration and work, which has been 80 faithfully per· spiritual" high·living. "
formed in the missions now so blessed -Bt01'ies from I"d'ian Wigwams and Northern Camp-fire8 is a second volume with success ? We know that some of experiences and observatiolJs among the Indians of far Northwest America, have done the pioneer work without by Rev. Egertvn R. Young. His .. Canoe and Dog Train" at once made reaping its results; but may new mis- a reputation for Mr. Young as one of the most fascinating story-tellers, and sions fearlessly look for immediate reo this volume is so much a continuat.ion of the same sort. that all who know the suIts from virgin soil in which heathen· first volume will wish to read this. The greatest audiences of Exeter Hall and ism has remained hitherto undisturbed? Chautauqua have been charmed by Mr. Young's narratives. It is profusely ilor do the facts of recorded experience lustrated. (Hunt & Eaton, New York; Charles Kelley, London; William indicate that ploughing must precede Briggs, Toronto.) sowing and reaping in spiritual hus- -Answered Prayer, published by the Fleming H. Revell Company, New bandry? York and Chicago, is a suggestive and helpful blank form prepared by 'Dr. Book Mention. Arthur T. Piersou, with columns for " Date of Prayer Begun," " Particular -Rev. I. G. John, D.D., Secretary Prayer asked of God, " "Particular of the Board of Missions of the Southern Promises Pleaded," and "Date and ~1ethodist Episcopal Church has pre- Circumstances of Answer." It will be pared a valuable Handbook of "Methodist a revelation to many devout people if Missions. It is published by the Board they will procure one of these booklets of Missions of the 1Ilethodist Episcopal and keep the memorandum and mark Church, Soath, Nashville, Tenn. Bish- the results when they find prayer rising op Hendrix in the introduction quotes to the plane of power. Emerson's saying, "Coal is portable climate," anJ he adds, "a handbook -Foreign Missions Afttr a Oentury, like this is portable zeal." It sum· by Rev. James S. Dennis, D.D., of Beimarizes English Methodist missions, rut, Syria (Fleming H. Revell Comthos~ of the Methodist Episcopal Ohurch pany, New York and Chicago), is a and bf other Methodist bodies, but gives volume of lectures delivered at Princeover 500 pages besides to the missions tOLl. Theological Seminary, 1893, on the of the Methodist Episcopal Ohurch, J". ,is of the students' lectureship on South. This book will be a vade mecum n,i."iolls. They are remarkable for of value far beyond Methodist linei!. th(,jr order of thought. Qlearness of slyle, and the freshness of facts stated. -All. Autobiography. The Btory of the Lord's dealing with Mrs. Amanda -Hindu Litemtu1'e, 0]' the Ancient Smith, the Oolored JjJcangelist (Meyer & Book.~ of india, and Persian Literature, Brothers, Chicago), contains an account A'l'.cient and .Afodern. Both these volof this ex slave's life-work of faith, her umes are by Elizabeth A. Reed, and travels in America, Great Britain and published by S. C. Griggs & Co., Chi- Ireland, India and Afriea. Bishop cago, These present popular and read- Thoburn says he has learned more from able aecounts of the~e literatures. The Amanda Smith that has been of actual guarantee of their accuracy is that they value to him as a preacher of Christian have had the revision of eminent spetruth than from any other one person cialists like Max Muller. The ablest he has ever met. He also says that reviews have not hesitated to speak of during 6eventeen years in Calcutta he them as fascinatin~ presentations and had known many famous strangers to strong analyses. For those who canvisit that city who attracted large audi- not make original re~earch ther cannot ences, but he never knew anyone who fail to be helpful and entertaiUlng. could dmw and hold so large an audio ence as this devout and soiritual·lllinded negro woman. The strange extremes in her fortune remind one of those of Bishop Crowther; her hold on God by earnest prayer and faith is a spiritual tonic. We do not belbve anybody can read this story, told in her untutored style, without spiritual help. Her in-
FIELD OF )!ON'l'aLY SURVEY
I1I.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Topics for 1894. estant missionaries, men and women all included, are now sent out by the January-The World. churches of Christendom. In England February-Chinese Empire, Confu- alone, with a population of 27,000,000, cianism. and in the Established Church alone March-Mexico, Central America, West Indies, City Missions. as there are two and a half timea many April-India and Burma, Hinduism. May-Siam and Malaysia, Unoccu- clergymen. The Moravian Church pied Fields, Buddhism. sends out into the foreign field one in June-Africa, Freedmen. 60 of its members, while other Protes. July-Islands of the Sea, Arctic Mis- tant bodies in general give only one in sions, North American Indians. 5000. August-Papal Europe, Romanism. September-Japan, Korea, Shintoism, As to destitution.-Thibet, almost aU Medical Missions, Chinese and Japanese of Central Asia. Afghanistan, Beloochisin the United States. tan, nearly all of Arabia, the greater October-Greek Europe, Moslem portion of the Soudan, Abyssinia, and Lands. the Phillipine Islands are still without November-South America, Frontier a mISSIOnary. Besides this large dis· Missions in the United States. tricts of Western China and Eastern December-Syria, The Jews, Educa- and Central Congo Free State, large tional Work. portions of South America, and many of the islands of the sea are almost or Facts and Figures from Many Lands. altogether unoccupied.
BY THE MANAGING EDITOR. China's population is variously esti- mated at from 350,000,000 to 500,000,- One tlwusand m'illion souls, two-thirds 000, and counting women, there are of the human race-heathen, pagan, about 1100 missionaries from Protestant Moslem-most of them have yet to see churches. Should the missionaries a Bible or hear the Gospel message. there bear the same proportion to popu- lation as in London, there would be As to religion, the world's popUla- more thanjifty times the present force. tion is divided about as follows: In India there are more objects of Protestants". . . .. ••…..•••..•. 120-1150,000,000 idolatry and false worship than there are inhabitants. RomlUl Catholics ……….. , … , 175-210,000,000 In Japan, for every Christian disciple Eastem Chnrch (mostly Greek).. 84-99,000,000 there are two Buddliiat priests and six Shinto temples, and 10,000 more head Jews…….. .•••…••..•…. …. 7-10,000,000 priests of Buddha than the entire num· ber of followers of Christ. Mohammedans….. .•….•. . … 1fO-200,OOO,000 Africa is not only the Dark Continent Confuclanistst. .• ••………… 80,000,000 still, but perhaps, on the whole, most destitute of all the continents in relig- Buddhists …..••….. , ..•••…•. 340400,000,000 ious teaching. On the West African coast the habitations of cruelty still Hindus .•..•…….•••……• , .. 175-220,000,000 abound. Near Lagos 200 human beings were lately offered in sacrifice! Chris· Shintoos ….•.. ………… ….. 14,000,000 tendom has introduced 70,000 gallons of rum to every missionary. In the Pagans •…..••.•………….•.. 200-2150,000,000 great Congo Free State there are 100 drunkards to one convert. Under the To the thousand millions of non- maddening infiucnce of intoxicating Christian peoples less than 10,000 Prot- • These numbers probably more correctly represent those liYing in Protestant countries and not otherwise designated. There are only about 40,000,000 Protestant communicants.
t There are probably 400,000,000 of the Chinese and Koreans who accept Confucian ethics, but m~ny of them are also Buddhists and Tao· l.ts. drink sent from New England 200 Con· was but one new translation for every goans in one day slaughtered each other. sixty-six years, while from 1880 to 1890 One gallon of rum caused a fight in the average wasfive in one yea1' by the which 50 were slain. British and Foreign Bible Society alone, and in 1892 nine new translations were Medical missions are found especially begun. helpful in China, Korea, Persia, Syria, India, and Africa, where native physi- At the beginning of the century the cians are unskilled and often barbarous Bible was within the reach of only one in their treatment of even the simplest fifth of mankind; now it is accessible, as cases. Many of the acts perpetrated by far as translation into native tongues .. medicine men" among the heathen and dialects is concerned, to nine tenths are in thelll8el yes piteous appeals to us. of the earth's inhabitants. In Africa children are scored with a sharp knife from head to foot to cure During this century over 160,000,000 them of a slight illness. In the Friend- copies of the Word of God have been ly Islands delirious patients were buried printed in over 350 different llillgl1ages alive, and in other parts of the South and dialects. No very important tongue Pacific incisions with a knife are made of the earth is now unrepresented. to let out pain. In 1892 there were distributed, at More than one half of those who die home and abroad, by the American, in Calcutta have no medical attendance British, and Scotch Bible societies whatever, and not more than one fourth 6,000,000 copies of the Bible in whole have attendance of physicians who de- or in part-more than there were in existserve the name. If the supply of phy- ence one hundred years ago. sicians in India were in proportion to that of England there would be a medi- Dr. David Abeel said, forty years ago cal force over 190,000 strong-at pres- and more, that wherever he went, in ent there are less than 150 foreign and China or in Java, in Siam or anywhere Eurasian doctors. else on heathen ground, he met always one missionary, who was neither Pres- Taking the non-Christian countries as 1:yterian, Congregationalist, Methodist, a whole, there is but one medical mis- nor Episcopalian, but Who combined sionary to a population as large as New the excellencies of all; always ready York City, While the heathen are dying to speak, and to speak for God; never at the rate of 40,000,000 a year. doubtful in the utterance of truth; never offensive, but always ready to be In the Report of the General Mission- silent if those around preferred, but ary Conference at Allahabad twenty who was always ready to witness for years ago, it is stated that a .. grave the Divine Master and for the heavenly theological professor considered it neces- kingdom; in which missionary he had sary to enter his protest against the cor- more satisfaction, on the whole, than rupt and immoral system, which had in any and all the others he had met; (or its object the bribing of the heathen and that one missionary was the Bible /" and Mohammedans of India into becoming Christians by means of a dose Educational work is found especially of castor oil and epsom salts." Il1Iadia useful in Turkey, South America, Afrito-day to be able to add medical to mis- ca, and India, and has played a very sioTmry is like placing a cipher after important part in Japan. another figure-it increases the value tenfold. Upward of 200,000 patients There were in 1892 over 700,000 are annually treated in mission hospitals scholars in 17,500 schools, carried on by and dispensaries. the missionaries of America and Eu- rope. Bible translation and distribution has been wonderfully increased of late Oontributiona to all benevolent puryears. l!'rom 100 to 1500 A.D. there poses by Protestant Christians of the United States amount to about $85,000,- 000 annually. Only one seventeenth of this is given to foreign mi~sions. If the rapid emergence out of centuries of gifts in proportion to income of church- midnight darkness. Thirty thousand members equalled that of the Japanese children are gathered into Sabbath- converts, the contributions would be schools. There are about forty soci- increased at least tenfold. eties at work with over 7000 ornaincd The Japanese workmen average less missionaries. In 1868 the numoor of tha'!l 12 cents a day wages, yet the con- communicants was 20,000; last year tributions last year from converted na- the number of converts added was over tives aggregated over $100,000. 20,000.
'l'he training of a native mini8t1'Y is The question has been raised by some everywhere the most important work as to Whether the Africans can be really of the missionary. Clllistianized. Bishop Crowther, a na- Within half a century mission sta- tive African, was sold as a slave and tions have multiplied more thau tenfold " afterward emancIpated, converted, edu· ordained missionaries with same ratio, cated, and has been a roost successful but native laborers and assistants have bishop of the Church of England in increased thirtyfold. Western Africa. .
If the last eighteen years be divided Professor Smith says that the 80,000,- into three periods of eight years each, 000 natives of Central Africa are" as the Baptists during the first sent out 67 good stuff to make men of as were the missionaries; during the second, 70; ancient Britons of England." The trans- und during the third, 175, or 150 per formation that has taken place among cent advance. In other denominations many of the Zulus and Hottentots has there has been similar increase, and it been marvellous.
is probably owing largely to the Stu- In Cltina. has begun a new era of the dent Volunteer Movement. Six hun- railway, telegraph, and scientific ad- dred and thirty volunteers have already vance. Before modern civilization idol- gone out, and 100 ure under appoint- atr.v and superstition must gral1ually ment. . recede as darkness before light. Some Africa has an area of over 11,000,000 time ago the nati ves in Central China square miles and a population estimated objected to the building of a railway, between 150,000,000 and 200,000,000. on the ground that the laying of the If the present missionary force were railroad ties would disturb the graves equally distributed throughout tne con· of their ancestors and anger the guard- tinent, each ordained missionary, native ian dragon which surrounded their city.
and foreign, would have a parish as They were obliged to yield, however, large as the State of Connecticut. before the authority of the governor of As late as 1851 the President of the the province. Science may destroy idols Royal Geographical Society said: "All and dispel superstition and breed scep- beyond the coast of Central and South ticism as to non-Christian creeds, but it Africa is still a blank on our maps." cannot in itself reveal God nor create Twenty years ago the Congo nati ves faith ill Christ. This only the Bible had never seen a steamer; now a fleet cando.
of twenty ply the waters of the Upper In 1842 the number of communicants Congo. Railroads are being built from of Protestant churches in China was 6 ; south amI east toward the centre; a in 1865, 2000; and in 1892, 50,000.
telegraph line from Cairo to the Cape; It is estimated that the Chinese spent steamers ply the waters of many of its every yea~ $130,000,000 in ancestral rivers and lakes. worship, and the Protestant church- A chain of mission stations r:eaches members of the United States spent but from the mouth of the Congo to the $85,000,000 for benevolent purposes of Equator, and Africa is beginning to the church.
surpass many other countries in her In Foochow alone 800 opium smokers knelt in a place of worship anI! prayed the total tract circulation was only half God for deliverance from the chains of a million; now one society alone circuthis soul-enslaving habit. There are lates more than 12,000,000. By the 150,000,000 opium smokers ill China. action of the government education is spreading among the masses, and it is India has a population of 288,000,000, of vital importance to social and religand an area of 1,554.000 miles (one half ious life that the appetite thus created ai large as the United States). There should ha"ve healthy food. are still thousands of towns with populations of 5000 and upward which have The Christian Vernacular Educanot a single missionary. tional Society distributed over 1,000,000 books and tracts last year. When Carey landed in India Protes· tant Christianity was represented by India has 21,000,000 widows and one feeble mission in the south with a 50,000,000 zenana prisoners. No wonfew thousand converts. In 1851 there der that a society of native women in were 91,000 converts. Now there are Bombay hDS for its motto, " The world 40 societies represented which support was made for women too." 1000 ordained, 71 medical missionaries, and 758 women. The communicants An educated Hindu was lately asked number 250,000, and the adherents what in modern missionary effort made about 1,000,000. The number of con- him fear most for the stability of his verts last year was 24,000. There has own religion. 'He replied: "We do been a gain of one 7~undred and forty per not greatly fear your schools; we need cent in the last ten years. not send our children. We do not fear your books; we need not read them. A Sunday.school procession number· We do not much fear your preaching: ing over 80,000 children, all either of we need not listen. But we dread your Hindu or Moslem parents, recently women, and we dread your doctors; marched in Lucknow, the scene of the for your doctors are winning our hearts, awful Sepoy massacre in 1857. India and your women are winning our has eight Christian colleges and 26,000 homes; and when our hearts and our schools and 3,000,000 pupils. homes are won, what is there left us ?"
'I'here are 18,000,000 girls of school Japan has an area of 147.655 square age, and only one in 60 attends school. miles, and consisis of nearly 4000 isl- This leaves 17,700,000 to grow up in ands. The population numbers 40,- ignorance. 072,000.
The Hindu Vivekanandaasked at the Twenty-nine societies are represented Parliament of Religions why those who with 604 missionaries. The adult memwere so fond of sending missionaries to bership of the 365 native churches is save the souls of heathen did not do 85,584. In 1892 there were 8731 consomething for thcir starving bodies. verts added. The Western Recorder replies, that Christians have contributed $40,000,000 It is said a larger proportion of the to famine relief funds, besides estab- people can read than in any other counlishing in India hundreds of hospitals try in the world. There Bre 28,000 and asylums, whereas the heathen have schools with 72,000 teachers and 8,410,- never established one of either. Only 000 scholars. Besides this there are 607 6 per cent of the people of India can Protestant Sunday-schools with 22,777 read or write, and that percentage in- scholars. The theological schoolsnumcludes all English residents. ber 16, and the students 542.
There is a great awakening of the Korea has but oue missionary to every mental and moral forces, and it rests 800,000 people. 'There are three sociwith the Christians of Englaud and eties there and 177 communicants. America to prevent this from developing into agnosticism. Thirty years ago Turkey in Asia has an area of 509,289 square miles and a population of 15,- 608,055. There are 230 missionaries (including women) and 13,513 com· of over 3,1,000,000, there are but 325 municants. Protestant missionaries from 17 soci- eties. The number of communicants is Pliney Fisk went to Syria in 1818. about 15,000. One half of the popula- He died in 1820, and by his grave in tion is not within reach of the pure Beirut was planted a little cypress·tree. Gospel. There are no .missions in Now this tree, planted in the suburbs of Bolivia, Ecuador or Venezuela. Ro· a town of a population of 8000, has manism in its worst form-only a step grown to be a stately cypress in the removed from :heathenism – prevails very centre of a city of 90,000 people. there. The educated classes are in a Overlooking it, says Dr. Jessup, is a transition state from Romanism to female seminary, a large church edifice, scepticibm. a Snnday.school hall, a printing house which sends out more than 20,000,000 As to negro instruction in the United pages annually,. and contains 30,000 States, where only twenty-seven years electrotype plates of Arabic Scriptures. ago no colored child was legally per- Within a radius of four miles are 4 mitted to read, there are now 25,530 Christian colleges, 7 female seminaries, schools in which 2,250,000 have learned 60 boys' day schools, 31 girls' schools, to read, and most of them to write. In 17 printing·presses, and 4 large hos- the colored schools there are 238,000 pitals. pupils and 20,000 colored teachers. There are 150 schools for advanced edu· The great triumphs of the Gospel in cation, and 7 colleges administered by Turkey are the gaining of religious tol- colored presidents and faculties; and eration, the elevation of woman and the of the presidents three were formerly family, educational advancement, and slaves. It is also noted that there are the progress in Bible translation and 154 colored editors, 250 lawyers, amI distribution. 740 physicians, and that there are 247 colored students now educating them· In the Ottoman Empire arc 892 Prot- selves in European universities. estant schools with 43,027 pupils. In the Islands of the Sea there are 211 Sixty thousand copies of the Bible stations occupied by 190 missionaries. are sold annually in the Turkish Em- Twelve societies are represented. The pire. converts number 100,000.
Difficulties in mission work arise A little over one hundred years ago chiefly from the opposition of the gov- the population of the Sandwich Islands ernment, whose policy is" Turkey for numbered 400,000. Through what we the Turks." They are hostile to the call" civilization' " there remaiu now Protestant schools, and large numbers hardly 30,000, and instead of the fine of converts emigrate to America and phySical specimens of manhood, with elsewhere, thereby causing a loss of their extensive tracts of valuable land, teachers and pastors. The boycotting there is hardly a wealthy native left. of native converts makes self.support Their lands have been seized by the ad· in the churches extremely ditlicult. In venturer and the speculator. spite of these difficulties, however, the success of Protestant missions is secured "Gem;ral" Booth says, with more by the Protestant educational institu- severity than exaggeration, that "the tions, wide distribution of Bibles and day has gone by when the priest and other Christian literature, and the deep- the levitc are content simply to pass by rooted faith of the native converts. the wounded man. Some of them must Protestantism as a principle is steadily needs turn backaud punch the head of growing in the land. any good Eamaritan that ventures to come to the rescue of the man they South Amll'l'ica is called the "neg· neglect." lected continent." With an area of 7,000,000 square miles and a population
EDI'l'ORIAL DEPAlt'l'MEN'f
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The leading editorial article, in the T. C. Horton, H. N. Frost, James E. November issue – " Thy Kingdom Come"-was the outcome of personal Mathieson, Bishop Baldwin, H. 11. and prolonged studies of the Word of Parsons, Robert E. Speer, Robert P. God; and if the views therein expressed Wilder, Sir Arthur Blackwood, F. S. may at first have struck auy reader as Curtis, A. B. Simpson, George MUller, extreme or unwarranted, the editor hopes and James Wright, Andrew and Hora· that judgment may not be pronounced tius Bonar, George E. Pentecost, Henry hastily, but only after such careful ex· Varley, Lord Radstock, F. B. 11:eyer, amination as the writer himself has and hosts besides, have held, in sub- given the subject. The paper was pre- stance, the same opinions which this pared, in substantially its present forlll, obnoxious paper upholds; and not only for the ~Iildmay Conference in London so, but the writer has himself heard in June last; then, with some modifica· most of them affirm that their zeal in tions, it was given at the Congress of missions dates from their acceptance of Missions in Chicago in October. Partly these often 1'idiculed views. This is because of its historical interest, as con- something at least to think of. May nected with these two great gatherings, not the common views of the kingdom it was thought best to give it a place in be largely traditional and historical, this REVIEW; but, while the views rather than scriptural and spiritual? therein expressed bind no one, even of the editorial staff, but are purely those The author of this paper confesses of the editor-in-chief and, he may add, that these were not the sentiments of of his beloved colleague, Rev. A. J. his earlier ministry, but these views . Gordon, D.D., there is no hesitation in came purely through biblical studies, affirming that these are substantially the correcting previous opinions by scrip- views of the majority of workers on the tural standards. Hence he holds these foreign field, as actual extensive corre- views not as tentative nor theoretical, spondence with missionaries shows; as but as final, and unassailable on scrip. Mr. W. E. Blackstone, of Oak Park, tural grounds. He therefore once more whose acquaintance with missionaries affectionately commends this discussion is as wide as that of any man in Ameri- to those Who love the Word of God and ca, asserts. The whole question is, wait for the kingdom of God. however, one not of previous bias or personal notions, of tradition or phil- He felt constrained to gi ve his testi· osophy, but ultimately a question of mony concerning the "Parliament of What the W01'd of God teaches. The Religions." But before he ventured to article is meant to be purely expository, put this paper in its final form on the and must be met and answered on a pages of this REVIEW, he submitted it biblical basis. to the judgment of some of the best and wisest men of his acquaintance. Some of our contemporary journals From one of these-a man who for wise affirm, as was anticipated, that the views judgment, apostolic charity, and gen· therein expressed "cut the nerve of eral beauty of character has, among all missions. " Well, it is very strange his wide acquaintance, no superior-he that so many men, most devoted to mis- received the following: sions, such as Hudson Taylor, Spencer Walton, A. J. Gordon, C. H. Spurgeon, " Your article in full on Parliament Dean Alford, S. H. Kellogg, W. G. of Religions was received. I am great- Morehead, E. P. Goodwin, D. L. IV pleased with it. It is strong and Moody, D. W. Whittle, J. H. Brookes, righteous, yet sufficiently tempered. The more I see of the fruits of that blasphemous love-feast, the more I am convinced that it was really originated and managed by the prince of • the power of the air, the spirit that now an understanuing as to the means of worketh in the children of disobedi- publishing reciprocally the dogmas of ence.' " the different religious beliefs. An un- derstanding of this kind, it is true, Rev_ C_ C. Starbuck has sent to would have implied the right of propa- the editor some exeerpts on the Parlia- I("ating the Asiatic religions in our Christian communities; but this right ment of Religions, translated by him, already exists, at least in our Western countries, and we should have no occaas follows: sion for uneasiness if it were put in practice, "The Parliament of Religions at Chicago opened its sittings at the ap- " For instance, Fung Quang-ju, Secpointed date, September 11th. It is retary of the Chinese Legation at Washknown that the idea of thus confront- ington, officially delegated, as appears, ing with each other the representatives by his government, presented an essay of all religions, in order to bring to on < Reciprocity' according to Conview the points which these men may 11ave in common and the differences fucius. This virtue consists in not which separate them, has not met with doing to others what we would not bave universal approbatk'IL others do to us. What an excellent op- portunity this would have been t.o come "The Ki1'chenfl'eund feds bOll nd to call to an understanding with him as to the it' an empty aud stllpid comedy.' The measures tending to obviate the inces- Archbishop of Canterbury has refused sant and often bloody collisions of the to take part in the sessions; the En!!;- Confucianists with the messengers of lish braneh of the Evangelical Alliance t.he Gospel; as to the meaIlS of bringing ha~ abstained from appearing. Tlle into agreement the declarations of re- Sultan. acting IlS Commander of th!! ligions tolerance emanating from the Faithral, has even forbidden the Mos- throne, and the vexations measures of lems to attend the gathering, and has addressed the same prohibition to the the provincial authorities, which render Christian church dignitaries of his em- these futile I pire. " But in pla.ce of taking pains to turn "The promoters of this aspIrIng these religious assemblies to account in (grandiose) enterprise, however, were such ways, it seems to have been animated by the best intentions. Their thought enough, as in similar 8J[!semcirculars assign, as the purport of their blies previously, to exchange complienterprise, the desire to develop the ments and felicitations, and to applaud spirit of human brotherhood among re- one another beyond measure. It ligious men of the various cults; to would, however, have been better to bring into clearer publie conscious- make rejoinder to a certain Buddhist ness the distinctive doctrines of each priest, named G. H. Dharmapala, who religion; to bring into recognition proposed this question to the assembly, that theism has inexpugnable founda- < How many of you have read the life tions, and that man has serious grounds for believing in immortality; to rein- of Buddha?' and wbo, when only five vigorate the forces which are striving hands were raised (which does not absoagainst materialislil; to demand of each lutely prove that these were the only religion the light which it is capable of furnishing to the others; to make out readers of this biography present), exexactly the present situation of each reo claimed, with an accent of profound ligion ; and finally to persuade all the disdain: 'Only five! Four hundred peoples of the earth that they onght to and seventy-five millions of human have more friendly relations with each bein gs profess our religion of hope [of other. despair would have been more exact] and of love; you, who call yourselves "Beyond doubt. if our missionaries a great nation, you do not even know and those whom they e..-angclize were the history of the founder of this religa.lways animateu by the largeness of ion, and you pretend to judge us!' temper breathing in this programme, the labor of the former would be facili- No one seems to have taken pains (pertated in many cm,es. But in order to haps the rules were against it) to conput these principles in practice, it would tradict the eloquent advocate of Budhave been necessary that the r-epresenta- dhism, and to bring him to note that tives of the various Asiatic religions he obtains his formidable Dumber of which figured at the Congress sllould Buddha's adherents only by including llave held personal conference with the the Chinese among them, something represcr:tatives of the various mission- which be bas not the least right in the ary societies lahoring in the midst of world to do ; that tbe countries where their coreligionists, in order to arri ve at Buddhism is the dominant religion, like Siam, Burma, Tbibet, are the most de- generate of all Asia, vegetating ina.. dreary marasmus; that if they seem to A. That the Prudential Committee be at present reviving, it is because be increased at once to fifteen members Chl'istian civilization is beginning to (including the President and Vice-Presiinfuse into them a new life; and that dent). if the island of Ceylon makes an exception, it is only because it is subject to a B. That, beginning at the annual meet- Christian government. ing of 1894, the members of the Pruden. tial Committee shall be elecred in three .. These observations have been sug- classes, one class to serve three years, gested to us by reading the report of one class two years, one class one year; the opening session of these remarkable that at U;e cxpiration of these terms assemhlies; but we do not believe that members shall be chosen in classes for the subsequent sittings are likely to terms of three years each. It is further bring any modification of our judg- recommended that rio member wbo has ment. The' Parliament of Religions' served three full successive terms shall will have no practical result; it will be, be eligible for re·election till after a to the very end, merely a simple curi- year has passed. osity, like so many others which are airing themselves at the Chicago Expo- O. Autborizes means to secure legal sitton."-Revue des Missions Con tempo- authority for this" change in the cbarraines (Basel). n. ter. " Again, and in an un~elfish spirit, the Resolved, That this Board, in re- sponse to the expressed wish of its miseditor appeals to the benevolence of his sionaries in Japan, and in recognition of the successful labors of the Rev. Willreaders for help in the gratuitous circu- iam H. Noyes in that empire, requests the Prudential Committee to offer to lation of this REVIEW among students him an appointment as a missionary of the Board. Tbe Board declares that for the ministry and especially "volun- this action is not to be understood as in any way modifying its former uttertecrs for the field, whose poverty and ance on the suhject of future probation.
self-denial make it impracticable to pay A, B, and o were carried unanimous- ly, and the vote on n was 106 to 24. the price of the REVIEW. These arc the men of all men who need the stimu- lus, the information and inspiration it The editor has hitherto sedulously re- afl'ards. This" volunteer fund" has frained from any utterance on matters fallen of late into neglect. It is a long of the A. B. C. F. M., fearing further time since any considerable amount has to embarrass its action when already been paid into its .. treasury." The complicated with many difficulties; but editor gratefully acknowledges the fol· it seems to us that in this its final issue lowing donations: there has been a distinct concession in lIrs. McEwen, of Italy…….. $25.00 favor of the broad and loose theology Mrs. Grace Passmore Green- of the time.
wood, of London………… 15.00 There is no use of denying that there Benjamin I. Greenwood, Esq., is a drift within the evangelical church in exactly opposite directions. There of London. . . .. . . . . . . .. . . . . . 33.00 are conservatives who hold to the old $73.00 theology, and cannot and will not give The fund still is overdrawn some $202.. up the full inspiration and inerrancy of 14. Would not some whose hearts are the WonI of God, and the doctrine of stirred in behalf of these poor young future retribution as therein set forth.
men, who are devoting their lives to Others arc advocating the views of missions, take up this ministry to saints? higher criticism and a modified view of and is there not some one person who future punishment, with the .. eternal will send direct to the editor a check for hope" theory of Archdeacon Farrar.
this deficiency? This REVIEW has made its choice, and stands upon the old platform.. As to Tho following is the important por- the future state, if there be any essen- tion of the action of the American Board, tial change in the soul's condition after by which the revolntion in its constitu- death, it is not revealed. If any man tion and policy was effect!ld : will indulge a hope unwarranted by Scripture, why not at least keep it to each a shirt, and told them something ltimseif, and preach only what is clearly of this story of Jesus. He asked if they authorized in the Word of God? It is could l'emember the name, and they said, one of the worst evils of our day that "Yes, it was Paton." Thirty.three men, and even preachers, seem to con- years before he had in his evangelist sider it duty to give utterance to their tours stopped at this island for a few doubtR, theories, and speculations. Why days; and here, so long after, was the not confine Ollr testimony to certainties fruit. The calico shirts had been worn and verities, and convictions based on but once a week, carefully preserved a plain decIaration-a thus saith the for the Lord's Day. and the only way Lord! Then if a man hold any view to keep the day which they knew was or have any notion, not in accord with to meet others and tell what they could Scripture or justified by its direct teach: remember of the wonderful story I ing, it works little harm beyond himself What shall Christian disciples say at at most. There is no power in any the great day with regard to the shamepreaching as such which goes beyond ful neglect of perishing millions? the limits oj instructions>" ambassadors mllst keep within the bounds of the When Hudson Taylor first went out Divine message or they lose all author- to China it was in a sailing-vessel. ity. Very close to the shores of a cannibal island the ship was becalmed, and it We cannot but think that a separa- was slowly drifting shoreward, unable tion is finally inevitable if the present to tack about, and the savages were divergence of opinions continues and eagerly anticipating a feast. The capincreases. Already fellowship is ques- tain came to 1<lr. Taylor and besought tionable both as to its expediency a'nd him to pray for the help of God. " I even possibility. The A. B. C. F. 1L will," said Taylor, "provided you set is a venerable and beloved institution, your sails to catch the breeze." The and this division in its ranks is doubly captain declined to make himself a disastrous; but any unanimity which laughing stock by unfurling sails in a is at expense of principles involved is dead calm. Taylor said, " I will not a greater disaster still. undertake to pray for the vessel unless you will prepare the sails," and it was Dr. J. G. Paton tells an affecting done. While engaged in prayer there story of a visit to a neglected island in was a knock at the door of his statethe Pacific, where he found to his room. "·Who is there?" The capamazement, though no missionary was tain's voice responded, "Are you still there or had been sent there, there was praying for wind ?" "Yes." "WeII," a sort of Sabbath keeping. Two old said the captain, "you'd better stop men, who had a very little knowledge praying, for we have now more wind of the truths of the Gospel, were keep- than we can well manage." And, sure ing track of the days, and on the first enough, when but a hundred yards day of each week they laid ordinary from shore a strong wind had struck work aside, put on a calico shirt kept the sails and changed the course of the for the purpose, and sat down to talk boat, so that the cannibals were cheated to those whom they could call about of their human prey. them, and in a simple way recited the outlines of a wonderful story they had Was it not Augustine who said, "I once heard about one Jesus. Dr. Paton need a whole Christ for my salvation, It inquired where they had learned this whole Bible for my study, a whole truth, and they answered that long be- church for my fellowship, a whole fore a missionary had visited the island world for my parish, that I may be It for a week or two, and harl given them true Catholic andnot a sectarian" ?
EXTltACTS AND THANSLATIONS. G3
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign husband. the late minister of Abercorn.
Periodicals. was one of the first to take an interest BY REV. C. C. STAltBUCK. ANDOVER, in the founding of the Blantyre Mission, MASS. has arrived, and now graces the apse. It is well colored, and the corona of AFRICA. seven lights adds to the beauty of the -" When, in the year 1853, the sec- church. It is pleasant to reeord that ond twelve pupils entered the Her- . twelve years ago Mr. Playfair made a mannsburg mission house, there was valuable gift to the mission of meteoro- found among them a prosperous young logical instruments." "We have now farmer, already married, who made over hung the central lamp, the gift of the to the mission his whole farm, compris- laundry workers. A central chain is ing three hundred morgen of land, with suspended from iron cross-beams, which all its appurtenances, and then. with in light scroll work stretch from four wife and child, entered the mission faces of the octagonal drum of the dome.
house as a simple pupil. That raised a This supports a cluster of twelve lamps great uproar at the time; the young from a height of thirty-six feet. The farmer was declared to be out of his lightness of the grouping of the lamps head; and Lewis Harms, who had ac- in black iron scroll-work is the most cepted his high-minded donation, was marked feature in the structure."
denounced as a fortune-hunter. This -" With a civil service for Africa; a farmer is now the senior missionary of hall of learning at Blantyre; ecclesiasti- Bethany, in South Africa-Herr Beh- cal, civil,naval, military, and geographirens. He has never repented of having cal degrees, we shall soon be a comin earlier times forsaken everything and munity of kings and knights and profollowed Jesus, becoming His servant fessors, with not one among us who in the foreign missionary service; his does not boast a spur, or a hood, or Lord has rendered him, therefore, a rich some other peaceful weapon of inspirrequital of blessing."-Allgemeine Mis- ing awe. And it is quite as it ought to sionB-Zeitschrift. be. We need kings for Africa, and any -The Presbyterian Church at Blan- kings going a-begging may apply-only tyre has been described as "a genuine we need real kings."
Central African cathedral." Life and -" The King of Mukori, in West Work (printed at Blantyre) gives some Africa, was present at tbe baptism of interesting particulars of the interior four converts. He afterward told the furnishings. "An oak prayer desk, a missionary' his whole desire was to obgift to the church from Mr. Patrick tain everlasting life,' and that he had Playfair, minister of Glencairn, has ar- prayed to God for grace to renounce rived. It is carved by himself, and is a polygamy. He has since made this rebeautiful piece of work. We value it nunciation openly before his people, highly." "The communion table is suminoned for the occasion, and has very light in structure, of oak, with placed himself under instruction."- thistle-leaf ornaments. The design is Awake (C. M. S.). taken from an old table in Holyrood.
The window-sills and heads of doors are -" The last half-yearly report of Cap- carved in native wood by the boys from tain Lugard, recently made public by designs by onrselves." "A stanuard the r. B. E. A. Company, though it lamp, the gift of Mrs. Playfair, whose does not add much of special note to
MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
our knowledge of events in Uganda, is kingdom, now winning its way slowly a document of extreme interest and im. through sore struggle and conflict towportance. It sweeps away the last ves- ard Christianity and civilization, of tige of fOUIIdation for the reports cir- forces that will paralyze all further deculated by the French mililsionaries, and velopment and destroy existIng work." puts the recent tangled events in clear -Church Missionary Gleaner. and simple sequence. But most of all does it tend to show how closely na· MISCELLANEOUS. tional interests and national honor are implicated in the present crisis. Cap- "Dr. Rigg, President of the Westain Lugard has found within the sphere leyan Methodist Conference, England, of British influence fresh articles of com- preaching recently at Truro, remarked merce anll further facilities for transit. upon the definite Christian character of ' He also emphasizes the state of districts leading English statesmen of the present where the people, trembling before the day, and the lack of Christian faith devastations of the Mohammedan Kab· among many of the great statesmen at urega, who ravaged their land and en- the beginning of the century. Both slaved them, had gladly hailed his ad- Mr. Gladstone and Lord Salisbury are vent, and had accepted with joy his decidedly religious men. Dr. Rigg also assurances that the new power had pointed out that the last ii,e Lord Chancome to stay. They see no distinction, cellors of England, the present Chanhe tells us, between the British power cellor included, were all not only pro· and the C()mpany, and have regarded fessors of religion, but earnest, practical him throughout as the direct represent- Christian men. "-Indian Witness. ative of the Queen. This hopeless confusion in the minds of the Waganda and How will it be when Mr. John Mor· neighboring peoples, not only of the ley comes to the throne? Company with the Government, but of the English missionaries with both, has – " If we are looking for the converadded much to the perplexity of the sion of the world before the return of situation. If all outward manifestations Christ, we shall hear with joy of thouof British power, having once been sands of baptisms and try to think that given, are withdrawn, Uganda will be if they are not all born again of the Holy left no longer' a fairly concrete native Spirit now, many of them will be after kingdom, but one rent asunder by inter- fnrther teaching, and that their children nal political strife, fostered all too clear- will be true Christians. If, on the other ly, alas I by those who should always hand, we understand the Scriptures to , make for peace. ' Uganda will speed- teach that the Lord is now gathering ily fall a prey to encircling enemies, and out of the nations a 'people for His the English missionaries and Protestant name' (Acts 15: 14; Rev. 7: 9), and converts, looked >n as the weak re- that at His coming nations will be mainder of a withdrawing power, will, brought in instead of individual converhumanly speaking, inevitably be as- sion!!, as now, we shall be earnestly de. sailed. It is not a question whether our siring that better day, and shall rejoice brethren there are willing to remain at as we '800 these things come to pass' the risk of their lives, or whether the by which we 'krww that the kingdom committee are prepared to expend funds of God is nigh at hand' (Luke 21 : 31). in a region without British protection- Those who look for the Lord's coming these questions have been unmistakably are not pessimist missionaries, as some answered in the past history of Ugan- suppose, but optimists: the outlook is da. We have put our hands to the full of 'hope for the Church and for the plough, and dare not look back. But world, when the King comes to establish it i~ a question of the flooding into a His kingdom. Until He comes the evangelization of the world i3 ,thtl wtrl"k of thc Church, and' the King's business
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
re~uireth haste.' Prophecy shows the nature, and he carefully points out that uj'gency of missions: "So MUCH THE nations lose their name and their place MORE AS YE SEE THE DAY APPROACH- in the world if they begin to live only ING."-H. DE ST. DALMAS, in Indian for these lower ends. This is ' sound Evangelical Review. teaching,' really wise and healthy coun- -Eleven years ago the Jesuit Father sel, and we commend it to all our read- Colberg, quoted in the Allgemeine Mis- ers. WcaIth has its place and power; sions-ZeitscMift for November, 1892, pleasUI;e, too, has its fUnctions; but writes of the people of Ecuador: "The nations that try to live by and for these simplest teachings of our religion are to things alone will not make very fruitthem unknown things. What shall we ful history; or, if they make fruitful say of the parish priests who take up history, it will only be by way of feartheir quarters in Quito or other cities ful warning rather than of noble and the whole year through, remote from inspiring example. "-Australz'an Ohristheir congregations, and merely ride out tian World.
to them once or twice, when the time -" We which are alive and remain" comes to gather in their church dues, till the coming of the Lord. With this and who only at such times, as it were, hope did Saul of Tarsus go forth to acby the way, administer the holy sacra- complish, within the compass of a huments? The moral state, up to the man life, his work of bringing every most recent period, has been the worst knee, in the name of Jesus, to bow to in Quito itself. What astonishes me is the honor of God the Father. The hope that the faith has not utterly perished. of the great decision as very near did A terrible responsibility rests on the not cause him or primitive Christendom ministers of the Church, and, above all, to esteem the work of missions superon the once so numerous monks. And fluous. Such a position, it is true, in the remaining republics, from Mexi- does not rest upon a shrewd computaco to Peru and Bolivia, matters are a tion of feasibility. It is the love of good deal worse." Christ which gives the impulse and the consciousness of having become, Surely it is time that 80mebody carried through saving grace, a debtor to all them the Gospel.
-" Mr. Justice Hodges, of Mel- men. The world being crucified to Him bourne, does not give a very flattering and He to the world, this may no longer account of the way in which Australians, interpose itself betweell Him and any at all events Victorians, live. Speaking man. It is not only the lust of conquest as chairman at a pleasant Sunday after- or of gain which makes the world ap- noon meeting in Prahran, his honor de- pear small, and will let no corner of it clared that he had lived thirty-eight seem too remote or uncouth to abide in.
years in Victoria, that he had not To whomsoever the horizon of eternity been more than a few weeks out of the has disclosed itself, to him all this is colony all that time, and that he has yet far more certain, and for him the been compelled to conclude that the measures of time also shrivel up. All great majority of the people lived for policy, even church policy, even mis- two objects chiefly-viz., 'gain, and sion policy, can but calculate and strive wild, exciting pleasures.' Mr. Justice after the attainable. The love that pro- Hodges despises neither wealth nor ceeds from Christ is governed by an- pleasure, but he properly thinks that other law; it takes hold of those small they are not the be-all and end-all of details of labor, evidently of themselves life. And this mad love of gain and of of slight account, believing the seed pleasure is, he remarks, common to all corns of the kingdom of God to have a ranks. His honor pleads for a higher vital energy which cannot be sup- life, for the culture of man's spiritual pressed, and to which no limits of
GENE:!tAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. [,January
earthly chronology are appointed. entirely devoted."-Sir C. EWEN SMITH, Whenever and wherever Christendom in Ohurch Missionary IntellifJence1'. and Christians, in firm confidence of the eternal goal, renounce the thought of -" The logic of faith. In the sumbeing at home in this world and of con- mer of 1892 therl:! occurred a violent verting this world into a home, then earthquake in one of the West Indian and there stirs and develops itself their islands, arousing universal terror, espeworld·conquering power, a power to be cially among the colored popUlation, displayed, not for themselves, but for who completely lost their heads. There Him who was not of this world. "-Dr. was, however, one old negress who dis- MARTIN KUHI.ER, in Allgemeine Mis- tinguished herself nobly from her counsions-ZeitscMift. trymen. The visitation, which shook the faith of others in shaking their -The Moravian brethren, in their re- homes, only confirmed her faith. One ports of the Labrador Mission, make of our missionaries, visiting her Boon mention of the visit of the agents of the after, asked the devout old woman, Chicago Exposition, to secure the visit whom infirmity had fettered to her ruinof a company of Eskimos to the Fair, ous hut during the earthquake, whether which we know was accomplished. she had not been greatly alarmed. Half The brethren acknowledge that these wonderingly, half reproachfully she re.. gentlemen gave them earnest assurances plied: 'I terrified! How couid I be, that they would do all in their power to when I have a God strong enough to secure the best good of the Eskimos in shake the earth?' "-Mis8ions-Blatt au.~ every way. Indeed, they strongly urged that a missionary should accom- der Bl"ildi3rgemeine. pany them, which, however, the brethren declined. Being convinced thnt the -It appears that it is not the body of dangers, both to health and to the moral the Hanover and Hermannsberg Free and spiritual life, of so long a continu- Church that has separated from the ance among the mixed throngs of such Hermannsberg l,[ission, as was at first a show, were much greater than any supposed, but only a fraction of it, possible benefit, they strongly discour- which, we are sorry to see, has also agcd the project, so that the Eskimos opened opposing missions in Africa and who actually went we may assume to New Zealand. The temper of these debe those wbo were least under mission- vout but extremist Lutherans seems to ary influence. be singularly like that of the extremist Presbyterians of Scotland in the seven- – " 0 ne good missionary is worth ten teenth century, in exaggerating into the indifferent missionaries. You must re- first importance points which appear to member that the personal character- most Christians of little significance. istics of men who lJave to deal with The Covenanter disputes, however, were natives, and especially with ignorant distinctly intelligible, while, according natives who are plunged in the depths to Dr. Warneck, even Lutherans find it of superstition, not only influence the hard to make out what these ultrapeople among whom their lot is cast for Lutherans are contending about. the time being, bnt they leave traces behind them that may continue for years; -It appears that the British Governso tbat, while a good man may leave ment-" thereby acknowledging that the his memory green to blossom for years, . anti-opium fanatics' were right after an indifferent man, or one who does not all"-has decided to prohibit the posunderstand the natives, or who rouses session or use of opium in any form by the prejudices of the natives, may hin- the Burmans. It groundS this prohibider for years the progress of that enter- tiOl'! on the law of Buddhism, thereby showing, as the Olturcl. Missiona;ry Inprise to which I am sure aU here are so telligenCe?' remarks, a regard. to the pre- cepts of Buddhism which is rarely
ENGLISH NOTES
shown to those of Christianity. In this clergy, who use every effort, it is said, case, however, as it remarks. the good to prevent the people from going to hear is a matter of joy, whatever the ground. evangelical preaching. Still there is sign of power in the movement. " If I -" George Fox said to Friends in go to your assemblies," said a man, " it A.merica in 1679: 'If you are Christians is not that I am against the priests, vou must preach the Gospel to Indians. against the Church-it is because there ~egroes, and all others. Christ com- they preach the truth." A poor widow, mands it. "-The Mi8sionary. s devout Catholic, said, "I do not find peace for my soul in my ow.n religion. British Notes. I go to your meetings; that so goes to my heart that I cannot desist." One of BY REV. JAMES DOUGJ,AS. the ladies who befriended her threat- ened to throw her off altogether if she The Fiftyjiftlt Report of the Evangeli- persisted. " Madame," answered she, cal Society of the Christian Missionary " there they preach the Gospel, and that Church of Belgium is now before us, is of far more moment." from which we translate a few items. It comprises 29 churches and stations. The German Buptist J1fission in the In 99 localities the Gospel is regularly Came?'oons.-This mission, to which we preached, and occasionally in 56 others. referred recently, has lately sustained a Colportage is carried on in 325 com- great loss in the exodus of Pastor A. munes. At Amoy, in the middle of Steffens. A young man, he went out Huy, colportage has led on to prayer- with his wife a few years ago to carry meetings. "Our friends had heard on the good work which the English several speak of prayer-meetings which Baptists were obliged to relinquish. evangelical Christians hold. ' We His record is that of a missionary afire should like, we also, to learn to pray,' with God ; and in his brief career he has said they to the reader, 'and to have succeeded in gathering many precious gatherings like those.' A first attempt sheaves. In 1892 the Lord granted a was made, when several ventured with rich increase to the church of 376; and subdued and timid voice to give thanks in June of the present year Mr. Steffens to God for the work done among them. wrote rejoicingly" that the work of the These gatherings are continued week- Lord is progressing steadily. baptisms ly ;" and the need of instruction also taking place nearly every Sunday, more becoming felt, a service of teaching has than 200 having already been added in been organized. the current year." On the morning cf July 4th, at nine o'clock, his earthly In the province of Namur, the move- course was run. In his last letter, ment which began at Morville fifteen which he dictated the night previous, years ago for long hung fire. No he says, "The Cameroons Mission and progress was perceptible. and the meet- the native people I have loved with all ing-house was almost empty. Lately my heart." His poor young widow has this work, so long struggling, has taken elected to remain and carryon the work on an aspect quite new. The constancy they began together. of the little band and the perseverance of their prayers have prevailed, and to- Pro.qre88 of tl,e Gospel in Ireland.- day their wishes are realized. They The work of Mr. Connellan, formerly a have now a worker staying in their Roman Catholic priest, is making its midst, and the meeting-house is lined mark on his fellow-countrymen; and with hearers. The Gospel seems likely so serious is the defection from Rome to extend its conquestR among the that the Roman Catholic bishops have neighboring villages. The work ill been consulting as to the best method Brnssels itself is sadly hindered by the of stemming the tide. Evidently}'l:r._
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
Connellan has been raised up of God, late them to take up the work they are endued with wisdom and courage, to already beginning." do a great work in Ireland. He has all the ve1'!le of a born leader of men; and be- Baptist Missionary Meetings at Reading an Irishman to the core, and versed ing.-Four new missionaries have been in the system from which through appointed for service in India. Mr. grace he has found deliverance, he J. J. Hasler, B.A. (London), is desigknows how to insinuate his way into nated for educational work in connecthe hearts of the people, and to turn the tion with the native Christian training flank of the enemy. His method is con- institution in the great mogul city of structive mainly. Where a hearing can Delhi. Mr. A. E. Collier goes forth to be obtained, nothing is so effectual as to work, as soon as his probationary course give the pith of the Gospel. If Jesus in Delhi is finished, in the densely popu- Christ Himself be received, believed in, lated district between Agra and Delhi. and known, the cerements of supersti- Mr. F. W. Hale is to be associated, as tion must soon fall off. The central companion in labor, with the Rev. light will banish the darkness. There J. G. Potter, of Agra; and D. Laurie are, however, many cases where Bible Donald, a Scotchman, is designated for statements will not be listened to, where Bengal, and will serve, during his prothe Bible is not regarded as the rule of bationary course, with the Rev. W. R. faith; and in such cases it is necessary James, of Madaripore. to undermine their boasted refuge by shaking their faith in the Romish The valedictory address to missiona- Church. The Protestant outlook in ries, new and returning, was given by Ireland is brightening, and despite ter- the Rev. W. Medley, M.A., classical rorizing, hundreds of ex-Roman Catho- tutor of Rawdon College, Yorkshire. lic men are to be met with in Dublin Space may be found for a brief paraand elsewhere who glory in their seces- graph: "Whatever may lie' before us sion. hidden and veiled, there is one thing that lies here before our eyes and hearts Rev. W. Holman Bentley oj the COr/go.- unveiled, a certainty; clear, bright, and This Baptist missionary has of late done absolute is this: God is 1'edeeming the a most valuable piece of work. In May world by Jesus Christ. Yes, He, not last he completed the translation of the we; bu. a share in this redemptive New Testament which has been printed work is offered now to us-to you; as by the British and Foreign Bible So- large a share as our hearts have room ciety. In the future Mr. Bentley hopes for, for it is here that lies the true measto work at a translation of the Old ure of our opportunity; not so much in Testament. His wife is an efficient our poor estimates of time, or space, or helpmeet. She has translated "More area, be they long or short, large or about J esns," of which the Religious small; of gifts, be they more or fewer, Tract Society has printed 500 copies, of lengthened or of shortened life, of and are now bringing out a revised edi- connted items of things achieved, but tion of 2000 copies. The same society as old it Kempis says, 'God weigheth has also issued a translation of" Peep' more with how much love a man workof Day," the work of a native assistant. eth than how much he doeth.' , He Mr. Bentley says, "It is . our great doeth much that lovetb much.' " desire to see an earnest, aggressive native Church. The handful of mis- Touring among Telugu8.-Mr. W. G. sionaries can do little toward the evan- Scott, writing from India, gives an ingelizing of so great a country. We teresting account of an evangelistic tour must look to the natives to do this; and among the Telugns. Hundreds of miles it is our aim to do all we can to stimu- were covered and the Gospel preached in 250 towns and villages. A spirit of hearing prevailed, and thousands of -Eugene Stock, of the English tracts, books, and Scripture portions Church Society, based a recent missionwere sold. Many confessed the sinful- ary addres~ on thc two words not and ness of idolatry, and said, " We have but occurring ten times in the second forsaken the true God of whom you chapter of First Corinthians, and with have told us. We want the love and the following hf:)ads: "1. Not the sofavor of God, and to dwell with Him ciety, but the Lord. 2. Not a pet misforever." Mr. Scott believes that there sion, but the world. '3. Not money, but are thousands who, though they have men and women. 4. (For the past) made no profession of faith in baptism, , Not unto us, 0 Lord, 1Wt unto us, but have lost all confidence in idol worship. unto thy name give praise.' 5. (For The fields in that land are white al- the present and the future)' Not by ready unto harvest. might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.' " 'rHE KINGDOM. -At the Missionary Congress in Chi- -" The idea that all dark skins are of cago a committee of ten was appointed a race innately" lower, " in the sense of to prepare a memorial and address to all being unfit for progress and civilization, missionaries with the view of calling is an idea born of imperial insolence, an together an international congress of inhuman religion, and a narrow concep- missions for the purpose of reorganiztion of human progress."-JiTrederie ing the missionary. forces of all lands. Harrison, in the F01·tnightly Review. The especial object in mind is the pre- vention of the waste of funds in mission -" The world will never become fields by different societies overlapping wholly Greek, nor wholly Roman, nor each other. If at this point thorough wholly Protestant, but it will become and universal reform could be had, and wholly Christian, and will include every also in respect to the unseemly strifes in type and every aspect, every virtue and the foreign field between Christians of every grace of Christianity-an endless different names, the good cause would variety in harmonious unity, Christ go forward with rapid strides. being all in all. "-Philip Sehaff. -Locate the statement in any other -And such is poor human nature! land and it is just as true. A mission- "My hand was nearly shaken off and ary in Japan writes that the hindrances my hair nearly shorn off for mementoes to mission work come from natural deby those who willingly let missions pravity, religious training, practical die !"-Jud8on. moral difficulties, and unconverted church-members. In reference to the -We must not pervert Scripture effect of religious training he says: precedents. The story is that a man "We speak of God, and the Japanese called upon a rich friend for some char- mind is filled with idols. We mention ity. "Yes, I must give you my mite," sin, and he thinks of eating flesh or the said he. "Do you mean the widow's killing of insects. The word holine88 mite?" asked the solicitor. "Certain- reminds him of crowds of pilgrims ly," was the answer. "I shall be satis- flocking to some famous shrine, or of fied with half as much as she gave," some anchorite sitting lost in religious said his friend. "How much are you abstraction till his legs rot off. He has worth?" " Seventy thousand dollars." much error to unlearn before he' can " Give me, then, your check for $35,000 ; take in the truth." that will be half as much as she gave; for she, you know, gave her all." -An Egyptian native deacon (Copt), at a village sixty miles south of Cairo, -" Personal consecration should be suspended ten of his members for such written purse-and-all-consecration." things as bad di3positions, vanity, stingi- annexed the islands of the Pacific to ness, and not allowing their wives to go civilization. Many of tIwm have been to weekly prayer-meetings. ·Where- completely transformed by the mis- upon the L1ttlIRran Observer is moved to sionaries, whose labors alone have cxclaim, "What a thinning out there given them commercial importance."
would be if such things were pcrmitted And General Lew Wallace this to the to have weight in the United States !" men themselves; "I have often been asked, ' iVhat of the missionaries of the -Shall we hope or fear, rejoiec or East, are they true, and do they serve lament? Wc have read much of late their Master?' And I have always concerning the desire and determination been a swift witness to say, and I say of the Japanese Christians to think and it solemnly and emphatically, that if act for themselves, and their restive- anywhere on the face of the earth there ness under any attempts at control on exists a band of devout Christian men the part of the missionaries or societies. and women, it is these. They live and And now a similar state of things is die in their work. Their work is of reported from the Presbyterian Mission that kind which will be producti.ve of in Brazil. No doubt great peril is in- the greatest good."
volved in all attempts to break leading strings, but (1) anything is better than -~Iaharajah Dlmleep Singh, son of a perfect Willingness to be guided and Runjeet Singh, born heir to the great carried forevermore; (2) independence kingdom of the Sikhs and to the match- must come some time, or the native less Kohinoor, died in Paris, October church will never do its work; and (3) 22d, of paralysis, aged 55 years. In neither missionaries nor secretaries are early life he exchanged his throne in the infallible, nor do they always know just Punjab for a pension of $250,000, rank what is for the best. On the whole, let among the highest nobility of England, us give hearty thanks while we pray for and two large landed estates; became wisdom. thoroughly English in tastes and habits; united witb the Church and long hon- -'Tis a consummation devoutly to ored his profession; married a most be wished that all missionary societies gifted and devoted Christian Egyptian would make haste to codify and unify girl in a Cairo mission school, and their very diverse systems of gathering made annual gifts to that mission, and reporting statistics, and also to adopt amounting in all to $100,000. Sad to a common nomenclature, so that word relate, in later days he lapsed into evil would have the same meaning with all. habits and sold himself to treasonable A half dozen or half score of items undertakings in behalf of Russia, and might be agreed upon which all would seemed to make general shipwreck of set forth. And what is meant by " for- faith and virtue. At many points in eign missions," and by" missionaries," his life truth is far stranger than the and by" churches" (is it buildings or wildest fiction.
organizations ?), or "members" (is it communicants, or what ?), and by" schol- -Perhaps the most famous distribu- ars" (does it include those in Sunday- tor of Bibles in the world was Deacon schools ?), etc. ? William Brown of New Hampshire.
He began the work in 1849, and kept it -The Review of Reviews bears this up until his death last year at the age testimony to the civilizing power of of 76. During that time no less than missions; "It is our brave contingent 120,000 copies of the Scriptures were of missionary teachers, and not the given out by him, and in 2 years pre- present greedy squads of German and ceding his death he canvassed 239 towns Spanish traders and officials, who have and visited over 80,000 families. WOMAN'S WORK. have a new name-to wit, Ovm' &a and Land. Thus its nineteenth birthday is -" Let the beauty of the Lord our to be celebrated. God be upon us" was the motto of the last year's graduating class at the Trip- -The Methodist women continue to oli, Syria, girls' school. push the Lord's work. During 24 years about $3,000,000 have been gath- -Women are displaying a remark- ered, and during the year ending Octo. able capacity for organized philan- ber 1st the income was $277,290, an in. thropy. Their recent Congress brought crease of $11,948. The number of mistogether a large number and an infinite sionaries supported is 145. The society variety of societies. It is estimated that has 4533 auxiliaries, 723 young women's there are some 20,000 women receiving societies, and 713 children's bands, with salaries in England as officers of benevo· a total membership of 150,738. lent organizations and 500,000 giving themselves in a semi'professional and -The agitation of the rights of worn· continuous way to such work. en, and most properly too, has reached the missionary societies where, from the -The Rev. Sumantrao V. Karmar- beginning, the brethren have had things kar, of Bombay, writes in the Mission- all their own way. The wives of mis· ary Herald (American Board), "The sionaries have for the most part been too home of the missionary has done more little accounted of; have often been to forward the progress of the Gospel omitted in the reckoning. And worn· in India than any other agency. To an's worth as a money-gatherer was see a woman, intelligent yet womanly, long unsuspected. The latest case of presiding at the table, voicing her opin· becoming feminine self·assertion is seen ions and ideas freely, assisting her hus· in the recent request of the Congrega· band in his noble work, managing dili· tional Woman's Board that, since al· gently her own household, and conduct. most half of the contributions are deing faithfully her special work among rived from its efforts, a fitting proportion women, is a novel and most interesting of its members may be possessed of vot· sight to a Hindu. The oosthetic and ing powers in the American Board. ' Christian environments of such a home have so impressed the minds of our peo- -The New York State Branch of this ple that they are endeavoring to adopt same Woman's Board has commenced this ideal home life as far as practi. the publication of TlwMessenger, aquarcable." terly, with Patchogue, L. 1., as head- quarters, and Mrs. C. S. Colton. editor. -A deaf and dumb woman in Man· churia, having applied for baptism, ! made her confession of faith in this -The Scottish United Presbyterians fashion: She drew on a scrap of paper have on hand a most importunate call for a crooked line, and pointing first to her- several women to go at once to Man· self and then downward, indicated what churia, where upward of 1000 women her past evil course had been. Then, are literally famishing for the truth, drawing a straight line, and pointing to with Lone to minister to them. her heart and looking upward, described the highway on which she was now OUR YO"GNG PEOPLE. travelling -First, all the giving for missions -Ohildren's Workfor Oltildren(Pres- was wholly by the churches as such, and byterian) is to be enlarged from 16 pages through t.he annual collection. Next, to 24, is to contain news from the the women organized by themselves and home and the foreign fields, and is to sought pledges of definite sums. Now, it looks as though the process of differ· entiation was to be carried another step, THE UNITED STATES. and the boys and girls, the young men and maidens, were to be banded to- -Every Sabbath the members of the gether to work, in a sense by them- Church of Christ Endeavor Society of selves, and in their own way. And cer- Elyria, 0., visit the jail to hold a pray- .tainly somehow from early childhood er-meeting, and the good-literature and onward there should be steady and per- flower committees carry reading and sistent training in the grace of giving, flowers to the prisoners. and toil for the advance of the kingdom. There b a serious defect if only the fa- -The college secretary of the Interthers, or the elders of Isrlte1, bear the national Committee of the Y. M. C. A_ bnrdens. Almost from the cradle let publishes a valuable table of statistics the pennies be saved and consecrated. relating to the religious condition of the colleges of North America for the col- -These three sentences set forth the lege year 18!l2-93, and not including fundamental ideas and principles of the young women or students in profes- Epworth League, the Methodist coun- sional schools. It appears that 147 colterpart of the interdenominational So· leges have the English Bible in their ciety of Christian Endeavor: Motto: curriculum, of which 68 are in the "Look up. Lift up." "I desire a Western States and 31 in the South: league, offensive and defensive, with Number of associations, 441; active every soldier of Jesus Christ. "- WIl8wy. members, 20,856; young men, 70,419 ; "We live to make our own Church a Christians, 38,327 ; non-Christians, 32,- power in the land, while we live to love 092 ; conversions, 2850; studying for every other Church that exalts our ministry, 4892; studying for foreign Christ."-Simpson. missions, 1115.
-" One cent per day for mISSIons -Charles Bathgate Beck, after varifrom each member of our church, " says ous bequests to persons, leaves $10,000 the Epworth Herald, "would give us to Columbia College; $10,000 to the more than $7,000,000 annually." One Home for Incurables in the city of New cent per day from each of the members York; $10,000 to the Society for the of the Presbyterian church would give Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; more than $3,000,000, or three times as $10,000 to the Society for the Prevention much as was contributed to missions of Cruelty to Children; and $5000 to during the past year. the Peabody Home for Indigent Wom- en, and directs that all the rest of his -Six societies of Christian Endeavor, estate shall be given in equal proporwhose members gave each two cents a tions to Columbia College, the Board of week, reached last year 15,000 persons Home Missions of the Presbyterian in Southern China with the Gospel, Church, the Presbyterian Hospital, the 2000 of them with medical aid. Society for the Prevention of Crime, and the New York Hospital. This resi- -An Australian" sunshine commit- due will give them $900,000 each, as tee" has bought an invalid's chair which the estate is not expected to fall below it loans to the sick. It was used for the $5,000,000. first time by an old gentleman who had not been out for six years. -In spite of eminent poetical author- ity to the contrary, the good that men -" I thank God for the Christian do lives after them. Take this capital Endeavor Society," says a Methodist case as an example: The Peabody gift Endeavorer in an Australian Methodist of $2,100,000 for the purpose of projournal, "for through it I found my moting education in the South was made way into the class meeting." in 1866, and in 1869 the donation was Carlisle, Pa., has ended the fourteenth increased to $3,500,000. Mr. Peabody's year of its existence, during which time previous donation to the cause of edu- 2361 students were admitted, of whom cation amounted to $1,250,000. 1483 were boys and 878 girls. These came from 59 different tribes; 1597 have -More than 60 graduates or students left, of whom only 60 graduated, all of the Ohio Wesleyan university are since 1889; 131 died at the school, and now in foreign missionary service. Nine 633 still remain. members of the last graduating class are candidates for the foreign field. -Out of 50,000 Sioux, over 4000 are The university has now somc 25 stu- now members of Episcopal, Presbytedents who are preparing for missionary rian, or Congregational churches. Many, work. A good record, and one which if not most, of these have become citiit is said no other Methodist college can zens_ The contributions of those conmatch. nected with the Episcopalians amount- ed to $4100 last year, while the women -Home missions find no mean field raised $2210. in Chicago, according to the figures relating to its population. The latest re- -The Free Baptists have receu.t1y tums give these nationalities: Ameri- sent a reinforcement of 7 missionaries can, 292,463; German, 384,958; Irish, to India, and they sailed in one party 215,534; Bohemian, 54,209; Polish, from Boston. 52,756; Swedish, 45,877; Norwegian, 44,615 ; English, 33,785; French, 12,- -Secretary Coit states that the 968; Scotch, 11,927; Welsh, 2966; Rus- Fr6nch-Canadians constitute fully one sian, 9977; Danes, 9891; Italians, twelfth of the population of Massachu- 5000; Hollanders, 4912; Hungarians, setts, and that in Worcester County 4827; Swiss. 2735 ; Roumanians, 4350 ; there are 9 towns with a population of Canadians, 6989; Belgians, 682; Chi- 41,395, of which these immigrants from nese, 1217; Greeks, 698; Spanish, 297 ; Quebec furnish 20,6411. The Congrega- Portuguese, 34; East Indians, 28 ; West tionalists have 8 churches among them, Indians, 37; Sandwich Islands, 31. 4 missions, a weekly newspaper, and a Total, 1,248,763. French Protestant'college -How much shall the negro be edu- -The Lutheran General Council nas cated? Three answers are given to this a mission in Eastern India with a force question in the South. The first is that consisting of 4 men with their wives, 2 he should not be educate€! at all, for it zenana workers, 2 native pastori, and would lift him above his station. The 96 evangelists, catechists, teachers, etc. second is that he should have education The Gospel is preached in 146 villages. enough to make him a better servant, The number of communicants is 1141, laborer, or mechanic. The third, held by and of pupils 1608. The number of the few more liberal-minded Southern baptisms was 600 last year. people, is that he should be educated as the white man is, for he is a man, and -Zion's Herald (Boston) is publishing must be prepared for all his duties and a series of exceedingly interesting letresponsibilities to his country, the world, ters from Rev. William Butler, the and to God. And somehow the last founder of Methodist missions in the reply seems to be most benevolent, most Northwest Provinces of India, who went Christian, and most truly American. out in 1856, and reached Bareilly just in time to taste the horrors of the Mu- -The Indian Industrial School at tiny, barely escaping with his life. Statistics of the Missionary S')cieties of the [THESE tables include only Missions to non·Christian and non-Prote,tant people., and so they omit in the United States. The figures are derivpd almost wholly from annual reports, and relate in the main possible blanks, and hence where official figures were not at hand, conservative estimates have been IIIis.ionary Income. Missionaries. Native Helpers. <i — ., ., .c 'C. '"0 0 ., ~" NAMES of SOCIETIES. -'–.0,.,",~, .c . .~ .,; 'O!r:i .~§ .-c2o ",,, S …. '0 l3 oj .~ ~ .. … 'C I::S 'g H ~"~ :«.:0.=.:. s:i.l '" 0 "~0 ~ 31'« … ~ " £ 0 p 0 E<. -183 1 "2 18 1:85 7 1 i 8 -2-,59 1 1 American Board ………………. 1810 -$679,286 $11=.507 2 Baptist Missionary Union ……..•. 1814 990,341 179,2S0 161 18 140 102 246 1,273 3 Southern Baptist Convention …… 1845 154,686 5,368 39 .. … 35 18 21 57 4 Free Baptists ………… ……… 1836 5 Seventh-Day Baptists………….. 1847 34,913 387 62 8 8 5 13 6 Christil>.U (Disciples) …………… 1875 3 …… 7 American Christian Convention …. 1886 6,610 ………. 19 3 3 …… 1 8 8 Lutheran, Geueral Synod………. 1837 9 Lutheran, General Coundl. …….. 1869 69,355 ~5 '0" …… 16 12 3 44 … 10 Methodist Episcopal …..• …. 1832 3,160 105 8 …… 1 1 1 12 4 …… 59,200 1,625 235 80 62 5 182 16,474 50 4 2 2 B9 993,592 104,038 184 100 214 1,971 11 Bishop Taylor'. Missions … …… 1885 36,961 . ……… 51 …… 80 12 37 51 12, Methodiilt Episcopal, South…….. 1845 227,027 12,700 46 181 37 6 20 105 5,300 1,640 99 13 AfrIcan Methodist Episcopal. … .. 1876 12 8 …… 7 14 Protestant Methodist….•……… 1882 14,711 290 54 3 3 4 5 15 Wesleyau Methodist…………… 1887 3,000 200 2 …… 2 3 …. 10 16 Protestant Episcopal ………….. 1835 282,499 8,288 94 …… 53 33 47 251 17 Pre.byterian………………….. 1837 1,014,504' 42,347 214 42 230 137 187 1,460 18 Presbyterisn, South …………… 1861 127,812 6,.~06 48 13 37 25 32 91 19 United Presbyterian …………… 1859 115,893 11,418 28 3 25 26 24 496 20 ReCormed Presb. (Covenanter)….. , 1856 20,839 700 43 6 7 …… 56 21 Ref. Presb., General Synod……… 1836 6,000 40 5 .. … 5 2 …… 28 22 Associate Reformed, South. 1879 4,182 261 2 ….. 2 2 3 Ii 23 Cumberland Presbyterian …. ….. 1820 36,568 1,386 6 …… 6 9 2 8 24 Reformed (Dutch)….. , ………… 1836 136,688 9,034 24 :I 26 1<1 36 356 25 Reformed (German) …………… 1878 . 2'>,015 3,047 4 …… 4 II 9 22 26 Evangelical Association…….. , …. 1876 , 14,889 1,127 7 …… 7 ….. 5 24 16,484 275 6 …… 7 German Evangelical Synod…• …. 1883 …… …… 28 28 United Brethren in Christ ……… 1853 25,000 1,111 5 …… 5 5 …… 44 29 Friends………………………. 1871 8,303 ………. 13 …… 7 12 .. – … !2 30 Canada Baptist………………… 1873 43,345 1,039 18 ….. 12 9 15 160 31 Canada Congregationalist …….. 1881 2,487 ……… 2 .. -.0. 1 2 …… 2 … 82 Canada Methodist.. ………… 1873 122,010 4,559 77 •. " .. 60 …… 16 40 33 CanadB Presbyterian……… ….. 1844 134,291 2,719 ~I 31 8 30 27 2 100 7 293 1 21,4 34 Twelve other Societies …………. …… , .. 585,877 32,672 87 84 1,156 9,793 1 1,448 1.19311,050 Totals ……………… $6,089,4021 $544,734 Unitod States and Canada for 1892·93.
work done in uon·Catholic Europe, while cO"cring that in behalf of Indians. Chinese, and JajJanese to 1893, though sometimes the year includes II part of 1892. The aim has been to leave the fewest made.
~ w§ ~:::s. i ~ ~"1=1':i~3ii 'AS~~~. ~:g ~~.~S !.;:J~:; ,f..)-.'S6 Conntriesin which .~~ o~.i Missions are Sustained. ~0 S~ ~~ ~~ ilr~..c : :l w a:I Q:$ ""' L"I 8 ~ ~~III '" '~0 g ~ '" ~Sill ,g'§ 0 3,215 1,224 442 ~ 3,750 135,000 1,147 –48,585 Africa,-'l'nrkey, India, China 1 Japan, :Micronesia, Mexico: Spain, Austria.
1,929 1,061 770 102,4.5 7,560 220,800 1,213 24,688 Africa (Congo), India, Burmah. 2 Assam, China, Japan, France, Russia. etc.
170 185 75 2,923 395 7,300 16 598 China, Japan, Africa, Italy, 3 42 13 11 860 :Mexico, Brlll.zil. t 59 1,470 95 3,865 India (Bengal). " ,4 15 2 30 …… 80 70 China (Shanghai). 5 97 ,45 20 788 127 1,500 10 960 China, Japan, India, Turkey. 6 17 27 4 199 37 350 2 20 Japan (Tokyo, etc.). 7 203 12 135 8,082 848 20,000 196 5,309 India (Madras), West Africa. 8 101 153 3 1,441 125 3,000 89 1,608 India (;lfadras). 9 2,784 352 366 26,296 2,337 51,200 326 13,053 China, Korea, Japan, Africa, 10 S. America, Mexico, Italy, 181 50 7 400 …… 214 106 99 10,733 947 Bulgaria, Mdaysia. 40 12 10 110 Africa (West Coast, Congo, 11 356 76 1,000 2 etc.). 3,076 China, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, 12 21,000 51 Anlerican Illdians, 800 5 257 West Africa, Westrndies. 13 21 3 2 217 11 400 4 241 Japan (Yokohama). .14 17 2 1 250 10 400 5 208 Mrica (Sierra Leone). 15 478 244 50 5,441 160 12,000 110 3,792 Greere, Africa, China, Japan, 16 2,470 758 398 31,324 3,452 77,500 725 Baiti, Indians.
246 132 35 2,702 391 6,500 26 28,983 India, Siam, China, Japan, Ko· 17 10,641 929 26,000 264 rea, Africa. Syria, PerEns, S. 602 223 41 241 20 600 31 America, Mexico, etc. 76 15 3 1,363 China, Japan, Korea, Africa, 18 Greece, Italy, Mexico, Brazil. 12,068 Egypt, India (Northwest Provo 19 inces). 618 Northern Syria, Asia Minor. 20 40 9 117 40 250 3 60 India (Northwest Provinces). 21 14 10 9 248 41 350 5 110 Mexico (Tampico, etc.). 22 31 10 10 615 85 8.10 4 150 J apl&n, Mexico. 23 459 217 55 5,799 457 14,000 172 5,099 China, Japan, India (Areot). 24 41 37 12 1,842 168 4,500 3 236 Japan (Tokyo, Sendai, etc.). 25 43 16 5 568 80 1,300 1 18 Japan (Tokyo, Osaka). 26 38 9 5 356 1 800 14 520 India (Central Provinces). 27 60 282 25 7,000 1,000 10,000 9 415 Africa (West Coast, Sherbro, 28 54 40 18 21<1 24 32 etc.). 643 Mexico, China, Japan, Jamaica, 29 651 ….. , 1,500 19 Alaska.
2,978 386 7,000 68 l,OOS India (Telugus). 30 7 1 ……………….. . 12 2 75 Africa (West Central). 31 192 95 40 7,607 …… 12,000 40 2,500 Japan (Tokyo, etc.), Indians. 32 198 145 75 2,082 291 6,000 144 3,751 China, India, New Hebrides, 38 West Indies.
– – -2-35 – – – – -2-65 …………… . – -62 – – – 2,530 — —- 14,389 5,749 2,766 277.027 23.783 645,452 4,867 146.652 EUROPE. out of heathenism by the humble in· Great Britain.-Dr. Barnardo's last strumentality of the Moravian Church, report shows that the income for the is the steady increase in the number of year, amounting to £133,000, was con- its members who devote themselves to tributed by 74,543 donors, two thirds service in the foreign field. During the of the amounts being in 49,004 sums past year no fewer than 36 have gone under £1 each, and that· less than 1900 forth, bringing the total of European were of sums of £10 and above. And missionaries to 392. At the same time, it is sai:! that half of the income of the the number of young men in training Salvation Army is collected, chiefly in is unprecedented.
pence, from the poor people who attend -This from the irrepressible Chap- the services. lain McCabe: "Don't you believe it?
-The Missionary Herald (Baptist) for Then listen. Twenty-five years ago, if November gives an excellent illustra- a traveller should come to the gates of tion of what admirable results the mod- the city of Rome with a little Testa- ern art of picture·making is able to ment as big as his thumb in his pocket, achieve. The life-like faces appear of the gendarme would search him, and 14 missionaries about to depart for their on the principle that a little fire would fields; and how much easier it now is do as much execution as a big one if it to follow them with our prayers! only has time enough, he would take the Testament. from the traveller, keep -A clergyman lately wrote to the it for him till he came back, and then Church Missionary Society stating that return it to him. Now, the Methodists, no less than 27 of his people-all of on a lot 95 feet wide and 155 feet long, them working men and women except in the heart of the city, right opposite one Cambridge undergraduate – had the War Department of the kingdom spontaneously and simultaneously offer- of Italy, are laying the foundations of ed for foreign missionary service; and a building that is to cost $100,000, and he asked that some one would go down in it they will soon have two or three and see them. Some are young, and big power presses at work printing must wait two or three years before Bibles and Testaments and religious coming forward; but others were rec- tracts and books by thousands; and ommended to offer definitely whenever they will also have here a school for they were able to do so. If half the boys and one for girls, and a church for number eventually go out, it will be an the people. There is a very long dis- unprecedented event in the history of a tance between the ostracised Testament parish. of 25 years ago and the Italian Method· ist Book Concern which is soon to be." -The Mildmay Mission is altogether unique among beneficent institutions, combining home and foreign work, and ASIA.
carrying on good deeds in great variety. Realms of Islam.-It reads like cut· Thus in London and near by are main. ting sarcasm, or like the extravagant tained 2 hospitals, 3 medical missions, fancies of a humorist, but the Montreal 20 missions, a training home for 40 Witness, in a recent issue, has a grave young women for the home and foreign editorial headed "Young Turkey," field, an orphanage, a probation home, speaking of a liberal movement, not yet 2 convalescent homes, and an invalid quite a party, and quoting from a mani· home; 40 buildings are occupied in the fe~to in pamphlet form which details various works connected in this society. the host of evils under which the em- The Continent.-Side by side with pire groans, how to remedy the same, steady growth in the numbers gathered and warns against the catastrophe in store if something radical in the way of ers, and 178 are women, many of them reform is not speedily taken in hand. wives trained to toil with their hus- bands. -The chief mosque of Damascus, which was destroyed by fire on Septem- -It comes out in official documents ber 14th, was one of the most famous now first published by the Calcutta and interesting in the East. On a com- Government, that after all the Sepoys manding site, its great dome and tall were justified in 1856 in charging that minarets were the first objects seen by the cartridges were greased with tallow, travellers to the oldest city in the world. and that somebody in the Ordnance De· The mosque was built more than a partment deliberately nnd persistentlf thousand years ago on the site of an lied when the fact was denied. And early Christiau church, the old walls hence came the Mutiny, one of the chief and many of the columns of which were horrors of history. Truly that was a permitted to remain, and was an object costly falsehood. of great veneration by the Mussulmans, for about it were clustered many sacred -Robert N. Cust is nothing if not traditions, among which was one that honest and plain spoken and forcible within its walls rested the head of John when he utters himself. And commonthe Baptist. ly, when he resorts to tongue or pen, if we do not believe, we do well to read, -Ten years ago Arabia was one of mark, learn, and inwardly digest what the unoccupied fields of the world. In he alleges, even when he expresses 1884 the Church Missionary Society the conviction that the dogmas and began work at Aden, and the English practices of Christian life are brought Baptists at Jeddah. About the same before the people of India " in the most time Keith Falconer, a Scotch noble- occidental, unacceptable, and unattracman, opened a mission at Sheik·Oth- tive form which can be imagined by an man. Three years ago Thomas Valpy alien and self-asserting European and French began his labors in Muscat, and American agency, despising and eVen about the same time an American mis- insulting the time-honored customs of sion was founded at Busrah and Bah- an ancient people who were civilized at rein. There are at the present time 7 a time when the Anglo·Saxons were Europeans and 4 natives working among still savages." He thinks the converts 10,000,000 people. The cities of Jed- are shamefully kept under. dah, Aden, Muscat, Bahrein and Makalah, each the centre of a province, are -The native kingdom of Mysore is open, and most of them have already to have marriage" reform." That is, begun to be occupied by the heralds of from henceforth no man over 50 shall the Gospel. marry a girl under 14; a man over 18 may not marry a girl not over 8; and -The cholera scourge, for which the the minimum age for marriage is 14 Meccan pilgrimages are largely respon- for a boy and 8 for a girl. sible, is to come to a final end, if the statement is true that England has -Rev. Jacob Chamberlain tells in the served a notice on the Sultan that if he Golden Rule of an exciting adventure does not see that this pest-hole is puri- with a tiger, and of a set-to with a tenfied, she will see that the pilgrimages foot snake occurring only a few days are prohibited. later.
India.-The Bareilly Methodist Theo- -Upward of 60,000 attendances were logical Seminary in 20 years has sent registered at the Amritsar hospital and forth 499 Hindu gospel workers, of its branch stations during the year. As whom 200 are missionaries, 61 are teach- regards out-patients, Dr. H. M. Clark claims that it is the largest medical mis- -Dr. Griffith John gives the story of sion in the world. The central hospital a notable Chinese convert named T'ang, comprises out· patients' department, who in his youth sought to become a waiting and consulting rooms, dispen- Buddhist priest, but was prevented by sary, operating·room, dark-room for the largeness of the entrance fee. After· eye-work, dressing·room and private ward he began to attend the preaching room; in separate buildings are store- of the missionaries, and was converted. room, servants' houses, students' quar· His house was five or six miles from ters, and in·patients' department bath· Hankow; but every Sabbath for six· room. Branch dispensaries are at Naro· teen years he regularly attended the ser· wal, Jandiala, Sultanwind, and Beas. vices, bringiug with him an ever·in· creasing number of neighbors whom he -The Health Officer of Calcutta re- had influenced. By and by he was ports that during the years 1886-91, out made a deacon, and became a preacher. of 49,761 persons who died in that city, But his business allowed him for a time 31,221-more than 3 out of every 5- to give only an hour a day to the work. had no medical attendance whatever in His usefulness, however, grew to be so their last illness, and less that one third evidellt that his brothers and other rela· were attended by those possessed of any tives resolved to set him free for it en· European training in medicine. In the tirely; and now, being supported by villages multitudes are blind, deaf, them, he gives his whole time to the dumb, lame, diseased for life because mission gratuitously. in infancy the simplest remedies were not to be had. -Fong Chung, a pure·blooded China· man, is now actiIlg as United States China.-Bishop Auzer, the chief of Consul at Amoy. As such he has the German mission in the province of power to try Americans resident in Shantung, has received a very high dis- Amoy for breaches of United States tinction from the Chinese Government. law. He was educated at Yale· Upon the advice of Prince Tshing and "Would that Mr. Geary could be the Tsung·li-Yamen (minister of foreign forced to visit Amoy and there become affairs), the emperor has conferred upon plaintiff in Rcase before Judge Chung!" the bishop the rank of Mandarin of the Third Order, an honor which has as yet -The Chinese haveanill·wiII against never been cxtended to a missionary. aU foreigners, but Roman Catholics The bishop is thus in rank next to the seem specially hated-the chief reason governor, and bears the title tas·yen (ex· for this being the extreme closeness of ceIlencY).-l1iilzer Zeitung, 8peye?·. their methods of work. They have sere vices for communion, etc., at which -We call the Chinese heathen, and none but converts are admitted. The yet they have some customs that would Chinese mind. which usually knows do credit to a Christian people. On everything about everybody's business, every New Year's morning each man cannot understand this, and the evil· and boy, from the emperor to the low· disposed can easily invent some bad est peasant, pays a visit to his mother. story, which is swallowed. He carries her a present, varying in value according to his station, thanking -" Behind I'chang are hills, low and her for all she has done for him, and covered with graves for miles-1,000,. asks a continuance of her favor for an· 000 graves is no exaggeration of thc other year. They are taught to believe number. The reason is that the' fungo that mothers have an influence for good shui ' (supernatural influence!!) are sup· over their SOIlS all tllrough life.-Pield posed to be specially favorable at News, I'chang, and so funerals come from great distances to bury. " -It is related that in the dead of to the Congo for use in the service of winter, with piercing winds blowing the mission. fiercely from the north, on a wheelbarrow a blind woman was transported 470 -The white ant is a pest almost bemiles by her husband and another man yond conception. In Africa their houses that she might be taught to read from are dome-Shaped mounds, often 18 feet raised letters, and so be fitted for work high. These insects erect pyramids one as teacher in connection with the Eng- thousand times higher than themselves! lish Baptist mission! ! In their travels the ants so conceal their approach that their presence is not sus- AFRICA. pected until the damage is done. They usually tunnel into any object which -The life and work of the late Bish- they attack, often reducing it to a mere op Crowther, the first African bishop shell. In this way they have been of the Church of England. will soon known to ascend within the leg of a be commemorated in Sierra Leone by table, devour the contents of a box upon the erection of a Crowther Memorial it, and descend through a tunnel bored Church. in another leg, in one night.
-Rev. T. J. Marshall, a native min. -One of the problems confronting ister, is engaged upon a translation of the Germans in East Central Africa, as the Bible into the language of Daho- a result of their progressive colonization mey. The New Testament and the policy, is what to do with the liberated Psalms are already finished. slaves. At first, after liberating expe- ditions, these were distributed among -Nyangandi lives in West Africa, the mission stations; but within the near the Ogowe River. She was going past year or two the number has inaway from the missionary's house on creased considerably, and the difficulty Saturday afternoon, where she had been of providing for them grows proporwith bunches of plantains to sell, when tionately. The missionaries, who were his wife said: "Now, you must not thus heavily taxed, put in a claim for forget that you promised to come to- State aid, and were granted a yearly morrow to chnrch." "Yes," the girl sum in support of each child. But this replied, "I will surely come, if I am does not solve the problem of what is alive." But the next morning she to become of the adult ex-slaves. In found somcbody had stolen her canoe, his report last year the imperial goverand no one would lend her one to go to nor said it was impossible to make them church in. But she had promised to support themselves, as they &re for the go, and so she felt that she must. She most part physically weak, and had swam all the way! The current was never learned and did not desire to work. swift, the water deep, and the river fully a third of a mile wide; but by -The Berlin Society has gathered swimming diagonally she succeeded in 11.456 communicants in South and East crossing. Africa. The Rhenish Society has com- pleted a half century of work in Nama- -Rev. George Grenfell, Baptist mis. qualand, and the results appear in 10 sionary, while acting lately as frontier stations, 2000 communicants, and 5000 commissioner in the interests of the native Christians. Congo State, travelled more than 1000 miles on a bull's back, his wife using -Among the popUlation of Cape the same means of transport. They Town are found 17,000 Malays. Two have found oxen in this respect so ser- English women are laboring in their beviceable, that they are taking four back half, and 6 more are needed. -Whatever may be the immediate has been done so largely by the native result of the struggle with the haughty Christians. Thus in the years 1872-91 Lobengula and his warlike Matabele no less than 52 coupies were sent from followers, there can be no doubt that in the Raratonga mission to toil in New the end great gain will inure to civiliza- Guinea, and of these 4 men and 3 womtion and Christianity. Cecil Rhodes is en were killed by the savages, and 17 a statesman of a high order, and he is men and 23 women died of fever. Last laying the foundations of an East Afri- year 38 more were sent from Samoa, can empire. Niue, etc.
-Alfred Casalis, a missionary of the -Dr. Gunn, of Fotuna, in the New Paris Society in Basutoland, reports in Hebrides, tells a distressing story of how the London Ohristian that in his dis- that island has been desolated by an epitrict there are 6 schools, one with 200 demic of dysentery. Medicines were pupils, 9 native schoolmasters, 7 native almost useless, and one fourth of the catechists, 730 church-members, and popUlation fell victims, including most over 300 catechumens. of the children and youth. Two were taken from his home. ISLANDS OF THE SEA.
-A missionary of the London Society -After sixty years of help and overin Madagascar sends to Tl~e Ohronicle sight the English Baptist Missionary Soan account of a native young man, who ciety is about to withdraw all pecuniary had been a wild lad, but who something assistance from the Nassau and Bahamore than two years sincQ gave himself mas churches. This district, which now to Christ. He was much impressed assumes self-support, includes 19 islands with the Saviour's command to his dis- having 94 native evangelists, who are ciples to preach, and was convinced that superintended by 1 European missionthis command ought to be obeyed not ary. After four years of gradually deby a few, but by all, and not on Sun- creasing grants, San Domingo, Turk's days alone, but every day_ Though a and Carlos islands are also to be thrown plain woodcarrler, as soon as his wood upon their own resources. These conwas sold he would go about the market, tain 14 stations with 2 missionaries and Bible in hand, preaching as long as any 40 evangelists. The same course is to one would listen. Finding that his be taken in the near future in Trinidad, trade interfered with his giving as much with its 20 stations, 2 missionaries, and time to preaching as he would like, he 13 evangelists. gave it up. One day he told the missionary that he had preached 7 times, It is with deep sorrow that we learn but thought that "so little." Ordi- of the death of two of our editorial narily he preached from 10 to 14 times_ correspondents, whose names are fami- When asked to go into some of the liar to all friends of missions. Rev. Dr. churches and preach, he declined, say- Steel, of Australia, died on October 9th, ing, "I should get comparatively few and Rev. Dr. Nevius, of China, on or to hear me, whereas in the market when about October 26th. A fuller notice of I raise my voice and call out, 'Oh all these two able advocates of Christ's ye people, God is waiting to be recon- cause will appear in our next issue. ciled to you to·day ! ' 400 or 500 people can hear me, and stop to listen. "
-One of the most notable features of the progress of the Gospel in the South Seas is found in the fact that the work