The Missionary Review of the World — March 1902
BOY BOOT:.J:Al{ERS AT WORK, B.t.HNARDO'S HOME, aTEPNEY CAUSEWAY
Missionary Review of the World VOL. OXlXd VS.eriesNo. 3 } MARCH J New Series 1 VOL. XV. No. 3 HAPPY HOMES FOR HNOBODY'S CHILDREN"
BY THOMAS J. BARNARDO, F.R.C.S.ED., LONDON, ENGLAND IHE legend over the boys' home in: Stepney Causeway, London,reads~' " No DESTITUTE CHILD EVER REFUSED." For over thirty-fi va, years I have been engaged in 1'es;: cuing little children Jrom' the slums of the great cities in Great Britain, and now I think th"at [, have the largest family in the world. There are under my care about five thousand five hundred children, from the little baby to the great boy or girl entering upon manhood or womanhood and' ready to go forth into life. I have about nine additions to my family every twenty-four hours. Over thirty-five thousand boys and girls have been cared for in these homes since they were opened.
It was God who gave me this work. Even if I had foreseen the extent to which it would attain, the responsibility it would involve, I would not have dared to refuse. This conviction has deepened as the years have rolled on. Times without number He has shown that He was caring for the work. He has heard and answered prayer in the most significant way-not only with regard to funds, but in overcoming difficulties which have seemed to threaten the whole work.
In 1866, when I was about twenty-one years of age, I came over from my home in Ireland and entered one of our great London hospitals, in the east end of London, as a student of medicine. I hoped some day to go as a medical missionary to China, but in the mean time, being a Christian man, I could not be idle while there were heathen all around me in this great city. When the cholera came, I was chosen to visit the sick and inspect the streets. In this way I
learned that vast numbers of people were without Bibles and had no knowledge of God. .
One day I found a little "ragged school," overflowing with chil- dren, but with no one to care for it. So I said, "This is just the very thing, a lot of rough and ragged children." Two or three fellow- students were converted and joined me. We had a small tent, and tried to get a room into which we could. gather these children of the poor, but ~)llly found a little shed-a donkey stable. We cleared the donkeys out and put down a floor ourselves, and then whitewashed the ceiling and the walls. It was not a big affair; it 'cost us half a crown (sixty-two cents) a week for rent. 'We were poor young medical students and had nothing over our expenses to give away, so that it was a lot for us to pay. When a lamp broke it was quite a serious matter. We had a meeting of the chancellor of the exchequer and the whole cabinet to discover how we could manage to get another.
The place was crowded night after night, and we carried on a kind of Bible school. It was there that the incident occurred that led to the work for homeless waifs.
One winter night nearly all the children had gone home-all save one, a small boy of ten. Near the old fireplace I saw him, and said, "Oome, my lad, it is time to go."
" Please, sir, let me stop."
"Let you stop! Of course not. It is past nine; I must shut up now. Go home."
"Please, sir, I ain't got no home."
" Nonsense, boy; if you don't go very soon your mother will come here for you."
" Ain't got no mother."
" Well, then, your father will come."
" Ain't got no father."
" Haven't got a father or a mother, boy! Where do you live?"
"I don't live nowhere."
I thought that here was a young rascal who had done something wrong and run away from home, and who wanted to evade punishment . and was just trying to impose upon me. I said, "Oome here, my lad."
He came up to me, dragging each foot along as if it were heavily weighted. He stood quite two yards off, and I looked at the fellow by the light of the l&mp. The clothes-had I ever seen anything like it?-rags. Bare feet, bare head, no shirt; a few poor rags, torn and tattered, that were held together somehow, revealed in their rents the thin, pinched body of the child who stood before me. Ah, but that face! Drawn and puckered like a care-worn man, and the piercing, dark little eyes-how they looked right through me, as if he would say, "Are you a friend or not?" I have seen thousands of them since.
HAPPY HOMES FOR "NOBODY'S CHILDREN"
I said, " Boy, where did yon come from?" He told me that he had slept the previous night in a hay-cart in the market in White Ohapel, and another lad, whom he found coiled up in the same cart, had told him that there was" a kind gemman up Stepney way" that would let him sleep by the fire.
I doubted if the boy's story was t rue, but thought that it ought to be probed to the bottom, so I said, "My lad, are there more fellows like you without a home?"
The boy looked at me with intense pity for my ignorance, and said, "Lots, sir; heaps on 'em."
I resolved to put him to the test, and said, "Now, my lad, look here.
If I take you with me and give you some coffee THOMAS J. BARNARDO and some grub, and let you lie by a fire all night, will you show me where these other fellows are? "
His little head went nodding up and down in reply, so we went to my lodgings, lit a fire, and sat around the table. When the warm coffee had unlopsed the strings of the little tongne, didn't he talk! I heard enough to fill my heart with indescribable sadness; I heard enough to bring the hot tears to my eyes, and to make me eager to do something.
I found the boy as ignorant and as dark in mind as he was miserable in body. He knew nothing of God, or of heaven, and had never heard of Ohrist, but had a vague notion that He was the pope.
It was nearly half-past eleven when we started out. Then I took him by the hand, and we went down the great White Ohapel thorough- fare, and finally turned into that classic locality known as Petticoat Lane. He led me 'into a large building having a corrugated iron roof.
It was a place where all sorts of old clothes were exchanged and sold among Jew dealers, You could get second-hand, third-hand, fourth- hand, fourteenth-hand clothes there, if you were not fastidious; and you might change them on the spot, and nobody would suggest that there was any breach of delicacy in so doing. Into that dark, silent place I was led by my little pioneer. I had brought a box of matches, and I lit one now and then to look under the benches, but saw no boys.
SOME RAW MATERIAL RECEIVED l~TO THE HOMES "We never lies underneath there now," said the lad. "I used to do it when I were green, but the bobbies get you, and sometimes they will give you their toe." He led me out into a little triangular yard. "They're up there," said the boy, pointing to the wall of the building. At the corner, where the mortar had fallen from. between the bricks, his little bare toes and fingers soon found the way up, until he stood on top. "Now, sir, I'll help you up;" and soon I found my way up near him. What I saw on that roof changed the whole current of my life. On that parapet that night, that cold, bitter night in East London, in the gutter of the roof, I saw lying eleven boys. It seemed to me as tho the hand of God had pulled aside for a moment the curtain that concealed this dreadful class, and had given me one swift glance within, that I might never forget. The boy said, "Shall I wake 'em, sir?" Wake 'em! I didn't dare to wake 'em. What should I do with them? I meant, by God's help, to save this one lad; but what could I do if these eleven awoke and clamored for food and help? I said, "No; come away; I have seen enough."
I took that boy home, arranged with a poor neighbor to give him food, bought him clothing, and by and by I sent him to one of the free schools. But one boy led to another. Night after night I searched the slums for homeless children, and found one after another until at length I had some twenty-eight children. Then a few fellow students helped me. We made a common purse, and my own friends occasionally gave me a little; and we kept on quietly doing each day what we could to 'save these children.
The work went on quietly, but at length the crisis came. I was preparing to be a medical missionary, but was only putting l!..alf my
HAPPY HOMES FOR "NOB(H)Y'S CHILDREN"
heart into it and the other half into my mission work. One day a letter came to me from a man I had never met. He wrote: I hear that you are interested in waif children, and you are thinking of going to China. If you feel disposed to remain in England and give yourself to this work, I will have great pleasure in giving you a thousand pounds to begin your first h<;>me.
I had never conceived of any such gift as that. It seemed like the very voice of God Himself speaking to me. For some ten days I pondered on the matter, and then at length was able to write to him that I was satisfied of the Divine guidance and that I proposed to give myself to this work. After this I spent night after night in searching the slums of London. One day I received an unexpected letter from Lord Shaftesbury which said: DEAR SIR,-Some of us are interested in the fate of "Jinks' baby." Will you come and dine with me to-night and meet some friends who would like to talk about the subject.
I went up to his house in Grosvenor Square, and met a number of men who knew something of this work. After dinner Lord Shaftesbury turned to me and said, " We hear that you sometimes go ou t at night and find a number of children who are destitute and homeless. Do you think that you could lead us to one. of those places to-night? "
They were a little skeptical, and were serving me much as I served little Jim Jervis when I first found him. I said, "Certainly."
TRAINED YOUTHS FROM BARNARDO'S HOMES READY TO EMIGRATE TO CANADA.
So he called half a dozen hansom cabs. Imagine eleven or twelve or more gentlemen in evening dress driving away from Grosvenor Square right down to Billingsgate. We made quite a sensation. One or two policemen hurried up at once to see what was up. I took my bull's-eye lantern, and we went down to a place called the Queen's Shades, a kind of wharf with the end of it blocked up except when vessels came up alongside, so that there was a kind of cul-de-sac. There was a great lot of merchandise, perhaps fifteen feet high, covered with tarpaulin. We saw no boys anywhere about. but I said to Lord Shaftesbury, "If we can only get at that tarpaulin we will find them there." I pulled aside some of the folds, and after a good deal of searching I laid hold of a leg and a foot and pulled away, and by and by there fell down a ragged youngster. Of course he was dreadfully afraid of us, and began to cry and said he was doing no harm. We quieted him, and I said, "I want you to get the fellows out."
"Shall I roof 'em sir?" he said. " Yes," we answered. He got up there and began to pound with his feet. By and by we saw the whole thing begin to move; there were young lives under- neath. Lord Shaftesbury told him he would give every lad that turned out a penny. "All right, sir; we'll get 'em up short. Oome along, you chaps, the bloke will give us each a penny." They came in donble-quick order and they formed a long line. We turned out seventy-three homeless children who had found shelter in that place. With a broken voice and tremulous manner Lord Shaftes- bury said, " Well as I know my London, I had no idea of this." We , took the boys to a coffee-shop and satisfied their hunger as well as 'we could. Then we put into each palm a penny and let them go-let them go because I had no place to take them. Thank God, now if we fonnd two hundred children in a night we could give everyone of them a home. During all these 'years we have never refused a home- less child. That incident brought, this rescue work a little into publicity, and since that time it has grown tremendously. . I first began earnestly to examine the various institutions for destitute children within easy, reach of London. Strange' to say, I found insuperable difficulties to securing admission for friendless waifs. One admitted no child who was not born in wedlock; in another the doors were closed against any child who had not perfect health; in another admission was only if we could promise a donation of five or ten pounds, and in another they only admitted children who were voted in by electors. I resolved that if I opened a home or homes admission should be free and immediate, and that the only title to admission should be
HAPPY HOMES FOR "NOBODY'S CHILDREN"
destitution. I resolved that we would make it a home, not an institu- tion. There must be life, and love, and the family, and somebody there to whom they would become attached, and beneath it all was the firm purpose that children should be brought up in the fear of God and should learn to love Christ. I have no sympathy with the philanthropy that seeks merely to heal the body, and to cleanse it, and to feed it, and denies the greatest gift that God had given.
These children must be won to Christ; that is the truest social economy. We want to undo the effects of their past lives, but the time comes when they leave the influence we have brought to bear upon them, and there is a tendency for it to revert to the old type. The only way to pre- vent that tendency attaining mastery is to bring the child by God's help under the power of the . Gospel.
I think I may claim for our homes a high place on the list of Christian evidences, as I am sure that it is unto the answered prayer offaith that all their real TWO WAIFS OF THE SLUMS progress is to be ascribed. Often the last shilling was expended, but always the coffers were replenished from our Lord's own inexhaustible treasury. Thus it has been even unto this day; and now this large family of over five thousand children, saved by God's help from the direst evils, is still, as ever, dependent upon supplies sent down from heaven, as literally as if an angel brought them, in direct response to the petitions of Christian helpers, which ascend as daily incense to our Father's footstool from every country throughout the world.
Some years ago a sudden incoming of bitterly cold weather found my children shivering in their, cots for lack of warm blankets and not a penny to buy them with. I .laid the need before the Lord. That day passed, but no money came. I continued in prayer. Next morning I went to the house of business I dealt with for such goods and selected what I needed. The price was about £100. As I had no, money, and did not mean to go into"debt, I did not buy, but returned home and laid the whole matter before God. Next morning the first letter I opened was from a clergyman in the south of England,
enclosing a check for £100 "to provide additional clothing n,)eded for the inclement weather."
There have been many such instances, but I will mention only one other of a different type. In dealing with girls I had been compelled to see the need of a village home in which they could be brought up in family life. I wrote a letter to The Christian telling of the need, but no sooner had the letter appeared than misgivings arose in my mind lest I had not waited for the leading of God. Consulting with a godly friend, we resolved to pray that if this were God's will He might give a clear sign before I returned from Oxford, where I was then going. The very morning after we arrived in Oxford a total strltnger put his head into my room and said: " Are you Dr. Barnardo ?" " Yes, I am." " You are proposing to found some qottage homes for girls?" " Yes." " Put me down for the first cottage," said he, and vanished. Hurrying after him, I learned that he had read the letter in The Christian and had determined to erect a cottage in memory of a daughter. He had intended communicating with me on his return _ to London, but hearing of my arrival in Oxford, had come to announce personally his intention. He gave me £350 to put up the first cottage; now there are forty-nine at Ilford, with accommodation for a thousand girls.
A GLIMPSE OF BARNARDO'S HOMES BY THE LATE THOMAS PAUL, OF LONDON Dr. Barnardo has nearly ninety homes and branches in active operation, eight of these being Receiving Homes, or " Ever-Open Doors," in various parts of England, and three being Distributing Homes in Canada in connection with the Emigration Scheme. The remaining seventy-five are homes or'mission centers, dealing with juvenile destitution of every phase, besides relieving distress among the suffering poor, carrying the Gospel to thousands of East End families, and witnessing for Christ among dense masses of the poor, the ignorant, and the sinful. Some of these are mission centers and institutes of various kinds for the benefit of neglected young people not destitute enough to be eligible for admission to the homes, but from forty to fifty are homes dealing with a peculiar class.
From the first, careful system and classification was fonnd to be essential in dealing with outcast and neglected children. To" lump" all ages and classes together is. to mar the efficiency of the whole. Many considerations of phyfical health and moral perversion necessitate separation, lest a whole instit~tion be contaminated. Hence the apparent multiplicity of homes.
HAPPY HOMES FOR "NOBODY'S CHILDREN"
The boys' homes in Stepney Causeway are situated where the work originally started. Here are the headquarters and central office of the whole institution. The four hundred boys in this large family keep the whole place alive with school songs and merry calls.
Inside the home is a hive of industry, throbbing with busy, cheerful life. The great dining-hall, the capacious bath, the admirable gymnasium, the open drill and play ground, and the large schoolrooms are filled with eager young scholars, to most of whom lessons but lately were an unknown quantity. Farther up there are the workshops, where the boys learn thoroughly such useful trades as baking, blacksmithing, brush-making, carpentering, engineering, harness- THE GIRLS' VILLAGE HOME AT ILFORD making, mat-making, printing, shoemaking, tailoring, tinsmithing, and wheelwright. Higher up are the airy dormitories, spotlessly clean.
This central home is for boys from twelve to sixteen; younger boys, from eight to twelve, are sent to Leopold House, a short distance away. Here there are no workspops; education is the main concern, the boys being drafted to Stepney when ready for industrial training. For still younger boys, from five to ten, there is a healthful and pleasant nursery home at Gorey, in the island of Jersey. A large garden provides plenty of open-air occupation for many of these little fellows.
But while these homes receive boys of various classes and ages, there stilI remains a pitiful type for whom, until recently, nothing
whatever was done: big lads, adrift in this great city-runaways who have not found London ~"treets paved with gold, ne'er-do-wells and neglected youths herding in common lodging-houses or on -the streets-fit for any mischief. Such lads were refused by every institution, and rightly so, unless special provision could be made for them. Dr. Barnardo saw and sympathized with their helpless case. For such he opened-experimentally-a Youth's Labor Home. The experiment proved a grand success, and about five thousand big lads have already passed through this home, and after thorough training are now doing well, earning their living at home or in Manitoba.
But it is not only boys who haunt the streets of our great cities. There are many girls-often of tender years-friendless, homeless, hungry, and despairing, exposed to contaminating surroundings and AT WORK IN THE LAUNDRY-GIRLS' VILLAGE HOME, ILI'-'OUl) the vilest treatment. For such the waif-child's friend is on the alert. But long ago he found that barrack homes are unsuited to girls. The great institutions, where everything is done mechanically and by rule, turn out, as English ladies know to their cost, a type of girl wholly unfitted for useful household service. What was needed, was evidently a cottage home where girls might be brought up on family principles, clinging around some one who takes the place of "mother." To supply this need the Village Home at lIford, already referred to, was founded. It is now a beautiful model village, with forty-niue separate cottages round a spacious village green, with a pretty church, a schoolhouse, laundry, infirmary, and other buildings. Be~ides the cottages there are five larger households, the whole accommodating a thousand girls. Each cottage, under the care of a Ohristian "mother," has THE BABrES' CASTLE .AT HAWKHURST from sixteen to twenty-five girls of various ages, and usually with a baby, the pet of the household.
Beautiful as is this Village Home, there is one which has still greater attraction and interest-namely, the famous Babies' Oastle at Hawkhurst, in the county of Kent. The original house and freehold ground was given by a friend, and was altered and enlarged and opened in 11'86. Since then it has been devoted to caring for babies who have been left with no one to care for them. What a fate they have"been saved from! Yet here they are happy and content. .T.he ' titii~8tt~re in the padded pond, where they may roll as they please withoufdanger of being hurt. Many are in their cots enjoying their "nap. Othe,rs, alas! are permanently in their cots, suffering from the terrible results of ,bygone ill usage and horrible neglect. Indeed, in aU pI the' homes the visitor finds here and there boys, girls, or infants who will carry while they live the effects ' of barbarous treatment, in early days.
Even these, however, are happy in present kindness.
Leaving the babies, I would recall the fact that "no' d,cstitute child is refused." This means more than is apparent on the surface.
Many neglected children suffer sadly from ophthalmia, running sores, spinal complaints, and partial paralysis. Such as these were, in old day~' doomed to hopeless misery. No institution Gould ,admit them, They, f6rtheir condition needed isolation and special care. ,come, hQwever, within Dr. Barnardo's line, and hence he has had to'p'rovide for them specially, as of course the health of a large home could not be endangered by the admission of a certain class of neglected children; hence numerous special homes and hospitals. Among these is Her Majesty's Hospital in Stepney Causeway, where pitiable childwrecks are received and treated as their case demands. Moreover, admission means permanent care, whether curable or not.
Others there are, not physically suffering, but painfully, terribly debased by vile and vicious associations and deliberate corruption. For such girls a home is maintained far apart and isolated, in which Christian women of tact and experience devote themselves to the weary work of eradicating evil tendencies and inculcating a purer standard of life and speech.
For elder girls, in need of training for domestic service, there are training homes, such as Sturge House and The Beehive, in Hackney. With those I have briefly described, as the largest and principal homes, are linked a network of convalescent and other homes, as the Memorial Home at Southport for cripples and incurables; also Shelters, Children's Free Lodging-houses, Messenger and Shoeblack Brigades; and a host of agencies which form feeders to the homes, while they help hundreds of boys and girls to a way of living.
Associated with all this, there is an extensive mission organization centering in "The Edinburgh Castle," a converted gin-palace and music-hall in Limehouse, where three thousand poor people come every Sunday evening to hear the Gospel preached by leading evangelists, and where hundreds have been converted to God. A large Ragged School and many smaller mission halls are also carried on, while in connection eighteen or twenty deaconesses reside in the district, and give themselves to the Lord's work among the poor.
THE EVENING PRAYER AT THE BABIES' CASTJ.El HAWKHURST
GREAT MISSIONARY APPEALS OF THE LAST CENTURY
GREAT MISSIONARY APPEALS OF THE LAST CENTURY-II BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF The review of the great sermons and addresses of the last hundred years has a threefold interest: historical, biographical, and ethical.
First, it is one of the best ways to study history. Some of these grand utterances marked crises-turning points; they determined methods and measures, they suggested new motives and incentives, they shaped events, they moulded men of action. Hence, like milestones along a road, they indicated the advance toward a certain goal, and sometimes they were like forks· in the road, where a new direction was taken.
Again, these studies have a biographical value. These men were themselves makers of history. Their words shook the world, and their words drew their dynamic force from their own personality. It was character that gave to these appeals their power to arouse, convince, impel. The majesty of the man was behind the royalty of the speech. We learn great lessons by the study of leading men. As John Lord saw, they are the "beacon lights of history," and history may be studied best under their illuminating rays.
But, again, snch a study of powerful appeals is a revelation of ethical truth. These addresses and sermons are crystallizations of ideas, principles, laws of life. Great occasions bring great men to the front, and great men bring to the front great conceptions. They meditate on majestic themes until the fire burns, and then the speech is the vent to the pent-up flame. It may well be that sometimes the utterance born of such conditions is prophetic, and in a double sense it forecasts the future and it disturbs the present. Those who hear are not ready for the truth as it is unveiled, and what is in a sense an inspired appeal falls upon listless ears, or it may be ears that are stopped and obstinately hostile. But, as with many of God's ancient prophets, some of His modern seers have been practically killed by the men of their own generation, while it has been reserved for another generation to build their sepulchers.
Edward Irving It is appropriate to these introductory thoughts that this, the second part of Ollr review of great missionary appeals, should start with Edward Irving.
This man has, in our opinion, never yet had justice done to him. His own generation is responsibie for his judicial murder, but it yet remains for his true monument to be built.
Born in 1792 and dying in 1834, at the early age of forty-two, he
virtually died of a broken heart. He was brilliantly gifted, and a uuiversity polish had added collegiate culture to his native brilliance, as a lapidary develops luster in a gem. It is a sufficient sign of his superb accomplishments that he was at twenty-seven colleague to Dr. Chalmers in Glasgow, and that at thirty he was the foremost light of • the London pulpit, where his success as a metropolitan preacher was such as London had never before witnessed. After some three years the capricious world of fashion became weary of Irving, and he began to be pronounced, if not denounced, a fanatic, whose singularities of opinion and idiosyncrasies of manner verged on mental unbalance. But the real reason why the fashionable world deserted him was doubt- less that, in 1825, he espoused that always unpopular doctrine of the second personal advent of the Lord Jesus, which he believed to be an imminent event. Then three years later he began to affirm that our Lord was so far the son of man as well as the Son of God, that He, in taking our humanity, took it with all its sinfulness, so that He really suffered under like temptations and at all points with ourselves, and so by overcoming evil became the captain of our salvation-the posi- tion which has been attributed to Rev. Andrew Murray in his book on " The Holiest of All." This caused ecclesiastics to thunder against Edward Irving as a heretic.
Deep in the study of prophecy, he was prepared to believe in certain manifestations of prophetic power said to be witnessed in West Scot- land, and with passionate earnestness grasped at this new wonder as possibly one of the precursors of the Lord's coming-a sort of revival of apostolic marvels. This brought matters to a crisis. He was arraigned before his presbytery and convicted of heresy in 1830, and two years later was ejected from his pulpit, the next year to be deposed from the ministry. His defense of himself at this last crisis was one of the most sublime and splendid triumphs of impassioned oratory.
Shortly afterward his health faiied. Harassed by petty persecution, worn out with anxiety, baffled in his most sacred purpose to seek the separation of the Church from the iniquities and plagues of the great Babylon of his day, satirized by the press, ridiculed by the public, branded by the religious courts, he went to Scotland and died of con- sumption at Glasgow.
Edward Irving was a man of whom the world was not worthy. It is a shallow judgment to reckon him simply a dramatic pUlpit orator with a descriptive and rhetorical pulpit style. Dramatic he was, but it was a high order of acting due not to an affectation of effect, but to a soul that was so keenly sensitive to truth that it gave vividness to his imagination and incarnated itself in his action. For example, on one occasion, preaching in London on "the great white throne," he walked up the pulpit steps in his long black gown, his pallid face
GREAT MISSIONARY APPEALS OF THE LAST CENTURY
made more ghastly by raven hair and the dimly lighted church. In each hand he bore a lighted candle, which he placed beside him on the desk. Then opening the pulpit Bible, he proceeded with a solemn, sepulchral voice of marvelous pathetic sweetness to read Revelation xx: "I saw a great white throne and Him that sat upon it." He slowly read that marvelous prose poem that has nothing in aU lan- guage that equals it for awful majesty, and as he pronounced the last words-H And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire "-he stopped an instant, and then deliberately, with a puff of breath, put out both candles! The effect was electric! It was as though the last light of God were quenched and the awful sentence of the last assize were pronounced. It is too superficial a judgment to call that dramatic acting: it was the inmost image of the event, as he saw it, working itself out into a visible form-an idea taking incarnation.
Similarly, after his degradation, driven, as it were, into his native Scotland, he preached in Edinburgh, with difficulty getting a place in which to speak. Some theological students went to hear him, and among them was James McCosh, afterward President of Princeton University. They went to make sport of the erratic fanatic. But as he announced his text-H He bore our sins in his own body on the tree"-all temptation to ridicule was gone. Intense moral earnestness shone through his utterance. The man who believed in modern prophecy had the air of a seer, and he who taught the nearness of the second advent spoke as one whose eyes already beheld the descending Lord. Each one of his sermon heads was a burden borne by Christ for us: sin-guilt, wrath, diabolical malice, human inappreciation, a malefactor's death, and withdrawal of the face of God! And as each new burden was dwelt upon, the preacher himself bowed lower and lower, as though he himself felt the awful load that crushed his Redeemer, sinking him to the earth! Another instance of the unconscious acting out of what for the time possessed the whole man. Dr. McOosh in late life spoke of this scene as indelibly impressed on his memory after more than sixty years had elapsed, and he said it was the most impressive sight his eyes ever beheld.
'rhis was the man that, in 1824, though not yet thirty-two, preached that memorable sermon, and the sermon must be interpreted by the character and convictions of the man.
Edward Irving was at the height of his popularity when the London Missionary Society, always on the lookout for the foremost orators, secured him for its preacher. He always made thorough preparation, but never more so than for that occasion. His youth had been full of missionary' spirit and projects; and, as the full sense of the risk and responsibility of this duty grew upon him, he shut himself up with God and His Word to get his message; .then, when he G~ll).!l forth from,
the secret place, like Elijah, it was in the power of the Spirit. Whitefield's Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road was the place; and; notwithstanding the day was wet and dreary, the great building was thronged long before the hour. For three hours and a half the crowd sat, jammed in between those walls, and the preacher had to pause twice during the course of his sermon, while a hymn was sung.
The sermon was not a popular one; it was too elevated in tone and theme. The immediate needs of the London Missionary Society were forgotten in the greater need for a new order of missionaries-messengers,of the cross, responsible to no man; studying to show themselves approved only of God, living by faith, in self-denial, scorning man's hire and help alike, lest their singleness of purpose be risked, and dying daily as Christ's martyrs. To many it was a wild and visionary picture, tho fascinating eloquence held the brush that gave it form and color. Doubtless the sermon was not well timed or prudent in human eyes, but its positions were scriptural and spiritual. The preacher had been studying not man's ideas but God's ideals, and had followed the apostolic rule of faith and fidelity rather than the worldly maxim prudence and policy. 'l'he sermon should be read after the interval of a century, to estimate its true value. Irving dealt with the primitive methods of. Uhristian work and God's willingness to honor those who trust Him. He simply held up God's plumb-line, and, because that was the plumb-line of primitive Christianity, time has vindicated his utterances, and turned the visionary dreamer into the true seer.
We have seen already how President Wayland raised a similar standard, that of apostolic precedent. The Divine call to the ministry, with the Divine qualifications therefor, really constitutes his burden. "He takes only two fastening points, the Church of the apostles and the Church of to-day; and, snapping his chalk-line between these two, he makes the mark of requirement as straight as a sunbeam, regardless of what modern theories or usages may be found to lie to the right or to the left of it."
" Every disciple must be a discipler," is his golden maxim. To fence in preaching by any clerical boundaries is, as he maintained, contrary to the Divine plan, and must be fatal to success. The Christian ministry is of Divine appointment; and the setting apart of the most gifted for this special work does not set aside the humblest from a like privilege and responsibility according to his ability and opportunity. " The minister does the same work that is to be done by every other member of the body of Christ; only since he does it exclusively, he may be expected to do it more to edification."
Wayland utters a solemn warning against exclusion from the ministry on account of deficiencies in education. The Church is to call upon God for laborers, and to be ready to receive all whom He sends, spiritual qualifications being of first importance. God needs all kinds of
GREAT MISSIONARY APPEALS OF THE LAST CENTURY 177'
laborers, and we only thwart His plans and onr own service by confi- ning the ministry to the edncated class, Let those who can get the highest culture do so, but let not thos€ who can not, be barred out on that account from the ministry of the Word.
Irving tells how he was moved to the preparation of this sermon by hearing an eminent leader say that, if asked what is the first qualification for a missionary, he would say, Prudence; and the second, Prudence; and the third, Prudence. This utterance he contrasted with the teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews, whose mighty heroes wrought" by faith," which is "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen; whereas prudence is the substance of things present, the evidence of things seen." This raised the question whether the great commission is not still to be executed in faithfaith in God to furnish men and means, and to render both effectual; or whether we are" to calculate this undertaking as a merchant does his adventure, set it forth as the statesman does his colony: raise the ways and means within the year, and expend them within the year, and so go on as long as we can get our accounts to balance."
A worldly Ohurch is not prepared to urge the apostolic ideal upon mIssIOnaries. Before we ask the heralds of the cross to go far hence, carrying neither purse nor scrip, it behooves us to show our sincerity by accepting the same conditions at home. But the ground taken by Irving was scriptural and well worth espousing. If God sends workmen forth on His business, He is certainly bound to pay the bills; if He commissions His Ohurch to conduct His warfare, He is thereby pledged to furnish the necessary soldiers and munitions of war. Accepting this principle as true, the missionary undertaking ceases to be a mercantile enterprise, to be conducted by the ordinary principles of economics. "It is a work of faith, and not of figures; and we are bound in planning its enlargement to consider our bank account with Heaven, and not. merely our actual cash in hand." This was the substance of Irving's plea, to which he joins the prediction of a speedy return to more apostolic methods in conducting Ohristian missions, and, with such return, "much greater simplicity and larger success."
Joseph Angus and Others 1'he discourse of Joseph Angus, on "Apostolic Missions; or, the Gospel for Every Oreature," was a message" on wheels," fitted to run !,olmd the globe, as indeed it has done. Unconsciously to many, it has suggested t.hat motto, now emblazoned on the banners of the Student Volunteers in their modern missionary crusade: "The world for Ohrist in our generation." Dr. Angus goes so far as to propose that a company of fifty thousand preachers be raised, and £15,000,000 a year for ten years; and he shows that, with such a provision, the Gospel might be preached, and preached repeatedly, to every man,
woman, and child on earth; for, with such a band of workers, at the rate of only seven a day, the whole population of the globe could be individually reached in ten years. He then proceeds to show that to raise fifty thousand preachers would require but one out of every three hundred church members in Protestant Christendom; and that to give £15,000,000 a year would be equivalent to less than one-twentyseventh of the taxable income of Great Britain alone, or less than onefiftieth of the income of Protestant chnrch members.
Dr. Duff's speech in Exeter Hall, in 1837, his English friends pronounced incomparable for eloquenee, even among the great speeches of this superb missionary orator. Nobody could report Dr. Duff, so much depended on his tone and gesture and attitude, all of which evade the most skilful stenographer. But the greatest difficulty was that he so fascinated his hearer that even the reporter found himself leaning on his elbows and in his absorption forgetting to take notes. That speech at Exeter Hall was Dr. Duff at his best. His irony and sarcasm were there, raining hot shot and shell on those who talk glibly about missions and neither do nor give anything; who, as Judson used to say, nearly clip off a missionary's hair for mementos and shake his hand from its socket, and yet willingly let missions die! With his exuberant rhetoric, Dr. Duff pictured India's beauty as the garden and granary of the earth; and then depicted the awful iron systems of caste, idolatry, and impurity that spread the slime of the serpent over all. And so he pressed on toward his climax-the supreme duty of every Christian man, woman, and child in Britain. It was a mixture of denunciation and appeal that made his hearers ashamed of their apathy and avarice and worldliness, and made them yearn to send the saving Gospel to the ends of the earth.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached many missionary sermons, but his" Plea for Missions and Missionaries" is, perhaps, one of his most moving appeals. His text was Isaiah vi: 8. He dwelt on the voice of God, "Whom shall I send?" and on man's answer, "Send me." In his masterly way he dealt with the vision of God, the consciousness of human infirmity, and God's way of equipping and qualifying for His work. It is one example of many showing how any pastor, among his own people, on ordinary occasions, may aid missions when his own soul is aflame with the altar-fires of God.
Phillips Brooks, in his sermon, says: "What can be more shameful than to make the imperfection of our Christianity at home an excuse for not doing our work abroad? It is as shameless as it is shameful. It pleads for indulgence on the ground of its own neglect and sin. It is like a murnerer of his father asking the judge to have pity on his orphanhood! "
When Dr. Fleming Stevenson held the Irish assemblage in rapt attention, as he discoursed of (' Our Mission to the East," he had just
GREAT MISSIONARY APPEALS OF THE LAST CENTURY
returned from a year's survey of the native churches in China and . India, and his seraphic soul was on fire with intelligent zeal. He gave to the assembly his" general impressions"; and it was like throwing on the screen, with a powerful light through a magnifying lens, the photographic pictures of the mind. He gave clear views of the vast- ness of the mission enterprise, of the high culture and forward civi- lization of the Orient, and the ancient faiths and systems there prevalent; and then turned to consider the v(tst and beneficent forces at the disposal of the Church, and bore witness to the astonishing results he had seen, notwithstanding the comparatively recent origin of the mission work. He convincingly proved the grand success of missions, and as powerfully reminded his hearers of currents of influence which, like the waters of Shiloah, flow softly, underground, and can not always be traced. After giving evidences of the decay of religious life where false systems prevail, he mightily appealed for a united movement all along the line to cope with the needs of these vast communities in the crisis of their history. .
There are paragraphs in that address not often surpassed by any orator on any occasion; as when he referred to the legend, freely quoted at the religious fair at Hurd wan, that, at the close of the century, the Ganges would lose its sacred character, which would be transferred to a ri vel' which flows farther west, and then interpreted the legend as a true prophecy of the river of God. In the closing sentences he referred, with wonderful eloquence, to the sunrise over the Himalayas, when, as the light gathered. the boundless plains of India grew visible, stretching for hundreds of miles to the south, until, as the sun rose higher over the idol mountains, the "Halls of Heaven," the shadows stole away, the darkness fled, and the sounds of life filled the silent air. This he compared to the outshining of the Sun of Righteousness over the places of the death-shade and the habitations of cruelty.
'1'0 this day one reads this address with a depth of conviction and a warmth of emotion not often awakened; even the absence of the mag- netic personal element does not leave it to seem cold. He who had thrilled so many readers by his sketches of Hans Egede and Pastor Harms, stirred those mercurial Irishmen as they had seldom been moved, and the echo of his appeal may still be heard, tho his silver tongue has long been silent. One of the sublimest passages in all mis- sionary oratory is his appeal for a "great revival of faith-a faith that will recognize the spirit of the mission in the Bible, not as an isolated command, a doubtful inference, or a pathetic farewell; but as the very substance and texture of it, the burden of its prophecies, the glory of its visions, the music of its psalms, and the splendor of its martyr-roll."
(To be continued)
POLITICS AND MISSIONS IN KOREA BY REV. ARTHUR J. BROWN, D.D.* Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, New York The problems in Korea may be divided into two main classes- political and missionary. The political problems are so interrelated to the missionary that an out- line of them appears necessary to an understanding of the situa- tion.
First among the political problems is the weakness of the government. It is totally desti- tute of the moral fiber needed in Korea at this time, and the pre- vailing corruption is as great in the Imperial palace as anywhere in the empire. The people are taxed beyond all reason. Any man suspected of having property is liable to be thrown into a filthy prison on some trumped-up charge, and held, or perhaps tor- tured, until he disgorges to the magistrate. Offices are sold to the highest bidder or given to dissipated favorites, who divide the proceeds. The courts give no redress, for the plunderer him- self is usually both judge and jury. So rotten is the entire sys- tem that one marvels that the nation has not fallen to pieces before this. Only the stolid apathy of the Asiatic and the A KOREAN PRINCE rival claims of foreign powers have held it together at all.
The financial problem is as bad as the political. Of course, oppression and official robbery destroy all incentive to accllmulate property. A man has no motive to toil when he knows that an addi- tional ox or a better hOllse would simply result in "a squeeze" from some lynx-eyed official. So he raises only the little rice he requires for food, and devotes the remainder of his time to resting.
* Dr. Brown is now on a tour of the mission field; he has recently visited Korea, and has had an opportunity to see for himself the present condition of the country.-EDITORS.
POLITICS AND MISSIONS IN KOREA
'fhe introduction of foreign goods is making the situation worse instead of better. The Koreans formerly grew their own cotton and wove from it on hand-looms the cloth for the ubiquitous white flowing garments of the common people, while the silk worn by the better classes was also produced at home. Now English cotton and Japanese silk are flooding the country, and the indolent people find it easier to buy them than to ma.ke their own. In like manner they are buying other foreign goods-pipes, tobacco, lamps, and more and more of the utensils which they used to manufacture for themselves. But they have nothing to export to balance these imports. They are not an energetic or a manufacturing people like the Japanese. There are ,I .4. FEW HUNDRED KOREAN CASH"
some mines and forests, bnt concessions to work the one and cut the other have been granted to American, British, and Russian companies, and the product goes to foreign owners, while the price of the concession is squandered by corrupt officials, so that the people derive no benefit. Thus Korea is being drained of her money. It is all outgo and no income.
The condition of the country is reflected in the chaotic state of the currency. It is enough to give a foreigner nervous prostration.* • The currency is of two kinds, Korean and Japanese. Of the Korean coins, one is a large copper one, called a "cash," wIth a square hole in the middle, and considered as one "cash" In the country and five "cash" in Seoul, but having the same purchasing power in both city and country. The other coins are a smaller copper coin of the same value, a one-cent piece, also copper and worth five country cash and twenty-five Seoul cl'sh, and a flvecent nickel piece, worth twenty-five country cash and a hundred and twenty-fl..e Seoul cash. Many commodities, however, are estimated by the" yang," which is said to be one hundred cash of either kind. The nickel is stamped "14 yang," but there is no "yang" piece and no Korean coin larger than the nickel. At the present rate of exchange, one hnndred cents Korean are worth thirty-seven cents gold.
The Japanese pieces in circulation are a half-penny, a penny, and a two-cent piece-all copper; a flve-oent nickel piece, ten, twenty, and fifty cent silver pieceR; a dollar in both silver and paper, and five, ten, and twenty dollar pieces in both silver and gold, tho the last mentioned is so far beyond range of ordinarr. transactions that one is a lmost as helpless with It as if h e had nothing at all. The ~old va ue of all Japanese currency is one-half its value; that is, the dollar, or "yen," as it IS called, is equal to fifty cents gold.
When I traveled among the county villages'I found that no bills of any denomination were accepted. "How can a piece of paper be worth anything?" queried the simple-minded villagers. So we had to tll,ke a supply of copper" cash" which nearly loaded a donkey. Silver, however, was readily accepted, and was indeed so eagerly desired that in Pyeng Yang I had to pay two and a half per cent. premium to get a supply of dollars. When I. returned to Ohemulpo the railway officials preferred bills and would only take my silver yen pieces at ten per cent. discount. In Seoul the Japanese bank accepted them KOREAN COOLTES AND LOAFERS IN FRONT OF A KOREAN HOUSE at ninty-seven cents each. Some time before I die I hope to have leisure to figure out just what my expenses in Korea really were.
The general poverty appears in the architecture. In the more pretentious buildings, as in the imperial palace and the yamens of governors and magistrates, it follows Ohinese lines. But however wonderful they may be in the eyes of a Korean, to a foreigner they are humble enough. A conntry merchant in America lives ill a better house than the Emperor of Korea, while hundreds of stables at home are as attractive as the official residence of the governor Of a province. The buildings are not only plain, but are dilapidated in appearance. It never occurs to a Korean to make repairs, and so. on every side, even in palaces and temples, one sees crumbling walls and dirty courtyards.
The houses of the people are usually made with a rude but strong
PO:t.ITlCS AND M1SSIONS IN KOREA
framework of heavy poles or small tree trunks-always croQked,-for straight trees are rare-with walls of cane· stalks fastened together, straw ropes, and plastered with mud. The roofs in cities are covered with ponderous curved tiles, but in the villages they are universally thickly thatched with rice straw. The doors and windows, if there are any, are covered with thin, tough paper which admits a dim light but no air. '{'he floor is of dirt, covered with oil paper and matting. Under the floor are trenches which serve as flues for the cooking-fire in a separate room. There are no beds in Korea, and the unhappy traveler who fails to bring a cot must sleep, as the natives do, on the floor, half broiled by the heat and plentifully bitten by the swarming vermin.
The prevailing wretchedness is so great, and the impoverishment of the land is so helplessly increasing, that one wonders how long hnman nature can endure such a state of society. But the people are as indifferent to it all as children. They eat their rice and take life easily, while the emperor borrows and the officials steal to keep up appearances. No one appears to note the coming storm, or if any do they shrug their shoulders in the spirit of "after us the deluge."
Russia and Japan in Korea Another phase of the political problem is the conflicting ambitions of Russia and Japan. It is evident that Korea is too weak to maintain her independence much longer. She is sure to fall at no distant day. Several European nations would be glad to get this naturally rich penin~ular of ninety thousand square miles and fifteen millions of docile people, but the contest has narrowed down to the tWQ mentioned.
Japan sees as clearly as the rest of the world that the possession of Manchuria by any European power would in time inevitably involve the occupation of Korea, which forms its southern boundary. But a strait only one hundred and twenty-five miles wide separates the southern part of Korea from Japan, and that too at the vulnerable point of entrance to her Inland Sea, the very heart of the Sunrise Kingdom. No less than seven modern forts at that narrow entrance attest Japan's conception of its vital importance. She naturally feels that the possession of Korea by any other nation would be a grave menace to her own territory. This is the key to Japan's policy in Korea. Beyond question she will fight before she will allow any European nation to entrench itself so near her shores.
But Russia has embarked upon a policy of Asiatic development. In her Siberian possessions her territory already forms the boundary of China for thousands of.miles. To open up the possessions and to bring her into closer contact with the far East she is building that long and costly Siberian Railroad. Its present terminus is Vladivostok,
which is 'So far toward the frozen north that its harbor is ice-locked six months in the year. Of course Russia is not content to be bottled up half the time, and so she wants not only Manchuria but Korea in order that she may have an outlet in an unfrozen sea. And Russia never changes her mind, never abandons a policy. She moves to her goal as steadily and as resistantly as a glacier. English, German, French, and American policies come and go, but Russia's goes on forever. For a long period the rest of the world paid little attention to the Muscovite empire. But all the time she was quietly encroaching on the other countries, "adding other empires to her already enormous domains, until without a shot fired, and by a simple stroke 'of the pen, the mouth of one of the greatest rivers of Asia was indisputably hers and its left bank for hundreds of miles-with much more in the immediate or distant prospect."
There is a fascination almost terrible in this stealthy, never resting, all-embracing movement upon weaker nations as set forth in Colquhoun's recent volume. In the words of the Rev. Dr. Arthur H. Smith, "The standards and the ideals of Russia and of the Russians are very different from those to which we are accustomed, and we see a great deal to criticize in the brutal harshness of her methods, and in the undisguised barbarism of much which seems inseparable from her policy. She appears to be selfish, cunning, and irresistible. When we contemplate the varied phenomena which the advance of Russia during the past century embraces, we not improbably cordially second the view perhaps best expressed by the American poet Whittier: Fell Spider of the North, Stretching thy great feelers forth, Within whose web the freedom dies ,Of nations eaten up as flies.
When war's evil day comes, unhappy Korea will probably be the battle-ground. Meantime her political history is chiefly the narrative of pulling and hauling by the rival powers. Japanese officials have admitted their complicity in the murder of the queen, October 8, 1895. But when they imagined that this had brought Korea within their grasp, the king checkmated them by taking refuge in the Russian legation, February 11, 1896.
Just now the diplomatic contest centers in railways and loans. The only railroad in operation in Korea is a line twenty-six miles long, from Seoul to its port, Chemulpo, which was offered to traffic July 8, 1900. The concession was originally granted to an American, James R. Morse (March 29, 1896), but December 31, 1898, the property was turned over to a Japanese syndicate which opened and operated it. The Japanese also control the telegraph line from Fusan to Seoul. More recently the Japanese have secured a concession to build a railroad from ]lusan to Seoul. They quickly more than subscribed the
POLITICS AND MISSIONS IN KOREA
twenty-five million yen for the bonds, and work has already been begun. As Fusan is within ten hours' steaming from Shimonoseki, the Japanese will soon be able to throw an over-mastering military force into the very center and the capital of Korea.
To offset this advantage, Russia is planning a similar entrance from the north. A French company obtained a concession (July 4, 1896), to construct a line from Wi J u to Seoul. The company failed to carry out its contract, and in June, 1899, waived all its rights on condition that the Korean government should build the road and use only French engineers and materials. Everybody knows that the monarch of Korea has neither the inclination nor the money to build railroads, and it is more than conjectured that Russia is behind this plan, and that Russianfunds will enable him to execute them, unless, as now appears more probable, it is decided to have the French build the road after all. It is significant that the French minister is looking after surveys. Wi Ju being on the border of Manchuria and but a short distance from Port Arthur, where Russia maiutains a large military force, and from Mukden, which is on the Siberian Railroad, Russia will then have direct entrance to Seoul from the north and can get her troops'into the capital as soon as Japan.
Meantime each power agrees not to maintain more than eight hundred soldiers in Korea; of these Japan has about six hundred in the capital, but Russia does not care to support such a contingent here unless compelled to do so by circumstances, and now has only thirty men as a legation guard. No other powers have troops here, tho warships frequently lie in the harbor of Chemulpo. But Japan has a concession for a fort at Fusan, where there is quite a Japanese town connected by cable with Japan, while" of course" squads of soldiers are necessary at various points along the telegraph and railway line to Seoul, "to protect it and keep it open."
The Japanese population of Korea is silently increasing, for the Japanese have become a colonizing people, and every little while Japanese owners are found to have acquired a foothold at some additional point. For example, a few weeks ago it suddenly developed that a Japanese had bought a small island near Chemulpo. The Emperor of Korea wants to add to his palace grounds some property now occupied by the Presbyterian mission, and in exchange offered to give any tract outside the walls that the missionaries might select. Accordingly they cho'tle an elevated plot on the main road between the west gate and the river and near the railway station. His Majesty agreed, but when he tried to buy the site for the mission he found that parts of it belonged to Japanese who refused to sell it. I walked up to the Japanese quarter in another part of the city and found it on ground so high as to easily command the whole capital. '1'here was not a gun in sight, but considerable grading has been done, and certain
embankments looked suspiciously as if they could be utilized as earth- works on very short notice.
In order to ascertain what its rival was getting, the Japanese government last year directed its minister to Korea to make a special report upon the land concessions which the emperor had granted to foreigners. By this report it appears that Germany has nothing but a gold-mine near Langhyan belonging to Herr Walter since 1899. Citizens of the United States have an electric street-car line in Seoul and a reputedly rich gold-mine at Unsan, employing forty foreigners, thirty Japanese, and twelve hundred Koreans, and paying into the imperial treasury an annual royalty of twenty-five thousand yen. The concession was obtained by Mr. Morse, but the mine is now controlled by Hunt &Fassett. Engla~d also has a gold-mine. near Unsan controlled by Pritchard Morgan, a member of Parliament. A branch of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation is reported to be doing a profitable business, and, most important of all, the entire management of the customs and finances is in the hands of a British subject, Mr. J. McLeavy Brown.
Russia (and of course this information was what Japan wanted) was found to have a coal-mine in Hamgyondo, the working of which has been suspended owing to its poor output; whale-fishing concessions; the right to erect buildings for making train-oil; and the. privilege of felling timber in the Yalu and Tumen districts (this concession is said to be very valuable, as the timber is of the best qu.ality).. For the purposes of transport the Russians have constructed with great care roads over the northern frontier of Korea, and have thereby brought the Liao Tung Peninsular into direct communication with Vladivostok.* But this report fails to tell the whole story, for when Russia was concentrating her ambition on obtaining possession of the Liao Tung Peninsula she sought to soothe her sensitive and pugnacious little opponent by an agreement regarding Korea which now prevents her from adopting a policy of open aggression. To get around this little obstacle the Russians are working largely through the French. France has no independent ambitions in Korea, but she is in close league with Russia, doubtless with substantial rewards elsewhere in mind. So Russia is endeavoring to secure through her ally what she could not so easily obtain openly. Frenchmen are being pushed into all possible official positions in Korea, and as the emperor is controlled by the Franco-Russian party, the Russians are obtaining in this way a number of advantages which by and by the French will deliver. Recent illustrations are the repeated efforts to replace Mr. Brown, the inspectorgeneral of customs, with a man who would manage the finances of Korea to suit Russian interests, and the proposal to relieve the monetary ,. Nothing is said concerning the alleged concession of a coaling station and adjacent territory that it was reported Korea had made to Russia.
POLITICS AND MISSIONS IN KOREA
embarrassments of the emperor by a French loan of five million yen, to be secured and repaid, interest and principal, by the sympathetically managed customs. The native officials were more than willing to have a custom's inspector who would be willing to give them an opportunity to peculate. But these little schemes failed to take into consideration the Scotch-Irish courage and pertinacity of the redoubtable Brown, who boldly charged the platoon of Korean soldiers sent to dispossess him, and with a liberal application of cane and boot sent the rifle and bayonet armed warriors flying out of the gate. 'l'he foreign legations, too, promptly took up the question of the loan, and so vigorously protested against this virtual mortgaging of the government to France and Russia that, tho the papers had actually been signed, the deal w:as quietly dropped. Now the emperor, desperate for money, puts the shoe on the other foot by asking the local Japanese bank to lend him 500,000 yen..
All these Franco-Russian schemes are materially aided by the Roman Catholic Ohurch in Korea. It is represented by one bishop, thirty-nine priests, twenty-four unordained workers, all French, and under La Societe des Missions Etrangers, of Paris. There is a magnificent cathedral in Seoul, the most splendid and commanding edifice in the entire capital, and throughout the empire there are sixty-one schools of various grades and a Oatholic population of fortytwo thousand four hundred and forty-one. Bishop Mutel is one of the oldest men I have met in Asia. The relation between the French political plans and the French Oatholic mission· are very close. 'rhe legation and the missionaries work together so openly that the typical priest is commonly believed to be a quasi-political French emissary. In this powerful hierarchy France and Russia have no contemptible reinforcement.
Missionaries and Christians It will readily be seen that the Protestant missionaries and Korean Ohristians are in an exceedingly delicate and difficult position. The missionaries strongly believe with the boards at home that all respects should be paid to the lawfully constituted civil authorities, that special care should be observed not to needlessly embarrass them, that the laws of the land should be obeyed, and that it is better for the disciples of Ohrist to patiently endure some injustice than to array Ohristianity in antagonism to the governments under which they labor.
On the other hand, the Gospel always has and always will be a revolutionary force in a corrupt nation. It tends to develop in men a sturdy independence, a moral fiber, a fearless protest against wrong, which in the end make them what the Puritans-were in England and what our revolutionary sires were in America. It will not do this as quickly among the indolent and pathetic Asiatics as it did among the
more virile Ang1.o-Saxons. But whether sooner or later, the conse- quences are as inevitable as the movement of the planet. Christi- anity and iniquity can not live together in peace.
But for this very reason all the more care should be exercised not to prematurely precipitate a conflict. Already ambitious political leaders have tried to enlist the cooperation of the Korean Christians, but the missionaries have promptly and decisively prevented the consumation of the intrigues. I believe with them that it would be as foolish as it would be suicidal to allow the infant Church to array itself against the government. God may bring about a better day in Korea without any violence at all. The Gospel revolution is often a bloodless one and is best when it is such. What, we desire in Korea is not the dethroning of the emperor or the degradation of any official, or the interference with any proper law or custom. We simply seek the regeneration of the individual man, and through him the purifying of society and the reign of that justice and honesty and morality which are indispensable to the stability of all government and to the welfare of a people.
But from all political scheming the Church should hold aloof. Individual members of it should not be allowed to foment revolution. If revolution is forced from outside the Church, so that men have no alternative but to take sides, then of course each must do what his conscience dictates. But no Christian should make the mistake which Moses made when he smote the Egyptian and" supposed that God by his hand was giving deliverance." It is not necessary to caution the missionaries on this point, for they thoroughly understand its importance. They are on friendly personal terms with the government and officials, and they are determined that by no act of theirs, and by no rashness of the Koreans whom they can control, shall the Church be led into a position which would surely result in tumult, persecution, and perhaps irretrievable disaster.
But whatever may be thought of the official classes we should not fail to do justice to the many good qualities of the Korean people. They are undoubtedly a weaker race than the Japanese and Chinese. But the weakness is chiefly the result of subjection to foreign domination, and to despairing acquiescence in misgovernment and oppression. The superior power of neighboring nations has taught them dependence. The cruel exactions of tax-gatherers have fostered deceit, and the certainty that they would not be allowed to enjoy the fruits of toil has naturally begotten indolence. But the Koreans are not lacking in intelligence, and with a good government, a fair chance, and a Christian basis of morals would develop into a fine people.
The anti-foreign feeling which is so noticeable in China does not exist in Korea. True, there are a few officials who dislike foreigners, while the old- conservative Confucian scholar class is naturally more or
POLITICS AND MISSIONS IN KOREA
less sullen under the spread of new ideas. But the attempt to create an anti-foreign crusade last winter resulted in an inglorious fiasco. There was indeed a temporary commotion when it was discovered that on November 20, 1900, a secret circular edict had been issued ordering an uprising against foreigners on the 6th of December following. Even in the most peaceable of civilized lands there are lawless characters who are ready for violence, and Americans who recall the readiness with which a mob forms in onr own cities will understand how easily trouble might have followed such an edict in Korea. But our always alert and efficient United States Minister, the Hon. Horace N. Allen, took such prompt and decisive measures that the plot resulted in "nothing more than a palace intrigue" by two corrupt schemers.
JAPANESE SETTLEMENT, FUSAN, KOREA Soon afterward one of these, Kim Yung Chun, offended the emperor's favorite concubine, and was hanged March 18, 1901.
And yet trouble is always a possibility in an Oriental country. Extortion and misgovernment will occasionally goad even a patient. people to deeds of unreasoning fury, and when they once begin to "run amuck" they are not apt to distinguish between friend and foe. For example, because the priests of one port allowed some of the converts to serve as collectors of the increased taxes, the populace arose in a frenzy and murdered the whole Christian community. The ringleaders are now being tried in Seoul. No Protestants were involved.
Drought is increasing the general unrest, and the desire of the Japanese to have some excuse for further interference may lead them to secretly foment trouble in the South at almost any time.
But these changes are not imminent enough to justify us in changing our plans. They are simply a phase of the risk always attending missionary work in heathen lands. If Korea were a quiet Christian country we should not send missionaries to it. The very degradation and superstition which cause the tumult constitute the necessity and the opportunity of the Gospel.
" Mamma," said the little daughter of a missionary, "this isn't as nice as America." " No, dear," gently replied the mother; ,"that is why we have come."
But of animosity toward the foreigner there is very little. On the contrary, the Koreans look to the foreigner for help.
We had some opportunity to test the feeling of the people, for we not only visited the cities of Fusan, Chemuipo, Seoul, and Pyeng Yang, but we took a j ourney of three hundred and fifty miles through the interior in TRA VELING IN KOREA chairs, on ponies, and afoot. We passed through scores of villages far from the beaten track of travel, ate in native huts and slept in native inns, with our luggage and supplies piled in the open courtyard.
The people manifested great curiosity, following us in crowds through the streets, forming a solid wall of humanity about llS at every step, and peering at us through every door, window, and crevice. But not once was the slightest insolen ce shown, and not a penny's worth was stolen on all that trip. Everywhere we were treated respectfully and with a kindly hospitality, which quite won our hearts. The best that a vil- lage afforded was gladly placed at our disposal, and while prices were never excessive, in several places the people refused to accept any compensation whatever. We usually sent word ahead, so that accom- modations might be ready 'for us, and whenever we did so groups would walk out several miles to meet us, sometimes in a heavy rain.
The invariable salutation was a smiling inquiry, "Have you come in peace?" and when we left the people would escort us some distance on our way, and then politely bid us good-by in the words, " May you go in the peace of God." It need hardly be said that these were nsually Christians, but we saw multitudes who were not, and while the heathen were noticeably more unkempt than the Ohristians, they, too, were invariably kind and respectful. He must be hard-hearted who could not love such a people, and long to help them to higher levels of thought and life.
TYPES OF KOREAN CHRISTIAN CHARACTER
TYPES OF KOREAN CHRISTIAN CHARACTER BY REV. W. L. SWALLEN American Presbyterian Mission, Korea Human character is best studied in the acts of men and women, so far as these acts may be correctly understood and interpreted. In none are the doings of individuals so scrutinized as in believers-in- creasingly so in heathen lands. We may be more or less familiar with the general Christian character ill a professedly Christian land; but not so in a country where Christ has been unknown, and the people, for centuries, -have been living without God and without light and without hope. Nevertheless, when the Light of Life streams in upon the midnight darkness, the believing among the dead in sin" hear the voice of the Son of God," and hearing, live and shine-shine far brighter, maybe, for the very darkness about them. And we may ex- pect some marked types of Christian character to appear among the heathen in those who have believed the revelation of God as it is in Christ Jesus. This we find interestingly true in the new mission field of Korea. /' Twenty years before the Protestant missionaries went to Korea there were many professing faith- in Mary's son as the work of the Roman Catholic priests. And when the Tai Won Kun, father of the present emperor, sought to wreak his vengeance upon all who pro- fessed- faith and would not recant, twenty thousand native Christians with nine French priests baptized that country with martyr's blood, bearing testimony, in a voice louder than words can utter, to the fact that a new element was fused into their character by the matchless power and unconquerable hope of an endless life. If these twenty thousand, with no copy of God's Holy Word to teach them the way of life, and with only a fragmentary knowledge of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus, could stand that fiery trial and witness so noble a pro- fession even unto death, what may we not expect from the thousands of devoted and much-better instructed Christil)-ns of to-day, who have been reading the Holy Word for themselves, and who have an experi- mental acquaintance with the indwelling Holy Spirit. Forbid that anyone should attempt to say what they would or would not endure were they put to the fiery ordeal, but let us be satisfied in the joyful hope which their faithful lives inspires, and praise God for what we have seen and know of the evidences of a new birth, and of a life which indicates that there will be no compromise with sin or flinching in the time of persecution, because their hope is in God. Of the present company of native believers, few have as yet been called upon to "strive unto blood" for their faith, though they are tried, some of them, most severely; but there are other traits of a noble character which may often best be seen in the" living sacrifice" rather than in
the" dying." It is this feature especially of the Korean Christians that people are and should be interested in to-day. What evidence is there, then, that the Gospel has any power to-day to change the life and character of the Korean people? Let their own changed lives and Christian activities answer. A few simple illustrations from different individuals in distant parts of the empire, from the various stations of life, may serve to throw light upon the question, and show better possibly than anything else the marvelous work of God in that once lone" Hermit Kingdom."
From Idleness to Industry Generally speaking, Koreans are constitutionally lazy. It is born and bred in them. Their phlegmatic temperaments render them thoroughly indisposed to continued or consecutive labor, whether of physical or mental effort. The Koreans are probably the laziest people among nations occupying a cool zone. Possibly there i~ a reason for this. I am inclined to think there is; but, however that may be, we do know that the Gospel effects a change in the Korean believer's character so radical and so permanent as to make him energize in spite of his original nature or environment. Here is Mr. 0–, for example, a man who would not work because he could get on without it (few Koreans do work ,unless they are driven to it by sheer necessity). Mr. 0 – – had a large family, poorly clad and poorly fed, living in "rags and tags" in a tumble-down thatched hut.· He had a good trade, but this he carried on by means of hired workmen, spending his own time in idleness, and often in dire wickedness, giving himself up to passion and pleasure, wholly indifferent to the needs of his wife and children. Mr. 0 – – heard the Gospel and was converted. His first thoughts were to straighten up his crooked ways in relation to his fellows and to his God. That done, he came to me and said: " ~'J{oksa (pastor), it does not seem right that I, a strong, healthy man, should be idle. Though I could live without work, these hands of mine are strong and skilful, and I have a good trade. Why should not I work that I might have more whereof to give to God? Since I have no education, and the gift of speech is not with me, I can not preach or teach the people about Jesus their Savior, but I can earn money and give that to send some one who can, and this is my ambition." So he rolled up his sleeves and entered the black, dirty, soot· covered workshop where I often found him since, when I would call on him, his hands and face all covered with soot. There in the workshop he prayed and toiled and glorified God. One morning, as I was starting on an itinerating trip, Mr. 0 – – met me with his usual happy greeting, but with his countenance beaming with more than usual joy, as he grasped my hand and said: "Moksa, I have gotten onto a good way to make money for the Lord. I just lay aside one
dollar out of every ten for the Lord, and I know that I will have much money for the Lord now." Thereafter the more he made the more he had to give, and the more he gave the more he enjoyed the service of the Lord. His home and family have changed. 'rhey are all Christians now, and Ohristian activity, honor, and noble manhood has taken the place of selfish despotism. He is now clothed in his right mind and living to the glory of God. He has since contributed liberally to the local church and school, to the Korean Religious Tract Society, to the India Relief Fund, to private individuals in need, to the preaching of the Gospel in and about his own n~ighborhood, and, selling his shop and property in the country village, he bought a large house in a magistracy, and fitted up one of the large rooms for a place of worship, where more than fifty now gather to worship God. In his house he has also provided a room for the instruction of the boys and girls of the community. Is there any wonder that in his section of the country there are springing up nIl around groups of believers which will some day be organized into churches ? Not only is this true of Mr. 0–, but the. story of his life is the story of very many who . have gotten hold of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. From Squalor to Cleanliness There is no word for home in the Korean language. Being with- out the idea, of course they have no word to express it. Their social life is highly organized and etiquette is at a great premium, yet they are without the blessed influences of home or anything that approaches the sentiment surrounding it. They live in the midst of filth and squalor, with perhaps only a few square feet of clean surface whereon to sit and sleep. Lazy people are generally filthy; quite natural that it should be so. But more than that, filth is the breeding-place of every vice-the two generally go together. The Koreans to-day live, as it were, in the accumulated filth of ages, until the disgust of it seems to have almost disappeared. Especially is this true of the poorer people. And were it not also true of the wealthier classes, some steps would certainly be taken to prevent it, which is not done. The care-worn expression of their faces tells the sad story of their hard lives. But how changed is all this when the grace of God lights up the heart! It is a noticeable fact that so soon as the Gospel is received face-washing and clothes-washing and house-cleaning begin. The dust and filth go out with the devil, as hope and cheer and comfort enter with the Gospel. The parents begin to find a common interest in the Word of God which vibrates and permeates all within that little family circle, then widens and radiates through all the channels of their larger lives as they come in touch with their fellow friends, until there is no place where the power of God in their lives is not effectual. Ordinarily little attention is given to the girls; in
fact, the ability to read is not loohd upon as a feminine accomplishment, but when a girl is able to read she is branded with suspicion. The Ohristians, however, are most anxious to have their girls as well as their boys learn not only to read, but also to have them receive an education. The husband and wife may be seen sitting together with their children about them reading or conversing about matters of interest, and the burdens and trials of the day are borne together. The farther one is removed from the power of the Gospel, the less willing is he to share the responsibilities and hardships of life. Thus the heathen husband leaves the burdens of life to be borne alone by his wife, while he betakes himself to his gentry friends for counsel and companionship. But not so where the real home life is begun. This change is most marked and permanent in thousands of homes where the Gospel has entered the hearts of the Koreans. The future is brightening as the light breaks in upon them, and the sentiment as well as the true homes themselves are being reared throughout the empire. And now from these homes go out the hope of the country through the character that is being developed in the children. Bright, brilliant, cheerful, hopeful, skilful and brainy, courteous and sensible, patient and persevering in their forward march, there is nothing that will be able to stop the tide of influence that shall emanate from the homes and lives of these Ohristian Koreans. They are "living epistles," known and read of all men.
" Everywhere Preaching the Word"
, A most marked characteristic of the new-born child of God is the instinctive desire to tell others of the love of Ohrist in his soul. In this particular the Korean Ohristian converts seem to have received ~special grace. The believers go everywhere preaching and t,eaching Ghrist. Of the fifteen thousand believers in Korea comparatively few ~itve been brought to Christ through the direct instrumentality of the foreign missionary. The native Ohristians themselves have witnessed in their daily lives and conversation, dropping the seeds in love and often watering them with their tears. Merchants take with them on their journeyings Bibles, or portions thereof, and religious tracts, and scatter'them with their merchandise. At noon when they take their meals, or at night in the inns with friends or strangers, they talk about the Bible and their own conversion, telling to all the love of Christ in their soul. Men become interested and seek the truth, a group of believers is formed, and a church or churches is the result.
From the prefecture of Ul Yul, in northwestern Whang Rai Province, a man came to the capital to purchase an office, but failing in his eiiort to do so, meeting with Christians and the Gospel, he returned with two horse-loads of Ohristian books, and started upon a new line of endeavor. Two years later I visited that prefecture and
RELIGIOUS FORCES IN MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
had the supreme delight of worshiping with more than three hundred who had gathered together to hear the Word. The whole prefecture had felt the gracious influence of these Christians, who go throughout the district preachiug and teaching the Gospel.
It is most inspiring to see the simple-minded faith and humble devotion of these native Christians. Space prevents us from speaking at length of their devotion as evidenced in their worship. It is no uncommon sight to see men and women walking ten and twelve miles to a Lord's service. I have seen Christians on a rainy Sabbath, when the rain would be pouring down and the water running in the streets, take off their shoes and socks, and covering their delicate horse-hair hat with an oil-paper covel' and their shoulders with an oil-paper cape, wade through the streets on their way to the house of God. Men tithing their scanty means, and women taking off their jewelry and contributing it to help the poor and extend the Gospel; men, like Paul, preaching the Gospel and working at their trade to support themselves and families; women selling needles and trinkets in order to get into families otherwise barred to the preaching of the Gospel, and the general Christian conversation, at home, on the street, 'in business and everywhere at all times, evidence the devotion and religious activity of these yonng Christians of the once" Hermit Nation." In 1893 three missionaries stood on the heights of the walled city of Pyeng Yang-a city of seventy thousand without a Christian within her walls-and blew the Gospel trumpet, calling for repentance and faith unto holiness. Now eight years have scarcely passed, and a message from Pyeng Yang comes over the sea to the church at home, " A thousand at a mid-week :!,)!'ayer-meeting ona rainy night!" Truly, "the I..ord hath aone it." It is marvelous-yes, but marvelous only to those who know not the power of the Almighty. .
RELIGIOUS FORCES IN MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA BY REV. JOlIN W. BUTLER, D.D., MEXICO CITY Missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church (North) The use of the word" force" in the subject before us is suggestive, to say the least. The aboriginal tribes inhabiting Mexico and Central America coming, in the remote past, from both transatlantic and transpacific lands, brought with them some knowledge of the Creator and Preserver of mankind. '£his knowledge may have been obscure and the outward manifestations of worship shrouded in mystery. Their priests or oracles were always with them, and through them they were supposed to be in direct communication with the Invisible, Allwise and All-ruling One.. Worship was a part of their very being, instilled into every infant's mind. Their schools were distinctively
religious, and in some cases excessively so, students often being roused at midnight for religious practises, including fasting, prayer, and "mortifying of the flesh." Their priests domineered over the family, and dictated in matters relating to marriage and other domestic affairs.
Temples abounded. ~o form of religion ever constructed more numerous or more sumptuous sanctuaries than the early races on this continent. In the very heart of every town or village which they founded, even in the temporary abodes of the nomadic tribes, there stood the sacred edifice, and there, by its side, lived the priests, while within the sound of worship constantly echoed, and from its altars the holy fire was never allowed to be extinguished, except for a moment every seven years.
The great teocalli of Mexico City, founded sIx years before Colum- bus discovered America, has never before or since been equaled in size and equipment by any sacred edifice on the Western Hemisphere.
It occupied more ground then the present expensive cathedral and spacious public square; indeed, the site was declared by the conquer- ors to be "large enough for five hundred houses." It contained five thousand priests and a multitude of priestesses. On some one or more of the six hundred altars burned the undying fires. Ten thou- sand soldiers garrisoned the sacred enclosure. It is said that several hundreds of lesser teocallis were found in the cities, while towns, vil- lages, and rural districts had an equal proportion. If" God with idols in their worship joined," as Milton says, and there was much more of the ." idols" than of God, He was, nevertheless, recognized as "Supreme Creator and Lord of the Universe." While their altars often swam with the blood of innocent victims, as well as with the blood of prisoners of war, they prayed not only to their thirteen tute- lar deities, but also to the Lord of Heaven and Earth, for the pardon of all their sins.
The Coming of the Spaniards However corrupt and unsatisfactory we may regard their system of worship, we must nevertheless confess that the Spanish conquerors found here religious peoples. That their religion did not satisfy the invaders goes without saying. With the soldier came the priest of another cult. While some of these were, without doubt, exemplary and seIf~sacrificing men, fit models possibly in matters of intelligence, industry, an.d devotion for the missionary of our day, the majority of them were too much like the chief conqueror-mere adventurers and sick with "greed of gold." Whatever means were necessary to bring about the desired end must be employed, nQ matter whether that end be the conquest of vassals or their conversion to Christianity; the Spanish crown must have them and their fabulously reputed wealth, while at the same time the pope must have their religious adherence. .
ItELIGlotl's FOROES IN MEXICO A~1> OENTRAL AMERICA
A single incident from history will serve to illustrate this point. Not long after the landing of the Spaniards they were invited to visit Cempoala, a city of over twenty thousand inhabitants, twenty-four miles inland. They were received with gifts of fruits and flowers, and immediately manifested their appreciation of all by a wholesale transfer of the entire kingdom of Cempoala into the" Kingdom of Grace" by mere brutal force, just as they had done before on the Island of Cozumel and in Tabasco. In the center of the beautiful city stood the temple wherein the people and their fathers had worshiped for centuries. To them it was of an spots the dearest and most sacred on earth. But Spanish soldier and priest unitedly determined that it must be converted into a Christian temple. So the invading army formed a cordon around the temple, while the cannon, with their concentrated thunder and lightning, were made ready, and the following grandiloquent address was delivered by Cortez, the chief of Spanish missionaries: "Gourage, soldiers; now is the time to show that we are Spaniards, and that we have inherited from our ancestors an ardent zeal for our holy relt:gion. Let us break the idols and take from the sight of those unbelievers such vile incentives to their superstition." Thereupon fifty soldiers entered the temple and cast every idol down the stairs, while the natives stood paralyzed. To this Clavigero adds: " After this daring act their prudence was blinded by enthusiasm.
Cortez commanded the priests to bring the fragments of the idols be- fore him and throw them into a fire. He was immediately obeyed, upon which, being full of joy and triumph, as if by breaking the ido-ls he had entirely banished idolatry and superstition from those people, he told their chief he was now willing to accept the eight virgins which had been offered him; that from that time he would consider the Totonacs as his friends and brothers, and in all their exigencies would assist them against their enemies; that as they could never more adore those detestable images of the demon, their enemy, he would place in the same temple an image of the true mother of God, ~hat they might worship and implore her protection in all their neces- sities. He then expatiated in a long discourse upon the sanctity of the Christian religion, after which he ordered the Cempoalese mason to cleanse the wall of the temple of those disgustful stains of human blood which they preserved there as trophies of their religion, and to polish and whiten them. He caused an altar to be made after the mode of Christians and placed the image of the most holy Mary there." _ This policy of force obtained through all the conquest, and with such" apostolic blows and knocks" the representatives of the Cross, al ways holding the sword of Toledo in 'one hand, attempted to pour the light of the Gospel into the benighted understandings of the natives and to expound the mysteries of the Catholic faith.
But such methods always leave their legitimate fruits, and one
may see them all over Mexico and Oentral America to this day. Milton's words are again verified, when he says, Who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe.
How true this is in the present case may be judged from no less an authority than the great Humboldt, who visited Mexico three hundred years later, and wrote as follows: "'rhe introduction of the Romish religion had no other effect upon the Mexicans than to substitute ceremonies and symbols for the rites of a sanguinary worship. Dogma has not succeeded dogma, but only ceremony to ceremony. I have seen them, marked and adorned with tinkling bells, perform savage dances around the aUar while a monk of St. Francis elevated the host."
The presence of such good men as Bishop Las Oasas, Father Gante, and a few others like them, saved, to a certain extent, the situation, and the Roman Oatholic Ohurch at last gained the mastery over the millions of these two countries which, by conquest, had become the new Spain.
When the nineteenth century dawned on the world viceroys still ruled, and Spain, with avaricious hand, managed the exchequer of Mexico and Oentral America. Rome too domineered, and her galling yoke weighed grievously on the peoples. The Ohristian conduct observed in exceptional cases (just mentioned in the fifteenth century), seems to have completely changed, save in very rare instances, and priests and viceroys vied with each other in draining both countries of their resources and leaving the masses in poverty, ignorance, superstition, and idolatry.
False notions of morality obtained, not only among the people but also among the members of the" sacred orders." This sad fact is confessed even by Roman Oatholic authorities. Abbe Emanuel Domenech, a confidential representative of Napoleon IlL, who came here in 1865, was required, after the fall of the short-lived empire and before returning to Europe, to make a tour of observation, and report on the condition of the clergy and Ohurch in Mexico. His report (not intended for Protestant readers) was published in Paris in 1867, and is a fearful arraignment of the Ohurch. He declares the Mexican faith to be dead, and the Mexican religion" a singular assemblage of heartless devotion, shameful ignorance, insane superstition, and hideous vice." Idolatry abounded, and Indian dances were permitted inside the very churches; and then he adds, "The mysteries of the middle ages are utterly outdone by the burlesque ceremonies of the Mexicans. The accouchement of the Virgin, on Ohristmas night, appears to me as indecent. In France the police would forbid the ceremony as a shock to public morals. But public morality being a thing unknown in Mexico, the custom of representing the accouchement of the Virgin
RELIGIOUS FORCES lN MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
in many of the churches offends no one." And all this was written by a French Roman Oatholic prtest, who declared that even French police would prohibit such performances. Heaven alone knows what all this means, and can fully understand the awful condition of things in Mexico and Central America to within forty years of our day. The abbe says more, and, among other things, declares" if the Pope should abolish all simoniacal livings and excommunicate all the priests having concubines, the Mexican clergy would be reduced to a very small affair," and to prove what he says actually cites cases which he personally witnessed in homes where he was entertained.
Alas and alas! this sad condition of things would seem not to have entirely died out, if one can believe only a fraction of what the secular press is unearthing at the present writing, under the painfully familiar title of " Clerical Scandals."
If to the excesses and corru ption of the Roman Catholic priests be added the iron despotism of Spanish rule so cruelly inflicted by the sixty-one viceroys who represented the crown from 1535 to 1821, the reader will have some idea of the burden under which poor Mexico labored. So galling was the rule that intense hatred toward the Spaniards burned in the breast of every descendant of Montezuma. These oppre-ssed people, and even the creole class, were rigidly excluded from any participation in public service, and in every possible way made to feel that birth on Mexican soil was a misfortune and almost equivalent to being born in slavery. All legislation discriminated against them. Native industries must be checked, so that wine, silks, etc., could only be bought of Spain. Their" earthly lords" lived mostly in old Spain on fat incomes produced by their hard toil on Mexican estates. In this way millions of gold kept pouring out of the country from its lawful owners to enrich those who, by force, had imposed upon the peoples of these two countries a foreign government, a foreign language, and a foreign religion.
Independence and Freedom In 1810 Mexico raised the cry of independence and freedom. In 1821 she finally succeeded in throwing off the Spanish yoke. The States of Central and South America, interested spectators in the struggle, were not slow to follow her example, while the recent and glorious achievements of July 3, 1898, in the harbor of Santiago de Cuba, make it possible to say that these cruel oppressors do not now own a.single foot of land on the American continent. Encouraged by their success in throwing off foreign rule, the people next set to work to overthrow papal hierarchy. But what a stupendous task it was I A Church of over three hundred years' standing, with great cathedrals, rich churches, multitudinous chapels, extensive convents and nunneries, also owned, according to official statistics published in
March
1850, no less than eight hundred and sixty-one estates valued at $71,000,000; twenty-two thousand city lots, at $113,000,OOO-a total of $184,000,000; tho some writers, who assert that the clergy evaded government inspection, put the figure at $300,000,000. While the Archbishop of Mexico drew $130,000 annually for his meager (?) support, and the bishops of Puebla and Morelia $110,000 each, the poor people, whose daily income would not average over thirty cents, with only two hundred and fifty working days in the year, were obliged to pay from ten to twelve dollars for anyone of the seven sacraments of the Ohurch, while without those sacraments they dare not live, much less attempt to die.
But the days of this Ohurch were numbered-the day that Mexico achieved her independence. The work begun under the immortal Hidalgo was carried to its consummation by Benito Juarez, who, together with Oommonfort, Lerdo, and others, shrank not from the Heaven-imposed task, even tho Rome summoned Louis Napoleon, with French and Austrian troops, to her aid, till the separation of Ohurch and State, the sequestration of all Ohurch property, including great cathedrals and humble chapels, rich convents and insignificant nunneries, was an accomplished fact. The Oonstitution of 1857, under which all this was accomplished, may be epitomized as follows: 1. The establishment of a constitutional, federal government. 2. Freedom and protection to slaves. 3. Freedom of religion. 4. Freedom of the press. 5. Nationalization of Church property. 6. Abolition of special tribunals for the Army and for the Ohurch. 7. Treaties to foment foreign commerce. . 8. The opening of the country to immigrants of all creeds and countries.
The Reform Laws, which were the logical outcome of the Oonstitution, emphasized the separation of Ohurch and State, expelled. the Jesuits, suppressed the order of the Sisters of Oharity, refused to recognize all monastic orders, made matrimony a civil contract, prohibited religious processions and the use of clerical vestments on the streets, opened church cemeteries for the burial of all classes and creeds, and made education in the public school free and compulsory. The pope fulminatlld his wrath against an this, and declared such laws, "wherever they may be enacted, as null and void," and then had the audacity to add that all who had act, hand, or part in the framing of such laws had made themselves amenable to "the censures and spiritual punishment" in his power to inflict upon them.
. By the Mexican people these" fulminations from the Vatican were turned into ridicule," and not even the threats of European courts could deter her from her God-inspired purpose. To-day we behold.
l!)o~] Itll:ttGIOt1S lJiORC1l:S IN MEXICO AND CENTnAL AMEItICA
the result! Mexico has taken her place among the enlightened and progressive nations of the earth. Her disenthralled people are freely and rapidly multiplying all kinds of industries, developing her rich mines, planting her wonderfully fertile lands, spreading a magnificent railroad and telegraph system over her entire territory, building schools· and hospitals in every city and town, scattering a free press wide-cast, and protecting every man in the free exercise of his religious beliefs. These events have led to a condition of things which enables the government to meet all its obligations at home and abroad, to close its fiscal year with millions of hard cash in the national treasury, and daily increases the respect and admiration it has long enjoyed on the part of the best nations of the world.
During all these years the Roman Catholic Church, still the dominant religious force in the country, has learned by bitter experience. And it may not be amiss to state that even the most radical leaders of the Liberal party, God's agent in reaching present results, have not been fighting all this time against religion, but against clericalism, priest-craft, and the meddling of the Church in politics. And while many thousands have been driven away from the Church by the abuses mentioned, the great mass of Mexico's fourteen millions are still Roman Catholic in belief. The Church holds its influence over the masses in a variety of ways. First, by its glittering and imposing ceremonialism, which seems to have a special attraction not only for the Latin races but even more so for all Indian races. Second, by means of its sacred shrines, notably Guadalupe, Ameca-meca, Ocotlan, and others, to which monthly and especially annual pilgrimages are made, when thousands and even tellS of thousands attend, some coming from immense distances. Third;through the confessional, and, finally, through the seven so-called sacraments, which bring the priests into the home at every stage of life from the cradle to the grave.
Roman Catholic Forces Nevertheless, modern Mexico, with its new life and especially the spread of Protestantism, has its influence on the old Church, and one can not but note an improvement which it is earnestly hoped may develop more and more. The religious forces of Romanism at the beginning of the new century are about as follows: 1. The pulpit. We mention this not because the Church has in Mexico and Central America as yet developed any great preachers who by their learning and eloquence sway the masses, bnt because the new order of things, and especially the presence of Protestantism, makes preaching a part of Catholic worship. In the course of time this must lead to a better state of things, and possibly with an educated priesthood produce, as in France and America, orators of national repute who can stir and inspire congregations to higher ideals or life and work.
TllEl !ilSS10NAny nEVIEW of 'rBE WORLD
2. Romanism in Mexico and Oentral America can hardly be said to control any press as a religious force. Periodicals they have in increasing numbers. These carry the Ohurch caJendar, and occasionally religious articles; but, on the whole, they are the organs of the political tendencies of the Ohurch, and are much given to criticizing the government and attacking everything that looks like Protestantism or Masonry. What is understood as a religious press in the United States is unknown to Oatholicism in these countries.
3. Hospitals, which might be such eloquent exponents of the practical side of Ohristianity, belong to the government. It is true that the priests are often found iu them trying to influence their management, but in all our twenty-seven years in the country I can recall but one such institution whIch might be called Oatholic, and that was built through the generosity of a single individual.
4. The schools of both countries have long since ceased to be a religious force. Higher schools are not planted or supported by the Ohurch, with the single exception of seminaries, mostly controlled by the Jesuits, where they teach a little theology, much Mariolatry, and, frequently, considerable contempt and spirit of disregard, not to say disobedience, to civil authorities.
5. Then there are a number of so-called pious associations, such as "The Daughters of Mary," "The Apostleship of the Oross," "The Royal Guard of the Heart of Jesus," "The Perpetual Watch of the Holy Sacrament," and others of like nature. The members of these associations have certain duties in the Ohurch, like guarding the images, the "host," etc., and sometimes move in society to do the bidding of the priests. But, judging by appearances, their spccial duty would seem to be that of keeping the collection-plate in "perpetual motion."
Protestant Forces Fortunately for Mexico and Oentral America, the new century opens with other kinds of religious forces at work in both countries. These are forces such as Protestant Ohristianity sets in motion at all times and in all lands.
1. There is the work of that venerable society which has pioneered the missionary work in many lands, sometimes for lack of funds somewhat slowly but never without success; we refer, of course, to the American Bible Society. At present it maintains a general agent in the capital of Mexico and thirty colporteurs scattered throughout the country, many of whom are as devoted men as ever toiled for Ohrist 01' won a martyr's crown. These men distributed in the past year 32,728 volumes of the Scriptures, while the twenty years 0 work record a total of 659,362 copies 01' portions of Holy Writ.
In Oentral America two general agents, assisted by about a dozen colporteurs, have begun to scatter the Word through the several
RELIGIOUS FORCES iN MEXICO ANi> CENTRAL AME:kICA
States. According to the last published report at hand, 9,869 volumes of the Scriptures were circulated in 1899. Perhaps 50,000 volumes have been distributed by the various agencies, including the British and Foreign Bible Societies, and would thus give us a total of over 700,000 copies of the Bible, or portions of the same, scattered in Mex- ico and Central America during the last quarter of the past century. Just as truly as "the entrance" of His Word "giveth light," just so truly will these precious volumes, tho many of them may be burned by fanatic priests or others hidden away, through fear, for long years, as we have known of in the past, yet just so truly will these precious volumes, iu the near future, shed over these weary nations a flood of life Divine.
2. Another living force sent out into these two lands is the printed sheets from the presses of the American Tract Society of New York and the Religious 'l'ract Society of London-twin sisters for good of the two societies above mentioned. Both of these are cooperating as far as their limited resources will permit. This kind of work is greatly augmented by the various presses of the missions in Mexico, which publish books, illustrated papers, Sunday-school lesson leaves, tracts, etc., in great numbers. The Methodist press alone has printed about 70,000,000 pages of religious literature since it was established; the Presbyterian, perhaps, has many more, while several smaller presses are doing their share; so that we are confident that not less than 200,000,000 pages have been or are being distributed among the people carrying the message of salvation. As there is force in the seed so there is life in these "leaves." Who can tell what the harvest will be ?
3. Protestantism now, as in the past, finds a force of great value in her schools, the object being not to antagonize the ever-increasing efforts of these governments, but to aid and cooperate in every such effort; to teach patriotism, and make better and more enlightened citizens; not to demexicanize but to help form more excellent and truer subjects. Already the Protestant schools of Mexico have a matricula of some 18,000 children, whose influence for good must rapidly spread with the passiug years.
4. Protestantism, through her hospitals and dispensaries in San Luis Potosi, Leon, Silao, Guanajuato, Guadalajara, and other places, is commending itself even to the most fanatical, and is exercising an ever-increasing influence in favor of the Great Physician of soul and body, while they ameliorate the sufferings of thousands each year, especially among the poor.
5. The Protestant pulpit is beginning to make itself felt as a force of no mean import. In the early years of our mission work these pulpits were occupied mostly either by men converted in or after reaching middle life, or by foreigners. But the Mexican youth taken
'rllE MISSrONAltY REVIEW 013' '.rHE WORLD
into our schools twenty or more years ago, and trained in "sound doctrines," with notions of sermon building, and, above all, a personal knowledge of salvation, together with a zeal for souls born of the Holy Spirit's presence, are already making the pulpit a power in the land. Tho but few years of this kind of preparation have obtained, such men as Valderrama, Morales, Euroza, Sein, and others who might be mentioned, true-blooded Mexicans, are making themselves feIt in and out of the Church, and, given the language, would be an honor to the Christian pulpit in any land.
6. Here, as in other lands, Protestantism has laid her hand upon the youth, and is drawing them into the Sunday-schools, Epworth League, Christian Endeavor, and Young People's societies. These are being prepared to be a mighty Christian force in the future.
Some idea of their present importance may be obtained when we state that recently five hundred and sixty-three delegates representing these movements, and now united in a federation, met in the City of Puebla for their fourth annual convention. The first convention, four years ago, was attended by only about two hundred.
7. And last, but by no means least, the orderly Christian life and the well-regulated Christian family, standing on Biblical grounds and showing to the world around living examples of happy homes, where the head of the household is a "king and priest unto God," and where of all it may be said: They eat, they drink, and in communion sweet Quaff immortality and joy. .
These are forces which will live to bless these lands and honor God We forever. have spoken of two kinds of religious forces, Roman Catholic and Protestant. The first has had over three hundred years in which to prove its work. Let every impartial reader' look at Mexico and Central America and see the sad results. Protestantism set its forces at work just as the old century passed into the last twenty-five years of its existence. Give us twenty-five years more, and a better pen will write a chapter more glorious than we could dare to prophesy.
A NEW REFORMATION IN FRANCE-MADRANGES* FROM AN OFFICIAL REPORT A remarkable religious movement, which in some respects reminds us of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, has recently taken place in the district of Correze, France, where the most profound religious ignorance and unreasoning prejudice have hitherto existed.
On an undulating plateau in the region of Tulle, about six miles ~ Translated from reports issued by the Societe Evangelique de France by Emma Belle D. Pierson: See also note in Editorial Department.
A NEW REFORMATION IN FRANCE-MADRAliI>:!)3
from Treignac, and some distance from the Monedieres Mountains, lies the little village of Madranges. 'rhis village, barren of natural advantages, is still more neglected from a civil and religious stand- P9int. Since the Revolution it has belonged to the parish of Lonzac, but has suffered much neglect at the hands oftheRomish Church. 'fhe people of Madranges had no priest. The priest of LOl1zac was supposed to minister to them, and for a while he performed mass for them twice a month in their little church. He obliged the children to come for their cate- cheticallessons three times a week to Lonzac at seven in the morning.
In order to be on time they had to start from their homes about three or four o'clock, often accompanied by their parents because they could not find their way in the dark. It is difficult to picture what these poor children suffered from the cold and rain and fatigue, plodding the five or six miles which separated Ma- dranges from Lonzac. Such a state of things could not last. The parents at length refused to send their youngest children. _ The final rupture, however, was caused by the priest himself. One day he abruptly announced to his parishioners of Madranges that as MONSIEUR DUPUY he did not receive payment for this ministration, he would not come again to say mass in their chapel. Stunned by this announcement, the population asked the diocesan authority to attach them to another parish. They also sent three mothers as a delegation to the Bishop of Tulle with a most remarkable letter (January 16, 1898), laying before him the sad plight in which their village was placed, and stating that the priest of Lonzac had flatly refused to administer baptism to a child and communion to two catechumens. They added: Thus, considering that with every effort we make matters worse rather than better, we abandon the struggle, and we place in your hands the sacred house which was given to us that religion might reign in the midst of our families. We hope, sire, that you will find it in your heart
to end this unhappy state of things by authorizing the priest of Veix to come and minister to us at once. The faith has not departed from Madranges. Our men recognize their duties as well as we women.
Even this letter brought no response. The bishop was unmoved, and for eighteen months these poor villagers were entirely deprived of religious services. But they were so deeply religious that they con- trived in many ways to remedy the trouble. For marriage services they went to neighboring village churches, and one of their own num- ber volunteerCld to take charge of religious instruction. An old sacristan named Dupuy helped the children learn the catechism; moreover, he read the Bible to them. When a death took place they carried the body to the church, and the sacristan officiated in place of the priest, reciting the prayers for the dead both there and at the grave. This good man also at Christmas time, seeing the pe()ple sad because no religious services were to be held, gathered them together in the village church and read to them from the Bible the story of the nativity, while his son sang some special Christmas hymns.. What a touching example of faith and genuine attachment to religion in these mountain people!
However, time ran on without any amelioration of their circum- stances.' At last, tired of being thus neglected, the inhabitants made a great decision. August 2, 1898, they addressed a petition to Rev. Mr. Hirsch, Protestant pastor at Brive, telling him how distressed they were, and adding: In view of the neglect, which is an evidence of ill will toward us, the population thus testifies their desire to have henceforth a form of wor- ship which will prevent a return of this primitive ignorance, and they appeal to your kindness for some services which will certainly be well . attended if you will advise us of the day of your arrival.
This letter was sent on by Pastor Hirsh to the Evangelical Society of France, of which he was a member. Touched by the appeal, Rev. Mr. Follourd, agent of the Evangelical Society at Brive, was asked to put himself immediately into communication with the people of Madranges. He found that they had been led to ask for a Protestant pastor, because some of the citizens, when absent from home, had attended Protestant services. The sacristan Dupuy had for a long time been reading a Bible which he had bought of a colporteur. Numbers of other Bibles and copies of the New Testament were bought in the same way, and Pastor Fallourd reported that the ground was prepared and it was only necessary to sow the seed.
About August 16th he went to Madranges and received an enthusiastic welcome upon his arl'lval. Guns were fired in his honor and the church bells rang out to call the people together. At two o'clock a fine assemblage gathered in the open air, the Church being too, small to hold them. This first meeting was a great success. An old
A NEW REFORMATION IN FRANCE-MADRANGES
man was heard to say as he walked home, "There is the religion that I need. When I come to die I do not want the priest called, but the pastor." He had not long to wait, for shortly afterward he died sud- denly, and Pastor Fallourd was called to conduct the funeral. The family urged him to perform the ceremony in the church, using the regular Romish appurtenances. It was no time for use- less discussions, so he consented. It was a most curious and un- common spectacle-a funeral cortege presided over by a Protestant pastor and preceded by a man with a crucifix! At the churcL. Mr. Fallourd mounted the pulpit, while every part of the church-nave, choir, chapel of the Virgin, and even the sacristy-was filled with lis- teners. As it grew dark the sacristan took from the altar the silver candlestick, and, lighting the candle, held it near the pulpit, so that the pastor might see to read from the Bible!
The impression produced by the service was profound, and the people urged him to returu on August 28th, the day of the village fete. They chose this time to show their sympathy with Prostestantism. Five meetings were held in three days, one of which called forth an audience of six hundred people, in spite of a pouring rain. It was indeed a strange sight to see men and women, young people and children, entering the chapel, dipping their fingers into the "holy water" and making the sign of the cross, while they listened in astonished silence to the preaching so new to them, a sermon in which there was no allusion to the Virgin Mary nor to the saints, but only to Jesus Ohrist, who died for our sins and rose again for our justification.
. The people, becoming more and more interested by this preaching of the true Gospel, sent a petition to the Evangelical Society, asking for a settled pastor. This petition was signed by one hundred and fifty-seven names, represent.ing a majority of the residents of the place. Rev. Mr. Fallourd went to Madranges for six months on October 13, 1898, and instituted regular worship there. For two months it was held in the Oatholic church without opposition. The people were much touched by the sympathy shown them after their long years of neglect, and as they heard more of the Gospel their interest in it grew. It is difficult to give an idea of the change that came over the spiritual life of that population. In their homes the ordinary topic of conversation became religion. They spoke of it in the fields, at the fair, riding, or walking, or traveling on the railroad. Women, children, young people and aged, all seemed equally interested in the movement.
When the Romish Ohurch saw how things were tending it immediately named a priest for Madranges, withheld the use of the church edifice from the Protestants, and commenced the regnlar celebration of the mass. The first visit the new priest made was to Dupuy, the sacristan, and demanded that he serve, as formerly, at the mass. But the old
PROTESTANT SUNDAY-SCHOOL CHILDRE~-MADRANGES man had been reading his Bible, and replied to the priest, "Monsieur, I can not serve you at mass; I am a Protestant." Much taken back, the priest turned to Dupuy's son and said, "Well then, Denis, you shall serve me." " I," responded the young man, "still less than my father! " The f~llowing Sunday less than two dozen persons attended mass, while Pastor Fallourd had an audience of one hundred. The next week the priest invited one of his colleagues from a neighboring village, and when the hour came for Mr. Fallourd's meeting to assemble they both placed themselves at the door of the Protestant meeting-place to intimidate those who should attempt to attend the service. As the pastor approached and saw the priests he feared that he would have no audience; but he mistook his- people, for he found a company of young people assembled who had entered courageously under the severe gaze of the two priests, fortifying themselves by singing: Oh, Jesus, we will be faithful, Faithful to Thee till death.
The clergy did everything in their power to regain a hold upon the people. Menaces, promises, and money were used; neither expense nor effort was spared in the endeavor t? draw away or discourage the
A NEW REFORMATION IN FRANCE-MADRANGES
new converts. The priest knew that the Protestants would have a Christmas tree, so he offered tWO! He knew that the people had commenced to love the Bible, so he set himself to speak well of the" Book of books" and to preach the Gospel more like the Protestant pastor. To attract young ,people he instituted games, organized sociables, and distributed money, clothes, and food all winter. But in spite of his efforts he was forced to acknowledge himself defeated.
Aside from a few defections, the Protestants have remained true. Whole families were led into the light. A large company of young people became enthusiastic for Christ. A Sabbath-school and a Thursday school for catechetical and- singing lessons; a regular and wellattended church service; a set' of faithful officers; among them the old sacristan; and, lastly, a solid nucleus -of several hundred adherents, including residents of neighboring villages-all these attest the genuineness of the work.
For some time past Mr. Fallourd has made the 15th of each month, which is the universal fair day, an occasion for a meeting, especially to draw strangers who have been attracted by the fair and who must pass through Madranges. In this way many mountain people from twenty miles round are glad to attend, and when they go back to their homes they recount to their neighbors what they have heard. Thus the good seed is being scattered all abont Mad ranges, oU'TER THE SJ£RVICE IN THE BARN-IIIADRANGES
and the inhabitants of the far-away villages are asking in their turn for the Gospel. Protestant hymns have become very popular, and may be heard from early morning until night in the streets of the vil- lage, in the fields and pastures, echoing and reechoing from hill to hill. Thus the very mountains are made to rejoice. Until lately they had no popular music except light songs, often with vulgar words.
Now these songs are iii iii iii abandoned, and every- where the canticles of the Ohristian faith may be heard. What has brought about this? Draw near to these little shepherds and ask them.
" My children, you are happy to-day?"
" Ah! yes, sir; we can not help singing."
"How old are you?"
"I am four months old," says one.
"And I also – I am four months old."
"How is that? You are fooling me. You look to be fourteen years- both of you."
"Oh, sir, we mean INSIDE THE NEW CHURCH-MADRANGES that it is but four months since we heard and accepted the Gospel. The years we lived without the Gospel do not count. It was lost time." One woman said recently: "Before you came here with the Gospel message I used to be terrified by thunder- storms: I used to light a candle, and, trembling low down before it, repeat over and over' Paters ' and 'Ave Marias'; but now when the thunders roar I sing a hymn and have no fear whatever."
These people are not satisfied with mere attendance at Divine serv- ice and -reading their Bibles. They understand also the importance of sacrifice in Ohristian life. When the use of the church was refused them, they were much discouraged, _but nobly rose to the occasion.
The sacristan offered his house to the pastor for service. Then, as it proved much too small,another man offered his barn, and all gladly set to work to renovate it. At another time, without the knowledge of the pastor, they took up a collection to pay his traveling expenses, and later, having learned that the Societe Evangelique was to have a sale,
A NEW REFORMATION IN FRANCE-MADRANGES
they contributed two sacks of chestnuts. When the erection of s church was proposed they offered to give several days' work and to fur- nish some of the materials.
The people themselves have started prayer-meetings in which the young men and women lead in prayer with a simplicity and fervor truly astonishing. There has been a steady growth up to the present time in numbers and in personal piety of the converts.
This movement at Madranges is but one of a number of symptoms which show a state of soul hunger which is more widespread in France than is generally known. Similar movements are imminent and have already begun in other parts of Correze. We .believe this region to be deliberately opening up itself to the Gospel. Many places have sent to us asking for conferences, and these requests are not prompted by mere anti-clericalism or hatred of the priest. They are tlie expressions of real and deeply felt soul needs. The whole move- ment began years ago by a Bible falling into the hands of a simple farmer. The good man spread the Word of God so well that throughout the whole community there came requests for Bibles and New Testa- ments. The people buy them and read them.
These multitudes, de- tached from Rome but without the light of truth, need our prayers and our help. Already a church has been established at Madranges with four out- posts, but what can one pastor do to serve all the region round with its cry- ing needs? Three other churches ought to be estab- lished at once in order to take advantage of the cordial feel- ing which the people have to- ward Protestant- ism. Pray ear- nestly that the Lord of the har- vest will sen d for t h laborers in t 0 this field, and let the nec- essary mOTley be given to make possible the best work of the messengers of Peace. THE NEW l'ROTESTANT C;:HUIC;:H AT MADRANGlllS
ALLEGED BARBARITIES IN KONGOFREE STATE BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Dr. Wilson, a Presbyterian missionary in West Africa, observed some negro lads tossing a ball which bounded unusually. Curiosity led him to investigate the substance of the ball, which, to his amazement, he found to be what is popularly known as India rubber. lIe called the attention of merchants in England to the discovery which this accident led to, that there were vast quantities of this gum within a short distance of the coast of Africa.
'l'hat discovery stimulated modern methods of communication. The use of rubber for insulating electric wires had already resulted in ocean cables. But the sources whence it was got and the quality of it, and even the limitation of the quantity of it, made it so expensive as to preclude its large use in ocean cables and many arts and industries. The discovery of missionary Wilson led to investigations which revealed the fact that unlimited quantities of rubber could be furnished from West Africa, which, though of a coarser quality, could be utilized at a very low cost in arts and sciences. One who studies a map of the cable lines of the world will be amazed at the results traceable to Dr. Wilson's observation of the negro boys' ball game.
It is sad to have to note that this discovery has brought but little blessing to the native African, and is bringing much of the curse of contact with so-called Christian civilization.
The cupidity of Europeans has led to the organization of effort on an extended scale to exploit Africa "for what there is in it." It is very lamentable that this is accompanied with manifestations of the most reckless disregard of justice and humanitarian measures in a number of localities. The general tendency of the foreign administration of the "spheres of influence" has probably made for progress in a good sense, but there are notable exceptions.
The Belgium government and its king, Leopold II., are ~upposed to be responsible for good government in the Kongo Free State. It is natural that they shonld seek revenue for the conduct of so vast a venture. Among the indigenous resources looked to is the India rubber supply. It is thought not possible that the government in its official capacity could organize a bureau for this branch of income that could be as efficient as a voluntary agency, to whom the government might let the privilege to operate the industry. The government must not, however, give this away. A percentage of the crop of rubber collected must fall to the state as a part of its income. In the practical operation of this theory of administration the Brussels government has sold the privilege to collect rubber through the Free State territory. It also has authorized the use of force in securing the services of the natives in this enterprise.
ALLEGED BARBARITIES IN KONGO FREE STATE
It is patent on the face of the system that it is open to great abuse. A high average of morality in the officers and agents of such a "concession" would be demanded under such conditions to secure even a tolerably decent result. The stockholders in Europe press for high dividends, and are not apt to be over nice as to the methods whieh bring them. Agents far removed from the restraints of any public sentiment, feeling the lassitude of a tropical climate, obliged to find and develop the men and organize the measures for operating the plant or "privilege," are subject to unusual temptations to laxity in the ethical quality of all parts of the appliances.
The agency through which the labor of the expedition and its subordinate administration must be effected is the native races. These " raw heathen" have not been accustomed to regard the "quality of mercy," or to exhibit altruistic characteristics, and they are scarcely likely to develop them when a "tale" of rubber is demanded by fair means-but if not then, by any means. Now when there is added a military force, authorized to obtain compulsory labor from a people reluctant to work at all,and not tempted thereto by any wants they recognize, and for whieh there is at best remuneration unequal to even the new desires whieh eivilization might ereate, it is not difficult to see that the labor factor is not readily secured without chance of great injustice and even cruelty.
When within the contract an armed force is possible, which must be composed of native tribes, and which may be equipped with arms of precision, of which the native popUlation has been denuded by compact of fifteen great nations, the chances for anything like tolerable decency, much less fairness and humanitarianism, rapidly diminishes. Then when one goes a step further in the actual facts, and finds this police force, with unlimited authority to impress men and women, is not only armed with the most modern weapons, but is picked from cannibal tribes, who are turned loose where there is no possible challenge to their conduct, one has hypothetieal eonditions most eompletely adapted to secure injustice, oppression, cruelty, and crime of every grade.
And all this is just what the Kongo Free State has provided. It is not necessary to be over particular in sifting the evidence which is borne by every mail, that this system is operated to result in the blackest and most burping shame of Christendom. The press of Great Britain, of Germany, of France,- and of Brussels itself, has been laden with complaints of results of such an "abomination of desolation." It is true that the evidence is charged with originating from competing and jealous eompanies, who are obliged to accept smaller dividends than the great Kongo eoncessionaires are able to present to their directors, and to the Belgium government to help balance its budget. But the whole crime and cruelty is so well within the possi-
bilities of the provisional sub-government of the concessions that it can make but little difference whether some details of the pandemonium are too lurid or otherwise. They are within the bond. That the Kongo State should hold one-half the shares in the Domaine Prive Oompany, and be indifferent to the reports of murder, torture, and mutilation which accompany its dividt'nds, is beyond comprehension. That these things are of common occnrrence is asserted on the authority of officers who have ad mitted orderilJg the mutilation of hundreds of natives, and suspending the mutilated members on stockades to inspire a zeal to collect rn bber. Knees hacked off, hands severed at the wrist, limbs broken with revolver bullets, rubber collectors tied to stakes and, naked, expos·ed to the burning sun-such are the proceedings, among other&, reported. Fifty blows with a hippo (whip) administered by a sub-agent on a native, because he had not collected enough rubber, were followed by a revolver shot which broke the poor fellow's ankle; whole districts put to fire and sword to terrorize the n~ives to collect rubber; women's right hands cut off because their husbands did not produce enough rubber-these are asserted as specimens of the energetic development of the" Abir" Oompany, organized under Kongo law, by which shares have advanced five hundred per cent. in a few months, and enormous quantities ·of rubber are sent home, a single steamer having carried four hundred and eighty tons of it.
We have chosen to write in moderation (!) of these conditions, and forbear quoting the evidence of greater atrocities, some of them common to all the rubber companies. Oaptain Guy Burrows, after six years' service in the Kongo Free State government, stated, January 2, 1902, in London, to the representative of the Associated Press, that there are abuses which, for the credit of humanity, we decline to quote. He corroborated the statement of an American missionary that the Free State officials employed five hundred cannibals, to whom they issued rifles, to massacre and capture unarmed natives who had rebelled against their brutal methods. He declared that he had sworn testimony of the Belgian government handing over natives to these armed cannibals. He says, "Forced labor prevails everywhere and 'shot-gun' rule is the truest description of the present administration. The companies deriving wealth from the collection of rubber are all more or less state enterprises, as a third or half the shares in ·them are invariably held by the government." He acknowledges that King Leopold and the government have made some show of action against the agents of some of the Upper Kongo companies, bu t says" only minor officials are ever touched." He asserts that" while the present systems for the collection of rubber and the recruitment of natives continue the Kongo Free State will remain a disgrace to the white man's work in Africa."
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE FOR TURKEY
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE FOR TURKEY Lapse of years has not ended, nor can it ever end, the sway of this marvelous city of over millions of Asiatics, to whom during many centuries it has been known as the dominant point of the universe. The influence of Constantinople can never cease so long as the people of Western Asia persist in their ancient custom of coming periodically to this city like the flow of a tidal wave, in order to carry back with its ebb to distant hamlets the impressions and other gains which the city has given them. Under these circumstances the city may be called the throbbing heart of Turkey.-Consianiinople and Its Problems, by Dr. H. O. DWIGHT.
The Ohristian agencies for reaching this strategic point of power with the Gospel have been efficient enough to provoke persistent antagonism in an acute form. The educational institutions of the Protestant commnnities Iilcattered over the empire have been objects of intense persecution an'd the storm-center of conflict between Islam and Ohristianity.
Through it all the schools have secured the result of a large read- ing community. The sultan and his advisers have recently shown their estimate of the power of the press by a supersensitiveness to its issues, and a greatly increased censorship over them. The ludicrous ignorance of this board of censors in the 9.etail of their work finds constant exposure through the secular press of Europe and America.
Paul's Epistle to the Galatians was condemned on the supposition that it was addressed to the population of Galata, Oonstantinople, and when information was given that Paul was dead demand was made for the certificate of his burial. "Onward, Ohristian Soldiers!" was condemned as too martial for circulation in the empire, and" Thy Kingdom Oome" was expunged from the Lord's prayer, as the sultan did not want any other kingdom to come than his own. But all these strictures are a compliment to the power of the press, and the indications are that literature is to be the storm-center in 'l'urkey. Schools continuously pour out multitudes ready to read without discrimination. Prevailing conditions make the issues of native publishers for the most part vicious, or at best indiscriminate.
The American Board, through its Publication Oommittee, is alert to the opportunity and the necessity of the present hour, and has availed itself of the presence in this country at this time of Dr. Henry O. Dwight, whose post-office address is Roselle, New Jersey, to press on the attention of the Ohristian public of all denominations the duty of a well-organized extension of the evangelical literary agencies possible in the Turkish Empire.
HENRY O. DWIGHT, D.D., ON THE CRISIS Four facts constitute to-day a crisis in the history of progress III 'l'urkey: 1. Education has opened a way for literature to shape the moral growth of the people. But morally elevating books in native languages are wanting.
2. American missionaries have won such a leading position in the field of literature in that land that they can reach the people with Ohristian books of power.
3. The missionaries have not the money to publish the fresh, attractive, inspiring books needed to continue the culture begun in the schools.
4. Half-educated native writers of atheistical tendency and ven- dors of the pander's literature have found that there is money in this . situation, and if inaction to-day permits the apostles of sensuality to wrest from the hands of .the missionaries preeminence in the literary field, a like opportunity for molding the moral qualities of the nation can hardly occnr again.
Missionaries of the American Board have been in a great degree the agency bv which a knowledge of reading has been spread through Turkey. – More than any other writers.in the empire, they are equipped for giving to the people books that will elevate, whether in Turkish, Greek, or Armenian. 'l'hey have agencies in every province, and sell their books even in Persia and Russia. 'I.'he American Board supports the missionaries and assistants engaged in literary work, the London Tract Society annually grants $1,250 for printing tracts and some other strictly evangelistic literature, but there is no money to publish books for young people, for general Christian culture in the community at large, or for stimulating thought among the clergy and other leaders.
Schools continuously pour ont multitudes ready to 'read without discrimination. Prevailing conditions make the issues of native publishers for the most part vicious, or at best indiscriminate. Ex- perience has shown that if the missionaries offer the people good books they will be bought and appreciated. We all know that the press is the only means by which a small body of workers call influ- ence vast multitudes. Yet the mission press is almost idle because there is no money to maintain it in activity.
In this emergency an attempt is being made to raise a fund of thirty thousand dollars for the use of the Publication Committee of the American Board's missions in Turkey. This fund will be devoted entirely to maintaining book manufacture; that is to say, it will be dedicated to the expense of paper, illustrations, printing and binding books of Christian culture without sectarian bias.
Printing wiII have to be done in three leading languages of the country, and the necessity for this reduplication makes the sum pro- posed small in proportion to the nature of the enterprise contemplated. The plan is to proceed cautiously, to issue well-chosen books in attractive form, and to sell the books at a small advance only over the cost of production. This will keep the selling price low, will provide for the cost of distribution over a wide territory, and will afford means of increasing the annual output while insuring at the same time the return of all the money to be used again. In short, the fund is to be a capital which is gradually to be invested in the business, whose profits will be small but will go to extend the business. Properly managed, such a fund will not only initiate, but, like an endowment for a college, it will permaneutly continue this enterprise of education, enlightenment, and spiritual culture.
Because of the unsectarian quality of the literature contemplated, philanthropists of every name may aid in this effort to stimulate moral growth in a nation. Because of the profoundly beneficent aim of the undertaking, every Christian may hel p it; for it is of the class of work which Jesus Christ did when he walked among men.
THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF NEW YORK
THE RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF NEW YORK * As the greatest city of a Christian country, New York maybe looked upon as a Christian city, pronounced in her adherence to Christian principles, and an unfaltering testimony to the vast continent in which she wields so mighty an influence. This is indeed the ideal which so powerful a metropolis should fulfil. But New York falls far short of it. Her popUlation of 3,437,202 places her second only to London in size and importance. In the commerce of the New World her influence is paramount. In politics, in education, in vast enterprises, she is leading the nation. But in religion, in Protesta.nt church members proportioned to the population, she shows broad districts, teeming with multitudes of mingled peoples, whose religious condition is less than the least of any of our States and Territories.
In 1890 San Francisco showed the lowest proportion of Protestant church members of any of our large cities, only five and eight-tenths of her popUlation being professing evangelicals, while New York City, with her eight per cent. of evangelical Christians, was next lowest. But the total population of San Francisco was less than 300,000, while New York possessed one district-the German-numbering over 200,000, in which the proportion of evangelicals was but four per cent., and another district of 2oo,00D-the Jewish-in which the Protestant church members numbered but nine-tenths of one per cent.
In 1900 the Jewish section showed but three-fifths of one per cent. of evangelical church members, or 1,504 Christians to 221,000 persons.
There is no city in the Union, State or Territory, which shows such religious dearth as these great foreign districts of New York City. Alaska in 1890 had a Protestant church membership of four per cent. and a Protestant church, to say nothing of the Roman Catholic and Greek churches, to every 3,561 persons of her population. Indian Territory in 1890.. had fifteen per cent. of evangelical Christians, and an evangelical church for every 227 of her people-men, women, and children. But New York's Jewish district has only a Protestant church for every 22,000 people, and one ward in the Borough of Brooklyn has a population of 20,000 and not a single Protestant church 01' mission is to be found within its borders.
Above Fourteenth Street in the Borough of Manhattan the evangelical Christians number but nine per cent. of the population, leaving a million and fifty thousand people outside of evangelical Christianity.
The Borough of Brooklyn shows ten per cent. (119,787) of Protestant church members, but even here is left a million and forty-six thousand persons not evangelical Christians.
But startling as are these figures, we stand aghast when we consider the character of this population which we should evangelize-foreigners from every clime under heaven; and not in knots of a hundred or more, but in great, solid massive colonies of hundreds of thousands.
New York is a port of entry, and here the main stream of foreign immigration pours its floods of hapless human beings into our country. To be sure many of them scatter to the West and South and North, but too many-far too many-lodge in New York City. And these are the * Condensed from The City's Millions, a paper published by the" New York Evangelical Band," of which Miss Helen F. Clark is the director. This band is doing most efficient work, and is in sore need of the support of Christians who wish to have a part in rescuing the milliona of this metropolis.-EllITORS.
poorest of the poor. If they were not, if they had the money to carry them across the country they would not stay in New York to struggle and starve and suffer.
In one year 35,000 Russians arrived at New York with but seven dollars each; 66,000 Italians came with eight dollars each, and 23,000 Hungarians came with but five dollars per capita-over 124,000 persons, of whom not one had sufficient money to pay one month's rent in advance. Their poverty is awful. Their ignorance is appalling. Speaking only their native dialects, they huddle together, race by race, living over again their life in the fatherland, perpetuating their customs, perpetuating their religion, unless, as is too often the case, they lapse into atheism and open unbelief.
These are beds for the prolific propagation of socialism and anarchy. Here in these districts are the nihilist societies of the Russians, the socialist and anarchist clubs of the Germans, the Italian Mafia and the Chinese highbinders. All these preach against established institutions, or incite to law"breaking and personal vengeance.
These ignorant and too often lawless foreigners are also the natural prey of corrupt politicians, and through the ballot become to our better citizens a menace that is terrible. What is the outlook for their evangelization?
We have less than 150,000 Christian church members in Manhattan to 1,850,000 inhabitants, and but 302,000 in all of Greater New York against her 3,437,000 people. This is but a handful in the wilderness of people. For this small number-many of them minors, most of them women, too many of them weak and negligent-to accomplish this work of evangelization will mean a tremendous effort on the part of the willing and competent ones.
It will mean not only personal labor but a greater expenditure than New York Christians are probably ready to undertake. For years our generous city givers have been bui~ding up the West and South through our Home Mission Societies, until now there is no settlement of people in country districts in all our dominions on this continent so void of the Gospel as are the poorer districts of our great cities. It is now time for the country districts to help evangelize the cities, and for our general Christian public to look more closely to the condition of our great centers of popUlation, and devise some way by which their menacing elements may be reached by the Gospel.
PROPORTION OF RELIGIOUS AND NON~RELIGIOUS PEItSONS IN THE TWELVE LARGEST CITIES IN THE UNITED STATES, ACCORDING TO THE LAST CHURCH CENSUS (1890) iI il ~ ~ 00 ..1:1 '"..1..:1. t'"; o"'oSil. '" p:~ ..0.. '; ~ ~ ..1:1 • ..1:1", "~''.". '"o~ "..o..lS.'0" ~~ ..0.. "'", ., r;iI[)~.8 …. -0;;'$" ~~ ~'& e"~.;'.;'l:';l'-;l, i~"'.~ .o.. S.0 tl.'"; 0", ;i!&j -'"'".0 l).S ~3 – o1lt::: "''''' ~;;; :.§a ~M<~1l ~~ … ..1:1 " "'" 0- "'''' "'= ~;;; CITY :'0"; -'" – ~ "l ~o CITY '":0; .-'" 14)<0;,;1; 1 – i !,d P. &:I 0 &:I 00 ~~ 0 p0., A< E] Q) =– 2Q);::0: 0- '" ~ "l ~o ~ 0 – – – ~~ NewYork …… 1,515,301 133,096 8 27 63 San Francisco … 298.997; 17,370 5 25 68 Brooklyn ……. 806,343 103,232 12 25 61 Cincinnati. …… 296,908 39,194 13 25 60 ChicaJ;0 …….. 1,099,850 114,657 10 24 64 Cleveland.. … .. . 225601..636543'1 38,837 14 21 Phila elphia…. 1,046,964 166,029 15 16 67 Buffalo……… .. 40,630 15 28 64 54 lsI I St. Lonis ……. 451,770 51,485 11 17 70 ~~ Orleans…. 242,0391 25,700 10 28 60 Boston ……… 448,477 45.560 10 44 45 Greater N. Y…. 3,437,202:302,295 8 26 64 Baltimore …… 434.439 54,516 12 59
1902J EDITORIALS
EDITORIALS The Zioniata in Conference of higher criticism have been con- fined almost exclusively to the The fifth Zionist Congress was ranks of Protestantism. But the held at Basle the first week in the contagion or infection has reached new year, and very largely at- the disciples of. the Vatican, as is tended, its members coming to- seen in the case of Lenormant and gether from points as distant from Dr. Mivart and others. The pope is each other as Astrachan and Lon- a man of much worldly wisdom, don, Canada and Manchuria. Dr. and a consummate tactician, and, Theodor Herzl, Israel ZangwiJI, and though the sessions of the commis- Dr. Max Nordau were the main sion may be private, the conclu- speakers. It would seem as though sions will not be. We shall all look this movement must have some his- with profound interest to see how toric, if not prophetic, significance. the papal Church, hitherto so con- It seems like a rising river, growing servative about inspiration, will in depth, breadth, volume and force take her stand. It would be a new of current, and has been called the 'marvel if the Church which has Jewish Parliament. To make the traditionally been supposed to keep Jewish proletar:iat settled and in- the word of God from the common dustrious, not to pauperize the folk should now be foremost in people, but to colonize and redeem espousing its inerrancy, and dethe land of Israel by agricultural clare for its infallibility, as thirty and industrial development; to lib- years ago it declared for that of erate the Jews from their bonds of the pope. poverty and social fetters, and convert weeping and helpless depend- The Greek Church and Toleration ants into energetic and enterprising citizens and helpers-these are the Meanwhile the Greek Church sublime objects kept before the shows signs of a new attitude. The Zionist leaders, and the whole Russian Church has, for its own movement seems to crystallize supposed well-being, followed a about these great ideals and ideas, sort of protective tariff policy as to and these are what have always religious commodities. Church and moved the world. We wait in ex- State are so unitE;ld, not as by fusion pectancy. but by frost, that to tolerate other faiths among ignorant Russian A Papal Bible Conference peasants has been supposed to tol- erate rebellion against the empire. The pope has called a Bible Con- The result has been that all along gress! A special commission is ap- through the c.enturies since the pointed to consider all questions Reformation, Russia has stood connected with biblical studies, like a huge arctic iceberg, refuswith the design to furnish the ing to melt under the rays of that scholarly minds in the Roman spirit of charity which is fast melt- Catholic communion full oppor- ing all other barriers to Christian tunity to state their opinions and fellowship. Lately signs of a perplexities, and bring them to the "thaw" are apparent. A modified direct notice of the Head of the toleration is extended to those who Church. The purpose seems to be desire to follow the family faith to formulate a rule of faith so as to and worship of their fathers, limit speculation and eliminate whether orthodox or not, proselyte;ontroversy. Hitherto the ravages ing from the Greek Church being,
however, forbidden. And of Ill-te, in Business Principles of the Church the recent revision of the criminal Missionary Society code, penalties for violation of No less than thirteen times, at religious edicts are made less severe different periods of its history, and rigid. We hope the great says a correspondent, the following northern empire of the 'bear may sequences of facts has occurred: go on to learn still better manners, 1. An excess, sometimes large, of until the bear shall at least "for- expenditure over income in the bear "-and perhaps become a lamb. year; The Bishop of Durham 2. A decisive increase in the in- Dr. H. C. G. Moule, the new come of the succeeding year; Bishop of Durham, is a man un- 3. A maintenance of such increase surpassed in the evangelical tone broadly speaking in after years; of his ministry and the catholicity This-the largest missionary so- of his charity. He is a rara avis, ciety in the world-proceeds on combining so much soundness of the principle of sending forth to faith with so much suavity of man- the field all applicants, physical- ner and beauty of temper. We ac- ly, intellectually, and spiritually count it a singular privilege to fitted to go, and trusting the have known and loved him for Lord to move His people to sup- many years. In his letter to the ply funds. There has been, with residents in his new see, his charac- all the receding waves, a steady ter may be clearly discerned breath- -advance to a higher flood-mark.
ing through his utterances: The income for 1812-13 was but In these early days of my work £3,046. It has steadily risen to as Bishop of Durham, I write to offer a greeting to the great min- £279,635 in 1894-95, with very few ing population of the country. I follow a great bishop. The miners instances of even temporary retro- of Durham are not likely to forget him. I can not be like him in his gression. And, as this bears so in- wonderful power of masterly deal- ing with the difficulties of life and mately on the whole policy of mis- labor. But my heart is warm with his examples of devoted service to sionary methods, we think Mr. his brethren, and I pray God for strength to follow it whenever oc- Maconachie's words should be casion shall arise. My first work as a Christian man and a minister quoted: of the Gospel is to preach, when- ever I can, our Lord Jesus Christ The Church Missionary Society as the Divine Savior and eternal has now for more than a century. life of man, the Lord of our spirit- not only been in existence, but its ualllnd immortal being. I have to growth has, broadly speaking, been remember that no outward im- continuous and gradual. There have provement of society can ever be a been times when the growth,viewed ,substitute for the conversion of for a few years, seemed small; but our hearts and the power of God in there has never been any lengthour lives. But when that is said, I ened period when there was a de- remember also that it is His will cisive and maintained retrogresthat we should all love, honor and !lion, either as regards the supply care for our brethren to our very of missionaries or means to main- best in the life that now is. For tain them. Now, if we were deal- Christ has redeemed our whole life ing with an insurance company and our whole being, hllre as well which could exhibit the same large as hereafter, to be His own. I try and continuous development we to set before me the motto, "Love should argue with confidence that and serve." God helping, it shall its business principles are sound, be my motto to the end. and likely to bring prosperity in the future, unless there should be some great change of conditions in the facts with which the company deals. So in the main we are en- titled to argue with confidence that the principles on which the society has grown are sound, and that if
EDITORIALS
we want success in the future we Burma must continue to follow the guid- ance supplied by the past. It is An assistant secretary of the A. important to emphasize this, be- M. B. U. calls attention to the com- mon geographical error in referring cause it is sometimes urged that, to Burma and Assam as if they tho the society has reached a large were separate countries and not scale of operations, the practical now a part of India. In 1826, Assam, and more lately Burma also, be- limit of these operations has been came part of the Indian Empire, approached, and that the very mag- as different territoritids formerly belonging to Spain, Mexico, or nitude of its work is fatal. Russia became parts of the United The business principles of the States.
society, so far as I can discover The George Junior Republic from study of Mr. Stock's history, Commended have been something like the fol- The charges made against the lowing: George Junior Republic have be~n subjected to a thorough investiga- 1. God moveth the hearts of His tion by impartial judges, and the people. The silver and gold are report is published fully and be- His, and He can and will use them yonq. doubt vindicating the man- agement of that institution against for work which He approves. its detractors. The committee ap- 2. That God's people are stew- pointed in September last consisted of Prof. J. H. Hamilton, of Syraards, and that the society has a cuse University; Miss M. C. Rhoades, a teacher inthat city high right to appeal to them as such to school, and Fillmore M. Smith, give to His work. general secretary and superintend- ent of the Society for the Preven- 3. That in using money thus ob- tion of Cruelty to Children, also located in Syracuse. The investigatained the society is itself a stew- tion was desired and urged by Mr. ard, and can not waste money with- Wm. R. George, the founder and su- perintendent of the republic. The out abusing the stewardship. reports seem to have emanated from 4. That God by His Holy Spirit two or three boys, runaways from the republic, who exhibited bodily calls particular men and women injuries which, they claimed, were inflicted on them by the officers of to work in the mission field. That the republic. The charges were the society at its peril dares not ten in number, including cruelty send any others than those thus and brutality, filth and vermin, called into the field, but equally at lewd associations, under-feeding and overwork, etc. It is sufficient its peril dares not refuse to send to say that the vindication of Mr. anyone that is really called of God George and his associates is so ample and complete that the acto His work. cusations must rather inure to the I think, when such facts as these benefit of the institution. It is a case in which the attack becomes are stated, the first and deepest and most really true feeling is that we are dealing with no fancies of human thought or scheming, hut with tremendous certainties. The application of these principles to the myriad questions which come before the committee is a difficult task, and certainly a humbling one. For those who appreciate it there will be little danger of exalting or glorifying the society. The work at Salisbury Square, so far as it is to be sound, is felt to depend daily-nay, hourly-on the breath of God. In Him we live and move and have our being. By workers with such a thought abiding in their hearts things are seen in their true proportion; and retrenchment where possible of a few pounds by judicious economy is, as affecting the principle of stew- ardship, as important as the largest question of selection and preparation of candidates. The committee are day by day doing all they can by anxious revision and supervision to discharge their stewardship.
an advertisement and a recom- Bertrand, 32 rue de Vaugirard, mendation. Paris, and he will be able to give The Waifs of London further information to those in- No one can read the story of Dr. terested.
Barnardo's work for the destitute A Call from Central America children of London without being Our correspondent in San Jose, impressed with its Divine origin Costa Rica, writes of the progress and character. It is not only pic- of the work there, and of the great turesque but effective, and has al- need for further and more efficient ready saved thousands of boys and efforts to reach the people of the city in whlch he lives. We quote girls who would otherwise become from a recent letter, and trust that drunkards and harlots. This work in some way the need may be supcalls for £150,000 a year for its sup- plied: , port. Dr. Barnardo writes that More, much more, should be done here. In this city of 32,000 they are already heavily overdrawn inhabitants the present mission chapel holds only about 70. I have at their bankers, and that £200 long had a conviction, and it' deepens as time moves on, that we ($1,000) a day is needed to furnish ought to have here a real good mission church building and a firstfood alone for their great fam'ily of class preacher in Spanish with a clear head and a heart filled with 5,450 waifs and strays. A child may Christ. Thus far the places of meetbe supported f~r one year for $75, ing have been uninviting. As Christians we should show wisdom and $5(} pays for the outfit and in our work. We need an attractive meeting-place and a preacher who passage of a child who is ready to could command influence with the educated. There are thousands of emigrate to Canada. God uses liv- educated young men and women here who are ready to follow such ing links to answer prayers for the leadership. I am convinced that such a work, under God, would soon supply of these needs. * show a harvest, and that educated young men would be converted and The New Reformation in France trained as evangelists to go out and convert their own people. Christians will be interested in the account of the revival of spirit- J. H. SoBEY. ual religion in the Correze, which is described in this number of the Donations of the Review REVIEW. It is in charge of the In response to the suggestions in Societe Evangelique de France, which has the sole responsibility of our January number, some friends the work in that and in the neighfjoriIfg departments. In 1880 they have generously made donations of sent their first worker into that region, which had not heard any evan- the REVIEW to missionaries and gelical preacher since the Reformation. They have now 8 workers, others unable personally to subbut their hands need to be strengthened. scribe. We have thus already been able to send it to two Young Men's This society carries on a union work of all F r e n c h Protestant Christian associations in India, a churches. It was founded in 1833 for the purpose of preaching the young ladies' seminary in America, Gospel to Protestants and Papists alike, but as the Protestant popu- Ii missionary in Italy, two in India, lation of France is only as 1 in 75 their work lies more among Roman- and one in Korea. There are still ists than Protestants. numbers of applications which we The secretary is Pa,stor Emile would be glad to fill, but are unable to on account of the lack of funds.
*
BOOKS FOR THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY
BOOKS FOR THE MISSIONARY LIBRARY GEOGRAPHY AND ATLAS OF PROTESTANT Mrs- Jews and one to "Fields Practi- SIONS. By Rev. Harlan P. Beach, M.A. Vol. I. 8vo, 571 pp. $1.50. Student Vol- cally Unoccupied,." v1z., Siberia, unteer Movement, New York. 1901. Central Asia, Eastern Turkestan, The educational work of the Stu- dent Volunteer Movement for For- Tibet, Afghanistan, Arabia, French eign Missions is perhaps its most valuable feature, and the high Indo-China, and portions of character of this work is seen in the text-books which are issued China, India, Africa, and South from time to time, and which are used by hundreds of young men and America. young women in their mission study classes. This latest contribution Mr. Beach has given us what is to missionary literature for students by the educational secretary distinctively a book of facts, not of is, as might be expected, a mine of information. Volume 1. contains opinioD!;. They are, however, facts in brief the important facts concerning the missionary fields of which men need to know in order the world. Each chapter describes a separate field and is divided into to form correct opinions, and they two parts: the first presenting the facts bearing on the land, the peo- will furnish fuel for many missionple, and their religions, and the second giving information con- ary fires for years to come. The cerning the missionary forces at work their methods, and the out- author is noted for his accuracy look. and wide research. He quotes All the foreign mission fields are_ presented in this way, with the ex- largely from eminent authorities ception of Papal and Greek Europe. One chapter is devoted to the abo- who have labored in the various rigines of North America-the Eskimos and Indians, but there is no fields, but has so systematized the reference to the negroes; another chapter deals with the Chinese and material as to make his book an Japanese in America, but work for other foreign immigrants is unno- organic whole. ticed. There are various reasons for these distinctions, but the prin- Some minor inaccuracies would ciple one is the necessity of drawing the line somewhere between almost inevitably creep into a book home and foreign missions. Work among large numbers of non-Chris- of such wide scope as this, but we tian foreigners in America is considered "foreign" missions, while have discovered only a few. It is that among others is counted as belonging to the sphere of home misleading to state that Howard missions. Crosby and George Muller were One chapter is devoted to the "converts" from Judaism (p. 525), tho they were in part of Jewish ancestry. It would also be expected that the exact present location of the American Indians would be stated under the head of "Leading Tribes and their Distribution"
(p.13). The list of tribes among whom missionary work is being done is more up-to-date. We might have expected some mention of leper work in India and of Hindu reform movements, but the scope of this volume seems to have for- bidden it.
The first volume is invaluable for study and reference-the best in point of scope, accuracy and" up- to-dateness" thathas appeared-and the second volume; which consists of maps and statistics, is even more unique and needful. But this we reserve for later notice. *
THE MISSIONARY SPEAKER'S MANUAL. By Rev. "chimney-sweep evangelist" and A. R. Buckland and Rev. J. D. Mullins. 8vo, 368 pp.. 68. James Nisbet & Co., his mission in a cow-shed, and the London. "1901. hero is a converted sailor who is a Many pastors and others will welcome this volume of valuable true hero and a true Christian. hints, outlines, and information to help them in preparing missionary Many crying evils of London life addresses. The material is exceedingly well chosen and presented, are held up for correction, and the covering a large variety of topics, and with details full enough to story as a whole will lead the readmake the presentation interesting. er to have greater sympathy with The first department is devoted to useful hints to chairmen, depu- the poor in their struggles and will tations, and speakers as to length of addresses, the general program, awaken a desire to correct the evils and the audience. Then follow sermon outlines and suggestions as of the slums. * to topics, prayers and scripture passages. The illustrative material THE SUBJECT OF THE SHAH. By Charles Haroccupies the major portion of the vey Stileman. Illustrated. 12mo, 96 pp. volume. This includes testimonies 28. Church Missionary Society, London. as to the need, character, and value 1901. of missionary work; the principal features of non-Christian religions; Persia has not recently come stories of missionary heroism, and under the public gaze as forcibly as the triumphs of the Gospel; some has China, Japan, and Turkey. It principles and problems of mission- is, nevertheless, an important field arywork, and the leading statistics. and one which will yet be heard from. The present volume is in- With such a wealth of suggestion tended especially for young folks, and mine of information, even a but is adapted to all who are unnovice may soon become an expert. familiar with this" Land of Queen. Esther." The contents .are pic- * turesquely given in the following anagram. The land of- THE ApOSTLE OF THE SOUTHEAST. By Frank T. Bullen. 12mo, 354 pp. $1 50. D. Apple- Pussy Cats and Poverty· ton & Co , New York. 1901. Etiquette "E rror Rugs " Ruins Sunshine "S adness Indolence "I gnorance Apricots "A pathy This taste of the contents makes one wish for more and we are not disappointed. * Mr. Bullen has given us some ex- "Now! " is the missionary watchtremely entertaining and helpful books in this day, when volumes word for missionary work in each are coming from the press at the rate of thonsands a day and with generation which forms the subject no other purpose than to enrich the author and the publisher. Mr. to a booklet by Dr. Henry C. Ma- Bullen's" With Christ at Sea" has a distinct missionary value, show- bie, of the A. B. M. U. (Revell, ing the conditions of "fo'castle' life and what may be done to im- lOc.) " Now is the accepted time." prove it. His latest book is an interesting story of life in the . Now is the only time on which a slums of London with a chapter or two on life and adventure at sea. sinner can count for repentance, Facts are presented in the form of fiction. The story centers round a and the only time on which a Chris- tian can count for service. " Buy * up the opportunity."
"How A THOUSAND MISSION- ARIES ARE SUPPORTED" is the subject of a pamphlet by eight pas- tors and laymen who believe in and have tried the plan of specific churches undertaking the -support of individual missionaries under the direction of missionary boards. (Revell, IOc.)
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE AMERICA States at the beginning of the nine- teenth century was about five and The Caucasian The sen 0 tab I e a third millions, the nation has grown nearly sixteen fold in 100 and words, so eminent- years. There are but three coun- tries which now have a greater the African Iy sane and Chris- population than the United States, viz., China, the British Empire, tian, were recently and the Hussian Empire. Fl:ance, including its dependencies, is the uttered at Montclair, N. J., by fifth country of the world in order of population, and ha!> about Booker T. Washington in an ad- almost tile same number as the United States. dress upon" The Citizenship of the Religious The Oh1"i stian American Negro": Stathtics of the Advocate of Janu· United States aI'y 16th publishes It is of the highest importance that the white race appreciate the three pages of figrare opportunity which is afforded ures relating to the various relig- ious denominations in this country, it to lift itself by lifting others. I prepared by Dr. H. K. Carroll, the have sometimes thought that one expert statil"tician, who had charge of the religious census in 1890. of the objects of the Supreme Ruler in placing what the world The following table gives the membership of the principal religcalls a weak and unfortunate race ious bodies in the United States at in the midst of a seemingly strong the end of last year, with the and fortunate one, is to give one growth during the year: the opportunity to continually RELIGIOUS BODY l'Iemher- Growth grow in breadth of thought, the ship at 1901 Present spirit of tolerance, and generosity of purse, by assisting the other. It Roman Catholic, .. , …. , 9,158,741 468.083 is always easy for a race to yield to Protestanc Episcopal. .. , 750.799 31,341 Disciples of Christ, … ,,' 1,179.541 the temptation of crushing and Southern Baptist……. . 1.674,108 29,559 withholding opportunities from a 26,112 African Methodist. , … . 698,354 22,892 ' weak race-to be deceived by the false doctrine that it lifts itself up Colored Baptist",." ' ., 1.500,802 18,146 in proportion as it keeps others Methodist, North" …. , 2,762,691 16,500 Presbyterian, North".,. 999,815 16,3R2 down. The central idea that I Christian Scientist ….. . 48.930 wish to impress is that this nation Lutheran General Synod 204,098 13.980 Congregationalist .. , . , .. 634,835 4,500 will be strong in its citizenship just Baptist, North" …. ,.,., 1,005,613 in proportion as, in its growth, it 3,475 uplifts nearly 10,000,000 black 3,039 people. It will grow weak in proportion as it yelds to the tempta- tion of neglection or degrading these people of African descent.
Census of The population of Figuring on a total of 77,000,000, Our New the entire United there was a gain of 2.18 per cent. in Possessions States, including all the population of the country dur- ing the past year, while the gain the outlying posses- in the church membership of the sions, was 84,233,069 in the census country was 2.67. The grand totals year 1900. This is itemized as fol- are: Ministers, 146,401; churches, lows: United States proper, 75,994,- 174,107; communicants, 28,070,637- 575; Philippines, 6,961,338; Porto a gain over 1900 of 2,569 ministers, Rico. 953,243; Hawaii, 54,001; Alaska, 63,592; Guam, 9,000; American Samoa, 6,100; persons in the military and naval service of the United States outside of the territory of the United States proper, 91,219.
As the population of the United
3,68R churches, and 730,027 com- Mormons A despatch to the nmnicants. T~e figures for twenty Again Preach New York Sun anof t.he largest denominations are as follows: Polygamy nounces t he spread of the propaganda I Commu- Cornmu- of polygamy by Mormon mission- Illicants ! nicants aries in Nebraska, Kansas, and I 1901 I 1~90 South Dakota. Formerly the mis- sionaries were content simply to H-o-m-a-u-C-'a-t-~-o-Ii-~.-.- ..-.-.'-'1 ?~58.?4111 ?,?3L~1' proselyte for their faith. They Method"t EpIscopal .. " 2.,62,291 2.240.35·' were careful, in order to overcome Baptist. South.. "",.,., I 1.1364,108'1 L2HO,OOO in part at least the antipathy to BaptIst. CollJred, '" , , .. . 1.610801 1.:148,989 anything Mormon, to insist that ,the Church had been reorganized MDiestchiop.ldeisstoEf Pe.ihS"risStu,u.t.h.". 11,14.71779.1,584011' 1 624019..(91.•516 and that polygamy was no longer one of its cardinal doctrines. Baptist, North .. , ….. ,. 1.005.613 IiOO.4W Pl'esbyterian, North.". 91)0,815 1 ~8H,224 The campaign now teing prose- cuted is a masked one. It is no ~lf~f~~~al~~~l~~~~~f.~~·~:. ~g£:~~ ~~~:¥~~ longer insisted on that polygamy Congregationalist.,…… G34.~.a5 1 has been banished from the Church. fd2,771 In a covert way it is stated that Lutheran Synod. Conf., 566.3," 357,153 they are now seeking converts to African Methodist ZioTl, 537,.:33' 3m.788 the Church because polygamy is Lutheran Gen. CouTlcil.. 346/,63 possible in Utah and Idaho, where Latter,Day Saints., .. ,.. 300,000 324.~·47 the Mormons are the dominant 24R02B power in politics. One of these Re-!ormed Gerrllan. ,_… 240,007 144,032 missionaries is quoted as having said recently that the true Mor- DUlted Brethreu ,., .. , 2'27J191I 204,018 mons have never relinquished their Pte~bytel'j<in RO!Jth….. 204,972 202.474 polygamous beliefs, and that he 204,098 expected to seCUle many converts, 'I Culol'ed MethodISt. .. , " 17!1·T21 because most men are by instinct 129.,384 polygamous, and that in a Church Lutheran Gen, Synor, , lH'i ,4~2 governed and run as a busin('ss OIganization a plurality of wives is The Strength At the recent semi- not only not a burden, but a .dis- tinct help to worldly plosperity. of annual conference, These missionaries'have been quot- ing leaders of the Church as saying Mormonism the seventy-second, that the law of plural marriage is God-given, and that no Mormon held in Salt Lake need fear man-made lawb They are also accused of tempting their City. "Apostle" Clawon gave these prospective converts with a pictUJ'e of Mormon supremacy in thefutuI'e figures. Said he: ,. There are to-da y by reason of the fact that plurality of wives means larger families, and 51 stakes in the Mormon Church, 14 that as the average non-Mormon family numbers no more than three foreign missions, 200,000 souls in children, in time the whole ('arth will be filled by the true believers. stakes of Zion, and 50,000 in the They seek to prove that in ancient days, according to both their Bibl(' misbions-a total of 3lO,000: 85,000 and that of the Christian Church, children under eight years of age; the first presidency and 12 apostles, 2CO patriarchs, ('i,800 high priests, D,736 seventies, 20,000 elders, mak- ing a total of 36,744; 4,800 priests, 4,900 teachers, 16,000 deacons, a total of 25,700, constituting the lesser priesthood, or a gl'and total of 02,444 bearing the priesthood of God. Connected with the auxiliary associations of the Church are 30,150 members of the Relief So- ciety, lO,OOO officers and teachers in Sunday-schools and 15,000 chil- dren, 28,000 in the Y. 11. M. I. A.
and 2;";,000 in the Y. L. F. I. A.; 4,060 officers and 31,D88 children in tIle primary association; about 20,- 000 belonging to the religious classes of the Church, the total of those belonging to the auxiliary associations reaching 264,204."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
polygamy was not regarded as a spondence and of agencies of all sin. kinds connected with collecting and distributing the money. The fol- Educational In accordance with lowing table shows this in detail. Gifts in 1901 its custom, the Chi- During the financial year of the Board its expenses amounted to cago Tribune re- $717,081. The distribution of this ports the amounts given for educa- sum will be best understood by tion and charity in the United considering what portion of each States during the year. The ag- $lOO was used in the several lines of gregate for 1899 was $79, 7!9, 956. expenditure: In 1900 it was $62,461,304. For 1901 it reaches the sum of $123,888,732, For the 3 missions in Africa! of which $68,850,961 have gone to West Central. ………… $2.77 colleges and educational institu- East Central………….. 1.77 tions, $22,217,470 to various chari- Zulu ………………….. 4.22 ties, $15,388,700 to' libraries, $11,- 133,112 to museums and galleries, For the Turkish missions: $8.76 and $6,298,489 to churches. The latter only includes the amounts European Turkey……… $4.92 given by will or presented for en- Western Turkey. .. …… 12.52 dowments or special purposes. Mr. Central Turkey. . .. . .. …. 4.60 Carnegie, Mrs. Stanford, and Mr. Eastern Turkey.. … . ….. 5.08 Rockefeller of course lead in this distribution of wealth, the former For Ceylon and Indian missions: $27.12 with gifts amounting to $42,888,500, Mrs. Stanford $30,000,000, and Mr. Marathi. ……………… $10.03 Rockefeller $2,889,750. Madura ………………'.. 7.80 Ceylon.. . . . . ….. .. .. … .. 1.69 Figures for The total member- the Y. M. C. A. ship in the United For the 4 Chinese missions: $19.52 States is 268,477; in ~'uchau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. $5.05 the world, 533,049. Last year 23 South China…. ………. .59 buildings were erected, and over North China………….. 7.60 $lO,OOO,OOO were expended in the va- Shansi………………… .52 rious forms of work. There are 170 Raitroad Associations, with 43,150 –$13.76 members; 50 Indian Associations, For the Japan mission…….. $11.29 with 1,800 members, 1,000 in Bible ~'or the Sandwich Islands. . . . . .94 classes; lO buildings were erected For Micronesia. .. .. ………. 3.59 last year at an average cost of For 3 missions in Papal lands: $25 to each member. Army Asso- Mexico ……………….. $3.25 ciations were found at 321 points, Spain…………. ……… 1.85 including Cuba and the Philippines, Austria. ….. . ……… …. 1.64 with 54 libraries and 630 Bible classes. –$6.74 What One From the statement Amounts used directly for Hundred Dollars below it will be the missions. . . .. .. …… $91.72 Will Do seen that during For agencies in New York, the past year, of Chicago, San Francisco, . with expenses of mission· every dollar received by the Amer- aries and others in visiting ican Board, 9l.7 cents go directly to churches, etc …………. $2.60 the work abroad, while 8.3 cents are used to cover the cost of corre- For publications of all kinds, 1.60 For salaries of officers and clerks and all other items coming under expenses of administration. . . . . . . . . . . 4.08 Amount used for home ex- penditures…………….- – ' $8.28 $100.00 What Another What would the Million Would Presbyterian Board Do do with another million dollars if the Church should give it? To know what might be done with such a doubled income, let us look back at what has been done with an income of $500,000 in 1872, and compare it with the present work supported at an annual expenditure of about $1,000,000. In 1872 there
were 262 missionaries, now 715; Italy in Con- Of the 487,000 im- then 439 native workers, now 1,841; necticut migrants last year, then 10,681 scholars in schools, now 136,000, or 27.9 per 25,910; then 4,203 church members, now 41,559. The doubled income of cent. were Italian~ They are not these years has represented an in- from the Rome where Paul preach- crease in the work as a whole of ed, but from Sicily, where govern- about 500 per cent. At the same ment, both human and Divine, is ratio, another duplication of in- hated. They are "dagoes" for come would support a work em- whom nobody cares. bracing 2,100 missionaries, 7,500 native workers, 63,000 scholars, and Something has been done for 400,000 native Christians. But an- them in Connecticut. Since 1897 other million dollars would mean a there has been Italian work in Berfar greater increase than this; for lin, Windsor Locks, New Britain, a great deal of missionary machin- New; Haven, and Hartford. Last ery has been provided that will month at Windsor Locks Mr. Guisuffice without proportionate en- seppe Merlino was· ordained and largement for a greatly increased set apart to the ministry-the first mission ary force.-RoBERT E. Italian to be ordained as a Congre- SPEER. gational minister in New England; and only one Italian name now ap- The Volunteers During the pas t pears in the Year-Book. There is of America year the Volunteers good prospect for the organization through their out- of an Italian church in Hartford, and for the enlargement of the door work reached 1,864,951 per- work in New Haven. More than sons, and through their indoor 20 Italian men last winter went meetings 1,241,567 persons heard from house to house on week evethe Gospel. The agencies through nings to hold meetings. One said, which these people were reached "Do you know, we have been prayraised in their own support during ing that our minister would preach the year $81,012.65. the simple Gospel, and I believe God has answered our prayers."- The Volunteers have five Congregationalist. branches of philanthropic work. Through their sociological branches EUROPE they have received 234,814 men, and fed some 371,297 persons at a British Medical lYIedical Missions at nominal cost. This does not in- Missionaries Home and Abroad clude the thousands who have been for January gives fed on holiday occasions. Through the Home of Mercy branch 348 the names and locations of 312 women have been helped and cared medical missionaries holding Britfor, while through the Volunteer ish degrees or diplomas, an intenement work, recently started, crease of 17 from a year ago, and 1,563 families have been visited, of 187 since 1890. These men and and over 4,500 have been helped women are employed by 38 sociewith food and clothing. Through ties, C. M. S. leading with 59 misthe Volunteer Prison League in sionaries, the United Free Church thirteen State prisons 12,000 mem- coming next with 52, the London bers have been enrolled, while over Society following with 31, Presby- 2,000 have been graduated from the terian Church of England and the Hope Halls, 75 per cent. of whom Church of Scotland, 19 each; S.P,G., are known to be doing well. 15; Irish Presbyterian Chlll'ch and China Inland MIssion, 13 each; Ohurch of England Zenana Society,
GENERAL MISSIONARY
12; Wesleyan and Baptist, 7 each, with 320 Chinese assistants and etc. India leads with 115, and 7,600 communicants. Dr. A. Schrie- China follows with 106; in Africa ber estimates that out of 1,000 are 36, and in Palestine 17. missionaries now at work in Africa about a third are Germans. On Work for The British Dee p the Gold Coast 48 Basel mission- Fishermen Sea Mission, which aries minister to nearly 17,000 native communicants. In British for many years has India 180 German missionaries are done a noble work among the working, with 1,300 native teachers fishermen of Newfoundland and and 30,000 day scholars and 73,000 elsewhere, lately held its annual meeting. It was announced that native Christians. In the Dutch the most munificent gift ever made East Indies German missionaries to the mission had been received are also busy. In Sumatra, 33 . frOIn an anonymous donor, a Rhenish missionaries have won splendid new hospital steam traw- 45,000 converts more among the ler costing $50,000. The mission Battaks. fleet now consists of 15 vessels, with 6 doctors aboard, and its sphere of Protestantism Not for many dec- operations includes the North Sea, in France ades have the Prot- the Channel and West Coast estants of France fisheries" and'the fishing-grounds off Labrador. Forty-five tons of been so hopeful as they are nj)w. literature were distributed in 1898; La Nouvelle Vie, the organ of the 11,085 patients were treated in the middle and mediating party, re- North Sea and 2,435 in Labrador; cently said: 16,411 missionary visits were made, and 3,260 services were held at sea. French Protestantism is now more powerful, more energetic, and Work for The last report of more successful than it has been the Jews the London Society for a hundred years. In the begin- ning of the nineteenth century the for Pro mot i n g French Protestant Church num- Christianity among the Jews states bered only 171 pastors, and now that there are now 25 ordained mis- there are mon than 1,200; then sionaries on its staff, 19 workers are there were 78 churches, now there connected with its medical mission, are 1,185, with fully 800 more the women number 34, and the lay- preaching-places. And in all movemen 20. There are 35 Scripture- ments directed against public vice readers, colporteurs, and other and immorality, the Protestants agents, 58 school-teachers, 8 dis- are in the lead. Our churches are pensers, 82 .. Christian Israelites," prospering internally and exter- 23 honorary workers, and 32 wives nally. of missionaries. Professor Doumergue recently German The more than 20 wrote: "The Protestantism of Missionaries G e r man societies France has never developed such expansive power as is the case at Abroad are supporting present. The masses are anxious about 850 mission- to hear the Protestant preaching of the Gospel, and in many Departaries and 4,000 native teachers. In ments whole families and even Chinlt 6 German societies are at whole villages are stretching out work, and in the province of their arms with the cry, 'Come Kwltntung there were altogether over and help us ! ,,, The" Former 46 missionaries, belonging to the Basle, Berlin and Rhenish societies, Priest" movement is spreading un- der the leadership of Abbe Bourrier and his Chretien Frani;ais, and notwithstanding a c()ntroversy
THE MIsstoNAl'ty l'tEVIEW of THE WOl'tLD
within the ranks of these people as Africa. The generous giving is to whether they should join one of done through" zambesias," or local the existing Protestant churches auxiliaries. In Torre Pellice, the or organize a body of their own, chief town, are found 4 societies: the number of converts is steadily the Woman's Society and Uliva, increasing. the Printemps Society (for girls), and the Society de la Pra del Torno. Quite naturally this condition of affairs has called into evidence a The Athenian The world has been pronounced anti-Protestant agita- Riots and watching what it tion, the leader of which is again the Bible has regarded as a the editor, Ernst Renauld, the singular outburst of author of the work, •. Le Peril Protestant," who has not hesitated religious fanaticism at Athens. to make the Protestants the cause But what has seemed to be a relig- of all the ills that have befallen ious quarrel was something differ- France in modern times. The ent., The cause of the trouble was Protestant pastors are in his eyes not religious but linguistic. The "the apostles of a pretended Re- language of the modern Greeks is formed and Prussian religion," and quite different from the language he advocates the use of the sword of the ancient Greeks. But the first against them. In a French public concern of the nation is to trace meeting held in the interests of the their history directly'to the splen- anti-Protestant cause, he publicly did origin of Hellas. The culti- advocated the use of brutal force vated Greeks have therefore set for the suppression of the Protest- themselves to assimilak their lan- ants and even a revival of the guage to the ancient- model. The methods of St. Bartholomew night. result is an ever-widening gulf be- Recently he has established a new tween the common language on anti-Protestant organ called La one side, and the officiAl and written Deliverance. In the prospectus of language on the other. the new journal he writes: The Greeks who have opposed During the past twenty-five this artificial process have even years the 62,000 Protestant minor- been called traitors. There is M. ity have been ruling the 36,000,000 Pallis, for example, who is respon- Oatholic majority in France. They sible for the version of St. Matthew are the masters and we are the into modern Greek which excited persecuted. All our statesmen who the riots. The Greeks who favored have during this quarter of a cen- the ancient form saw that if they tury been in power and have perse- allowed the New Testament in its ,cuted the Oatholics have been early form to be deposed from its Protestants. Weare tired or being eminence as the only authority in the suppressed, the persecuted, the public use, they would cut a link conquered.-The Independent. with the past that is a genuine source of strength. The Greek The Waldenses It will astonish not Ohurch would thoo be on the same and Missions a few to be told by standing with all the other a recent writer in churches, instead of being the only Ohurch in the world which officially Regions Beyond that no less than uses the New Testament in its 14 men and 'women, within a few ancient Greek form. In this sense years, have gone forth from the the cause of the riots may be said Waldensian valleys, whose 15 par- to have been religious; but at bot,· ishes contain a popUlation of only tom it was ling~istic and national. 20,000, and almost all found either in the Basuto or Barotse missions of the Paris Society in South
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
ASIA fanaticism. Western.. civilization and Moslem tradition mix like oil Railroads It seems to be a fact and water. A scientific Arabic for the Orient that a German com- monthly like Ai Muktataf (Cairo) is an ally of the Gospel. One has pany has secured only to talk with any Mohammepermission from the Porte to con- dan who reads the newspapers to struct a railway which, connecting realize that the stars in their with one already in existence in courses are fighting against Sisera. Asia .Minor, will within a decade And Sisera begins to know it. Eduextend to the Euphrates and to cation is on our side.-Rev. S. M. some point on the Persian Gulf, so ZWEMER, D.D. crossing the sultan's dominions, and greatly facilitating travel and The CQUege This important intraffic between India and Europe. for Girls in stitution, located in All which is calculated to hasten the demise of "the sick llIan of the Turkey Scutari, across East. " from Constantino- Islam Never before was ple, enrolled 156 students last year, and the number of resident Decadent the opportunity for students was 75. The class that was graduated at the end of the the conquest of Is- year consisted of 7 members: 2 Bulgarians, 2 Armenians, 1 Turk, lam so great or so golden. Politi- 1 Hungarian, and 1 English girl. Of these, 1 will enter the University cally, "the waning crescent pales of Berne to study medicine, 2 will return to the college for graduate the East," and the sword of the Cali- work, 2 will study further in Eng- land and America, and 1 has gone to phate has rusted to the scabbard. a school in the interior as a teacher. The following table will indicate .More than 125,000,000 Moslems are the enrolment by nationality: under Christian rulers; only 41,000,- Armenians, 83; Bulgarians, 20; Greeks, 21; English, 10; Israelites, 000 are under Moslem rulers, and 18,- 9; Turks; 12; Germans, 2; Italians, 1; 1;:lungarians, 4-; American, 1; 000,000 under the sultan. Yet we Austrian, 1; French, 1; Persian, 1.
hear men speak of Islam as if it were The following shows the distri- bution by residence: Aleppo, 1; politically synonymous with Tur- Aidin, 1; Nicomedia, 2 ; Trebizond, 5; Constantinople, 118; Mecca, 2; key, and as if open doors for preach- Salonica, 1; Adrianople, 1; Sivas, 1; Bulgaria, 15; Persia, 1; Russia, ing were only possible after bom- 6; England, 1; Greece, 1.
barding Constantinople. Before Last year was marked by the fact that one member of the gradu- Victoria died two" infidel" women ating class was a .Mohammedan girl, the first in the empire to held the balance of power in the receive the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Halide Edib is already recgovernment of the Mohammedan ognized by her nation as a writer, as she has for some time written world. Queen Wilhelmina of Hol- constantly for the Turkish press of the city. land rules more .Moslems to-day than did the early caliphs. The cradle of Islam, Arabia, has one- half its seaboard under British pro- tection. The keys to every gate- way in the Moslem world are in the politieal grasp of Christian powers. Think of Gibraltar, Al- giers, Cairo, Khartum, Batum, Aden, .Muscat, not to speak of In- dia and the farther East. It is im- possible to enforce the laws relating to renegades under the flag of the "infidel." Freedom of the press . and of speech is the greatest enemy to superstition and Mohammedan
Persecution Tidings have come town, provided the Wesleyan misat Isfahan of a severe Jewish sion at work there will send a lady persecution against doctor, with her equipment of drugs the London Jews Society's work and instruments. The funds of the at Isfahan. Prohibitions have been women's branch of the mission are published in the synagogues; in- even now overdrawn; every penny timidations, threats, blows, and of its ordinary income is claimed bribes have been freely used to by existing work. Yet this Hindu draw away the teachers, the boys, pities the sufferings of the women a~d the converts. Parents have and children about him, aggrabeen compelled to withdraw their vated as they are by the barbarities children. A teacher and three con.. of native practitioners. Miss Anna M. Hellier writes: verts have been brutally ill-treated, and others have deserted the mis- ,Ve have had dread glimpses of sion through fear. nameless horrors perpetrated in the zenanas. We know, too, what a Christian The Bombay Guar- splendid opportunity is now offered Progress in dian says: "As the for preaching Christ. Five years ago we began a medical mission at India census officers in Medak, another town in the same e a c h presidency native State. 'Vhat is the result? Instead of the bitter opposition complete the statistics for the re- which first met the lady doctors, the ligious beliefs of the populations, chief priest of the Mohammedans has himself become their champion, we begin to see how marvelously and says "they hold the hearts of the Christian faith is spreading in Medak in the hollow of their hand." Two additional dispensaries have India. The census for the Punjab been built at populous village cen- ters. During the last three months shows a total of 20,866,847 persons, tho attendance at the weekly Bible classes there has exceeded 4,000, and or an increase of 1,588,922 on the 5,800 patients have been treated. Hundreds of baptisms have been total for 1891. The percentage of recorded during the year.
increase in the various religions is: Sikhs………………… 11 per cent. Mohammedans ……….. 9.4 •.
Hindus ………………. 3.4 Christians ……………. 326 Christians in the Punjab now Hindu The medical school number 71,084, in spite of the ab- Medical for native women, sence of British troops in South Women which was opened Africa. In the Madras Presidency six years ago at the Christian religion also shows a Ludhiana (Punjab), has filled a large increase. The total popula- most useful place in the province. tion of the Madras Presidency is It is recognized by the government 38,623,066, an increase of 2,573,826 as a medical school, and 11 societies on the total for 1891. The percentage of increase in the various relig- have sent students for training; ions is: 27 of the students have now gone Hindus …………….. 6.34 per cent. out to work in connection with 7 Mohammedans ……… 9.11 " Christians ………….. 18.13 " missions; 34 are at pre,;ent in train- Animists ……………. 35.75 ing, and numerous applications are received for such workers. The A Hospital From Indur, in the students are taught by women, and for Indian Nizam's dominions, receive their clinical instruction in Women comes a marvelous a hospital for women. The Univer- challenge to Chris- sity of Lahore is willing to affiliate tian missions. A Hindu gentleman the school as soon as 3 more mem- has offered to build a hospital for bers are added to the teaching staff, women on the finest site in the and when good laboratories for
GENEBAL MlssIONABY INTELLIGENCE
anatomy, chemistry, physiology, audited accounts show that Ramaand bacteriology, etc., have been bai received and expended in this provided. The 100 hospital beds work during the year the sum of required to insure sufficient clinical Rs. 1,48,354, of which about Rs. 58,- teaching are already established. 000 went for buildings, The aver- In order to build and furnish these age cost per annum of each girl or laboratories and an operating the- woman was Rs. 60. ater, and to supply the uutfit and the passage of the extra members The Court The return of the of the staff, a sum of £5,000 is Returns to Chinese court to needed. Peking Peking, after an en- Flocking to Bishop F. Warne forced exile of more Christ states, in a recent issue of The Indian than a year, was the most remark- able episode in the an~als of the Witness, that he has just partici- dynasty except, perhaps, the flight pated in a service in which 1,339 of that same court when Peking persons were baptized-a scene was bombarded by the allied forces. which reminds one of the first day The pageant which celebrated the of Pentecost. At another point- return was highly spectacular, and, Barroda-which he visited, no less as far as its gaudy splendor was than 300 people walked in from concerned, could not be paralleled neighboring villages to attend the anywhere else in the world. The services, some of them coming occasioned marked the complete twenty miles. One woman walked effacement of the traditional deififrom her home seventeen miles to cation of Chinese royalty. The emthe city, carrying her baby, and peror and dowager empress passed then back again with the same before the eyes of a vast multitude load. The bishop reports that of native and foreign people, and there are 10,01,0 already in training, scores of cameras were focussed fully instructed, and committ~d to upon them-an unprecedented the Christian life, and waiting for event. The fact that foreigners baptism, which can not be adminis- werepermittedto view the pageant, tered until arrangements are made and even gaze on the emperor and for putting the new converts under dowager empress, is especially sigproper pastoral care. nificant. It means that the old order of things has passed away, Ramabai's "The financial r e- and that the Chinese court has ac- GreatWork port of Mukti cepted the fact that Peking is not the same, and never can be same, as schoolandnlission, " it was. The change which has been of which Pandita Ramabai is the effected can not be undone. founder and superintendent, is much more than a dry statement Two New The dowager emof receipts and expenditures. Edicts press is said to have About 2,000 persons, old and young, issued two imporare under her watch-care at Mukti. Church and school and industrial tant edicts. The first recites that work play their respective parts in many Chinese formerly studied moulding and developing this large abroad, but were not Manchus, and colony, nearly altogether from the orders the Manchu courtiers and higher Hindu castes. Order, in- generals to nominate Manchus dustry, diligence, and discipline are between the ages of fifteen and features of the institution that twenty-five to go abroad, there to confront one at every point. The study foreign branches of knowl- edge.
The second edict abolishes the is spoken by nearly three-fourths prohibition of intermarriage be- of the' population of China, tho tween Manchus and Chinese, which with a number of dialectic varia- has been enforced since the begin- tions. The attempt is now made ning of the dynasty, and directs for the first time to unify these officials, by diplomatic methods, to dialects and to produce a Bible discourage the binding of the fEet which can be read easily by all the of Chinese female children, because, Mandarin-speaking people of Chi- it is declared, this is a barbarous na. The committee on this version custom. is made up of men from 6 different sections in northern, central, and Union of Pres- An important con- western China, and after a sitting byterians in ference of mission- of six months they have just com- China aries, representing pleted the four Gospels and the 5 Presbyterian de- book of Acts. The work has been slow and, prior to this year, it has nominations-the Eng lis h, the been with very little conference United, Free Church of Scotland, between the members of the com- – the Canadian, and two from this mittee. Dr. Chauncey Goodrich country, North and South-wasre- writes, "How little the Boxers cently held in Shanghai, China, 54 guessed that they were setting our being present. After ample discus- hands free for this great work." sion, it was resolved to prepare a plan for organic or federal union, Confucianism The late Dr. Faber such as may be found practicable for adoption hereafter; to establish a vs. drew a remarkable union theol<;>gical seminary in Nan- king or Chinkiang, to be opened in Christianity threefold compar- the autumn of 1902; to publish a weekly Presbyterian paper; and to ison between Con- arrange for the appointment of a joint committee to collect and dif- fucianism and Christianity. I. fuseinformation inregardtothebest new openings for missionary work Wherein they are alike: (1) Faith which are to be found. The desire for unity in the body was well-nigh in a Divine providence: (2) in an unanimous, and a desire was also expressed that the Presbyterian in- invisible world; (3) the moral law; stitutions should be controled and conducted in such "a broad and (4) prayers; (5) sacrifices; (6) mira- catholic spirit that all denomina- tional differences should be kept cles; (7) social duties; (8) education out of sight, and that all efforts should be for the good of the whole of the personal character; (9) pref- Church of God." erence of virtue to money and The Bible in As long ago as the Mandarin g I' eat missionary honor; (10) steadfastness in mis- con fer e n c e at fortune; (11) uprightness and ve- Shanghai in 1890, preparations were made for the translation of racity; (12) the categorical impera- the Scriptures in three forms: the Mandarin Colloquial, the easy tive; (13) a benevolent government Classical ('Venli), and the higher Classical. The Mandarin Colloquial for the people.
II. Wherein Confucianism is antagonistic to Christ'ianity: (1) polytheism; (2) worship of spirits; (3) adoration of ancestors; (4) tem- ple worship; (5) glorification of the suicide of widows; (6) consulting of oracles; (7) casting of lots for lucky days; (8) polygamy and its consequences; (9) rebellions; (10) exaggeration of the absolute power of the emperor and (11) of parental authority; (12) bloody feuds; (13) exaggeration of filial subordination,
GENERAl. MtsstONAltY INTEl.t.tGENCE
to such a point as to impede in the mission schools has nearly progress; (14) venality of function- doubled.-Calwer Missionsblatt. aries; (15) Oonfucius perjury; (16) magic. Great Progress The Korean Review III. Defects of Confucianism in Korea tells of the inauguover against their perfection in Christianity: (1) Idea of God; (2) ration of a system fatalism; (3) defective revelation; (4) no unreserved sense of responsi- of water-works for Seoul, and the bility and no deep consciousness of sin; (5) no longing for expiation; lighting of its streets by electric- (6) no personal Savior; (7) no recognition of God's image in man; (8) ity. For two years or more elecno universality of salvation; (9) no actual communion with God; (10) a tric railways have been running on defective hope of immortality; (11) the political prosperity of Ohina those streets. Mr. Angus Hamilthe highest good; no Kingdom of of God; (12) lack of a perfect ideal ton, an English correspondent of for self-education; (13) lack of inner and outer purity; morality for men the Pall Mall Gazette, writes: and women different; (14) defectiveness of the doctrine of the five Vith its trains, its cars, and social relations; (15) lack of a regu- its lights, its miles of telegraph lar day of rest; (16) dry morality lines, its railway station hotel, and and ceremonial religion powerless native shops, and glass windows over against the fulness of life in and brick houses, the city is within Ohristianity. measurable distance of becoming the highest, most interesting, and Christian Schools A year and a half cleanest city in the East. And this in Japan Not ago, all Ohristian is accomplished without denuding Now Tabooed schools in Japan it of its own char/itcteristics. There suffered grave in- is no hostile feeling because these things are Western. jury from a decree of the Education Department, which withdrew Korean In the last annual from them government recognition, along with such privileges as Converts report of the Meththey had till then enjoyed in common with the national schools. odist Episcopal Mis- The missionaries decided rather to forego the favor of the government sion in Korea, the Rev. Heber than to give up their religious instruction-acourse which has now Jones writes thus hopefully about met with its reward, for, by a recent decree, the previous status of Korean converts: the Ohristian schools has been restored; and their pupils, on passing I think we missionaries in Korea the final examination, are again can not be too grateful for the fact entitled to attend the higher grade schools, a privilege which includes that our Korean church is a church partial exemption from military of workers for the Lord. As soon service. In consequence of this readjustment, the number of pupils as a Korean is converted he im- mediately begins work among his relatives and neighbors, and presses home Ohristianity on them. As a relult, the missionary, instead of having to go out seeking the people, has more than he can do to care for the people who come seek- ing him. This is one of the pecul- iarities of the work in Korea.
Good Cheer The ad vance of from Japan Ohristianity in Ja- pan is evidently not to be measured by the present num- ber of its enrolled adherents. These are but about 120,000, nearly one- third of them Protestants, the rest divided between the Greek and the Roman Ohurch in the ratio of about one to two. But in the successive Diets the Ohristians have never had less than four times their propor- tional number of members. In the
1'Itt!1 MlSS10~ARY REVIEW OF TItE WORLD
present Diet they have 13 members, or evangelist of their own, always besides the speaker, and among meet together with our Christians them some of tile most efficientmen. on the most friendly terms, assist- "One of them was elected in a ing in the Sunday-school, etc., and strongly Buddhist district by a ma- one of them acting as organist. jority of 5 to 1." Last year, in the The most zealous member of the Executive Committee of the Liberal congregation is a peasant farmer party, 2 of its 3 members were 'who lives seven miles out of the Christians, and this year 10f the 3. town and yet comes in almost reg- Three per cent. of tJ.e officers of the ularly for the Sunday services, and army are said to be Christians, and contributes monthly a sum equivaa goodly proportion also of naval lent to eight or ten days' labor. officers. The late Rear-Admiral One woman came in twenty miles Serata was an ardent and active for the confirmation service, walk- Christian. Christians in abnormal ing all the way." numbers abound in the universitiesand government colleges among AFRICA both students and instructors. Not less than thrf'e of the great dailies Work for the In addition to the of Tokyo are largely in Christian hands, and Christians are at the Moslems in regular educational head of editorial departments in several others. A very large volume Cairo and evangelistic of charitable work and the most work, conducted by successful charitable institution8 are also under Christian manage- the American mission in Cairo for ment. From 2,500 to 3,000 youths pass every year out of Christian the benefit of all classes, meetings schools, where they have averaged 40 years spent under Christian in- are held twice a week for the folfluences. lowers of the Prophet in particular.
The order of exercises is : prayer, l'eading of the Scriptures, and the exposition of a passage selected. This is followed by the discussion of a subject from the Koran or the history of Islam-as, for example, a comparison between the morality Bright Spot The Hokkaido, the of the Koran and the Gospel of Jesus Christ; contradictory statein the most nor the rl y ments of the Koran; incidents of Hokkaido province of Japan, is almost Siberian history recorded by their own writers not in harmony with the in its winter climate; as a fact, it Koran.
abuts upon Russian territory. The province is being rapidly colonized After these exercises are closed by Japanese from the southern with prayer, an opportunity is islands of the empire, among whom given to anyone to ask questions or offer objections in w1'iting. are Christians. "The brightest This rule was made and is strictly observed for the following reasons: spot I visited in the year," writes Bishop Fyson, "was W akkanai, at the extreme north of the island" First, it had been found that when just in sight of the southern end of liberty was given to anyone to reply orally, several claimed the Saghalien. The Christians there have no regular church building, privileges at once, and instead of but a good-sized, neat Japanese asking questions, or presenting ob- house converted into a preaching- jections against the arguments advanced on the subject, the time place, with an earnest eongl'egation was spent in general irrelevent all alive, and including several Methodists, who, l}aving no chapel observations; and, second, because,
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
by the observance of this rule, Livingstone once said truly that only the railway could deal the those who desired to learn the death-blow to slavery. The new road will be a powerful agent to truth could do so more easily, and this end, altho slavery is perhaps not so much a curse in the country those whose object was to disturb traversed as it is farther south. The road is nearly six hundred and obstruct the meeting were miles long, and connects Mombasa on the east coait with Lake Vicprevented. toria Nyanza. The completion of the road will also hasten the com- The audiences at these meetings pletion of the Nile irrigation works under British supervision, and will were composed of Moslems. Copts, in general consolidate British in- terests in eastern and central Afand Protestants. Frequently the rica, to the great advantage of general commerce and civilization. places of assembly were too small On the west coast Germany's ac- tion in decreeing the gradual abolto admit all who came, altho they ishment of slavery has met with universal applause. Germ an y's were large enough to accommodate aim is not merely to extinguish slave-raiding, but to put down dofrom 300 to 400. When the meet- mestic slavery itself. A beginning is now being made by requiring ings were begun, certain parties masters to give to all bondmen one~third of their time in which to tried to interrupt and break them work for themselves, by com pelling masters to care for slaves in illness up, but finding their efforts and old age, and by enabling the slaves themselves to purchase their were thwarted, they either absent- freedom.-The Outlook.
ed themselves altogether, or when Slave Trade in The report by Con- Abyssinia and suI General Long present were constrained to follow Arabia at Cairo on the the example of the majority, who slave trade in Egypt conducted themselves becomingly, and Abyssinia shows that slavery still exists in the Soudan in spite so that it may be stated that good of all efforts to check the tmffic. Last year the British government order has been observed and the secured the con.viction of twenty- five persons engaged in buying and speaker has had the respect and selling slaves. But the business still goes on. At one locality alone, attention of his hearers. It is not Jedda, there are twelve well-to-do slave merchants, whose names and too much to say that he merits depots are 'well known. The prices of slaves are given as follows: this, as he has had the advantage of Male or female, 14 years old, about $80; 14 to 20 years,. $100 to $125; being educated by competent teach- 20 to 30 years, $150 each. In Medina ers in the Arabic language and in the tenets of Islam. w. H.
Railroads in The L 0 v e d a I e the Dark Chri8tian Expre88 Continent for December con- tained a long edi- torial concerning railway schemes in Southern and Central Africa, in which mention is made of 25 in progress or talked of, with a total length of 7,000 miles. The Cape to Cairo line of course is included, one on the Upper Kongo to cross eastward to Lake Albert Nyanza, and another to ascend the valley of the Shire, touch Blantyne, and end at Lake Nyassa.
Railroads and The completion by Slavery the British of the in Africa Uganda railwayaf- fords another great opportunity not only for African trade but for African civilization.
and Mecca the prices of both sexes 4 dispensaries. There were 2,077 rise 50 per cent. and upward, and baptisms (843 adults), 21,494 confeseunuchs command readily from sions, 21,152 communions, 775 con- $400 to $500 each. Ordinarily there firmations, 91 marriages. are no auctions or open sales, but in the Godjam country, which is A Tax on The Bishop of Manominally subject to Menelik, the Wives shonaland has been institution of slavery openly exists, confiding tot h e and public sales takes place in the ordinary weekly llarkets. Accord- Capetown correspondent of the ing to Mr. Long the supply of London Telegraph a plan of his own victims for this traffic is obtained for hastening the end of polygamy principally by organized raids up- among' the South African natives. on the country inhabited by mixed The custom is, in the bishop's opin- Shangalia tribes, which separates ion, slowly dying out, as it is. Abyssinia from the Anglo-Egyp- Marriage with the native is a mattian Soudan. While this may seem ter of barter, for he buys his wives measurably discouraging it must at so many head of cattle apiece, be recalled that the British are from 5 head to 50, according to the putting forth their efforts to sup- personal attractions of the young press the traffic, which will be ac- lady. The bishop would put a tax complished in time. -on an ascending scale-on every wife after the first. If the tax on Light Break- Mr. C. W. Hatters- the second wife were fixed, say, at £5, then for the third it would be ing in Uganda ley, a C. M. S. mis- £10, for the fourth £20, and so on. This scheme, the bishop believes, sionary, speakingof would help to solve the difficulty of getting native labor. At present some changes in the customs of the the man with many daughters grows rich easily by disposing of Waganda, says: them. Under the proposed plan the man with one wife would have Many of them sit at table for to work because of his limited suptheir meals, with plates, knives, and ply of daughters, and the muchforks, one of them actually going married man would also have to so far as to have his wife eat at work to pay his taxes. The bishop, table with him. It was an unheard- who has had a long South African of thing until lately for a big chief's experience, looks on his drastic wife to eat in the same house with schemes as quite practicable. her lord. Another leading man (ordained) has gone the length of Good News The London Misallowing his wife to walk down the street with him, and has even al- from sionary Society has lowed her to take his arm; but few can muster up courage for this yet. Madagascar received good news One thing the' chiefs mean to do, and that is to put a stop to drink- from its workers in ing as much as possible, at any rate in public. In'this they are assisted Madagascar. The new resident is in every way by Mr. Tomkins (the acting sub-commissioner for the said to be absolutely impartial in kingdom of Uganda), who has encouraged them to take several religious matters, and quietness strong measures to suppress it.
Roman At the end of 1900 and confidence are being restored.
Catholics the Roman Catholic In the Betsileo Mission a mission- in Uganda mission' in Uganda, ary of the Paris Evangelical Socie- says The Cahver ty, to whom the London Society Missionsblatt, had 22 missionaries, was compelled to turn over its 4 stations, 4 churches and chapels, schools in 1897, has formally hand- 4 schools, 410 average attendance, ed them back, promising all aid in
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
case of any future difficulty with the general's youngest son, has the government or with the Jesu- been relieved from his charge of its. The Paris Society and the the Australian Salvationists gen- London Society are working in erally, in order that he may devote perfect harmony, and the Roman his sole attention to the develop- Catholics are evidently losing ment of the estate and the recep- ground. In one district, two years tion of colonists. since, there were six Roman Cath- olic churches and one belonging to Christian Unity In Australia there ,the London Mission; now the Roman Catholic churches are all in Australia has been formed a closed, and the London Society has five. The missionaries speak with union between the great surprise and thankfulness of various branches of Presbyterianthe spiritual life which they find aflame in the hearts of the people, ism, and also between the various notwithstanding the persecutions branches of Methodism. Now they have endured. comes the news that at the Angli- As additional, in the same direction, the Nordisk Missions-Tid- can Synod held at Sydney, Ausskl'ijt gives an interesting sum- tralia, Bishop Stretch introduced mary of the results of the French conquest of the ::lakalava district the following resolution: of Madagascar. While there has been much that was most deplor- That this Synod is profoundly able about it from the missions' conscious of the evils of division, point of view, other things are real and believing that the unity of the benefits, such as the final ending Church is agreeable to the will of of the rotten Hova government of God, urgently prays the Australian these distant parts, and of the con- Bench of Bishops to consider the Ftant fear of robbery and violence whole question of Christian unity, in which both missionaries and and to approach the various Chriscolonists lived. Missionaries can tian communions with an invitanow pursue their work in peace, tion to their leaders for united and the Sakalava, being compelled prayer and deliberation on the to give up their nomadic habits subject. and live under settled laws, are much more accessible to their in- And better yet, the resolutiOli fluence. was adopted by the Synod. If the ISLANDS OF THE SEA bishops shall put this propoilal into Farm Colony The oversea colony, execution, though it may not re- in Australia the last link in Gen- eral Booth's Dark- sult in union, it would develop in- est England scheme for raising the creased cooperation between the "submerged tenth," has at last been provided. Over 20,000 acres churches. of land, situated beside the Collie River, Western Australia, have Tame Pig It appears that in been acquired by the Salvation Army from the colonial govern- VS. New Guinea there ment, and will be utilized forthwith. Commandant Herbert Booth, Wild Pig are two kinds of pigs: the tame pig and the wild pig. The tamed pig is called" sarai," and is much more than a domestic pet. Indeed, un- til the sarai is grown up, and sug- gests pork, it is an honored mem- ber of the family circle. As a little sucking pig it is brought up side by side with the baby, being treated with exactly the same maternal care and attention. When it grows up its ears are split, to denote that it is not an outcast, but some man's valuable property. The wild pig,
which is called "suana," knows no young men after afew years abroad, such distinction. It, poor thing, return to their native country, Japroots about in the bush for its food, anese leaders regard favorably a with its ears inta:ct. If any man Christian mission which will help to catches it, there is no mark to pro- send these young men back with tect it; it is common property, and high standards of moral character. is killed and eaten by its captor. The interest both of our govern- To be called •• sarai," a tame pig, ment and of Japan in this work is a delicate compliment; to be gives to Dr. Sc.udder's mission a called .. suana," a wild pig, is a peculiar value. most offensive insult. MISCELLANEOUS Self-support The statement is in Fiji abroad, and appears How a Church In the year 1855 a to be well-authenti- became neg r 0 merchant cated, that the Wesleyan mission- Independent with his wife and aries in the Fiji Islands are consid- family from Sierra ering the desirability of withdrawing in the main from work in the Leone came to England to visit. islands and leaving the native Mr. Venn invited him to his Christians to themselves to work house, showed him all hospitalout their own form of government ity, and asked him about his axvI doctrine. We can not say how travels. He was a wealthy man true this statement is, but think whom God had prospered in his what it means! Within a lifetime business as a merchant, and Mr. these cannibal islanders have been Venn asked him what he was doing thoroughly Christianized, and to for the Church of Christ in his own such a degree that the withdrawal country with the riches which God Qf the missionaries can be safely had given him. The African sprang contemplated! That assuredly is a to his feet and exclaimed: great achievement. Of course we should like to do Missionary for The Rev. Doremus much, but as long as you treat us the Japanese Scudder has resign- as children we shall behave as chil- dren-do nothing for ourselves, but in Hawaii ed the charge of the need a great deal of looking after First Congrega- by you. Treat us like men and we shall behave as men. We spend tional Church of Woburn, Mass., our money on ourselves because and with his wife will devote you do not arrange for us to spend himself to missions among the it for Christ. As long as the Church Japanese of Hawaii, who now Missionary Society pays for everynumber about 45 per cent. of thing and manages everything, the population. Dr. Scudder, what is there for us to do ? Only through his five years' residence in let us have a share in managing our Japan, his missionary antecedents own Church affairs and you will and training, was prepared for this soon see that we can both do someimportant place. He, with his wife, thing and will give something also sailed from San Francisco January for God. 5th for Japan, and after spending a year there in acquainting himself Mr. Venn took the hint. In 1862 with present conditions, will go to the native Church was organized, Hawaii. As many of the Japanese and is now self-supporting, with 19 native pastors and 19,000 native Christians, who contribute £2,000 a year.
The Missionary Review of the World — February 1898
CHl'RCH AND CONGREGATION OF THE SOUTH GATE, SHANGHAI
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD: VOl.. XXI. No.2.-0ld Series.-FEBRUARY-VoL. XI. No.2.-New Series.
SPIRI~UAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY.- THE CULTURE OF 'rHE GRACE OJ!' GIVING.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
Paul has apparently rescued from oblivion a logion of the Lord Jesus, more valuable than any of those over which Egyptologists have lately made so much ado: "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said, ' IT IS MORE BLESSED TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE.''' t This priceless oracle seems to be one of those sayings, handed down by tradition, but not embodied in the Gospel narratives. Its unique value largely consists in this, that it lifts giving to its highest plane, and crowns it as the true secret of the most exalted blessing to the giver himself.
Nothing needs reconstruction more than modern giving; in fact, the reconstruction must be a revolution, for the whole basis is wrong. A great German, in a clever epigram, contrasts Socialism and Christianity thus: the former says, "What is thine is mine"; the latter, "What is mine is thine." But as the late Dr. R W. Dale said, "The epigram itself needs correction. Christianity really teaches us to say, , What seems thine is not thine, what seems mine is not mine. Whatever thou or I have belongs to God; and you and I must use what we have according to His will.'''
This is the essence of that sublime truth everywhere taught in Scriptnre: God's inalienable ownership)' man's nndeniable stewardship. This is the one corner-stone of the whole Biblical system of giving; and because it is practically denied or virtually obsolete, WE' ne~d to begin at the beginning, if we are to have a new and a true system in the Christian use of money.
So fundamental is this grace in all holy living and holy serving, that whenever and wherever there is spiritual advance, the standard , • This periodical adopts the Orthography of the following Rule, recommended by the joint action of the American Philological Association and the Philological Society of England :-Change d or ed final to t when so pronounced, except when the e affects a preceding sound.-PIIBLISHERS.
t Acts xx. : 35.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY. [February·
of giving is sure to become more worthy of God's people. When Oarey sounded the bugle call for a new crusade of missions a century ago, one of the first signs of a response was found in the thirteen pounds two shillings and sixpence, laid on God's altar in Widow Wallis' parlor at Kettering on that memorable October day in 1792. And" Oarey's penny," the systematic weekly offering, was the re90gnition of the need of a regular, stated, habitual setting apart of the Lord's portion. From that day to this the matter of giving has been one of the three most perplexing problems of our church life: praying, going, giving, being the three.
Many have been the attempts at solution. Most prominent, perhaps, has been the emphasis laid on the tithe system, which has the grand ad vantage of being of God's own original appointment. – Of this, with all its merits, we can only confess, first, that it is much misunderstood; second, that it belongs to law rather than grace, and third, that it fails to answer the demands of Ohristian equity. Oommonly, the titlie, or tenth, is supposed to have satisfied God's claims and man's needs. In fact, the Jewish tithe repreAented not the maximum but the minimum; and he who carefully studies the whole Jewish economy, will find that in some years the actual proportion given to the Lord's purposes roocht two-fifths, if not three-fifths, of the faithful believer's income. Again, the dispensation of grace teaches us a new and blessed ownership of ourselves by God, as redeemed, regenerated, spirit-filled saints, which includes all we have and are. Under this new order the Sabbath is not less God's time, but all days become Sabbatic; the tithe is not less His, but all our money is to be spent for His uses; and all things and all work become part of a consecrated life for His glory. Moreover, while the tithe may be a fair proportion for a poor saint, it is manifestly out of all proportion for the rich, for our giving is, in equity, to be estimated not by what is given, but by what is kept.
Another prominent plan has been the more apostolic way of laying by in store, weekly, or at stated times, according as God has prospered us, not a fixt sum or proportion, but a variable amount, depending on ability at the time. This has many advantages, most obviously the tendency conscientiously to weigh and prayerfully consider what duty is, and how the measure of obligation varies with increasing prosperity. 'l'he obvious defect is the lack of uniform supplies for the work of God, and the risk of too flexible a conscience in the estimate of one's real ability.
In some quarters much emphasis has been laid on a stated season of special restraint upon appetite and other indulgenc6s, as in the "self-denial week," which has yielded such large returns to various benevolent enterprises. But we must candidly admit that there is no Scripture warrant for a method so spasmodic and sentimental. ']'he
THE CULTURE OF THE GRACE OF GIVING
danger is, that after the special "lenten" season is over, indulgence may run riot, as tho there were some new right acquired to pleasure by the self-imposed restraints.
The various individual schemes for promoting true giving we can only mention, since they have so limited a range of experiment. We know some few who devote to the Lord's purposes, pound for ponnd, or dollar for dollar, an equal amouut to that expended for self. Equitable indeed it seems, to make God the partner who shares alike with ourselves in all the outgo of property. But is not this implying, at least, that the half we spend on ourselves is not His, and that the moiety we hand over to Him equalizes all claims? A very few Christians have limited their accumulations or expenditures to what they deem a reasonable sum, and put the whole remainder at the Lord's disposal-a high example of giving, indeed, in contrast with the low level of most saints. But of these and all other methods, more or less current, the question still arises, and will not down at our bidding: Is this God's standard of giving? We feel forced· to look at this grave matter solely in the searching light of the will and words of God. We have come to accept a method-and still worse a notion of giving, which begins in an issue with the universal Owner. We count what we have our own, not His. We think of ourselves as owners, proprietors, not stewards and trustees. We satisfy ourselves with setting aside the Lord's portion, and consider ourselves entitled to determine what that portion is, and treat the rest as our own, to do as we will with it. Hence comes that avaricious hoarding and selfindulgent spending, which are supposed to be legitimate; and that tardy atonement found in the "munificent bequests;' of which Shaftesbury was wont to speak with such contempt, as tho there could be any real munificence in giving- away what one can no longer use, or even keep. Rightly viewed, it is questionable whether there be even such things as "munificent donations," since a "debtor," a "trustee," a "steward "-which are God's own terms for His human creatures – can not make a donation, he can only discharge a debt, fulfil a trust, execute a commission.
If this truth be drastic, it is God's medicine for the deadly disease of greed, and the fatal selfishness of which greed is only a symptom. The teaching of the blessed Word is unmistakable, and may be briefly stated under the following seven "theses," as Luther would have called them: ]. God owns all things and all creatures, and never alienates or transfers His ownership.
2. God claims us, with all we are and have, as His by creation, preservaion, redemption, and endowment.
3. God teaches us that the one goal of our lives, in every detail, is to be not our own pleasure or profit, but His glory.
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
4. Every man is a debtor to all other men, to love and further their well-be'ing even as he love:; and furthers his own.
5. All we possess, being held in trust, is to be used so as to serve the highest, largest, and most lasting ends for God's glory and man's good.
6. Hence the one supreme life of light and love, duty and privilege, houor and blessing, is to lose oneself in the will of God.
7. Giving belongs to this highest plane of privilege. We multiply ourselves in our gifts, as one spring may fill many streams. No miser can be happy, for the very end of reception is impartation.
We do not need to affirm that these laws of giving belong to a code that is practically obsolete with man, yet eternally in force with God, as immutable as Himself. And we feel a conviction as deep as the roots of our being that not only missions, but every other form of work for man's uplifting and salvation, will find its chariot wheels dragging heavily, until the divine idea of giving takes the throne and shrine in our conviction, and sways its golden scepter in our lives. Every cry of retrenchment is an assault on God and an insult to His claims. Even were there the faithful bringing in of the tithes, there would always be meat in His house and boundless blessing on His people. But could His Church once awake from lethargy and rouse from apathy, and feel her debt to a dying world, and see her apostasy in the matter of witRholding what is her's only in trust for the payment of that debt, there would be a river of beneficence flowing into our various channels of Christian service which would overleap all present banks, and demand new and more adequate modes of distribution-a river to swim in.
The fact is that the ministry of money has never yet been appreciated by us. The vast power latent in consecrated wealth is Olle of the great dormant forces ot the moral universe. WeaUh belongs to the material world, but once consecrated it becomes a moral and spiritual motor, a motive power in the realm of the unseen. Out of the mammon of unrighteousness we may make friends; coining money into souls saved, and into good works done for God. Money is the lever of all good enterprises, and represents values of all sorts. It not only provides home comforts, and drives the wheels of industry, but it relieves poverty and misery, promotes education and art, is a great civilizing force, and the handmaid of evangelism. And its abuse is as mighty for evil as its use is for good; indeed, the best, perverted, always becomes the worst.
Who has any conception of the colossal fortunes held by single owners! When a well-known New Yorker died, he left, it is said, two hundred millions of dollars. If that amount were piled up in standard silver dollars, one on top of another, it would represent a column over three hundred miles high. Yet the whisky money of this nation would represent a similar column over three thousand miles high!
THE CULTURE OF THE GRACE OF dIVING
The annual income of the Duke of Westminster would itself support four thousand married missionaries with their families in the costliest fields of the Orient!
And yet, what do these giant fortunes amount to in the retrospect of a selfish life? The vast treasure of A. T. Stewart was all gone, within a decade ·of years after his decease. His body was stolen and his splendid mausoleum is empty. How few to-day rise up and call him blessed! 'fhe inventor of the fire-extinguishing apparatus, called by his name, died in a Oalifornia almshouse at seventy years of age, and that man had received $10,000 a month for royalty on his machines.
Extravagance saps the very foundation of honesty and virtue, and removes all the base-blocks of individual and family life. Decline of marriages, which was one of the chief causes of the fall of the Roman Empire, was due to the cost of living which made it too expensive for a Roman young man to marry. Thus the middle classes were crusht out-which in every nation supply its backbone. The same causes are now contributing to the ruin of two of t.he foremost nations of the earth, and they call themselves Ohristian nations too! The wedding ceremony itself is often an enormous outlay. While Ohina was appeal. ing to the world to help her starving millions in famine, the Emperor's wedding festivities wasted millions of dollars.
Modern extravagance seems to outstrip even ancient waste. An eccentric millionaire was buried not long ago in Massachusetts in a casket which cost $10,000, the funeral, as a whole, costing three times that amount. If the newspapers can be trusted, a banker's wife, in a party at the Oapital, wore a dress covered with one-hundred and fivehundred dollar bills, so as to make it appear one pattern, the waist and sleeves being thousand dollar bonds sewed in ; her fingers were ablaze with diamonds, and she wore a tiara worth $80,000, and the total value her costume represented was, it was said, about $300,000! An English ecclesiastic calls attention to recent art sales in London, where $10,000 were spent for a dessert service, and $50,000 for two rose-tinted vases. Take the single indulgence known as smoking. Nearly twenty-.five thousand smokers are now in the United States alone, and the cost of this indulgence is fifty times what the whole Ohurch of Ohrist spends on missions.
The churches-alas! lead the way in a wrong standard of expenditure. What shall we say of a well-known church that spends $3,000 a year on the choir, and averages $150 a year for foreign missions ! No wonder Bishop Ooxe found a man in his diocese who put five cents a Sunday into the church box, and $800 a season into the opera box. A millionaire could be named who gives a dollar a Sunday, but stops even this payment when he takes his annual winter excursion to the South, where he spends thousands for his own enjoyment!
Where is our zeal for God? The men of this world do not hesitate
SPIRITUAL lVIOVEMENTS 0]<' THE HALF CENTURY
to embark on an enterprise whose profits are at risk, and spend vast sums on an experiment. The ship canal projected from Bordeaux on the Atlantic, to Narbonne on the Mediterranean, would cost $130,000,- 000. When a few years ago 'a new fleet of ninety-two vessels was planned for the navy of the United States, it was expected to call for $20,000,000 a year, for fourteen years! What a work' it was to build the pyramids, employing one thousand men at a time, and occupying twenty years! The Russian war cost England alone $500,000,000. Consider what might have been done in the field of missions with that sum, which represents all that !ws been given ,in the last seventy-five years for world-wide evangelization by the whole Church!
It is a shame that we should find the most munificent givers outside of the Ohurch of Ohrist. Baron Hirsch, of Paris, recently dead, gave to the poor Russian Jews, and their fellow Hebrews in Pol::tnd, Hungary, and Austria, $10,000,000; and shortly after as much more to other charities. His benefactions are yet without a parallel in history. And this famous financier and railroad king, besides giving ten millions to Christian schools and hospitals in Europe, gave $40,000,000 to build commercial schools in the waste lands of the continent for the Jews.
One of the awful facts is that there has been a decline and decay of liberality in the churches. While the membership increast in thirty years three and a half times, there was a decided falling off in the rate of giving, and while the total of gifts increast four times, the amount given by each converted believer went down to about one-half.
God wants self-denying giving. Who can look at the Japanese temple, with its coil of rope,-larger than a ship's hawser, and weighing a ton and a half, made from the hair of Buddha's worshipers, and used to lift timbers and stones to their places in the temple building,-without feeling the rebuke implied to our self-sparing gifts? The wealth of church members in Protestant communions is, by the census, at least $10,000,000,000. Their contributions average onesixteenth of a cent for every dollar, or one dollar in about $l,uOO.
What a sacrifice of vanity was that when the women of Israel gave their metal mirrors to be melted down and recast for the laver of the holy court. As surely as the barnacles ate their way into the oak timbers of the Albatross and sank her, selfishness eats intu and destroys Ohristian character. Mr. Spurgeon had a contempt for all parsimony, and occasionally thundered anathemas against it, and again pelted it with ridicule. One morning he said of some unwilling givers that they squeezed each shilling until the queen's head was well nigh obliteratt3d. The Abbe Roux keenly remarkt, that" It is not as far from the heart to the mouth as from the mouth to the hand," meaning that m:1ny who talk generously give stingily.
On the other side of the sea I found examples of disproportionate
THE CULTURE OF THE GRACE OF GIVING. 8'1
giving very rare in this country-giving which would be thought by most people quite out of proportion to their selfish indulgence. For example: First case-A governess, out of the £100 that she earns, . keeps £50 and gives the other £50 away. Like Zaccheus, she says: "Behold, Lord, the haff of my goods I give to the poor." Second case-" One whose income is £2,000, lives on £200 and gives £1,800 away," thus parting with not only one-tenth, but with nine tenths of what is received. Third case-" Another, who earns £1,500 a year, lives on £100 and gives £1,400 away," and thus £14 out of every £15 are devoted to the claims of religion and charity. Fourth case- "Another, whose income is £8,000, lives on £250 and gives the balance away." What a balance to part with: £31 given back to God out of every £32 received from Him! Mr. Gladstone's brief eulogy of Mr. Peabody was: "One who taught us the most needful of all lessons: how a man may bea master of his fortune and not its slave." There is one lesson even more needful-namely, that we should learn that no man can assume to be the "master of a fortune OJ without virtually disputing the fact of his stewardship.
God wants consecrated capital for consecrated work. When Theresa felt the need of a hospital, she had but three farthings, but she began to build, for while" Theresa and three farthings were nothing, God and three farthings were incalculable."
God wants conscientious and systematic giving. Stonewall Jackson, on the day after the second battle of Bull's Run, in the midst of all the feverish excitement of the war, inclosed his contribution for missions, due on the Sabbath. As he could not be present, he could not neglect the offering.
If one is content to appropriate a certain proportion to benevolent work, let him be sure the proportion increases as the wealth accumulates. More than half a century ago, Nathaniel Oobb sat down in his counting-house in Boston, and wrote the following solemn covenant: "By the grace of God, I will never be worth more than fifty thousand dollars. By the grace of God, I will give one-fourth of the net profits of my business to charitable and religious uses. If I am ever worth twenty thousand dollars, I will give one-half of my net profits; if I am worth thirty thousand dollars, I will give three-fourths; and the whole after fifty thousand dollars. So help me God, or give to a more faithful steward, and set me aside."
This covenant he subscribed and adhered to with conscientious fidelity as long as he lived. On his death-bed he said to a friend, "By the grace of God, nothing else, I have been enabled, under the influence of these resolutions, to give away more than forty thousand dollars. How good the Lord has been to me!"
We should begin the ministry of money when we have but little. As the Persian proverb says:
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENTS OF THE HALF CENTURY
"Do the little things now; So the big things shall by and by Come asking to be done."
Scriptural giving is worship, and so every worshiper of God must be one of God's givers, whether rich or poor. The mites God values as much as the millions, if they mean prayerful, and devout, and worshipful givipg. Dr. Howard Crosby used to say, "The poor man should no more omit giving, on account of his poverty, than the illiterate his praying because of his bad grammar."
It is more blessed to give than to receive. When disciples learn the true ministry of money, the privilege of giving will swallow up the obligation. To ask unbelievers for gifts to carryon God's work, or even to urge believers to give, is not God's way, and neither will be done by a church that is devout and truly consecrated. Nor will a few large givers be permitted to do all the giving, as tho it were by the amount given that the total is to be estimated.
When we understand our stewardship, we shall see that every dollar belongs to God. Dr. William Kincaid says: "A friend of mine was receiving some money at the hands of a bank officer the other day, when he noticed, depending from one of the bills, a little scarlet thread. He tried to pull it out, but found that it was woven into the very texture of the note, and could not be withdrawn. 'Ah ! ' said the banker, 'you will find that all the government bills are made so now. It is an expedient to prevent counterfeiting.' Just so Christ has woven the scarlet thread of his blood into every dollar that the Christian owns. It can not be withdrawn; it marks it as His. My brother, my sister, when you take out a government note to expend it for some needless luxury, notice the scarlet thread therein, and reflect that it belongs to Christ. How can we trifle with the pric8 of blood r"
How beautiful is the myth of Elizabeth of Hungary, the pioneer saint, martyr! How, when carrying in her robe, supplies of food for the poor, when her husband prest her to know what waE the burden she was bearing, and opened her robe, he saw only heaven's red and white roses, and was dazzled by the supernal glory of her face. In God's eyes how many of our simplest gifts for His poor are really celestial blooms, full of a holy fragrance, as the sweet smell of incense I We must be brought into such vital and habitual sympathy with God that we shall see this lost world through His eyes. That would solve every problem. We should then learn how to pray, for we shOuld share in the travail of the Son of God; we should yearn to go, for the want and woe of mankind would draw us as it drew Him; and we should find it easy to give, and correspondingly hard to keep. In harmony with God each soul will say, as Christ said: "Lo, I COME TO DO THY WILL, 0 GOD!"
WORK AMONG THE CHINESE BLIND
WORK AMONG THE OHINESE BLIND.
BY MISS C. F. GORDON CUMMING, CRIEFF, SCOTLAND.
Among the innumerable inventions of the present day, there is one, seemingly so small and simple, and produced by a worker so humble, that it is in danger of being overlookt; and yet so vast are its latent capabilities that' I have no doubt that this small acorn will, in due season, develop into a wide-spreading 'free of Life-a most valu- able handmaid to all missionary effort in those provinces of Ohina where Mandarin Chinese is spoken-that is to say, in three-fourths of the vast empire, and by a population roughly estimated at three hun- dred millions.* .
The results of this invention may be briefly summarized thus: (t) Work for the blind. (2) Work by trained blind for other blind. (3) Work by the blind for illiterate sighted persons.
The inventor of this simple, but valu- able, invention, Rev. William Murray, was the only son of a poor saw-miller near Glasgow, Scotland. When only about nine years of age, while too fearlessly ex- amining the machinery, his left arm was torn off, thus disabling him and prevent- ing him from following his father's occu- pation. This apparent calamity proved to be the first incident in his calling to mission work of a very remarkable nature. REV. WILLfAM H. MURRAY. As soon as he was old enough to earn his own living, he became a rural postman in the neighborhood of Glas- gow, and day by day he beguiled the tedium of his long tramps by the study of two books-the Old Testament in Hebrew and the New Tes- tament in Greek-reserving part of his time for quiet prayer that God would make plain to him His holy will concerning his future life.
He soon became convinced that he must find work in some way con- nected with foreign missions, or Bible-work. Again and again he applied for employment as a colporteur of the National Bible Society of Scotland, but tho greatly attracted by the lad, the secretary feared that one so very unassuming might fail to prove successful. Thus a considerable time elapst ere his services were accepted.
Finally, in 1864, he carried his point, and was told to begin work among the foreign ships lying in the Olyde. Soon the society found that it had never had such a colporteur as the gentle lad who made * This may be an over-estimate of the extent to which this system may be used, but by slight changes it may doubtless be adapted to very nearly these numbers.-En. his way among the sailors of all nations, persuading them to purchase portions of the Scriptures in their own languages. During the seveu years of his apprenticeship as a home colporteur he carried on his own education during the winter months, by going very early to bed, and rising daily at 3 A. M. to study for the classes held from 8 till 10 A. M. at the Old College, ere commencing his long day's work of bookselling on the street or the river. In the summer months he was sent through wild districts in the Scottish Highlands, pushing his Bible cart along many a lonely, hilly tract of bleak moorland-a task which often severely taxt the strength of his one arm. All this time he was longing to be employed in carrying the Word of Life to those to whom it was as yet unknown.
At last, in 1871, he obtained his heart's desire; and was sent to North China, being located first at Chefoo, and then at Peking. The same aptitude for mastering crabbed symbols -ivhich had facilitated his study of Greek and Hebrew enabled this diligent student very quickly to acquire a sufficient knowledge of Chinese to begin his bookselling. In fact, in the first four months, he actually learned to recognize, at sight, two thousand of the bewilderingly intricate' Chinese ideographs, or written characters. Between 30,000 and 40,000 of these are to be found in the writings of Confucius, which embody practically all the learning of China. Before one can read a very simple book in Chinese, such as the Bible, he must be able to recognize at least four thousand of the ideographs. It need scarcely be said that the vast majority of the Chinese never attempt to learn to read, still less would they dream of learning to write. As in the early days of the Church, we may ask incredulously, "Have any of the rulers of the people believed?" The vast majority of Chinese converts to Christianity are quite illiterate, ·so that about 95 per cent. of the Christian men, and all of the Christian women, are unable to read, aud can pnly join in hymns which they have learned by heart. They receive instruction only as they listen to what is read or preacht in the mission churches-few, indeed, can carry home books from which to read for the edification of themselves or their neighbors. From this we can understand something of the importance of the invention of a system so very simple that the most illiterate, both blind and sighted, can learn both to read and write in less than three months-many have done so in half that time. The extraordinary simplicity of the system is due to the fact that it was evolved in two distinct stages, the first being only for the use of the blind.
There are in China a lamentable number of these blind, owing to the prevalence of leprosy, small-pox, ophthalmia, and general dirt. In the streets of all Chinese cities it is a common thing to see a dozen or more blind men or women, walking in single file, the blind leading the blind, making a hideous noise with cymbals and other discordant instruments, in order to extract infinitesimal coins from the deafened passengers or shopkeepers, who pay this tax to induce the unsightly and noisy procession to move on.
The majority of the adult blind are the most degraded of the population, but occasionally one came to Mr. Murray wishing to buy a portion of this" foreign classic of Jesus." When Mr. Murray askt, "What is the use to you of a book which you can not see to read?" . the answer was: "If I have the book, perhaps some day some one will read it to me." Mr. Murray told them how, in Europe and America, blind people were taught to read for themselves, but, naturally, he seemed to them as one that mockt. From that time, however, he never ceast to yearn for some way in which to help the blind, and made it his ceaseless prayer that he might be guided how to do it. He had need of truly God-given patience, for eight years elapst ere he arrived at a satisfactory solution, and during all that time he was ceaselessly selling, to the few who could read them, books printed in the intricate Chinese characters.
Ere leaving Scotland Mr. Murray had studied Moon's system of raised alphabetic symbols for the blind, but as musical notes can not be represented by this type, he saw that it could never satisfactorily render the amazingly fine gradations of sound which form the tones, so maddening to the foreigner seeking to learn Chinese. But in the London Mission, where he lodged, was a little girl who had been born blind, and for her books were sent from England in Braille's system of embost dots. This system expresses fine gradations of sound so clearly that the most complicated music can be written for the blind. By taking a group of six dots, and omitting one or more at a time, sixty-three symbols can be produced. By means of these can be rep- resented the twenty-four letters of the alphabet, which so accurately express the forty-one sounds of the English language, and the remainder of the sixty-three may be used to denote punctuation and musical notes. But as the Chinese have no alphabet, the first step toward a solution of the problem was when Mr. Murray realized that, altho there are over 30,000 Chinese characters, there are only four hundred and eight sounds in Mandarin Chinese-the language of about three hundred millions of the people. But Braille provides only sixty-three symbols, how then ~ould these be made to represent four hundred and eight sounds?
There was then vouchsafed to this .patient seeker after the Lord's guidance what he recognized as a divine revelation. In the broad noonday, while resting from his long morning of exhausting toil among noisy Chinese crowds, he seemed to see a great scroll outspread before him, and covered with Braille's embost dots. The thought seemed to be flasht into his mind, "]J£ake these dots represent numerals, and number the sounds." There, in a nutshell, lies the whole secret. 'fhe same group of dots, differently placed, are used to represent units, tens, and hundreds. Thus, symbols representing the numbers 1, 2, 3, °= = 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,9,0, stand for units; any two of these symbols (e.g., 4 and 40), represent tens; and any three symbols (e.g., 4, 0, and 8 408), stand for hundreds. Thus it becomes a very simple thing to represent any numeral.
Mr. Murray next numbered the four hundred and eight sounds of Mandarin Chinese. 1 stands for Ah)' 2, for Ai)' 3, for Anj 10, for Chan)' 100, for'Hlwn/ 400, for Yung/ 408, for P'ou. This last sound, which is represented by the highest figure required, has a symbol as surprisingly simple as any of the others. Then, as an aid to memory, Mr. Murray arranged 408 doggerel lines, connecting the numeral with the soundsomewhat as children say: "ONE to make ready, Two to prepare; THREE to be off, FOUR to be there."
The Chinese are all gifted with very retentive memories, and they ••••••• have no difficulty in rapidly mem- I,••••• ••••••••••• .•••••• -.•.••• orizing these lines. Thenceforth they find that the touch of the ."•••,. • .,' .•••• dots representing any numeral .,.'. •••"••.•.••.,,••• instinctively suggests the corre- ..••, :' sponding sound, just as in our • ..,•••• • • own language the sight of a cer- .,••••• • tainletter of the alphabet suggests :: a certain sound.
"• Great was Mr. Murray's joy •• when his years of patient, in- . ' genions toil were thus crowned :. with success. His first four pupils were miserably poor, ignorant MR. MURRAY'S SYSTEM' OF EMBOST DOTS FOR street beggars, whom he brought THE BLIND. to his own lodgings, that he might feed and clothe them, and isolate A portion of a page from one of the Gospels. The dots are raised for the blind.
them from contaminating surroundings. But even these unpromis- ing pupils were able to read and write fluently in three months.
It was at this tirn'e (June, 1879,) that, in the course of pro- longed travels, I was compelled to visit Peking, and, by a totally unforeseen chain of circumstances, found myself the guest of Dr.
Dudgeon, of the London Mission, and heard these blind men, who had been ignorant beggars only about four months before, reading and writing fluently from any page prepared for their use in Murray's numerical type.
After my return to England other matters engrost my attention, so that it was not until the year 1886 that I came to realize that the development of this remarkable and noble work was greatly limited by the fact that Mr. Murray possest nothing beyond his salary as a colporteur. This small amount was intended only for his own maintenance, but on it he was maintaining twelve or more blind students, besides hiring a room in which they could live. This thought led me for the first time to appeal to the public for funds to enable him to extend the work. Tho the amounts contributed have never sufficed to do this on an adequate scale, they have proved sufficient to convince practical men that the system was worth developing and applying. Consequently a number of well-known men in Glasgow formed themselves into a home committee, while others in Peking, well acquainted with Mr. Murray and his work, form his very practical committee on the field.
Until about the year 1890 only Mr. Murray's work for the blind was mentioned. Then came the second -stage in what he loves to call his revelation, namely, his adaptation of the self-same system for the use of sighted persons. Some said to him, rather in " chaff," "What a privilege it is to be blind, and to learn to read and write in three months! Why don't you do something for poor sighted persons, who must needs take about six years to learn to read their own complicated ideographs, and are then far from fluent?" It then suddenly occurred to him that nothing could be more simple. He had only to make the numeral type visible by using BLACK LINES INSTEAD OF THE RAISED DOTS.
Having, with his brush and ink, prepared pages in this manner, he and a native assistant tried teaching several intelligent Chinamen, each of whom mastered the system in a few days!
But everything in China requires patience, and fully a year elapst ere he was able to get these new symbols cast in metal type ready for the printer. He then took these to his blind scholars, who were busily embossing books for the blind, and aGkt if they could tell what they were. After feeling them, the blind students at once replied: "Why. these are our symbols, but you have used lines instead of dots. Why have you done this? "
"Because you blind people are now going to print books for sighted persons, and you are going to teach them how to read! "
This is exactly what is being done, and it would be difficult to conceive of anything more infinitely pathetic. All day long blind compositors (generfl,l1y girls) are preparing column after column of this clear, simple type, and a sighted colporteur comes in the evening to print off the many hundred copies. Then the blind fingers neatly disperse the type into its compartments, and again set up new columns. Thus all the gospels, most of the epistles, many favorite hymns, and sacred literature on a very small scale have already been prepared, and a blind man or a blind woman is ready at any time to instruct any sighted pupils who are willing to be taught.
One of Mr. Murray's first test cases was a class of the oldest, most ignorant converts in Peking. To these he offered 2td (5 cents) a day all the time they were learning, if only they would try. Of course, they thought he was mad, but they were delighted to get so large a daily dole, and would fain have continued drawing it to the end of their lives. But at the end of six weeks they all came to Mr. Murray to say that they could no longer claim it, for they found, to their unspeakable surprise, that all could read and write.
The next experiment was teaching a large class of very ignorant farm women, who came from another province to study at another branch of the London Mission. One blind girl, Hannah by name, L. ~ J// was taken there with a parcel of L..J l.. '" '.. ..J books specially prepared by the .J, /~ 10 ,,- Co – blind students. In less than a week Mrs. Allardyce, wife of the 'r . .tI .. :.1' .J'l r:::: missionary, had mastered the ~, /~1I~/ C",~~'/" ":J system. Of course, she could _/ already speak Chinese fluently. "I 1..1 t.. -..1 '.,I ,, 1-"", In less than ten days Mr. Murray I r "' C – '.. ".J I I received from one of the women a perfectly written letter, without !:or ~, ,-; -10 ~ .. one error, and from another, one " ,-' _/ <, c«; of the Psalms, equally correct. <' – / .. r' I At the end of three months all [J I.. I I SYMBOLS FOR SIGHTED PERSONS IN MURRAY'S these women returned to their NUMERAL TYPE. farms, able to read anything at sight, and to write accurately. A portion of a page from the Book of Acts.
The latter power was soon put to a test. When the war with Japan broke out, Mrs. Allardyce and her sister, Miss Goode, returned to Aus- tralia, to visit their father, and, while there, they received most interesting letters from these poor farm women.
A most important point in this invention for the sighted lies in the fact that its simplicity and the various details which make it acceptable to the Chinese, are due to Mr. Murray's having been led primarily to work for the blind. Had he deliberately gone to work to invent a simple system by which to teach illiterate Chinese, he would doubtless have attempted something reproducing our curved letters of the alphabet, which are so essentially foreig~ as to be ohnox- ious to the Chinese. But the reproduction, in black lines, of Braille's symbols as arranged for blind fingers, gives square and angular forms, which appear to the Chinese to bear a family likeness to the square characters which they so greatly revere, a likeness wondrously simplified, but still suggestive. Moreover, the Chinese take kindly to numerals. They also find that these newly inven ted symboIs can easily be written with the brush and India ink to which they are accustomed.
I would fain multiply details of Mr. Murray's work-his ada12ta- tion of the same system of numerals to shorthand, for both blind and sighted; the manner in which he renovates dilapi- dated pianos and harmoniums, contriv- in g, with 'his one arm, to give them new wires and n ew leathers; how he teaches all his blind pupils both to play and to write music from dictation, so that a number of them are now acting as or- ganists at different mlSSlOn chapels.
'1'he only musical training that Mr.
Murray himself had ever received was sufficient instruction in the t on ic sol-fa system to enable him to t each in a Sun- BLIND PETER. day-school in Glasgow. Organist of the London Mlsflon and F ain would I also tell of the conver- head teacber in the school for the sion and subsequent missionary work of bUnd. Died 18!1O.
Blind Chang, of Manchuria, whose earnest preaching has led upward of fi ve hundred men t o seek baptism, in spite of all the chances of cruel persecution, HAVE FAITH IN GOD which may at any time r esult from thus openly confessing their 2 faith. I would gladly tall how the .. . . . .. 3 TANGl HSIN"" SHANG4 CHU3 first blind w()lnan who mastered 4 ••••-, •• •• the new system was t aught by a •, ••• • small blind boy, so young that he was still allowed access to the 5 •,I women's quarters. Of course, MI'. Murray could not possibly be '" 6 ( J~ , allowed to teach women, but by .7 V this means the difficulty was over- 8 "'" come. This ingenious woman .A. COMPARISON OF SYMBOLS. became the teacher of all blind girls and women, who subse- (1) English. (2) Chinese Ideographs. (8) AI · quently have ventured to come to phabetlc Chinese. (4) Nmllerieal type f or be taught.' blind (embost). (5) Numerical type f or sighted. ,6) Shorthand. (7) Some have faced almost in- Joined shorthand. (8) Short- credible difficulties to secure this hand without tone.
precious power. One blind woman persuaded her husband, another persuaded her father, to wheel her in a cumbersome wheelbarrow, from a remote mission station, all the way to Peking. In each case it was a thirty days' jonrney, in the midst of the bitterly cold winter, and across a country whose roads are practically non-existent. It needed strong faith and determination to face such difficulties as those of .the mere journey, to say nothing of residence with foreigners in a BLIND BANNAII AND ONE OF HER CLASSES OF IGNORANT FARM WOMEN.
strange city, in order to acquire their wondrous new arts. But these blind Christian women persevered, and in due season returned to their homes, not only able to read the Holy Scriptures for themselves, but competent to instruct others also both in reading and writing.* The British and Chinese Bible Society distributes throughout the Chinese Empire the Bible in classical Mandarin, 10 Oolloquial, Katmuck, Mongolian, and Tibetan languages. In 1896 some 540,000 books were printed. 366,000 books were put into circulation, of which 358,000 were sold, and 8,000 given away. The books are nearly always sold at a price to pay for the paper, and it was an indication of the remarkable progress of Christianity that 11,000 New Testaments in excellent bindings were sold.
* Those who wish may order copies of Miss Gordon Cumming's little book" Work for the Blind" (price 6d., postage 3d.), from the publishers, Messrs. Gilbert&·Rivington, Clerkenwell, London. For those who prefer giving direct help to the blind, I may mention that about £10 ($50) covers all expenses for the maintenance of one pupil for a year. Subscriptions will be gladly received by D. L. Pierson, 944 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y., whQ will forward them to the treasurer, Prof. S. M. Russell, The University, Peking, China.
'1898.] JlHSSIONARY STATISTICS
MISSIONARY STATISTICS.
BY REV. J. VAHL, NORRE-ALSLEV, DENMARK, President of the Danish Missionary Society.
During recent years much progress has been made in the science of missionary statistics, as well as in all other branches of the work of missions. This science is of comparatively recent development, and it is not strange therefore that it has no place in earlier missionary reports. The first reports in which we find extensive statistics are those of the Wesleyan Missionary Society for 1820, the Church Missionary Society for 1823, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for 1832.* Gradually the statistics have been made more complete, and have been given by a larger number of societies, altho some are still greatly lacking in this respect. The first statistics, which included the work of all of the evangelical missions, were, so far as we know, those publisht in London in 1861. But the anonymous author (Dr. Moister:s~ys in the preface: "So defective are the reports of some societies, and so various a,re the modes adopted by different bodies for classifying laborers, that it is not possible to gather from publisht documents even the exact number of missionary laborers now employed among the unevangelized. Still more defective and perplexing are returns found to be when an effort is made to ascertain who are male and who are female assistants from Christian lands, and who are native helpers. It would be well if some approach to uniformity were adopted by the various missions in the estimating of laborers and results. Until this is attained, all estimates, however carefully made, will be very unsatisfactory."
In 1874 a new edition of these statistics was publisht with essential emendations, and since that time missionary statistics have mane considerable progress. This is manifested by the very emendated reports of the various societies, by the statistical tables given in the reports of the large conferences in Indilit, China, Japan, etc., by the statiEtical work of Dr. E. M. BIiss,t Dr. Grundemann,t Rev. J. Vahl,§ and by workers in various countries, like Rev. H. Loomis, of Japan, and others.
But are m1'ssionary statistics ~f any use? Much can be read out of the dead figures, and it would be found difficult to express progress and decline in the different departments of missionary work without using them. But, on the other hand, one must take care not to read too much in the numbers. They speak only of quantity, not of the * In a "Larger Outlook" (Uebersicht) of the Moravian Missions of 1833 no statistics are given, but they are found in a short outlook for 183g, They also appear in the reports of the Baptist Missionary Society for 1842; Basel Mission Society for 1853; Presbyterian Board (U, S.), 1855 (perhaps earlier); London Missionary Society, 1856; Methodist Episcopal Society, 186U; Rhenish Missionary Society, 1881; American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 1882 (instead of the summaries); Paris Evangelical Missionary Society, 1887. in some of them statistics about some of the missions have been found before. The three great Presbyterian Churches of Scotland, without doubt, included them at a comparatively early date. as did the Gossner Missionary Society, the Swedish Missionary Union, and others.-J. V.
t "Encyclop",dia of Missions." t Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift.
§ Nordisk Missiontidschrift, reprinted in " Missions to the Heathen," quality: No one, by means of them, can read how m1lny really faith- ful, efficient missionaries are to be found, how many of the native ministers, helpers, and communicants are consecrated, faithful men, or what is the proportion of true believers to. backsliders and unbelievers. But when we read that the number of native ministers in fifty years has increast from 158 to 4,018 (more than 20 fold), that the communicants have, in the last five years, increast by 200,000, and the number of Christians has increast at a rate much in excess of that of the population, and that the incomes of the societies have, on the whole, been steadily augmented, one must be a foolish and negative critic to underrate their value.
Dr. Moister deplored the DIFFICULTY OF GETTING ACCURATE INFORMATION.
There has been much progress in this direction, and yet there are some small societies, from which it is very difficult, or impossible, to secure accurate information. Especially from the Dutch societies such is generally wanting. In some reports no returns are given from some fields; here an approximate return ought to be given by the secretary, or it ought to be demanded that the missionaries report the items every year. Dr. Moister further complained that the modes of classifying the laborers are too varied and uncertain. Even now this is not at all satisfactory. Some of the societies have foreign missions, not only among the heathen, but also among Roman Catholic or Oriental Chris- tians, and some of them even among evangelical Christians.* In these cases deduction must be made in the general missionary statistics. But in the general tables of statistics, these various items ought all to be treated in the same way.
There is also a difference in the use of tlte name "missionary." Sometimes it is used to denote only the ordained missionary, whereas there may be missionaries, like Borresen and Skrefsrud among the Santals, who for many years remain unordained. The medical unordained missionaries, who also preach the Gospel, shall they not be called missionaries? Some years ago a bishop in the Universalist Mission said, that every white man employed by the mission, even as printer or artisan, did a real missionary work, and should be included under the head of missionaries. And what shall be done with the missionary planters, as in the Zambesi Industrial Mission? Again, what is meant by assistant missionaries? Sometimes these include all female missionaries, wives, and sometimes men, whose work is directed *In the reports of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel no difference is made between missions among colonists and among heathen. The words" foreign missions II are also understood in a different way, the American missionary societies understanding thereby only missions in foreign countries, and counting the missions among the heathen in the United States among home missions, whereas the missions to the heathen in British North America (in the reports of the Church Missionary Society, etc.), are put under foreign missions. The missions among the negroes in the West Indies are, in the reports of the Moravians, United Presbyterians, etc., found among the missions to the heathen, but among the Baptists, Angli· cans, and Methodists they are excluded, and named self-supporting churches, as they really are. but not supported by the society reporting the statistics. Native ministers. are also variously designated, sometimes being counted as ordained ministers, and sometimes as lay preachers. Native assistants sometimes include unpaid helpers, and sometimes even heathen teachers.
Communicants, I think, now always mean the same thing. The Leipzig Missionary Society indicates by this the number of Christians who have communicated during the year (10 persons communing 4 times gives 40 communicants), hut in the last reports there is a special note, entitled" To Communion," which gives the number of comml;lnicants in the common sense of the word. In some reports (Methodist) the communicants are called members, and in the Dutch reports they are not to be found at aIr. The word" Christian" is also used in different senses. With some it is equivalent to baptized adults and children, but with the Baptists it is the same as members. Adherents in some reports indicate* not baptized members, but catachumens, while in other reports these are either omitted or are given separately. t In the same report the sum of the items of the several countries is sometimes different from that given in the general summary.
There is another difficulty.
AN APPARENT SUDDEN DECREASE among communicants may be caused by defections to Romanism through bribery, or may be due to more severe discipline in the Church, which has caused the exclusion of some hitherto counted as Christians. Such seeming discrepancies ought always to be explained.
Thus it will be easily understood that the compilation of a uniform statistical table, which includes the work of the many societies and agencies, is a somewhat difficult task, and that every such work is necessarily imperfect. It can, however, be done with more or less success and accuracy. To get rid of some of the difficulties, it was proposed in the Continental Missionary Conference, held at Bremen, in 1893, to formulate some general rules for the statistics of the different German missionary societies. It might be a great desideratum, if some such rules for the statistics of all missionary societies could be agreed upon at the coming International Missionary Conference to be held in New York in 1900. This would be difficult, but I think that it might be done, in some respects at least.
(1) All societies should give the number of those who can be admitted to the Holy Communion.
(2) Unmarried female missionaries and wives should be given separately. .
• Baptist Missionary Society and American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
t In the A. B. C. F. M. report for 1896, p. 115, the adherents are given as 137,729, and the average congregations as 71,449. (3) The numbers of white missionaries, ordained, ullordained, and medical, should be given separately.
(4) U nordained native helpers should be distinguisht from ordain~d. (5) Only the salaried Christian helpers should be noced, altho others might be given separately. (6) Adherents should be taken to mean only baptized non-communicants, unless otherwise stated. I also deem it desirable and practicable that the work among the heathen be distingllisht from the work among the Christians, even if these were only nominal Christians and practical heathen. This should be done especially where the work is among evangelical Christians. If it were possible to prevail npon the American societies to classify the work among the Indians under the heathen, it would be desirable. It ought also to be a rule that when a mission is considered as having attained its aim it should be so indicated; for it is anomalous that in the same countries (e. g. West Indies) some missions should be put down as missions to heathen, and some as organized churches. It might also be helpful if in some Anglican colonies the work among colonists could be noted separately from the work among the natives.* Another item which should be mentioned is the income of societies. It is important to have these recorded in the yearly budget of the societies, that the statistician may see if progress has been made. From the total income is to be deducted the balance from the previous year, and the receipts from the sale of pUblications issued by the society, so that only the net income may be included in the income of the year. It would also be useful if the donations, collections, etc., were separated from the legacies and interest on investments. It would be interesting to know how much is received from the Church at home and how much from foreign countries. Some German societies receive a large proportion of their income from foreign countries.f The income from the mission field has also begun to be considerable, and ought to be noted. Sometimes it is included in the income of the society, and sometimes it is given as contribution to self-support. Then again the expenses for benevolent purposes are not always separated from those for strictly religious purposes. Gifts other than money are also not generally estimated at their pecuniary value.! It may be next to impossible that the same system should be adopted by all societies for the'tabulating of their receipts, but any move in that direction would go a great way toward making the general statistical review of all societies much more useful and trustworthy.
* This is done in the reports of the Wesleyan South African Conference and of the Dutch Church in Africa, etc. t The Moravians received at least half from this Source in 1895; the Rhenish Mission Society one-eighth (1896). The Lutheran Missionary Society Olle-sixth (1896). The Basel Missionary Society receives about half of its income from Germany.
t With the Plymouth Brethren very much is sent to the missionaries themselves which is not included in the yearly income of the society. The different Bible, tract, and religious literature societies are a great help to the missionary societies, but in the statistics of missions only their expenditure for books in the native language and for the salaries of workers among the heathen should be included in the missionary statistics. In the expenditures of the missionary societies a distinction ought also to be made (as the late Rev. Royal G. Wilder tried to do in the MISSIONARY REVIEW some years ago) between amounts expended for direct missionary work, for administration, on the outfitting of new missionaries, and for sundry expenses.
The following is a comparative statistical table, which may serve to indicate the past progress and the outlook for the future: ~~I 1820 . 1845" I 1859 1889 1895 10 ——– —– Missionaries .. 421' ':1 1,319 2,032 4,135 6,369 1 72 76 1,889 3,390 Unmarried fe- male mission- aries ……… Communicants 21,7872 51,3226 159,000 227,000 850,000 1,057,000 Native minis- ters ………. 7' ? 158 169 3,327 4,018 Native helpers. 166 8507 3,1521 5,785 41,754 61,424 Nat i v e disci- •.•• 1 252,000 864,000 pIes ……… 15,7284 102,275 I Income …….. £121,756 £226,440 £632,000 £918,000 £2,130,000 £2, 807,000 Societies …… .20· 25" 65 98 262 365 1 These statistics are not to be taken as giving a complete showing of the work of the various years, but only as a very incomplete view .thereof, the reports being both very difficult to obtain and in themselves very incomplete. But the progress is very evident, and almost every year it is to be noted in very nearlY every item. In 70 years the number of missionaries has been doubled 15 times, that of the communicants 50 times, that of the native ministers 5,100 times. The income of the societies has been increast twentyfold, and that of the societies and agencies tenfold. Could the reports of the different societies be obtained and thoroughly studied, and could the information thereby obtained be amplified from the archives of the societies. the general statistics could be made more elaborate and trustworthy; but the time and the expense necessary to accomplish this would be too great to permit of its being undertaken.
IMoravian. 83; London Missionary Society. 80; Wesleyan Missionary Society, 77; American Board. 64; Church Missionary Society. 61; Baptist Missionary Society, 34.
'Wesleyan Missionary Society, 20,711; Moravian, London Missionary Society, Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, as the others give no returns.
'SoCiety for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. 4Very incomplete. ·From some very imperfect returns. Also 13 other societies (mostly book societies from which there are no returns). 'Wesleyan Missionary Society, 34,904; Baptist, 9,940.
~~~~ir~'ft~ ~~c~~~~:iIs.
"For 1845.1~90 vide Vahl, "Der Stand der Heidenmission in fien Jahren 1845 und 1890," Giitersloh, 1892.
IOVahl "Missions to Heathen" Copenhagen, 1890, and yearly.
THE LAND OF THE LAMAS
THE LAND OF THE LAMAS.* BY ERNEST F. NEVE, M.D., Missionary of the Church Missionary Society, India.
The original religion of Tibet, so revered by modern Theosophists, must have been a form of devil worship, but during the first century of the Christian era Buddhist missionaries went from Cashmere and converted that portion of Tibet which is now known as Ladakh. The Chinese pilgrim, Hwen Thseng, who visited Cashmere in 638, A. D., (about the time that Jerusalem was conquered by the Saracens), found the mass of the people given over to Hinduism, and the monasteries of the Buddhists were already deserted. The Mohammedan BEMIS MONASTERY, LADAKH, LESSER TIBET.
conquest of Cashmere completed the ruin of Buddhism in that province, and now the people are nearly all Moslems, altho the ruler is a Sikh or Hindu Prince. But Buddhism survived in· Ladakh, and its capital city Leh is an important center of Tibetan Buddhism.
After crossing the snowy Zoji La Pass, and descending into the hot, dry valley which leads to Kargyl, one meets with the first signs of Lamaism, about ten days' march from Srinagar, the capital of Cashmere. At Sheogol there is a little monastery perched upon the face of the cliff, 300 feet above the stream. Four miles further on there is the monastery of Mnlbek, also built upon an isolated rocky peak. Almost every village has a monastery inhabited by monks with shaven heads and red robes, who take part in services, copy manuscripts, * This paper is prepared and contributed by Dr. T. P. Hughes, of New York. carve stones, turn prayer wheels, and guide the religious life of the people. These monks are great land owners, and by lell(ling money on land securities, they make the peasants their serfs.
On the outskirts of a village there will often be noticed a Buddhist cenotaph or "chorten," in appearance like a large monument with a globular expansion, aud terminating in a point. The whole is usually whitewasht, except the top. The Buddhists burn their dead, and after the body of a deceast Lama (Buddhist priest) has been cremated, the ashes are mixt with clay, molded and stampt into small medallions with images, and are finally deposited in a cavity in one of these cenotaphs. • The people in this r egion have Mongolian features. The men wear pigtails. The women have headdresses of cloth, covered with large turquoises, and balanced ·~ by ear-Haps of lamb's wool; they wear cloaks of sheep skin, and richly colored dresses.
The monasteries are pic- turesque, irregular buildings, whitewasht and built in ter- races and with flat roofs. They are usually located on promi- nent rocks or cliffs. In the valle"y of the Sok Ohu stands the monastery of Suk Sun Dong Gong. It is percht on an isolated rock, at the foot of which -are clustered a miserable collection of mud huts. "The whole thing exemplifies well A BUDDHIST CHORTEN, LADAKH. the state of affairs in Tibet, the comfortable stately monastery in which the well-fed, well-drest, priestly monks reside,and the miserable huts occupied by the poverty- stricken peasants, soul and body the slaves of the monks, and crouching at their feet."
The Lamas object to foreign erR being allowed to enter their monasteries, possibly because they do not wish their wealth to be discovered by foreign conquerors. Occasionally, however, a foreigner may gain admittanee. On the Hoot of one (to which Dr. Neve was admitted) were rows of Hat benches for the monks. Round the walls were shelves and pigeonholes full of books and manuscripts. The rich vestments of the priests hung upon the wall, and here and there were massive copper bowls, jugs, and basins, together with the drums, cymbals, clarinets, and shawms used by the monastery band.
'rhere were wooden blocks for printing boo ks and prayer sheets. The walls and pillars were hung with tapestry, banners, and pic- tures. On a raised platform at one end of the room were rows of images, some of them eight feet high, and made of metal or of gilded or painted clay. The images and everything else about the place had a Chinese aspect. On the walls were also numerous paint- ings illustrating the Buddhist purgatory.
The prayer-cylinders or wheels of Tibet have always attracted the notice of travelers. They are about two feet high and revolve on a pivot. The prayer is either painted on the outside or is written on a piece of paper and thrust into a cavity. As the monks pass these prayer-wheels they set them in motion. Those placed outside the monasteries are kept con- stantly revolving by wind or water-power, thus causing continual petitions to be repeated without trouble to the worshipers.
The " mysteries" or " miracle plays" of the Tibet monks are exceedingly interesting and unique. 'rhe most famous of these was played at Hemis, where three hundred mouks gath- ered to participate in the ceremonies. The object of the plays or masquerades is to impress upon the people the value of priestly ini.er- cession. Maskt monks rep- A MASKT LAMA, DANCING, resent horrible de m 0 n s. Others, in monkish robes and miters, with bells and holy water and incantations, represent the holy priesthood controlling the actions of the demons. Troops of richly drest, but horribly maskt forms march around, some armed with ghastly symbols, models of human viscera, skulls, sickles, canes, hammers, swords, and instruments of torture. At one stage in the exercises they seem to be struggling for the soul of man, which is represented by a dough image. '1'he influence of the evil spirit appears only to partially restrain the incantations of the Lamas. Finally portions of the struggling sonl are given to each actor. Then the whole mystery-play closes with a procession of tiger-devils, ape-devils, and other representations of lost spirits.
The spiritual and temporal head of the Tibetan goverument is the Dalai Lama or grand Lama of Lhasa. He is supposed to come of age at eighteen, but invariably dies before he attains his majority. After death, the Dalai Lama is said once more to become incarnate in a child, and the monks go to look for .him. Assisted by divine inspiration, they finally fix upon some child who, upon reaching four years of age, is tested by being called upon to identify property belonging to the deceast Lama. When the new Dalai Lama is discovered, intimation is sent to the Emperor of China, to whom Tibet is tributary.
The population of Cashmere Tibet may be estimated at from three to four millions. Chinese Tibet, which is not open to travelers, is governed by its own chiefs, and has three or four millions more. Thus the population of Tibet must be about seven million souls.
Tibet itself is closed to Europeans, not by Chinese exclusiveness, but by the power of the Lamas, wielded like that of the Papacy in the middle ages. The Dalai Lama is sup p 0 r ted by tens of thousands of m 0 n k s, re- cruited from the people and living on them-a para- sitic g row t h which crushes all freedom of thought or ac- tion, and under the guise of as- ceticism encour- ages the vilest immorality. A LETTER FROM THE DALAI LAMA. Nothing s h 0 r t The 'outsid e wrapper is stretcht across the paper.
of a military occupation of Lhasa itself by British troops would avail to deliver the country from their yoke. Even in Ladakh the power of ~he Lamas exercises a most baneful influence.
But Tibet has been blockaded by missions plac:ed in strategic points on its frontier, so as to evangelize Tibetan traders. As a base of opera- tions on the Indian side, Sikkim and Darjeeling offBr the advantage of ready communication with Europe, but this is counterbalanced by the jealousy with which the Tibetans watch the frontier. Ladakh is, perhaps, too far west to affect Central Tibet yery decidedly, but the Moravian missionaries there are carrying on a noble work among the Tibetan traders. Christian outposts seem most likely to affect Tibet if placed on the Chinese border. An indigenous Christianity .in Upper Yunnan and Western Sczhuan would most probably spread the Gospel in the beaut.iful and populous valleys of Easter~ ~i~et.
A JOURNEY INTO TONQUIN
A JOURNEY INTO TONQUIN.* REV. WILLIAlII UPCRAFT, SZCHUAN, CHINA, Missionary of the American Baptist Missionary Union.
Among the fields yet unoccupied by the evangelical mission forces, none is more needy and, in some aspects, more promising than the great French possessions in southeastern Asia. The reconstruction which always accompanies the establishment of a new form of govern- ment among a subject people, affords an unusual opportunity for the preaching of the Gospel and its affiliated good offices. At such a time men's minds are apt to be susceptible to new truths, and the new truths are essential, if the reconstruction is to be more than skin deep.
Indo-China, the French possessions in the Orient, has been steadily increasing in extent since Cochin-China was definitely annext, over thirty years ago. It now extends from the Gnlf of Siam, and the delta of the Menam on the south and west· to the southern border of China proper on the north; and by recent treaty with England the Mekong forms its boundary in the northwest. Current interest centers about Tonquin (or Tong-king), owing to its position along the Chinese border, affording thus a convenient base from which to exploit China's western territory. .
The traveler from the north leaves Yunnan-fu (China), capital of the province of same name, in which there is a station of the China Inland Mission, and which is also the seat of the Catholic bishopric, and after nine days'travel through a picturesque but sparsely peopled country, arrives at Mengtze, where are a French consnl and officers of the Chinese Imperial Customs. Mengtze is important as the port of entry for the trade route through Tonquin. The Catholics have a mission here in charge of a French priest, who has come since the place was opened by the French authorities. The interrelation between the missionaries of "the church" and the French officials has a color of suspicion to the Chinese mind, and is thus prejudicial to the best interests of their mission work.
From Mengtze to Manhao, the little Chinese town on the Red River, is a journey of two days, and leads one from the breezy, bracing highlands of the Yunnan plateaux to the stifling, fever-laden atmos- phere of the river valley, which has proved so fatal to French and Chinese alike. The Red River rises near Tali-fn in the western part of Yunnan, and follows a devious and difficult course among the mountains, till it nears the border cif Tonquin. Here it becomes navi- gable for small Chinese boats, and at the frontier is large enough for small steamers. These connect at Yembay with other lines, and so make possible quick passage to the sea and the outer world.
In the almost insufferable inn at Manhao there was a suggestive *Also spelt Tongking and Tonkin. combination that could not fail to be noticed. By the door stood an empty coffin, while near by, on a rude straw pallet, lay a Chinese youth tossing in the fire and partial delirium of fever. At frequent intervals the host came to look upon his guest, and in forcible, oftrepeated request bade the sick man begone. "Don't stay hAre and die; get outside." And why? To die would necessitate a burial, the expense of which would fall upon the innkeeper. A question of cash anywhere will generally stifle the strivings of the Chinese not toorobust humanity.
Next day we found ourselves part cargo of a Chinese boat headed for Lao-kai, the frontier post in French territory. Besides ourselves and such other passengers as could find a place in the nm:row bO:1t, we carried tin, opium, and native medicines. Of the exports through Tonquin, tin and opium make about eighty per cent., and opium is on the increase.
About noon of the second day we came opposite to Shinfang, a little village, the last on Chinese soil, that serves as a kind of feeder to Lao-kai. A shallow, rapid stream flows into the Red River on the left bank, and is the real boundary line between the two countries. Our boat stopt at Shinfang, whence we walkt to the ferry which carried us across the boundary stream, and so we 'stood ON FRENCH TERRITORY.
A couple of reveuue officers awaited us at the ferry landing to search all passengers, an object lesson in French colonial policy.
Lao-kai is a garrison first; all other phases of its life are suoordinate to this. The little town that nestleS in the shadow of the fort exists principally to supply the needs of the military, of whom there is a large force. The fort is built about some old Chinese temples, a part of which we occupied during our stay in the place.
Across the river are the quarters of the Annamese sG.Jiers, who are brought up from the lower country for military duty along the frontier. Slim, lithe, rather under the average height of the Chinese, they have the features of the Celestials, but they lack the characteristic curiosity and impudence of their former masters. Our impression of the people at Lao-kai, which was intensified by further acquaintance, was that this people were broken in spirit, lower than the Chinese in· development, and less markt in character. The women are active, better built thlj.n the men, and seem to take a prominent part in the affairs of life. In some places they contest with the coolies for their share of the hardest of manual labor. The children were there in shoals, merry, mischievous. black-eyed urchins in every stage of undress, and in splendid harmony with their. surroundings.
The trade is mostly in the hands of the Chinese, whose influence and conduct are not for the well-being of Tonquin. From Lao-kai to Haiphong, the port of the province, is three days' journey down stream. '1'he country, for the first day, is little better than unclaimed jungle, so far as one can see, yet there must be many people there who choose to live in the retreat of the jungle rather than in the more conspicuous places by the river's bank. Such a tendency to caution has become strong in them because of past oppression. After leaving Yembay, the prospect opens out more, evidences of cultivation are seen, and every stopping place is busier than the last.
Two things are prominent-the military and the missionary. Soldiers are everywhere, apparently in every condition of disorder and neglect. "The fathers of the church" have a good hold upon the people in the lower country. One earnest, isolated man took great pleasure and pains in explaining to us the character and extent of his field and the results of his work. Later he showed us over the unfinisht cathedral. Then, seeing we did not take either wine or cigars, and much wishing to show us hospitality, he had the church bell rung that we might hear "the sound of the church-going bell," a thing quite unknown in the far land where our work lies.
Hanoi, the capital of Tonquin, is a neat, quiet city, s",anding round a little lake at the head of the delta, less than a hundred miles from the sea. The country between Hanoi and Haiphong is one large, fiat, marshy rice field, intersected everywhere by narrow, deep canals, the connecting lines for different points. The villages, em10wered in the greenest and most graceful bamboos, stand around in profusion on every hand. The local temple serves as a nucleus and attraction. The bamboo walls and brown straw thatch of the miniature houses show in admirable harmony-at a distance – the same distance generally observed by the critical globe trotter, when he writes con amoJ"c of the poetic East.
Along this open highway-the Red River valley-lies a most needy field for missionary work. Tonquin has 60,000 square miles of territory, a population of about ten millions, a stable form of government under French rule, and is within easy communication both East and West. It is probable that, owing to international jealousies and ambitions, nowhere so acute as in the Orient, an Englishman would be lookt upon with suspicion here. Such a disadvantage would not be attacht to an American citizen, and it is to them the appeal comes. It is probable that none of the organized societies are prepared to take up such a work. Shrinkage in receipts, with advance imperatively needed on fields already occupied, quite exhaust all the means at hand. But among individual Christians, with deepening convictions as to their service for Christ, free from home responsibilities, and financially able to bear the cost of their own support, Tonquin offers an inviting and urgently needy field~ The hand of God is in the opening of Asia, and the expanding
THE ISLAND OF HAINAN
rule of Western powers in these strongholds of conservatism and heathenism, is the opportunity, and therefore the obligation, for all who can respond.
France has recently added a new province or two to Tonquin, thus bringing her western frontier up to the eastern limit of British Burma. From the Burmese side the loyal and much-blest missionaries of the Baptist Missionary Union have been working since the days of Judson, and are extending their frontiers toward the sum'ising.
It remains now for some to go in at the eastern seaboard and work their way westward, till the forces of the Presbyterian Ohurch, advancing northward from Siam, the Baptist workers from the west, the Ohinese missions from the north, shall meet the workers from the Tonquin coast, and so southeastern Asia be occupied by the forces of Evangelical Ohristendom for the glory of God and the salvation of the nations there.
THE ISLAND OF HAINAN.
BY ROBERT E. SPEER, NEW YORK, Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions.
The war with Japan involved the loss to Ohina of the Korean peninsula and the island of Formosa, or Tai-wan. The island of Hainan also might have gone, had it not been too far to the south, where it lies within the tropics, between the eighteenth and twentieth degrees of north latitude. It constitutes a part of the province of Kwang-tung, or Oa;nton. In Yii-lin-kang bay, on the south of the island, where there are traces of Mohammedanism in a mosque and school, the East India Company used to lay up and repair its ships a century ago. But the island had been little known and uncared for during the present century, until the French in Tonquin collided with the Chinese, and turned covetous eyes toward Hainan, which lies full across the Gulf of 'ronquin, and until Protestant missicrnaries and trade workt their way in, within the last twenty years. The open port of the island, Hoihow, is now connected with Hongkong and 'ronquin by a line of French steamers.
Hainan is the southernmost territory of China, and guards the entrance to the southern rivers. The empire understands the importance of the island, and in recent years had erected lighthouses and forts of modern construction, fitted with Krupp guns, instead of the harmless old structures, which, with exposed cannon and tumbling parapets, add greatly to the picturesqueness of Hoihow harbor.
The island is one of the largest prefectures of the Kwang-tung Province, about one hundred and fifty miles in length and one hundred miles in breadth. There are no roads, however, and the paths and trails over the mountains, in the heart of the island, are circui- tous, so that from Hoihow to Lak-loh is a twenty days' journey. The island is rich in many products, full of palm trees, and productive yearly of many thousands of pigs for the markets of Hongkong and Canton. There is no greater delicacy to the Chinese than pork. The pigs are encased in bamboo crates, each just holding one pig, and are handled like bags of grain and piled on top of each other, four and five deep, on the ships. The Chinese have solved the problem of handiing pigs tractably.
There are three or four strata of population in Hainan. The total population of the island does not exceed 1,500,000. Of these one- third are said to be Lois, who are different from the Chinese and the aboriginal tribes in the central mountains. Hainanese is the Chinese dialect spoken by the Chinese people. The Lois speak their own dia- lect. Dr. Henry supposes them to be the descendants of the Mias-tsz, who were brought long ago from the mountains of Kwang-tung and K wang-si to serve as mediators between the Chinese and the wild Le tribes or the interior. How many of these latter there are is not known, and their origin is hidden. Laos missionaries have maintained that there are sufficient resemblances of character and speech to justify the belief that there is some family relationship between these people and the Laos tribes which border on the south of Kwang-si.
There is great suspicion and dislike toward the Chinese on the part of the Les, who cling to their mountain homes, and are a rude and primi- tive people. Near Nodoa there is a large Hakka population, aggre- gating about 20,000, who speak their IIakka dialect. The Hakkas on the mainland are immigrants from northern provinces, who have never assimilated with the Cantonese, and who constitute about one- third of the population of the province. .
Protestant mission work was begun in Hainan by Mr. C. C. Jere- miassen, a Dane, who had been in the Chinese customs service, and who had withdrawn from it to give himself wholly to Christian work in the island in ISS!. He became a missionary of the Presbyterian Board in 1885, and two years later three other missionaries with their wives joined him-the Rev. F. P. Gilman, Dr. H. M. McCandless, and the Rev. J. C. Melrose, who died last summer. '1'he work at first was confined to Kiung-chow, the capital of the island, a few miles from Hoihow, and to itinerating. Mr. Jeremiassen, in 1882, made the circuit of the island on foot. Since then the field has been more fully opened up. Hoihow has been occupied and Nodoa, while Mr. Jeremiassen has resided and workt at Lak-loh, in the extr~me south of the island. At Hoihow and Nodoa hospitals have been built, a ward for infectious cases at Hoihow having been provided by the small foreign com- munity and Chinese friends, without the knowledge of the mission- aries and with expressions of warm sympathy and commendation. The first converts were baptized in 1885. '['he only church yet gathered is at Nodoa with thirty-five members. The mission numbers now fourteen, and looks forward to a thorough itineration over the whole island.
The Jesuit mission in Hainan is said to have been establisht in 1630. The work was wiped out, however, after a few generations, and was only revived in 1849. At present one Portuguese priest consti- tutes the mission. He is secretive and separate, but his predecessor met the other missionaries on kindly terms, and would even join with them in singing hymns. The road between Hoihow and Kiung-chow is one vast graveyard, containing more dead than the living popula- tion of the island. In this graveyard are the graves of two Portu- guese, who died in 1681, and of one German, who died in 1686, who probably we l' e amml.SoS.nlOg nthane.eesa. rlier Hoihow is the commercial cen- ter of the pre- f e c t u l' e . The trade flows to it and through it, but Kiung-chow is the political capital, and so the city where the Confucian .AT THE TEMPLE GATE, HOIHOW, HAINAN.
examinations are held. The corrupting influences of progress and western learning have not toucht the scholars of Hainan as yet, and they flock to the tests as in olden days. In the district examinations 3,000 students gather.
In the second year about 15,000 came from ten districts. Each third year from all of the thirteen districts, 25,000 gather. They fill the dead old city, thronging the temples and ancestral halls, and crowd into the mission chapels and dispensaries to hear the strange doctrines of the barbarians. It is not any desire for light or learning that brings them to the missionaries' preaching. The ways of old are too dear.
What we call conservatism in America is rcd radicalism compared with the adamantine, blindfolded, invincible satisfaction with the past which reigns in Hainan. Even an educated, English-speaking Chinese in the customs service at Hainan said to me: " We would like to be undisturbed, but OUr country is being cut up now just like meat.
A STRATEGIC POINT IN CHINA
The Hussians are taking the North, and the French are as bad here, making great trouble out of each little pretext. We do not want to fight. We do not want to change. IVe would like to live as our fathers did." This spirit of conservatism has led the officials to throw many obstacles in the way of the peaceful prosecution of missionary work, but these have been more or less overcome.
The people of Hainan are an unresponsive people, and the confusion of dialects and population increases this reserve and suspiciousness. They fear and distrust the French also, and different classes of the popUlation hold aloof from one another. It is not a favorable atmosphere for mission work. The Portuguese priest is greatly discouraged. '1'he Protestant missionaries, however, remember days when Hainan was awake and producing useful men, and they work patiently on in the hope that the Gospel will develop even better men than that lIai-Sui, whose memorial gateway declares that he was, "In prosperous times an upright minister," and "The purest influence of Canton." In the friendlincss of the people which they have won, their readiness to listen, the popularity of the medical work, and the openness of the whole island they find encouragement and good hope.
A STRATEGIC POINT IN CHINA.
BY REV. ARTHUR E. CLAXTON, CHUNGKING, CHINA, Missionary of the London Missionary Society.
Szchuan is important among the provinces of China for its possibilities and promise, both as a commercial and a missionary center. '1'he official estimate of the population is no less than seventy millions, or more than that of any other province.* Szchuan (meaning" four streams") is watered by four very large tributary rivers, as well as by the great Yal1g-tze-kiang. '['hese tributaries–all too large for the confines of Great Britain-are themselves fed by a multiplicity of smaller rivers and streams, so that the waterways, highly ramified and very numerous, afford the best communication possible with the ubiquitous and dense population, both for the missionary and the trader.
Chungking, the metropolis and most important city of the province, had a British resident to watch for trade openings as early as 1880, and the :Foreign Customs Service has been represented here since 1890. Tho this city is some fifteen hundred miles from the coast, and the nearest steamer service is four hundred miles distant, there is now * The London Missionary Society's annual report gives the population of the province as 62,000,000. an American, a Japanese, and a French, in addition to a British consul and his assistant; and special trade commissions from :France, from Great Britain, and from Germany are reporting to their respective conationals the result of their investigations as experts into the prospects of trade extension in Szchuan.
But it is probably not generally known that Christian missions entered the province first; the work has been steadily growing, and has now reacht such results in converts, organizations, and other evidences of well-founded solidity, that mandarins, as well as "the peopIe" are convinced that CHRISTIANITY HAS COME TO STAY.
Missions came first. This means not only the Roman Catholic propagandists, who have been in West China for two or more centuries, bu~ it means modern Protestant missions, the most fruitful and the most frequent pioneers of the advancing hosts of civilization. Chungking was first entered by the China Inland Mission in 1877. The American Methodist Episcopal Church followed in U)81, the London Missionary Society in 1888, and the Friends' Foreign Mission Association in 1890. There are also resident in Chungking agents of the National Bible Society of Scotland, and of the American Bible Society.
Chungking, while not the provincial capital of Szchuan, is the commercial center, and is likely to continue so. It is also the distributing center, and the propelling, throbbing heart which vitalizes the four great western provinces. Hence the reason for founding of missions at Chungking prior to founding them at Chentu, the provincial capital, which is 300 miles further inland. The China Inland Mission, the Canadian Methodist Mission, and the American Methodist Episcopal Church have establisht stations there, and, after being driven out temporarily by the riots of 1895, are now enjoying greater s.uccess than ever before.
Missionary work is not confined to the two chief cities of the province. In the north and northeast are many stations of the Church Missionary Society and the China Inland Mission. In the west, at important centers like Yachou, Kiating, Sueiiu, and Luchou, are missionaries of the American Baptist Missionary Union, of the China Inland, and of the Canadian Missions. The China Inland Mission is extending in the direction of the south. And this year (1897) the London Mission has begun a forward movement eastward from Chungking.
When missionaries first came to Chungking they had no choice but to rent native houses, and make the best of the risks which such abodes multiplied. Thill year the last of the dungeon-dark and damp native dwellings occupied by missionaries has been pulled down and replaced by the eleventh foreign-built house within the city walls. This in itself impresses our neighbors that Christianity has come to stay. We have also chapel and school and hospital buildings, which are by no means" monuments to still life " of missionary vitality, but are daily thronged by multitudes, who, if not appreciative in a high degree of new doctrine and the spiritual character of the work, now show a gi·eat readiness to receive the more tangible benefits which are also introduced with the Gospel. In Chungking itself, the converts, among whom are some capable voluntary workers, number about two hundred"besides inquirers-perhaps one-third of that number. Many others attend services, and are still weighing the pros and cons between their idols and New Testament teaching. Once a month the converts and adherents of the four Protestant missions in the city unite on a weekday for worship. It is then very delightful to see the numbers that come and the keen interest taken in the service, and most of all to hear the voices of our native brethren as they come forward one after another and offer a few words of exhortation or prayer.
As an instance of the reality of THE FAITH OF THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS it might be mentioned that, in order to begin our forward movement, the native members of the London Mission Church contributed from their poverty enough to rent a house for a year at a place thirty miles distant. Two of the most promising of the members accepted appointments as evangelists, and were solemnly set apart to begin systematic work there last February. They have already done well. Opposition and hostility have been quietly lived down. Preaching, book-selling, and conversation have been the chief methods nsed. But, in addition, medicines have been dispcnst occasionally, a day-school of seventeen pupils has been started and carried on, several cures of the opium habit have been effected, and an inquirer's class of candidates seeking baptism and church membership begun. This is only an example of the manner in which new stations may be multiplied, until the whole mass of this vast population is honeycombed with them. First there may be prejudice and hostility, which must be patiently overcome, but there will follow a sure, if slow, recognition that we have a "better way," and in course of time the" new station" will become a new center of propagation. The first requisite is a foreign missionary who will select and equip, and then inspire and direct native workers. 'rhere is need of native Church members who do not enter the Church simply to insure their souls for the next world, but who will be strenuous workers in this. But most of all, there must be such an outpouring of the Spirit as shall fill all the channels of Christian effort and enterprise.
HENRY M. STANLEY ON MISSIONS IN AFRICA
II.-MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT.
HENRY IV!. STANLEY ON MISSIONS IN AFRICA.
The following extracts from Mr. Stanley's valuable article in The Atlantic Monthly for October, give some idea of his opinion of mission- aries and their share in helping forward the progress of civilization in Africa. Mr. Stanley first visited the Dark Continent as a newspaper cor- respondent, and was so imprest with the awful condition, but latent pos- sibilities of the country, that he urged the sending of Christian mission- aries, and has frequently borne testimony to the noble work accomplisht by them there. He says in part: The first body to move toward Africa in answer to appeals was the Church Missionary Society, which sent five missionaries to Uganda. The honor of first mention must, therefore, be accorded the Uganda Mission, not only because it preceded the army of missionaries now at work, but for the splendid perseverance shown by its members, and the marvelous s.uccess which has crowned their efforts. The story of the Uganda Mis- sionary enterprise is an epic poem. I know of few secular enterprises, military or otherwise, deserving of greater praise. I am unable to view it with illusions, for I am familiar with the circumstances attending the long march to Uganda, the sordid pagans who harast it at every camp, the squalid details of African life, the sinister ambition of its rivals, the atmosphere of wickedness in which it labored; when I brush these thoughts aside, I picture to myself band after band of missionaries press- ing on to the goal, where they are to be wofully tried with their motto of "COURAGE AND ALWAYS FORWARD," each face imbued with the faith that, tho near to destruction, "the gates of hell shall not prevail" against them. For fifteen years after they had landed at Uganda we heard frequently of their distress; of tragedy after tragedy, of deaths by fever, of horrible persecution, the murder of their bishop, the massacre of their followers, the martyrdom of their converts, and finally of their expulsion. Still a glorious few persevered and wrestled against misfortune, and at last, after twenty years' work, their achievements have been so great, that the effect must endure.
The letter which invited this mission was written by me April 14, 1875, and was publisht the following 15th of November in the London Daily Telegraph. The editor, in commenting upon it, was almost prophetic when he said: "It may turn out that the letters which bring this strange and earnest appeal to Christendom, saved from oblivion by a chance so extraordinary, had this as their most important burden; and that Mr. Stanley may have done far more than he knew." My letter had been committed to Col. Linant de Bellefonds, who, with his entire companyof thirty-six Sudanese soldiers, was murdered by the Baris. Near the body of the colonel it was found by General Gordon, blood-stained and tattered. The care of the message from Uganda, as well as the wonderful results which followed its publication, was wholly due to another.
Eight days after the appearance of my appeal in The Telegraph the Church Missionary Society was stimulated by an offer of $25,000 to undertake the ent,erprise. A few days later the fund was increast to $75,000. In the following March the mission left England, and on the 30th day of June, 1877, while I was yet six weeks from the Atlantic
MISSIONARY DIGEST DEPARTMENT
Ocean, the missionaries entered Uganda. For five years they labored with poor results. In the seventh year twenty-one converts partook of the Lord's Supper, and seventy-five had been baptized. In the eighth year the baptized numbered 108. After eleven years' work the mission- aries were expelled from Uganda by the young Nero, the son of King Mtesa, who had received them. In 1800 th'ey reoccupied it, and by January, 1891, the Christians here numbered 2,000. By January, 1897, Uganda contained twenty-three English Protestant clergymen, 699 native teachers, 6,005 baptized Christians, 2,591 communicants, 57,380 readers, 372 churches, and a cathedral which can hold 3,000 worshipers.
These figures do not represent the whole of what has been achieved by the missionaries, for the church of Uganda imitates the example of the parent church in England, and dispatches native missionaries to all the countries around it. Nasa in Usukuma, south of Lake Victoria, has become a center of missionary effort. In Usoga, east of the Nile, native teachers impart instruction at nine stations. Unyoro, to the north of Uganda, has been invaded by native propagandists. Toro, to the west, has been so moved that it promises to become as zealous as Uganda, and Koki witnesses the power of native eloquence and devotion to the cause. What is most noticeable among all these people around the lake is their avidity for instruction. Every scrap of old paper, the white margin of newspapers, the backs of envelopes, and parcel wrappers are eagerly secured for writing purposes. Books and stationery find ready purchasers everywhere. The number of converts has become so formidable that it would task the powers of a hundred white missionaries to organize, develop, and supervise them properly.
British Central Africa has a native population of 845,000, and covers an area of 285,900 square miles. It has sprung mainly from the reverence which Scotchmen bear the memory of Livingstone. In the year 1856 the British Government confided to Livingstone the task of opening the region about the Nyassa Lake to trade, and at the same time the universities sent out a mission under Bishop Mackenzie to avail itself of Livingstone's experience in missionary work, in which he had spent sixteen years in South Africa. The region at that time was very wild, owing to slave raids and internecine wars. Through overzeal the missionaries were soon drawn into strife with the natives, and what with native fevers and other accidents due to their ignorance of African habits, few survived long. Accordingly, Livingstone was withdrawn, and the universities' mission was transferred to Zanzibar. In 1881 Bishop Steere undertook a journey to Lake Nyassa, and being more practical than his two predecessors, saw enough to justify him in reestablishing the universities' missions in Nyassa Land. The Livingstonian Free Chut'ch Mission planted itself at Blantyre as early as 1875. The Church of Scotland Mission followed in 1876; then 'came the Dutch Reform Church in 1889, the Zambesi Industrial IHission in 1892, and the Baptist Industrial lVIission the same year. Altogether there are now thirty-six white clergy and five white women teachers, who, with 129 native teachers, conduct fifty-five schools, in which 6,000 children are taught.
The following tabulary summary may enable the reader to realize more clearly the difference between the tropical Africa of 1872–77-in which Livingstone, Cameron, and myself were the only white visitors, and which had neither mission school, church. convert, nor any trade-and the Equatorial Africa of January, 1897, exhibiting the following results:
HENltY M. STANLEY ON MISSIONS lN AFRICA•
.S … …. bll. " ~ 000"'..1=~~;.;5<>…l Name of State or Territory. :~E ~s.d.S ,.=>'00 0'; ga;:r.·>S"E"~~~ § oo~ … 0 "", ~g.g ~~…, "''' 'ig~ ·5 Q ~;<:>''<" ~>-<oo –~ ~='"~ :g~5 — $ 250,000 Uganda Protectorate……………… 68 372 97,575 $ 142,000 British East Africa……………….. 90 68 86,000 British Central Africa ……………. 289 …. 6 600 . 1,094,000 100,000 1,87'3,860 Kongo Free State ………………… 1,500 165 55 5,000 611,480 618,109 1,09"2,500 Kongo Fran~aise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300 67 10,000 6,226,302 176,705 25 German East Africa ………………. 378 30 2,500 2,261,414 $4,197,174 German Kamerun ………………… 236 …. 15 2,500 2,907,500 5 900 2,419,220 — — — Total ……………………. 2,816 263 545 119,075 $15,661,916 It was only about twenty-five years ago that Monteiro said he could see no hope of the negro ever attaining to any considerable degree of civilization, and it was impossible for the white race to people his country sufficiently to enforce his civilization. Burton wrote, a few weeks before, that the negro united the incapacity of infancy with the unpliancy of age, the futility of childhood with the skepticism of the adult and the stubbornness of the old. The old Athenians employed similar language regarding all white barbarians beyond Attica, and the Roman exquisites, in the time of Claudius, as. contemptuously underrated our British ancestors. 'Ve know to·day how grossly mistaken they were.
When I think of the cathedral church of Blantyre, which, without any exaggeration, would be a credit to any provincial town of New England, and which has been built by native labor; or of the stone and brick mission buildings on the shores of Lake Tanganika; or of the extensive establishments in brick erected on the Upper Kongo by the Bangalas, who, so late as 188.1, were mere ferocious cannibals; or of the civilizedlooking town of Ujiji; or of Brazzaville's neat and picturesque aspect; or of the ship-building yards and foundries of Leopoldville, where natives have turned out forty-five steel steamers-when I contemplate such achievements, I submit that Burton and Monteiro must have been somewhat prejudiced in their views of Africa and her dark races.
Twenty-five years ago the outlook for Africa was dark indeed. Its climate was little understood, and inspired terror in the white pioneer. But to-day travelers go and return by fifties, and they have ceast to generalize in a bitter style. The white men retain kindly memories of the Africans among whom they have lived and labored, and their dearest wish is to return at the end of their furlough to the land once so dreaded. The postbags are weighted with the correspondence which they maintain with their dark friends. It is only the new and casual white who speaks of the African as a "nigger," and condemns the climate of the tropics. The whites have created valuable interests in the land; they understand the dialects of their workmen; and they know that the black who distinguishes himself in his village, by his self-taught art and industry, in fashioning his fetish god, his light canoe, his elegant assegai or sword, may be taught to turn a screw at the lathe, to rivet a boiler plate, to mold bricks, to build a stone-wall or an arch of bricks. No one now advocates, like Monceiro, the introduction of coolies, or Chinese or European "navvies," to show the native Africans how to work. There are 7,200 native navvies on the Kongo railway, and all the stone piers and long steel structures which bridge the ravines and rivers, and the gaps cleft in the rocky hills, have been made by them.
Twenty-five years ago the explorer might land on any part of east or
'MIssiONARY DiGEST DEPARTMENT
west Equatorial Africa, unquestioned by any official as to whither he was bound or what baggage he possest. To-day, at every port, there are commodious custom-houses, where he must declare the nature of his belongings, pay duties, and obtain permits for traveling. In 1872, the whole of Central Africa, from one ocean to the other, was a mere continental slave park, where the Arab slave raider and Portuguese half-caste roamed at will, and culled the choicest boys and girls, and youths of both sexes, to be driven in herds to the slave marts of Angola and Zanzibar. To-day the only Arabs in Africa, excepting some solitary traders, who observed the approach of civilization in time, are convicts, sentenced to hard labor for their cruel devastations.
Twenty-five years ago it took me eight months to reach Ujiji from the coast, whereas now it takes a caravan only three months. Up to four years ago it required five months to reach Uganda from the coast, but to-day loaded porters do the journey in less than ninety days, while bicyclists have performed the journey in twenty-one days. Fourteen years ago the voyage from Stanley Pool to Stanley Falls was made by me, in the first steamer that was floated in the Upper Kongo, in 379 hours. Now steamers accomplish the distance in 120 hours. In 1882-83 I was forty-six days going from Europe to Stanley Pool. The ordinary passenger in these times requires but twenty-five days; and two years hence the trip will take only twenty days.
Throughout the region now known as the Kongo State death raged in every form twenty-five years ago. Once a month, on an average, every village, of the hundred thousand estimated to be in the State, witnessed a fearful tragedy of one kind or another. In each case of alleged witchcraft, upon the death of a chief, a sudden fatality, the outbreak of a pest, the evil effects of debauch or gluttony, the birth of twins, a lightning stroke, a bad dream, the acquisition of property, a drought or flood, ill-luck or any mischance, native superstition demanded its victims according to savage custom. The mganda, or witch doctor, had but to proclaim his belief that expiation was necessary, and the victims were soon haled to the place of death. I should not be far wrong, if I placed these public murders at a million a year for the State, and two millions for the whole of Equatorial Africa. Added to these was the fearful waste of human life caused by intertribal war, the wholesale exterminations under such sanguinary chiefs as Mtesa, Kabba Rega, Mirambo, Nyungu, Msidi, the destructive raids of such famous slavers as Said bin Habib, Tagamoyo, Tippu-Tib, Abed bin Salim, Kilonga-Longa, and hundreds of others. In fact, every district was a battlefield, anto. every tribe was subject to decimation. I do not say that the awful slaughters resulting from native lawlessness and superstition have ceast altogether, but the 540 missions, churches, and schools, and as many little military forts that have been planted across the continent, with the aid of the steam flotillas of the Kongo and the swift cruisers which navigate the great lakes, have completely extirpated the native tyrants and the Arab freebooters; and wherever military power has establisht itself, or religion has lent a saving hand, the murderous witch-doctors can no longer practise the cruel rites of Paganism. But altho in parts of the far interior there yet remains many a habitation of cruelty awaiting the cleansing light of civilization, there is every reason for believing confidently that the time is not far distant when Africa, neglected for so long, shall as fully enjoy the blessings of freedom, peace, and prosperity as any of her sister continents.
JULIAN HAWTHORNE ON INDIA
JULIAN HAWTHORNE ON INDIA.-II.* Mr. Hawthorne's description of the famine scenes in India is so graphic and sympathetic, his insight into the situation so clear, and his tribute to the missionaries so hearty and well deserved, that we give further ex- tended extracts from his valuable and interesting reports. He continues: At Allahabad I was nearly in the center of the famine district. I sent to its address a letter of introduction to a local American missionary,t and in the morning he made his appearance. He was clean, wholesome, and hearty from the core outward. His glance was direct and clear, and his talk succinct and vigorous. Would there were more Americans like him at home; yet I was glad, for the credit of our country, to find him abroad.
"You can't see the famine at the works, or even at the poorhouse," said he; "the place to go to is the native village. I'll take you there, and show you the inside of all my work. You'll have to rough it a little, but you'll see things. We've put in all we've got; we're here for life; we're hard at work; but," he added with a cheery smile, "we're happy." We made an appointment, and he went away.
I spent the afternoon in a visit to the fort. It was not imposing, but is one of the oldest sites and most sacred places in India. I descended some steps into a pitch-dark crypt, the holy of holies of Brahmanism. Three sly and sinister-faced priests met me with servile gestures; they lighted a lamp, and backt before me along a narrow and low pas" sage underground, the smoke of the burning wick streaming in my face with a most villainous odor. The place had the appearance of a noisome, dungeon; but every foot of it was oppressively sacred. At every few paces the Brahmans paused to let me do reverence to some grimy fragment of a statuette, lurking in its little niche. After a while we seemed to have reacht the consummation of holiness. I peept into an aperture and saw the piece of a tree about four feet in length, consisting of a trunk divided into two branches; the diameter was, perhaps, nine inches. It was fitted in between the rock above and the rock below, so as to give the appearance of growing out of the latter and into the former. Behind it, in the depths of the recess, was a square hole, a foot in height, entering the thickness of the rock. What were these things? Why, this was the famous undying banyan tree; and the square hole led direct to the holy city of Benares, distant about one hundred and fifty miles. Under this tree Brahma performed his sacrifices, and through that tunnel, I suppose, the entire Hindu pantheon was wont to march and countermarch ten thousand years ago. In front of the tree was a little dish-pan for offerings, containing withered flowers and small bits of silver. Here, if anywhere on earth, the grand, historic religion of countless millions of intelligent human beings found its most glorious manifestation. Towards this stifling, stinking rat-hole the eyes of all India turned with adoration; at the feet of these sorry potsherds they bowed themselves down in their hundreds of millions, and knew the awful rapture of worship, and this section of a ten-year-old fig-tree, revealed by the flaring oil-wick of * Condenst from The Cosmopolitan.
t Rev. Rockwell Clancy, of Allahabad, is a true American and a true Christian; devoted heart and soul to his work, beloved by thousands of natives as well as by his own native con- verts, and able to account for any sums, placing every cent of it where it will do most good. Bury hini up to the neck in gold, and see how he will turn it into life and happiness. J. H.
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the jackal.t'riests, might stand for the hub of the Brahmanical universea wooden lie, annually renewed, fitly commemorating the immemorial desecration of the name of the one true God. I came out of the pit with relief and joy, and there was the sky as pure and young as man's perversions of its teachings are false and subterranean. But I lookt abroad over the illuminable plain and saw in its helpless barrenness, peopled with skeletons, the fruits of idolatry. Visiting India makes one value Christianity.
The following day my life with the missionary at Allahabad began. We first drove to the poorhouse, which was not very different from the one at Jubbulpore. But there was no division between the sexes-the men's huts adjoined those of the women, and even skeletons retain their vicious instincts. But to imagine the squalid and forlorn carnivals that went on after night had fallen in these hovels, made one shudder.
The cry of "not enough to eat" was singularly prevalent; and in MEN AT FAMINE RELIEF WORKS DRAWN UP TO RECEIVE THEIR PAY.
By courtesy of The C08mopolitan.
proof thereof the men would gather up the handful of wrinkled skin over the place where their bellies used to be, and show us that there was nothing but skin there. Nevertheless there were other men, a noticeable minority, who lookt sleek and well-fed; and yet all alike, according to the imperturbable overseer, got their daily pound and a half of grain. When, the empty ones heard the overseer make this statement, they would turn away with a sullen, hopeless gesture. But I saw a look of deadly hatred gleam in the wolfish eyes of one of them; could he have caught the overseer alone, he would have done his best to make carrion of him. The sturdy missionary stood in a reverie for a moment, and then roused himself with a sigh. "Therp's not much I can do here," he remarkt. "If we interfere, the overseer complains to the government that we are trying to convert the people; and the government fears trouble from that. But wait till I show you my converts to-morrow, and
JULIAN HAWTHORNE ON INDIA
then say whether yon don't think Christianity is the best cnre for this kind of trouble that's been found yet."
"Travelers in India," remarkt my friend with a cheery smile, as we drove up to his house, "report us missionaries as living in luxury, waited on by troops of servants, demoralizing native simplicity by an impracticable morality, stuffing them with theological dogmas which they can't understand, forcing them to wear unsuitable and unaccustomed clothes; and that the upshot of our work is to make them hypocritically profess a faith they don't believe in in order to curry favor, and to ruin them with the vices of civilization, instead of saving them with its virtues. Well, now you have a chance to see how it is for yourself."
The household consisted of the missionary and his wife and a young lady who was assisting thepl; three or four immaculate Mohammedan servants, at wages of from one to two dollars a month; a horse and a buggy, a chapel, and, within the wall of the compound, some ranges of neat buildings for the accommodation of the native children who were supported and instructed by the mission. The family sat down thrice a day to a wholesome but Spartan meal. The husband workt with all his might from dawn to dark, and after dark in his study, helping distress, averting evil, cheering sorrow, enlightening ignorance, and praying with heart and soul to the God and Christ, who was more real to him than any earthly thing. His lovely, artless, human, holy wife, with faith like a little child, and innocent as a child, yet wise and steadfast in all that toucht her work, labored as untiringly and selflessly as her husband; and so did the other angel in the house. There were, perhaps, a hundred native children, either orphaned or deserted, who had begun to get flesh on their bones, and were busy and happy in learning to read and write their native language, and in singing hymns of praise to the new living God who loves children, meeting morning and evening in the chapel for that purpose, and to listen to stories about this God's loving dealings with His creatures, told by native Christian teachers and by the missionary himself. They also learned, for tl).e first time in their lives, what it was to live in clean, orderly rooms, and to be fed abundantly and regularly, and to be treated with steady, intelligent, and unselfish affection. These children would have died of the famine, had not the mission found and saved them. Many of them, in spite of their present good appearance, were liable to succumb at the first touch of any illness, for famine fatally saps children's constitutions; but they would be happy while they did live, and have an opportunity of discovering that there is a Divine Spirit outside of cobblestones and brass monkeys. But tho the surroundings and influences were of the loveliest Christian kind, there was no trace of that fanatic hunger for nominal converts-that blind eagerness to fasten the badge of the cross on the sleeve, whether or not it were in the heart – which has often been ascribed to missionary work. I confess that I had prepared myself to find something of the kind. But one must live with the missionaries in India in order to understand what they are doing and how they do it. From first to last during my sojourn in India I saw many native Christians. Those that I saw are a remarkable and impressive body of men and women. I was always saying to myself, "They are like the people of the Bible." Some wore European dress, others did not. Their aspect was simple, sincere, and modest.
In the torrid morning we went by rail to a village a few miles dis-
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tanto At the station we were met by a smiling, clean, likable native, about five and thirty years of age, who at once entered into an earnest talk with the missionary. He was the local Ohristian preacher, having occupied that position for several years. As he talkt, I scrutinized him soundly for symptoms of humbug, but detected none. A number of villages, in a district covering a hundred or more square miles, are under the missionary's care, and he makes the round of them as often as possible, say, every fortnight. In this village the famine was sore. The order was that every person found starving should be brought to the nanive missionary's house, fed and ministered to, and told to come at least twice a day. Money or grain was supplied to native missionaries by the superior (my friend), and they made their accounting to him for it when he visited them. It was easy to see that the white man and the brown were on terms of complete mutual confidence and respect.
Ten minutes' walk brought us to the native's house-it was rather a somewhat extended hut. The porch, a structure of bamboo poles, covered with palm leaves, gave it a little breadth of shadow in front; within the rooms were dark, but clean. Oleanliness is one of the distinguishing marks of the homes of native Ohristians in India. There were some half-naked figures squatting on the hard, smooth earth of the yard in front of the porch. The missionary carried on conversations, first with one, then with another, translating to me as he went along what was said. The women were modestly silent, unless when questioned directly. They were very gentle and happy-looking women; the expression in their faces was quite different from that of the pagan women. Their eyes met my eyes with a soft, trustful, guileless look. They were drest in flowing garments of dull, harmonious Eastern hues, draped round the body and drawn over the head. A little apart squatted an old woman, one of the skeletons. She had been dismist from the hospital. But for the mission support she must have died. As long as she lived she could come here twice a day and be fed and gently treated. She did not know what Ohristianity was, but she knew that its effects upon her were good.
Before we left, the missionary, looking gravely and kindly upon his audience, said a few words to them, telling them who Ohrist was and what he had done, and then he prayed. It was very primitive and simple -the elements of what good a Ohristian may do to others. The native Ohristians joined devoutly and affectionately-I can not find a better word -in the prayers. Then we returned to the railway station and took the train again.
The only salvation of India, even from the economic point of view, in the opinion of those who have longest and most deeply studied it, is its Ohristianization. Hindu idolatry and Islam are the blights that are destroying the country. The paralysis of caste on the one side, and the fetters of bigotry on the other, delay civilization and obscure enlightenment. England has not fulfilled her duty to the souls of her Indian dependents; and, therefore, her administration has measurably failed to rehabilitate their minds and bodies. Let England inspire India with a veritable Ohristian faith, and nine-tenths of the present difficulties would spontaneously cease. But in order to inspire such faith, one must possess it; and England, conscientious, energetic, just, and proud of her religious history, is not a Ohristian nation, and, therefore, forfeits the measureless power for good which might otherwise be hers,
THIS GENERATION OF THE CHINESE
THIS GENERATION OF THE CHINESE.
BY REV. J. HUDSON TAYLOR.
Twenty years ago the missionaries of China, assembled in general conference in Shanghai, appealed to the churches of Europe and America for more workers, in order that an effort might be made to give China the Gospel in this generation. They said, "We earnestly appeal to the whole Christian world for help to do this. It is possible: . the Church of God can do it, if she be only faithful to her great commission."
But alas, since this appeal was made, two hundred millions of Chinese have died without the Gospel!
Fourteen years ago Mr. George King wrote another appeal, based upon that of the conference, entitled, "Shall the Gospel Be Preacht to this Generation of the Chinese?" At that time Mr. King was living in the city of Si-gan-fu, a solitary witness for Christ amidst half a million of heathen; and not only so; he and his fellow-worker, Mr. Easton, who resided in Han-chung-fu, sixteen days distant, were the only witnesses for Christ among all the millions of Shen-si province. Thank God! there has been great advance since that day; now the two workers have become seventy-seven, and there are over twenty stations in the province, while about five hundred have been baptized, not a few of whom are now in the presence of the Lord.
It is impossible to estimate how many in Shen-si have heard the Gos- pel, for there has been great evangelistic activity; but this we know, that there still remain vast numbers who have never been reacht. In this province, were the missionaries equally distributed, there would only be about one worker to each county, and a missionary and his wife would find they had two counties to work. As every county has numberless towns and villages, the impossibility of reaching all without further and special reinforcement is apparent. What is true in Shen-si is a sample of the need in the other eighteen provinces.
As we wrote at the time of Mr. King's first appeal, "Whether all his plans will prove equally practicable, experience alone can decide; much will depend on the extent to which the help and cooperation of mission- aries already in the field can be secured. Unquestionably it would be better, where there is the needful zeal and fitness, for the whole time of a worker to be devoted to the work; and besides those whose own incomes would suffice for their support, thousands .of Christian men, without much self-denial, could have the joy of sustaining a laborer as their own representative in China."
The following extracts from Mr. King's appeal are interesting in this connection, and are as forcible to-day as when first penned: Shall the Gospel be preacht to this generation? That suggests the thought of other generations, for whom our preaching is too late. Oh, merciful Lord, our God, rebuke us not in Thine anger, neither chasten us in Thine hot displeasure, that we have suffered generation after generation to drift unwarned, unheeded, to destruction!
The Gospel preacht to this generation? Then there is not much time to lose if that is to be done. I can't reach them, neither can all our missionary brethren, even with the aid of our dear Chinese fellow-workers.
Seeing that to accomplish so great a work some 1,500 missionary
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preachers would be all too few, * we .mcounter at the very outset the objection that such' a thought is "Utopian," "impracticable," "unrea-, sonable," and all the other big words by which many a God-inspired thought has been crusht as soon as born. Surely, when God is taken into account, it is no impracticable, unreasonable matter we come to discuss, when we ask, "How may the Gospel be preacht to this genera- tion of the Chinese? "
Now the first step is a thorough and general stirring up of believers, so that the great duty of the Church to disciple all nations may be recognized as the burning question of the day. We may be sure God never intended that a mere sprinkling of earnest souls-a few here and a few there-should be the only ones possest by an intense longing for the salvation of the heathen. Many Christians who might do so, still lack willingness to give themselves first, and then their substance, to the Lord for this mighty work. There are probably not a few of God's children in England, etc., who have a private income. If so, why not live on it among the heathen? t Then in the case of those anxious to go forth, but possessing no pri- vate income, might not the plan be more generally tried of each church sending forth one or more of its members, and looking upon him as its own missionary, tho he might wisely work in connection with the mis- sionary organization preferred by the church sending him forth? A little less-and less ornate-furniture, dwellings not quite so spacious, dress not too scrupulously following the fashion, might wonderfully simplify the question of sending forth more missionaries.
Sometimes a desire has been exprest that (only) men of superior educational and other attainments should be sent to this great mission-field. Ah me! What would be said if the infantry were not allowed to go to war because they were not life-guards? Nelson's renowned signal was, "England expects every man "-seamen and marines, as well as officers and captains-" to do his duty." Does not God expect every Christian to do his duty? And while Satan still usurps the rule Over such immense parts of our Redeemer's dominions, is there much doubt where our duty lies? Does it need a great amount of learning to tell aloor sinner that an Almighty Savior waits to save him? What is neede is, first heart, then head-" heart to heart." As a matter of fact, we find in China, as elsewhere, that it is "the poor" who hear the Gospel gladly; not many wise, not many noble, are called. God still chooses" the weak," "the base," "the despised," "yea, and things which are not;" and to reach and influence these it is not so much learning as the constraining love of Christ and the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, that are essential.
The" Appeal of the Shanghai Conference of 1877," says: "We want China emancipated from the thraldom of sin in this generation. It is possible. Our Lord has said, 'According to your faith be it unto you.' The Church of God can do it, if she be only faithful to her great commission. When will young men press into. the mission-field as they struggle for positions of worlr:ty honor and affluence? When will parents consecrate their sons and daughters to missionary work as they search for rare openings of worldly influence and honor? When will Christians give for missions as they give for luxuries and amusements? 'Vhen will they learn to deny themselves for the work of God as they deny themselves ior such earthly objects as are dear to their hearts? Or, rather, when will t.hey count it no self-denial, but the highest joy and privilege, to give with the utmost liberality for the spread of the Gospel among the heathen? "-Condensed from China's Millions.
* As there were then 1,500 counties still without resident missionaries: perhaps 1,000 might suffice now. t 1I1r. King suggested $250 as a sufficient amount for the support of a single missionary.
This is only true by rigid self-denial and in some parts of China.
1898.J VARIED VIEWS OF THE SULTAN
VARIED VIEWS OF THE SULTAN.
The November number of The Century contains an interesting and apparently candidly written article in defense of Abdul Hamid II., by the late Minister of the United States to the Sublime Porte, Hon. A. W. Terrell. In regard to this" interview," one of our editorial correspondents writes, in part, as follows: While we are perfectly willing that the Sultan and his government should have full credit for every fact that will tend to minimize the verdict of public opinion on the terrible events that have transpired in different parts of the Turkish empire within the last two years, yet we would not forget two things that should be considered in accepting the high official of a foreign government as our intermediary. First.-To all such as the representatives of foreign governments the best possible side is turned to view in all matters where such are brought into connection with the officials of the government to which one is accredited; and especially is this the case if the question is one where difference of opinion is likely to exist or result. Our diplomatic representatives seldom remain long enough in such a country as Turkey to learn the language. If they do not see, to a considerable extent, through an interpreter's eyes, they hear very largely through his ears.
Second.-A diplomatic officer does not generally remain long enough in one place to become thoroughly acquainted with the people. Ex-Minister Terrell tells us, on the strength of the Sultan's assertion, that the Koran forbids cruelty and does not permit that Christians be put to death on account of their religion. It is true that the Koran contains such precepts, but Ex-Minister Te!'rell may not know or has failed to mention another fact, namely, that in Mohammedan mosques, on Fridays, the day of public prayer, the congregation being assembled, there is a portion of the service called "El-Khutbet eth-Thanieh," or " Khutbet en-Naat." This" Khutbet" is a prayer in which the following expressions occur: "In the name of God, the compassionate, the merciful. 0 God, aid EI-Islam, and exalt the word of truth and the faith by the preservation of thy servant, and the son of thy servant, the Sultan of the two continents and khakan of the two seas, the sultan, son of the sultan, the Sultan Abdul Hamid. 0 God, assist him, and assist his armies, and all the forces of the Moslems: 0 Lord of the beings of the whole world! 0 God, destroy the infidels and polytheists, thine enemies, the enemies of religion. 0 God, make their children orphans, and defile their abodes, and cause their feet to slip, and give them and their families and their households and their women and their children and their possessions and their wealth and their lands as booty to the Moslems: 0 Lord of the beings of the whole world."
How edifying it would have been if he of the" voice low and musical" had given utterance to the above sentiments while assuring ex-Minister Terrell of the tolerant spirit of Mohammedans toward Christians! Surely "the kindly and sympathetic expression" of that face, "the habitual expression" of which" is one of extreme sadness," would have been" a puzzle" when considered in connection with the previous statements concerning religious toleration as taught by Mohammedanism. In this prayer, which is repeated in thousands of Mohammedan mosques every Friday, we find a much truer explanation of the events that have been transpiring in the Turkish empire, than can be found in the best possible exposition of the dogmas of the Koran respecting religious toleration.
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That prayer becomes practice whenever the prejudices of Mohammedans are stirred up against Christians, provided there is no power strong enough to intervene and prevent persecution and massacre. vV-hy should men hesitate to go forward when a way is opened before them for the answer of their prayers? Why should infidels not be destroyed, and their wives and property be given as booty to Moslems? Death in battle is victory, too-sure victory. So there is nothing to lose. The Mohammedan, a fatalist pure and simple, is all his life taught to believe that paradise is the sure and immediate reward of all who die in war against the infidel. " Through the smoke of battle" heaven is seen.
Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, the honored veteran missionary to Turkey and a high authority on this subject, further writes in The Independent con- cerning "Minister Terrell and the Sultan": In this article by our worthy ex-Minister, Abdul Hamid is made to defend himself before the American people. One argument is from the distinguisht kindness with which the Armenians have been treated by his ancestors. What his ancestors have done is rather to his condemnation. Before his day Armenians were in every branch of the public service-in the custom-houses, in every department of the revenue, in the' offices and industries of the army and navy, and in the foreign service. Thousands were thus employed. One of the first and sacred duties of this Sultan, as he conceived, was to weed out all the Armenians and substitute Moslems. He already had Pan-Islamism on the brain; it is there still. He is going to crush the Christian element or convert it to Islam; that is the key to his character and course. His message to his poor terrified Armenian subjects is: "You are all rebels! Now Islam or Gehenna is your choice! "
But the Koran was in his way; and certain treaties with England and with other countries. He felt his way, as to the treaties, with great adroitness; and set one power against the other, so as to disregard them all. Russia furnisht him with the justification against the Koran. She now sent into Turkey some Armenian revolutionists, with Russian passports, which would shield them from Turkish law and justice.
Some weak-headed Armenian youth were doubtless induced to form a society of revolution. These revol~tionists, "Hunchagists," were desperate men. If a rich Armenian would not give what they demanded, they assassinated him. The Sultan knew perfectly well that the wealthy Armenians gave at the point of the dagger. The revolutionists did just what he wanted. He could now destroy them all as rebels. The accusation of rebellion is so absurd that the Sultan must have laught at the simplicity of the world in being deceived by it I Who are the rebels? Two and a half million of loyal, unarmed people. The Sultan has an army of 250,000 trained soldiers. Yet he has been so frightened by the threats of these poor peasants, mechanics, and traders, that he has slaughtered 100,000, often with the most horrible torture! * But "there was no religious persecution." Oh no, that is impossible! No Moslem ever does any such thing. And yet, from the beginning of this outbreak, rescue, safety, shelter, pardon, office, have been offered to all who would abandon their faith and accept Islam. They have almost invariably chosen death. Is such a people worthy of no commiseration?
It is painful to Americans that, in all this tragedy of suffering brought upon an innocent and friendless people, our country's voice, through its minister, was never heard in their defense; but only in defense of the" Great Assassin," and in frantic efforts to keep him from assassinating Americans.
* THere have been 328 Christian churches, Gregorian and Protestant, changed to mosques; 568 destroyed; and 77 monasteries destroyed, the priests and monks being converted or killed; and 100,000 men, women, and children killed; 2,493 villages have been destroyed, and 500,000 driven from their homes and all their property confiscated. What the plunderers could not carry off they destroyed. More than 100,000 more perisht from starvation, cold and typhoid fever. IlL-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
China's Claim Upon the Church in family relations, such as are not America. found in any other land." Chinese character has been so molded by REV. HUNTER CORBETT, D.D.,CHINA. many centuries of study in ancient history, and an unchanging system Without controversy, the at- of religion, science, and govern- tempt to evangelize four hundred ment, that they are a people unique million of the Chinese by expelling among the nations of the earth. manifold superstitions and plant- As in Europe, there are many lan- ing in every heart the ennobling guages, or dialects, in central and and saving influences of the Chris- southern China. The Mandarin, tian religion, is an enterprise which however, is not only the spoken stands high among the glories of language of two-thirds of the em- the century. A moment's glance pire, but is also the language in at the gigantic work to be done, which the plays and novels are and the difficulties to be overcome, written. The Wen li, or the classic will show that heroic faith, un- language, is understood by every swerving courage, and enduring educated man in the empire. It is perseverance on the part of God's a wonderfully expressive and terse people are of vital importance. language, and so flowery as to give That men who do not see God's China the name of the "Flowery hand in history, and have no faith Kingdom." In every school and in the supernatural power of the college is found a tablet to the Gospel, should regard the mission- memory of Confucius, who is worary enterprise as an absurd under- shipt by teachers and pupils. In taking, and worthy of the most 1,700 temples, erected and supported scathing criticism, is no special by the government, probably 70,- wonder. That any who claim Jesus 000 victims of various kinds are Christ as their personal Savior yearly offered in sacrifice. When f110uld look with indifference upon these offerings, with rolls of silk t_le non-Christian world, and make and other valuables, are presented, no worthy effort to reach the un- the mandarins and literary gradusaved, is, indeed, the wonder of ates meet twice annually in the wonders. Confucian temple, prostrate them- selves, and offer the most profound After years spent in walking worship. through the streets of the great and crowded cities, and traveling Undoubtedly the Chinese know thousands upon thousands of miles more of truth than any other nonover vast plains teeming with in- Christian nation. This truth has numerable towns and villages, one been polisht in the finest minds of begins to understand something of many generations, and set in the what "China's millions" mean. most attractive forms. There are The greatness of population is, truly many gems, of which all are perhaps, the least difficult factor justly proud and never weary in in China's evangelization, however. quoting. In spite of the rays of light that flash through here and "In China is found a homogene- there, heathenism is hopeless nighi, ous mass of people bound com- powerless to change the heart and pactly together by bonds of superstition, idolatry, and by tribal and reform this life. To the honor of its existence in China, employed China, neither lust nor vice of any thousands of Chinese, and never kind has ever been deified. So one betrayed his trust or became a pure are the moral teachings of their defaulter. Loans amounting to sacred writings that they might be many millions were paid by the read in any Christian family. The Chinese without the loss of a dollar. Chinese officials are selected from a vast multitude of graduates by An American business man in competitive examinations. China testified that during twenty- five years he never knew a China- Men holding literary or military man to break his word in a busidegrees and undergraduates, who ness transaction. are numbered by hundreds of thousands, are found in every city, vil- The Chinese are preeminently a lage, and neighborhood. They pos- home-loving, law-abiding, indussess tremendous influence. Hitherto trious, and patient people, with this class has united with the offi- brains capable of mastering any cials in opposing or counteracting, task set before them. as far as possible, the preaching and influence of the missionary. For centuries the Chinese have The widespread riots and persecu- been educated in the firm belief tion of native converts are, as a that the golden age existed more rule, traceable to the open or secret than twenty centuries ago, in the efforts of these classes. They write time of Confucius and still more the placards and books defaming ancient sages. The nearer the peo- Christianity, and which have again ple could keep to the customs and and again led to riot and murder. civilization of that age, the more They correspond closely to the prosperous and happy all would proud Scribes and Pharisees who be. Moreover, firmly believing constantly met and opposed our that all people out of China were Savior when on earth. The Chi- barbarians, or, at best, semi-civilnese, like the Jews, are found in ized, with no lessons to teach China, almost every part of the earth. their pride and self-satisfied spirit They are able to speak all lan- ran riot. guages. They remain unchanging in their peculiar nationality and Under such circumstances, what customs. They are industrious, did they care for Western arts and energetic, persevering, and econom- Western civilization, or for the ical. They are able to compete so Christian religion, ignorant as they successfully with all others, that in were of its power to .bring life, many places legislation has been hope, and salvation to all who besecured to restrict or push them lieve? out. It will thus be understood why They are the leading merchants, China has been so fearfully handibankers, and artisans in many of capt, and for centuries remained the countries and islands of the almost stationary. To-day temples East, where they have gone as filled with idols of clay, wood, and colonists. In their own land they stone, and altars to innumerable are proving more than a match for objects of worship, are found not merchants and officials from West- only in cities and towns, but in tern lands. every valley and upon the highest hills and mountain peaks. The It is stated that Messrs. Russell sun,. moon, and stars are all objects & Co., a prominent American busi- of worship. There are gods of ness firm, during the fifty years of wind, rain, thunder, mountains, rivers; the god of war, of litera- ture, the queen of heaven, the god of cereals, of disease, etc., all These facts unite in testifying to worshipt. Long and weary pil- the desperate needs of the people, grimages are yearly made to famous and of the Christian obligation to mountains and sacred places. Mil- give the Gospel, which is still the lions of money are spent yearly in power of God unto salvation, to the support of religion. The Em- everyone who believes. The Gospel peror is still as much the chief is the God-given power to save priest of the nation as in the re- China's seething, surging tide of motest ages. Annually he has at woes, arouse the conscience to know least forty-three different sacrifices and forsake sin, and accept of the to offer. He must fast sixty-four salvation which only can give hope days in the year. The worship of and joy when suffering comes and ancestors is held to be the most passes in the hour of death. sacred of duties. The giving up of ancestral worship is often the chief So much for the past. What stumbling-stone in accepting of about the present and future? Christianity. The popular notion China is a land of great possibiliis that deceast ancestors know ties. China has nearly 3,000 miles nothing but want, which must be of coast-line, and numerous rivers relieved by the living descendants. and lakes abounding in fish. Mines This system sanctions, or at least of gold, silver, iron, coal, and mindoes not discourage, polygamy, so eral wealth of almost every kind common among the official class, abound, but as yet practically unboth civil and military, and also the toucht. rich. Polygamy, wherever practised, degrades women, and gives 8, China possesses almost every vadeath-blow to happy and peaceful riety of climate, from almost perhomes. Whatever degrades women petual summer and tropical vegealso degrades men. The cruel sys- tation in the south, to the coldest tem of foot-binding brings sorrow weather in the north, where not and suffering to every girl, and only plains and mountains, but the adds to life's heavy burdens. De- sea along the shores are held, at nying women the privileges of edu- times, in the icy grasp of winter. cation, and keeping their minds Every variety of fruit, flowers, and dwarft and undevelopt, intensifies grain can be cultivated in some part the burdens which ever press or other of the empire. heavily upon the millions who are living without the Bible, without The beneficial results of the late prayer, without hope, and without war with Japan are daily becoming God. Think of what sickness, want, more apparent. Instead of prejuand helpless old age mean in a land dicing the people against the miswhere there are no asylums for sionary, it has awakened a desire orphans, the blind, the feeble- as never before to receive instrucminded, the widow, the leper, and tion from him. During the war, the insane! Think of neither hos- the newspapers and magazines pubpitals nor dispensaries where those lisht by missionaries, were eagerly in n~ed can receive skilful treat- sought by all classes, as there they ment and care, of the hopelessness expected to find reliable informawhen death draws near; the wail of tionnot to be obtained from Chidespair, everywhere heard, when a nese sources. One Chinese firm life ends, for all believe courts, printed the editorials from a misprisons, tortures, and executions are sionary magazine in book form, to in the unseen world as well as here. supply the demand for such infor- mation. The scholarship and intel- lectual power of western men is now recognized. Many non-Christian parents are pleading to have known to native doctors. Physitheir children educated in the mis- cians are now frequently called to sion schools, tho they know that the treat men holding the highest offi- Bible is a daily text-book, and that cial positions. Lady physicians are those who make it a constant study sent to enter the homes of the will probably become Christians. wealthy and aristocratic, and treat- ed with the deepest respect and Non-Christians have said that kindness. Mission hospitals and none are so blind as not to see that dispensaries are crowded by snfferrr:ission schools teach reverence for ing people, who often show the parents, a love for honesty and vir- truest gratitude for help received. tue, and equip for any special call- In Chow-fu, last year, 19,000 paing, as native schools do not. In tients were treated. The Emperor of the minds of the people education China has conferred the "Imperial is beyond price, and Christianity Order of the Double Dragon" upon and education are aiming to be re- B. C. Atterbury, M.D., of the Presgarded as inseparable, so that when byterian mission. This honor was parents become Christians their in recognition of service in connecsons and daughters are trained and tion with the Red Cross Society educated in such a way as to give during the late war. Not a few of them special advantages. the hospitals, lately erected, have received liberal subscriptions from It is said when Mr. C. D. Tenney Christian converts, and from @ffistarted to secure the most promis- cials and merchants not yet Chrising students for the newly-estab- tians. lisht college at Tientsin, with the view of educating men for govern- Wherever the Gospel has been ment service, the late viceroy, Li persistently preacht, there are not Hung Chang, told him to secure all only communicants, but many sehe could from the Christian schools, cret believers, who have not yet the as there he would find the best ma- grace and courage to meet the perterial. secution which an open profession often brings. The evangelistic, educational, and medical work carried on by mis- The conviction is gaining in the sionaries are effecting changes, minds of many that Christianity is moral, social, and intellectual, truly a power which will help solve the wonderful. During the past year many perplexing problems the peothere has been a growing demand, ple are compelled to face. Many as never before, for all the books are asking what is the secret of the missionaries have written or trans- power, wealth, and influence of lated-such as histories, works on western nations. What can the science, political economy, natural reception of Christianity do for and moral philosophy, and all text- China? It is the remedy for official books for schools and colleges, as corruption and incompetency, rewell as religious books and the garded by many as the chief factor Bible. 100 copies of Review of the in the humiliating defeat China Times now go to Hunan, paid for sustained in the late war. by the literati. There has been an intense desire awakened to learn Beyond doubt China, like a great the English language, and wherever and sleeping giant, is slowly but it IS taught the schools and colleges surely awakening, and will, in no are overcrowded. Many are offering distant day, astonish the world by to pay well for such instruction. radical and manifold changes. The All concede that our physicians and gates, closed for centuries by secluurgeons are possest of sk ill un- sion, selfishness, pride, and ignorance, are now swinging wide open, face. Natives who have dared to and a highway is being prepared sell their property, or even assist for the coming of the Ring of the missionary in securing houses kings. for residences, schools, etc., have, The organization of a complete as a rule, been arrested, thrown postal system has been entrusted into prison, beaten, and shamefully to Sir Robert Hart, who, during the treated, and no redress. When the past one-third of a century, has minds of men have become distort- been at the head of the Chinese ed by prejudice and hatred, no na- customs, and brought the service tive Christian can hope for justice.
to an efficiency and purity unex- In 1843 there were twelve mis- celled in any land. Railroads are sionaries, and, so far as known, only being built, mines opened and oper- six converts to the Christian faith ated by foreign machinery, under in China.
foreign direction. Presses and dies To-day there are upwards of 70,- have already been shipt from 000 communicants in connection Bridgeton, N. Y., so that hereafter with the different Protestant mis- China will have a silver as well as sions in China, and perhaps 300,000 a copper coin. secret believers, who have not yet Nipety years ago Robert Morri- the courage and grace to make an son, a man of heroic faith and cour- open profession, and' endure the age, had the honor and the privi- persecution so often met. The num- lege of being the first Protestant ber of communicants has almost missionary to China. He struggled doubled the past five years. At the against hatred, opposition, and per- same rate of increase, another fifty secution, as few men have ever years will give China more than done, for twenty-seven years. Dur- 60,000,000 of Christians.
ing all that time he was only per- But God does not work by man's mitted to see, as the direct results arithmetic. If all God's people in of his labors; two converts won for America and in other Christian Christ. He died, however, strong lands were to consecrate them- in the faith that China would yet selves, their children, and their pos- become a Christian nation. sessions wholly and unreservedly It was not until the signing of to the Lord, and have their hearts the Treaty at Nanking in August, filled with love for Christ and for 1842, five ports for the residence of perishing souls, so that each would merchants from western lands were feel constrained to do the utmost to opened, and still two years later be- obey the last command our Savior fore the toleration of Christianity gave when on earth-a command was granted. Previous to that time which has never been repealed- a profession of Christianity was re- " Go into all the world and preach garded as a crime worthy of death. the Gospel to every creature," be- The Chinese, acting on the prin- fore another fifty years might not ciple that, as the treaty was forced only the whole of China, but all the upon them, they were under no ob- unsaved world be brought to know ligation to keep it, except so far as and love the Lord Jesus Christ? Is pressure was brought to bear from there anything too hard for the the foreign governments,have made Lord? Has not God long been wait- the work of planting the Church ing for His people to awaken and one of continual struggle and un- take hold upon God's strength, ceasing opposition, difficult to un- claim His promises, and take pos- derstand by any but those who session of the world for Christ? Has have been called to meet it face to not God said, "Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine ceedings are open to the public, inheritance. and the uttermost and the discussions are often of parts of the earth for thy posses- the ablest character. There are no sion" ? prepared papers, nor any formally provided-for public meetings, tho In conclusion, let us neither, on generally one or more such occur the one hand, underestimate the during the annual session of the task which God has given us to do, body. Even the annual report of or exaggerate the viGtories already the society is not issued in congiven, nor, on the other hand, des- junction with this meeting, so that pond on account of the slow pro- this body has nothing which angress we seem to be making. Let swers to the anniversaries of the us, in the spirit of humble obedi- Baptist Missionary Union, nor of ence and quiet confidence, attempt the annual meeting of the Ameriour whole duty to the unsaved, and can Board; but the information persevere in the assured conviction elicited in official statements and that in due season we shall reap if in discussion is widely dissemiwe faint not. Let us, day and night, nated through the secular and dekeep fresh in our memories the vital nominational press, according as truth, "Ye know the grace of our the enterprise of their editors leads Lord Jesus Christ, that, tho He them to secure and use it. Being a was rich, yet for your sakes, He be- strongly connectional body, the came poor, that ye through His General Missionary Society is but poverty might be rich." one of many of the denominational ligaments. Annual Meetings of the Boards. The Baptist Missionary Union The annual meetings of the sev- holds its anniversary in May. Dr. eral missionary societies in this Colby, President of the Union, in country are held at different peri- his address last May said that misods during the calendar year, sions showed our loyalty to Christ, and not, as in Great Britain, in our sympathy with his world-emthe single month of May. The bracing love, our confidence in proceedings of these vary, not all Christ's Gospel and the only power being merely anniversary occa- of God unto salvation, and are a sions. The Methodist Episcopal test of our trust in the Lord's liv- Missionary Society observes no ing providence. This Missionary anniversary, save those of a hun- Union claims 280,000 souls condred or more auxiliary societies or- verted to God as the result of its ganized in the annual conferences. efforts. The General Committee meets annually strictly for business pur- A significant paper was presented poses, receiving the reports of the on the attention paid to missions officers of the Board and making in Baptist institutions of learning. the appropriations in detail for the Rochester Theological Seminary work of the ensuing year, at home has one course of lectures on misand abroad. Its constituency, in- sionary history; Colgate one on cluding all the bishops, represen- missions and one on comparative tatives of the Board, and other religion; Newton has seven courses representatives from fifteen dis- on the subject, and seven collateral tricts into which the church in the courses, fourteen in all, and Chicaentire country is divided, makes go has twenty courses, and countit a very widely representative ing the treatment of missions in denominational body. Its pro- the New Testament department and in Church History. three or four courses are credited to each paganism of Rome vanisht before of the seminaries. This paper the supe"rior Christian faith, so suggests what further might be these religions must give place to attempted, included in which would the more spiritual and energizing be a department of the colleges of religion of Christ. To the sneer Applied and Aggressive Christian- about the lack of capacity of mis- ity, including sociology, so far as sionaries, he answers that within applicable to missionary work. This two years the events which have paper also suggests that the Mis- taken place in the Turkish Empire sionary Concert of Prayer, as it have set the missionary body in originated as a meeting for prayer that land above all charges of inca- in 1784, be restored to its original pacity or lack of character. Against purpose, from which it seems to the charge of imperfection of mis- have declined into a "concert of sionary methods, he challenges any instruction and not prayer." one to point to any spot on the habitable globe, where, by different The admirable discussions which methods, better results have been preface the reports of each mission accomplisht. As to the foreign are of unusual worth and suggest- missionary movement being a failiveness. The American Board is ure, the tremendous revolution the preeminent connexial center of which turned the civilization of the the body of strong Congregational Roman Empire from pagan to churches who contribute to its sup- Christian, was the result of Chrisport, and their Annual Meeting has tian missions, and they are relong stood out as a unique occasion; peating the process steadily and perhaps the most markt annual successfully among all the great meeting of any of the missionary non-Christian civilizations of the organizations of this country. An world to-day. annual survey of the work of the Board is presented by the foreign A "Special Business Paper" secretaries, and carefully prepared came from the Prudential Compapers are read on this occasion, mittee through the Hon. J. M. W. which mayor may not be of a Hall, which contains matter of general character. Two such pa- wide interest to all concerned in pers, presented at the last annual the issues involved in the missionmeeting of the American Board, ary work of the world. Two facts deserve wide reading throughout are declared to stand out promiall the churches. Dr. Judson nently; that the several missions Smith's paper on .. The Success of this Board· never before promist of Christian Missions" gives a such large and satisfactory results, survey of missionary questions in while the apathy and uncertain a candid and catholic discussion, support of too many of the with special reference to current churches of the denomination, so criticisms, such as the assertion seriously affects the revenue as to that as India, China, and Japan make it difficult to sustain the have thriven for centuries under work, even on the reduced approtheir own religions, they may still priations which were made in the thrive without Christianity. Dr. face of the large debt of two years Smith declares that Hinduism,Bud- ago. Out of 5,554 Congregational dhism, and Confucianism have been churches, 2,046 gave nothing to foron trial for centuries, and have been eign missions last year. This is found wanting; that their national attributed largely to a lack of misfruit has been superstition and sionary intelligence and a decastagnation, and that, as the classic dence of missionary spirit. This paper looks, without blinking, at Methodist Episcopal Church South, the serious problem of how far they shall continue to support the well- at its anniversary, also struggled establisht and long-continued missions, some of which missions have with its financial incumbrance, but been maintained for over seventyfive years. In twenty-seven years it has received pledges for the exnot a mission has been graduated. This paper recommends that more tinguishing of its debt, tho we betime be given at the annual.meeting for frank discussion of these lieve these subscriptions extend and other great problems, and that no program should be presented by over a term of five years. The the business committee that precludes this, or restricts freedom of Moravian Missionary Society at inquiry. The very methods which have prevailed at the annual meet- its anniversary had a considerable ing are courageously called in question, as not affording sufficient and debt, and a single member of the fair opportunity for the fuller discussion of the great crises which community offered to pay it all, changed conditions are constantly imposing on missionary boards. with the sole condition that the Yet this paper declares that the time has come for an advance in society should not retrench at any foreign missionary work. It calls a clear halt to the retreating forces point of its work. J. T. G. and narrows the issne to "abandonment or advance." The Indians of Brazil.
The deficit of the year was forty- BY HORACE M. LANE, M.D., five thousand dollars, twenty-one President of the Protestant College at thousand of which was pledged in a few moments in an unpremedi- S. Paulo, Brazil. tated, spontaneous subscription. The opinion was freely exprest The whole subject of South Amerthat the outlook for the Board is ican Indians, in all of its various most auspicious, and there was aspects, ought to be intensely ingeneral cheer in the markt har- teresting to Americans, but the mony of the constituency of the scientific study of the indigenous Board, and the renewed confidence people of America seems to have in the wisdom and efficiency of the gone out of fashion in the mad rush administration. for the North Pole and the hunt for the buried cities of the old We can not follow this review world, while Christian people, capfurther at this time in regard to tivated by the glamour of missions this Board, nor make suitable men- in central Africa, far India, and tion of the similar annUM assem- shut-up China, all most worthy obblies of the other denominations. jects, seem to have lost sight of the The Baptists at their anniversary nati1'e American Pagans at their were borne down with their finan- very door, who are easily accescial embarrassments, but they have sible, and some of whom are actually cancelled the debt of both their asking for light. Home and Foreign Missionary Societies and are greatly rejoiced. During the past year it was our The Missionary Society of the privilege to entertain J oaquin Sepe, a baptized Pagan, head chief of the Cherentes, a grave, dignified, and intelligent man, who reminded us strongly of Chief Joseph, of the Nez-Perces, whom it was our priVi- lege to know. This Chief Sepe brought a group of his people overland from the head waters of the Tocantins to Rio, a journey of many months, and presented them to the president, asking for a teacher and agricultural imple- ments, that his people might be- come civilized. He was on his way back, having failed in the object of his visit, when he made us a visit of several weeks in S. Paulo.
These Cherentes, numbering 4,000 adult men (in giving their numbers the Indians refer to adult males only), and living in fourteen vil- lages on the upper Tocantins and its tributaries, are one of the eight great families into which Von Martius divided the Indians of South America. Along the lower course of the Mortes, at its junction where it is expected the chief will with the Araguaya, is found the have men waiting to accompany powerful tribe of the Chavantes, an him on the long journey up the un- offshoot of the Cherentes, and said navigable part of the stream to Piabanha, the principal village of to be physically the finest race of the Cherentes and residence of men in America. To the south of Sepe. The way is open through them are the Cavapos, and on the the Cherentes for reaching the greaJ. tribes on the Araguaya, north the Canoeiros. All of these Mortes, and the vast region beyond. tribes belong to the Ges or Crans Letters addrest to care of Ameri- (the great people), and are dis- can Consul, Lisbon, Portugal, will tinguisht from the Tupys, or Gua- reach him for the next two months. ranys (the warrior people), and the The small society, under whose Crens or Guerengs (the ancient peo- auspices Mr. Witte is going to cenple) by their intelligence, habits of tral Brazil, seems to have adopted industry, and high character. the plan of not soliciting funds, but to depend upon spontaneous Many large tribes of two of these offerings. This may work weH in great families, the Ges and the the long run, when people know Crens, are still to be found in a more about the work, but it is sure quasi primitive condition, uncor- to work hardship to the early mis- sionaries who go out under it. I rupted by close contact with whites, understand that Mr. Witte's paswhile the Tupys or Guaranys (war- sage is paid to Para, but that he is almost without funds for an outfit rior tribe) received the shock of the and even for current expenses. Portuguese invaders and are scattered; by taking the names of small The China Mission Hand-Book.
chiefs, their identity even is lost. Persons who are familiar with the The same is true, in a lesser degree, records of the Missionary Confer- ence held at Shanghai, in 1877, and of the Crens, tho they may still be that at the same place in 1800, will found in large bodies in parts of need no description of the splendid Matto-Grosso, S. Paulo, and Pa- mission hand-book for China, which rana. has been issued under the auspices of all the societies doing missionary About fifty years ago a Capuchin work in that land, with a view to monk, Rafael Taggia, went among furnishing a similar volume" midthe Cherentes and catechized them way between their great Decennial from a state of wild savagery to Conferences." This handsome rethe condition of tame, without, pertoire includes a sketch of the however, Christianizing them. leading features in the spread of the great religions of the world, Several weeks of close intercourse also a sketch of the leading features in the history of Christian missions with this intelligent Pagan brother in the world, especially in China; showed that, while he had some also the strength and weakness of knowledge of Christian ceremonies the various non-Christian religions in China, other matters of general and the names of some of the interest to missionaries, and sketch saints, he was totally ignorant of reports of various missions, coverthe central truth of Christianity, ing such phases as mission work among the masses, among native and still retained his Pagan beliefs, Christians, among the children, tho holding in affectionate remem- among young men, among women, brance Frei Rafael. He gave many among the sick; mission work by Christian literature, present prointeresting facts concerning the blems and outlook, with statistical language, folk-lore, customs, tradi- tables, evangelistic, educational, medical, and literary; and a series tions, and beliefs of his people, of of maps, illustrating the distribuwhich careful note was taken by tion of mission forces, and a very an intelligent Brazilian scholar. comprehensive bibliography, Eng- lish and Chinese. The special These notes will be translated and publisht at some future time.
Mr. George R. Witte is now on his way to the Cherentes. He was touched by the story of Sepe's fruitless search for a teacher, left his studies in the medical school, and started for the Tocantins with- out any stated support, relying entirely upon the spontaneous contri- butions of Christian friends. He is now in Portugal studying the language. He will leave for Para in time to catch the first nntting steamer up the river to the rapids, papers, among which are one on years, been prosecuted by the Rev. Confucianism, by Dr. Faber; two Thomas Gabriel. There were then on Buddhism, .by Dr. Edkins and but one ordained minister, Rev. Timothy Richards; on Taoism, by Thomas Gabriel, who died a short Drs. Faber and.' Martin; on Mohammedanism, by Drs. Washburne and time after; two unordained preach- Noyes, will be recognized as pro- ers, and three school-teachers. The ductions by masters in these several annual income of the home society departments; while Dr. A. H. for that year amounted to $1,882, a Smith's paper on "The Need of China," and that on "The Foreign portion of which went to the sup- Languages Spoken in China and port of a family then working with the Classification of the Chinese the A. B. M. U. Telugu mission to Dialects," by P. G. Von Mollen- the south. The baptisms of believdorff, and one on "The Riots in ers for the first year numbered 57. China," by Rev. T. Richards, will be found of exceptional interest. Through the 22 years of the mis- It seems as tho persons who have to do with foreign missions in sion's history, 18 men, with their China, whether they be there or wives, and 11 single ladies have here, could scarcely get along with- been sent out from Canada. Of out this volume. It may be pro- these, three men and one married cured by addressing the American Presbyterian Mission Press at woman died, and one single lady Shanghai, or from the Presbyterian and four families have been forced F. M. Library, 156 Fifth Ave., New to retire, owing to ill health, in- York, price, $1.50. cluding the founder of the mission, who is now under the A.B. M. U. Dr. Pierson's " Seven Years in on one of their hill stations. Sierra Leone," the revised life of William A. B. Johnson, receives There are at present 11 families special mention in the Church Mis- and 11 single ladies on the staff. sionary Intelligencer. The editor says that Dr. Pierson's emphatic There are ten stations, of which utterance that, "after a score of three are in Vizagapatam, one in years of research into missionary the Kistna, and six in the Godaveri history and biography," he regards districts of the Madras presidency. the story of Johnson's labors as "the most remarkable story of There are now 11 ordained native seven years of missionary labor ministers, 58 unordained preachers, that he has ever read," seemed to 2 colporteurs, 28 Bible women, 50 him the language of hyperbole. male and 20 female ttJachers, ana 1 He was astonisht to find Dr. Pier- medical assistant, or a total native son repeating this on a later page, where some of the most eminent staff of 170, amongst whom are inmissionary victories were instanced cluded 2 very competent Eurasian as possible parallels. The editor Bible women. declares that" he read these words at first with a certain feeling of The churches number 27, one beincredulity" . . . " but on lay- ing English, and the entire meming Dr. Pierson's book down," he bership totals 2,949. Of these, 472 was " indisposed to challenge received believers' baptism last them." year. The native Christians con- Oanada Baptist Telugu Mission, India. tributed, alone, some Rs. 25,337 in 1896; 2,951 scholars are gathered in BY REV. H. F. LAFLAMME, 931 Sunday-schools. The day schools COCANADA. " number 60, with an average attend- ance of 838. There are 7 boarding- The Telugu Mission of the Bap- schools, with 192 boys and 125 girls, tist Foreign Mission Board, of Ontario and Quebec, Canada, was or a total of 317 pupils. The misestablisht by the Rev. John McLau- sion property is worth about $47,- rin, D.D., with the first station at Cocanada, in the year 1874. He took 000, or at Rs. 3 to a dollar, some over some 150 adult converts and Rs. 141,000. The converts are mostly the work which had, for several from the outcaste classes.
There are two medical mission- aries, one of them being the wife of a missionary. The work amongst the English and Eurasians in Cocanada includes a day and boarding-school for boys and girls, known as The Timpany Memorial School. Only girls are admitted as boarders. Boys up to 15 years of age may attend the day classes. The attendance last year reacht 64.
FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY
IV. -FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Ohina,* Tibet,t Formosa,::: Oonfucianism and Taoism, The Opium Traffic.
BY DELAVAN L. PIERSON.
The Orisis in China. eclipse of the sun OD the first day of the year betokens an impending calamity. . . • The partition of China is the According to the Board of Astronomy, on the topic of present interest in inter- first day of the twenty-fourth year of our national circles, but to what extent reign (January 22, 1898), there will be yet this is to be carried out is as yet un- another eclipse of the sun. We are filled certain. The murder of German with forebodings at this news and hasten to missionaries in Shan-tung, and the seek within ourselves for sins which may tardiness of China in punishing the have thus brought the wrath of High Heaven offenders and paying an indemnity, npon the land. was the immediate cause or pretext for Germany's seizure of Kiao- We further command that the ceremonies chau. Russia has since then oc- of congratulation usually held on New Year's cupied Port Arthur under pretext Day in the Tai Ho throne hall be curtailed, of seeking a place for wintering her and only ordinary obeisances be made, the fleet, and France has raised her flag place being changed to the Chien Tsing on the island of Hainan (see p. 1(9). throne hall instead of the Taio Ho throne England and Japan seem to be un- hall. The banquet usually given to the imdecided as to whether they will perial clansmen on New Year's Day must also participate in the general" grab" be stopt, and when the eclipse occurs let all or oppose the acquisition of Chinese members of the court wear somber garments, territory by other powers. and assemble in the inner palace before the altar set up to Heaven to pray for forbear- Meanwhile the Emperor of China ance and mercy to the country at large." is in terror because of the approaching eclipse of the sun (Jan. In case European protectorates 22, 1898), which he thinks portends or dependencies are establisht, evil to his Empire. He has issued missionaries in such districts will a decree which reads in part as be relieved of much trouble from follows: local misgovernment, but in any case the effect on the natives will "According to the Chun Chiu (springand probably, for a time, be antagonisautumn annals) it has been stated that an tic to the progress of Christianity. In the meantime markt progress This list of references is not intended to be is reported from many parts of the complete, but is simply to call attention to Flowery Kingdom, especially from some of the principal books and articles of Hunan, which for so long a time the year which have come under our notice. violently resisted all attempts to We note those which have appeared since establish Christian missions there. our last list was given on these subjects, i. e., The change is largely the result of Fe*bSreueariyn, 1897. the efforts of one of the converts, the MISSIONARY REVIEW, pp. 263 Mr. Pengo The opposition has now (April, '97); 349 (May, '97); 764 (October, '97); ceast, and the prefects of Heng- chow, of Heng-yong, and of Tsing- 15,49,52,78, (January); 89, 106, 109, 112, 123, chuan have all issued proclamations 127, (present issue). calling upon the people to respect NEW BOOKS: H China Mission Handbook " the rights and privileges of the mis- (see p. 135); "A History of China," S. sicnaries. More significant still, Wells Williams; "Twenty-six Years of Mis- however, is a long "Proclamation sion Work in China," Grace Stott; HChina Concerning Foreigners Traveling in and Formosa," Rev. James Johnston; HSis- the Siang Valley, Hunan." This document recounts the services of ter Martyrs of Kucheng," D. M. Berry; "Eye- the missionaries, the way repregate," Wm. Wilson; "The Young Manda- sentatives of China have been rerin," Rev. J. A. Davis. ceived in Western lands, and calls RECENT ARTICLES: ~'China, Present and upon all to observe the laws, and to Future," Fortnightly Review (March, '97); extend courtesy to the missionaries, "Chinese Censor," Black'/lJood'. (October,'1I7). and warns them that violence will t See also p. 102 (present issue). be followed by penalty of death. NEW BOOKS: B Pioneering in Tibet," Annie R. Taylor; "On the Threshold of Three Closed Lands," Graham. ~ NEW BOOKS: "China and Fonnosa," Rev.
James JohnstoD. Mr. Timothy Richard speaks, in ment of the rank of mayor and up- ward throughout the empire, and part, as follows in an address before among all the students (they aver- age about 5,000 students for each the "Secretaries' Association" in center) gathered annually at the 200 centers for examiation. The future London, Feb. 17, 1897:- rulers of China are chosen from among these. Prizes are offered to I.-THE CRISIS IN CHINA (due to the students for essays on subjects its defeat by J av.an) has brought dealt with in the books. The rewith it the possibIlity of the speedy sults of the Literary method prove conversiou of the yellow race to it to be rapid, widespread, and pro- Christianity. Since the Japanese found, and yet it has been sadly war, there has been a profound neglected. impression produced compelling reconsideration of their past attitude The Past and Future of Formosa. toward Christianity. The Island of Formosa, now part There are now four competitors of the Japanese Empire, lies about for the yellow race: (1) The modern Materialists and Agnostics, without one hundred miles from the West- God or religion. These are forming syndicates of scores of millions ern coast of China. Its area is about of pounds sterling to exploit China for their own benefit. (2) The 15,000 square miles, or one-half the Romanist, who (in China) are size of Scotland. The climate is Romanist first, French or German second, and Christian last. They mild, the natural resources rich, have a million followers, led by Jesuits, (3) The Russians, with a and the soil fertile. mixture of modern materialism and with devout but dark and loveless The first effort to Christianize medireval Christianity. (4) Re- the inhabitants was made in the formed Christianity, which recognizes the Divine wherever found, seventeenth century by the Dutch, and seeks to bring the pure life, light, and love of God to the who sent 37 ordained pastors to en- Chinese. Protestants have 200,000 gage in missionary work. These followers. were finally driven out, and Chris- H.-THE METHODS OF PROTES- tianity declined. The present Chris- TANT MISSION WORK are in the main four, and they are all indis- tian missions are carried on by the pensable. English Presbyterians (1865) in the (1) The Evangelistic method in- south of the island, and the Canavolves traveling far and wide to secure personal contact with as dian Presbyterians (Dr. Mackay) in many Chinese as possible. Nine- the north. The Japanese Christians tenths of the converts are brought in by the natives themselves. The have also formed the plan of sendmissionary's work, then, is chiefly inspiring, organizing, superintend- ing preachers to their new possesing, and training native evangel- sions. One has only to read Dr. ists. Mackay's remarkable and thrilling (2) The Educational method in- story of his work ("From Far Forvolves the opening of primary or day schools, secondary or boarding mosa ") to be convinced of the transschools, and advanced or theological institutions. forming power of Christianity among these peoples. Under the (3) The Medical method deals with men in an abnormal state. influence of the Japanese, the Chi- Christianity must commend itself to men in health also before pre- nese mandarins and literati have vailing generally. left the island or sunk into obscur- (4) The Literary method deals ity, thus removing disturbing antiwith all the classes that the other methods reach, and some that they foreign elements. The Japanese do not reach. The method of dis- authorities have forbidden the imtributing books to guide the mind portation of opium, and have, in of China is to scatter books among otlier ways, made improvements all the civil officers of the govern- which are calculated to better the material condition of the people, and to promote civilization, if not Christianity. Now is the critical time in the history of the island.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
V.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
The third convention of the Stu- ious press of that country, throughdents' Volunteer Movement will be held in Cleveland, 0., Feb. 23-27, cut which ran one thread of appeal 1898, where the first convention was held in 1891, the second being for believing and united prayer, in Detroit, Mich., in 1894. Each of these was, at the time, the most and this was but the expression of representative gathering of students which had ever met. At a profound conviction felt by hunpresent there is a branch of the movement in almost every nation, dreds of workers, not only throughthe intercollegiate Christian work being affiliated with the World's out the Indian Empire, but through Student Christian Federation. The Volunteer Movement of Great Ceylon, Burmah, and other neigh- Britain held a great convention at Liverpool in January, 1895, boring fields of missions. The apas a result of which the British churches have been wonderfully peal was definite; and, as we expect quickened to greater missionary zeal. The movement in this coun- a great awakening as the Divine try has progrest; the largest force of secretaries which has ever been response to such united supplicaemployed in the cultivation of the American field is at work, one of tion, we give the substance of the these being Robert P. Wilder, who was used of God so largely in the appeal a permanent record: first organization of the movement in America. Large plans are being "We appeal to all Christians, made for this coming convention, whether Europeans or Indians, which promises to be perhaps the whether workers or not, to set apart largest and most representative this day for the special and sacred missionary convention ever held. ministry of intercession, that the Holy Spirit may be manifested in Will not all the readers of this great power, both among Chris- REVIEW remember in daily prayer tians and non-Christians. If the this great convention? Pray espe- Christians in this land can be led to cially that a large and representa- see how much God can do and tive. number of earnest students wishes to do through them, the may be gathered together in a spirit whole of India will feel the throbof prayer and expectation; also bing of this more abundant life. that the speakers may be given clear and powerful messages from "The following objects of prayer God, and that all the plans and are suggested. Opportunity should conduct of the convention may be be given at the meetings for united under the guidance of the Holy prayer for any of these objects to be Spirit. emphasized and others presented: December 12th was observed as a 1. The Christian Church in India; National Day of Prayer for the Consistency, Faithfulness, awakening of India. A series of Fruitfulness. articles had appeared in the relig- 2. The Missionary Agencies at work; Wisdom, Unity, Power.
S. The Christian Workers; Faith, Prayerfulness, The Holy Spirit.
4. The Children of India and the Agencies at work for them.
5. The Young Men of India, espe- cially the Student Classes.
6. The Women of India.
7. The Mohammedans.
8. The Europeans in India, espe- . cially the 80,000 soldiers.
9. The Unreacht Multitudes.
10. THE AWAKENING OF INDIA. The spirit of prayer; the spirit of expectancy; the spirit of revival; the spirit of self- sacrifice; the spirit of victory; above all, and as a means to all, THE SPIRIT OF GOD.
" Considering the possihle results of a day of united, believing prayer throughout the whole Christian A new and important movement Church of the land, WILL YOU NOT has been recently inaugurated by SET APART THIS DAY, SUNDAY, DE- the Evangelical Alliance for the CEMBER 12, FOR WAITING UPON United States. One of the greatest GOD FOR THE AWAKENING OF IN- needs of the times is the education of public opinion and of the popu- DIA? lar conscience. The Alliance now proposes to the pastors of every (Signed,) community to district the same, to THE BISHOP OF LUCKNOW, Alla- enlist their young people as mes- sengers, and to assign one to each habad. district for the monthly distribu- (BISHOP) J. M. THOBURN, Bom- tion of leaflets. If one in ten of these young people should dis- bay. tribute a dozen leaflets a month, T. WALKER, Palamcottah. they could scatter 60,000,000 in a S. SATTHIANADHAN, Madras. year, at least one-half of which ROBERT HUME, Ahmednagar. would reach families who never at- K. S. MACDONALD, Calcutta. tend church, who take no religious K. C. BANURJI, Calcutta. paper, and who presumably see no JACOB CHAMBERLAIN, Madna- reform literature.
palle. The Alliance is now preparing ex- D. L. BRAYTON, Rangoon. cellent leaflets under the general J. FERGUSON, Colombo." heading of "Truths foy the Times." There will be a series for foreign The ordination of Mrs. Maud B. Americans on such topics as The Booth, wife of Commander Balling- Meaning and Value of Naturaliza- tion, The Rights of the Naturalized ton Booth, of the Volunteers of Citizen, The Duties of the Natural- America, at Carnegie Hall, New ized Citizen, The Value of a Vote, York City, in December last, was Fundamental Principles of Ameri- an event that may be more signifi- can Institutions, etc. These will cant than we now comprehend. It be translated into as many lan- seems to us to make a new depar- guages as may be necessary. There ture, especially as it was recog- will be another good citizenship nized, if not actively participated series for native Americans, and in, by clergymen of various denom- still others in the interests of Sab-' inations, for example, Rev. Dr. Mac- bath reform, temperance reform, Arthur, Baptist; Rev. Dr. Amory social purity, etc:* H. Bradford, Congregationalist; Dr. David Gregg, Presbyterian, These are prepared by such and Dr. Josiah Strong, of the Evan- men as Bishop Huntington, Pres. gelical Alliance. Mrs. Booth is, so Andrews, Dr. Washington Gladfar as we know, the first woman to den, and Dr. Josiah Strong. be thus recognized as "minister of the Church of God in general," with Others may be expected from authority to perform ministerial Prof. Woodrow Wilson, Richard functions, including the adminis- Watson Gilder, Dr. Albert Shaw, tration of the sacraments and the Prof. E. J. James, Charles Dudley marriage ceremony. Chauncey De- Warner, and Dr. Charles H. Park- pew presided at the meeting, and hurst. spoke of the work of the V olun.teers from a philanthropic standpoint. * For information and literature address Commander Booth made his report for the year, and Mrs. Booth told the General Secretary of the Evangelical of her work among convicts. .Alliance, United Charities Building, New York. It is a great sorrow to all who love unselfish work to know that this noble woman, as we write, lies .dangerously ill at the hospital. May God give her recovery. Rev. Hunter Corbett, after spend- ries written on 48 Sunday-school lessons, and over 200 letters to ing one-third of a century in mis- friends at home and abroad. Per- mitted to pass on for God over sionary work in China, says: $700, thmr gladdening many sad hearts and sending forth more When I arrived in the province laborers. Of this amount, $128 of Shantung in 1863 there were not used to help the famine sufferers; ten converts in the province. Now $205 to send forth six new workers, there are more than 10,000 com- and provide for two children for a municants in the province. Then year; and $396 to help forty misthe missionaries were not well re- sionaries either t,o do work that ceived; now they are. Of the com- might otherwise be undone, or for municants 4,500 are enrolled in the some personal need that might be Presbyterian church. There are otherwise unmet. thirty – six regularly organized churches. Two hundred preachers During his absence there have are preaching Christ. Thousands been received and remitted over of children are being instructed in $3,000 to missions. The money reour schools, which are popular ceived this year to date, to help among the natives, because they give the Gospel to every creature, see we teach what improves the is over $16,500; of which $2,300 has children in all respects. 'Vith all come from his own congregation, this prosperity the Board has been $3,100 from the Bible classes, and compelled to cut our estimates for the rest from friends in many the present year by $7,665. Last places. year they cut us $5,000, and it lookt as if the work would have to be cur- Jewish fanaticism has had a tailed, but our preachers and teachers kept much work open by con- strange outbreak of late. The rabtributing from their meager salaries, somegiving $25 out of a salary bis took offense at an inscription of $100. We are willirig to make the sacrifices we are called upon on a new hospital built in the subto make, but we are not willing to abandon our work. urbs of Jerusalem by the London And this is but one cry of remon- Society for the Spread of the Gos- strance and appeal, in this new pel Among the Jews, and issued, and posted on public b~ildings, a crisis of missions, when, with doors violent edict against the instituopen as never before, and men and tion, threatening with the ban any women offering in unprecedented Israelite who enters it as patient or numbers, the whole work of mis- attendant. The innocent inscripsions is in danger of disastrous con- tion, which has provoked such a traction at the very hour when ex- storm of hostility and indignation, pansion is most urgently demanded. was simply this: Rev. D. M. Stearns has returned "Hospital of the Society for Spread of from his tour in the mission fields, Christianity Among the Jews. "
and gives his numerous friends a The hospital was opened in the city some years ago, but has been brief epitome of his experiences so largely patronized by the Jews, that this larger structure has been abroad: found necessary. Since the open- ing of this crusade against the Ten days traveling by rail, cover- institution by the hierarchy, the ing 6,470 miles, and sixty days at Jewish patients and attendants sea, covering 17,830 miles; also have left it, so that its existence is about 300 miles by rail in Japan, imperilled, as well as that of the and over 1,000 miles by steamer on school connected with it. The opthe Yang-tse from Shanghai to position has also extended to other Hankow and return, and scores of Jewish schools of the city conmiles by jinrikisha, chair, kano, and trolled by Christians. The uprishouseboat. ing, instigated by the embitt€red rabbis, is a serious setback to the Two hundred and thirty services good work of the London Society, on land and sea: 177 in English and and is greatly to be regretted. The 53 in five different languages, proclamation issued by the rabbis through interpreters; commentahas been justly characterized as "a who departed on August 28. She remarkable illustration of Oriental was the wife and true yokefellow religious intensity and a singular of Rev. John Wilkinson, so well survival of mediawalism in the known as head of the Mildmay modern religious world'. " Mission Among the Jews, London, England. Rev. James Legge, D.D., LL.D., Professor of Chinese in the Uni- Mrs. Wilkinson was converted versity of Oxford, has recently at thirteen, and early exhibited fallen asleep in his home in Eng- that passion for souls which moved land at the ripe age of eighty-two her whole life, and made all labor years. Dr. Legge was born in for the unsaved so sweet. Before Scotland and received the degree hel" marriage she became deeply of Doctor of Laws from the Uni- interested in work among the Jews, versities of Aberdeen and of Edin- and was wont to gather funds in burgh. In 1839 he was appointed a their behalf. She was, therefore, missionary of the London Mission- prepared to join her husband con ary Society to China, and after- amore, in his work for Israel. For ward took charge of the Anglo- nearly twenty years of their wed- Chinese College at Malacca. For ded life he was at home but onethirty years he labored in Hong- third of the year, the other eight kong, until, in 1875, he accepted months being absorbed in pleading the newly-founded chair of the for the Jews all over the United Chinese language and literature at Kingdom. Oxford. Probably no living man was better informed concerning Two aspects of her character dethe languages and religions of China mand notice even in this brief than Prof. Legge, and he has writ- sketch. ten many valuable works upon these subjects. He was always in- First her personality was beautiterested in all that concerned tho ful. Her one text-book was the advancement of the kingdom of Word of God. She believed it God, both at home and abroad, and fully from cover to cover. She tho his active life ended some years studied it for herself and translated ago his influence continues to be it into holy living. She studied it felt. He was a man who compelled for others, and translated it into respect. holy serving. The Holy Spirit was in her the spirit of power and of love Rev. David A. Day, D.D., the and of a sound mind. No one who honored missionary of the Luther- knew her will forget her serene an Church, who has zealously spirit, her unselfish affection, her labored for the past twenty-five well-governed tongue, and her wise years at Muhlenberg, West Africa, judgment. It was her habit of mind died on his way home to America. to give thanks, and her attitude was The funeral services were held in one of confidence and dependence Baltimore on Dec. 21, 1897, and toward God. the body was buried at Selin's Grove, Pa. We hope to have an Second, her influence was farextended account of Dr. Day's life reaching and consecrated. She had and work in a subsequent issue. a mind by no means common" and it was improved by cultu:re. Her Another of the deaths which are trained voice and gifted pen were conspicuous in the necrology of 1897, is that of ANN WILKINSON, with all else put at her Master's disposal. She was invaluable as a correspondent" and even through years of suffering she gave untold help in ~-writing. that most delicate and difficult department of if He wants me to die, I'll die. It's personal and mission work. all right, mamma '-and he threw Nowhere did Mrs. Wilkinson her a kiss with his fingers. These shine more than in the dark days were the last words we heard." when she and her husband were called to walk by faith without de- Father O'Connor has been of un- pendence on man. The time came told service to those who, like him, when it became plain to John Wil- have been reared in Catholicism, kinson that he was to sever a con- and this sorrow may be God's fur- nection with a society, which had nace-fire purifying him, and perlasted a quarter of a century, and cast himself upon God for all sup- fecting him for further work of plies, both for himself and his mis- soul-saving. Let him be made the sion work. Any man who has ever faced a similar crisis, knows that it subject of most earnest and believis well nigh impossible to take that ing prayer, that this great sorrow step without the cordial sympathy and cooperation of the wife and may, in God's wonderful way, open mother of a family.. But her simple faith reinforced his own, and in a new door to service. many respects led the way rather than followed. When the story of One of the most notable men John Wilkinson's work is written, it must be permeated and penetrat- who past away in 1897 was George ed by the golden thread that has so M. Pullman, of Chicago. The long bound these lives together. town of Pullman, founded by him, All the friends of Rev. James A. O'Connor, of Christ's Mission, 142 is his sufficient monument. It was West 21st Street, New York, will be grieved to learn of the death of a daring undertaking to plant a his youngest son, Luther B., a very town on the dreary prairie outside noble and clever lad of eleven years, who was fatally injured by a heav- of Chicago, and a liberality that is ily-laden truck, Nov. 30th, 1897. He died about four hours afterward, but seldom equaled that was willing to in the triumph of faith that was sin- expend upon such a settlement gularly mature for a little fellow of about eight millions of dollars. his years. His father writes: "This unique city," says an ex- "Death is always a shock, but change, "has now twelve thousand our Luther's was so pathetic, in his inhabitants, churches, shaded aveheroic fortitude and clear confes- nues, a public library and hall, sion of faith and trust in Christ, attractive houses, and many other that every thought of him as he lay attractions. To its credit, be it dying, looking into our faces, moves added, that it is without a single the heart to its very depths. saloon, jail, or hospital, and has yet to meet its first tramp or pauper. " I had spoken to him of the Great Financially, the enterprise has Physician, and he said, 'I know been a remarkable success. Some my Savior, Jesus Christ, I believe of those who would cheaply critiin Him, I trust Him, I love Him cize such results should try to do with all my heart. I always did, better. Mr. Pullman himself, like papa.' many pluto – millionaires of the American self-grown type, was "To his mother he said, as she very unassuming and sympathetic knelt at the foot of his couch, 'Why in his personal manners. He would won't you let me die, mamma? If often eat his lunch from off a standing counter, and chat with Jesus wants me to live, I will live; anyone who happened to be next to him. Such familiarity in his case bred not contempt, but cordial regard."
"Oampbellism" in Oarolina.
Weare in receipt of several com- munications' private and printed, which take exception to state- ments made in our November (1897) issue in regard to the "Campbellites," as they are sometimes called, other denominations, especially those who, like the Disciples, have but who are properly known as the congregational form of govern- ment. No comparison was intend- Christians or Disciples of Christ. ed, however, and reference was only made to "the Bluff Mountain Dis- We can see that the statements trict." If the references were" slan- derous," we shall be most happy to as to "the benumbing influence make full apology; if they are true, we hope' this exposure will lead to of Campbellism," and that "the their correction.
Campbellites have discredited be- As to the offensive terms, "Camp- bellites" and "Campbellism," no lief in the Trinity, in regeneration, more offense was intended than if Wesleyan had been applied to Methin the Holy Spirit, and in personal odists or Calvinism to Presbyter- ianism. The titles are those unisalvation," are open to serious mis- versally used in Madison County.
understanding. They are decidedly The article on Malaysia, which appeared in our November (1897) not true of the Disciples as a whole, issue, unfortunately contained sev- eral typographical errors in the and have no foundation in their spelling of names: teachings as set forth by their ac- pp.836 for Macsassar read Macassar.- credited theologians, * among whom H ,~ '" Pulopenanz read Pulopenang. H 837 H Ermels read Ermelo. are such men as Dr. B. B. Tyler, of " doopsgeziinde read doopsgezinde. New York; Alexander McLean, of " 838 " takes read taking. " 839 " Gerrike read Gerike. Cincinnati, and F. D. Power, of " Savo read Bavu. Washington. " Talant read Talaut. The article had, however, especial " 840 H " Hellendoom read Hellendoorn. reference to Madison County, N. C., " Grapsland read Grafland. " Dajabo read Dajaks. and the information in regard to " 841 " Brooks read Brooke. " Marassar read Macassar. the points in question was gathered " " " Berginese read Buginese. " Sangiresa read Sangirese. from' personal conversation with Books Received. those who had labored long in that THE WARNER CLASSICS. Selections from the district. One who is a devout and Charles Dudley Warner Library. Four volumes, 16mo. $1.00. Harper's Weekly charitable Christian worker there Club, 91 Fifth Avenue, N. Y.
writes: SITES AND SCENES: a Description of Missions to Jews in Eastern Lands-Part I. By " I have heard one of the minis- Rev. W. T. Gidney, M.A. 12mo, 200 pp. ters of this denomination say in his The London Society for Promoting Chrispulpit: 'You read Christ's words tianity Among the Jews. and you get Christ's spirit, just as you read the" Tempest," or "Ham- CHRISTIAN MARTYRDOM IN RUSSIA. Edited by let," and get Shakespeare's spirit. Vladimir Tchertkoff. 12mo (paper). One Read "Paradise Lost," and you get shilling. The Brotherhood Publishing John Milton's spirit, read God's Co., London, England. Word, and you get God's spirit.' If there is any personality in that A LIFE FOR AFRICA (Dr. A. C. Good). By Miss kind of a spirit, I fail to understand E. M. Parsons. 12mo. $1.00. Fleming H. it. Revell Co., N. Y.
"With regard to regeneration, it PRIMER OF MODl<RN BRrrISH MISSIONS. By is commonly reported, and I believe Rev. R. Lovett, M.A. 12mo, 158 pp. 40c. it, that some of their preachers tell The same. their audiences that if they will hold up their hands and say: 'I be- THE ZENANA: or, Woman's Work in India. lieve Jesus Christ to be the Son of Volume IV. S. W. Partridge, London. God,' and receive baptism, they are saved. • • . . A CENTURY OF M,SSIONARY MARTYRS. Rev. F. S. Harris. JOB. Nisbet & Co., London. " Again, I have heard one well read in their doctrines, say: 'There is no such thing as heartfelt religion.' If these things are not 'benumbing,' I do not know what coldness is."
Doubtless similar errors could be pointed out in certain adherents of * See article in "Scbaff-Hertzog,Encyclo.
predia."
1898.J EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
VI.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY REV. D. L. LEONARD, D.D.
Extraots and Translations From Foreign the world. Born at Constantinople P eriodioals. in February, 1792, he now numbers 106 years. He has been in some By REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, clerical position for 95 years, and MASS. has now attained to the supreme rank of Patriarch. The Alexan- MISCELLANEOUS. drian Patriarch ranks second in the Greek Church, altho he has but a -We learn from Der Christliche handful of adherents, most of the Apologete, the M. E. journal of Cin- small number of Christians still left cinnati, that the municipal council in Egypt being Coptic Monophysof Paris has forbidden the Scrip- ites. The venerable man is even tures to be read to the Protestant yet fresh and sound in body and patients in the public hospitals, and mind. has directed all copies of the Scriptures to be removed from the Prot- -It is deeply to be regretted that estant libraries attacht to the hos- Protestant controversy against pitals. As we know,. the council Catholicism should be so ignorant had previously expelled from the and so absolutely unscrupulous, as hospitals all priests and sisters of it very commonly is. This lamencharity. It is evidently resolved table fact has been remarkt by Dr. that the patients, Reformed or Ro- Schaff, Dean Stanley, Adolf Harman Catholic, shall have no com- nack, and many others. Dr. Schaff fort or advantage of their own declares, and with good reason, religion, during their time of weak- that in this respect it has little to ness, if it can prevent. It has not boast of over Catholic controversy. yet, that we know, forbidden re- Adolf Harnack, himself an extreme ligious conversation with visiting Protestant, raises the question friends, but that will doubtless whether Protestants really believe come next. the Ninth Commandment to be binding on them when dealing with Yet, says the Apologete, when M. Roman Catholicism. The forged Berthelot, the present Minister of and interpolated and mutilated Foreign Affairs, who had been fore- documents whic4 are circulated most in expelling the Sisters of through the Protestant world, are Charity, had a daughter sick, he innumerable. Thus a certain book placed her in a private hospital con- is sold everywhere, accusing the trolled by the Sisters of Charity. saintly Innocent XI., the friend of He could entrust his daughter to Port Royal and enemy of the J esuthe kindness and Qare of Christian its, of sanctioning perjury, the fact women, but he could not entrust being that this Pope recites a cerher to the heartlessnes.s of atheistic tain detestable proposition in order physicians and nurses. to forbid the faithful ever to main- tain it. So we have lately seen a In Italy they are improving on hideous form of cursing heretics, France. Voices are already heard declared to be found in the Roman there calling for the entire abolition Pontifical, as something imposed of the hospitals, that the weak may on priests to recite. Now the Ponperish the sooner. tifical, first, contains no formulas for common priests to recite; it is -Papa Sophsonios, says the Apologete, the Greek Patriarch of Alexandria, is the oldest prelate of
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
intended only for bishops, and, in CHINA. part, for mitred abbots. Next, having carefully examined every -The Rev. Arnold Foster, of Hanpage of the three great volumes, we kow, writing in the Chronicle of a are able to testify that no' such for- Japanese convert who spent some mula is there from first to last. time in America, and whose faith The form of the greater excom- was for a while severely tried by the m~nication, of which it is a hide- gross defects and inconsistencies of ous amplification and distortion, our current Christianity, remarks: briefly declares, using essentially " In due time our convert returned the words of the Savior and of St. to his native land, and toward the Paul, that M. M., having continued end of his book he sums up the refractory to all admonition, is de- general impression made upon him clared excommunicated, and an by his three years' sojourn in anathema is pronounced that he be America. The longer he stayed excluded from the threshold of Holy there, the more he perceived the Church in heaven and on earth, bright side of Christian life and and, if he continue impenitent, be civilization in America. Not that doomed to suffer with the damned he came to think he had exagin hell. The bishop, therefore, gives gerated the evil side of it; but two him over to Satan for the destruc- considerations imprest him during tion of the flesh, that the spirit may the later days of his life in Christenbe saved in the day of the Lord dom, to which he felt he had not Jesus. given due weight at the beginning. The first was the difference between This is the sum total. Not a word the Western and the Oriental naof the horrid details ascribed to the tures, the second the difference be- Pontifical. Not a word of impre- tween the good men of Christencation on the offender's posterity. dom and the good men of heathen- Not a word of his burial with dogs dom. Speaking of the first of these and asses. Not a wish that his two points, he says: 'Two elements, candle may be put out in the day belief and believers, determine the of judgment, but a wish and hope practical morality of any nation. exprest that he may be saved in the Fierce Saxons, piratical Scandinaday of judgment. Whoever has in- vians, pleasure-loving Frenchmen, vented this hideous fiction is a son trying to manage themselves in of Belial. Whoever has been mis- this world by the Divine Man .of led by it, is bound to a solemn re- Nazareth-that is what we witness traction. in Christendom. Lay no blame, then, upon Christianity for their Undoubtedly there have been bar- untowardness, but rather praise it barous priests that have belcht for its subduing power over tigers forth even such cursings as this. such as they. What if these people But Rome has never admitted them had no Christianity?' And then into her Pontifical, has never pre- he goes on to point out how utterly scribed or authorized them. Even feeble and useless Confucianism or the violent imprecations poured Buddhism would be to tame and subout upon Louis the Bavarian by an due the strong, vehement passions A vignon pope, are far removed and natures of "Vestern p;:·ople. from such foulness. Weak and impotent in controlling even the milder, gentler, less in- How can we ask a blessing on our tense natures of the Chinese and efforts to extend Protestantism, if Japanese, these religions would be we show it forth as a spirit of false- infinitely weaker in dealing with hood, malice, and all uncharitableness?
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
Saxons, Teutons, and other races of they who in their country's peril the West. 'It is only by the are the first to lay down their lives Church militant arrayed against in its service; who, when told of a the huge monstrosities of Mormon- new mission enterprise in a heathen ism, rum traffic, Louisiana lottery, land, will give their own railway and other enormities that Christen- fares to the missionary who is undom is kept from precipitating into dertaking it, and return home, immediate ruin and death.' tramping on their own feet, and praising God for their having done " Our convert's remarks upon the so; who, in their big, tearful hearts, good of Christendom and the good understand all the mysteries of of heathendom are very striking Divine mercy, and hence are merciand forcible, and his illustrations ful to all around them. No fierceof what he means are very apt and ness and blind zeal with those men, impressive. ' But if Christendom's but gentleness and cool calculation bad is so bad, how good is its good! ' in doing good. Indeed, I can say he exclaims. 'Seek through the with all truthfulness that I have length and breadth of heathendom seen good men only in Christenand see whether you can find one dom. Brave men, honest men, John Howard to ornament its his- righteous men are not wanting in tory of humanity. ",Ve have heard heathendom, but I doubt whether of our magnates (Japanese) hoard- good men are possible without the ing millions and spending them knowledge of Jesus Christ.''' upon temples, or feeding the poor, for their own future's sake; but a This belongs rather under Japan, George Peabody or a Stephen Gi- but we give it here because Mr. rard, who hoarded for the sake of Foster writes from China. giving, and took delight in giving, is not a phenomenon observable Dr. Hering, in the Zeitschrift among the heathen. And not these fur Missionskunde, draws a very select few only, but widely distrib- interesting parallel between the uted throughout Christendom, tho Chinese and Japanese. In it he necessarily hidden from view, are says: "How different are the two to be found what may be specially people in point of character. The named good men-souls who love Japanese mobile, of eminently sangoodness for its own sake, and are guine temperament; the Chinese bent toward doing good, as mankind slow to take up what is new, howin general is bent toward doing ever evident its advantages, but evil. How these souls, keeping clinging tenaciously to it when themselves from the view of the once taken up; the Japanese, gifted public, are striving to make this with astonishingly practical sense, world better by their efforts and taking up novelties with great adprayers; how they often shed dress, altho often only superficially, tears for the wretchedness of and, therefore, often with unfortuthe state of the people of whom nate results. Yet toward them they read only in the newspapers; from whom they receive these how they lay upon their hearts the novelties they remain full of miswelfare of all mankind; and how trust, bent on scrutinizing everywilling they are to take part in the thing for themselves, from a new work of ameliorating human misery invention to the Gospel. and ignorance-these thmgs I saw with my own eyes, and I can testify "The Chinese are inclined to to the genuine spirit that underlies philosophical speculation. This is them all. Those silent men are shown by the systems of a Confu- cius, a Lao-tsze, a Mencius, as well as by the immense Chinese litera-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
ture, concerning especially geogra- has declared that he knows no one phy and history, and hiding yet unappropriated treasures. The in the whole world that he would Japanese have remained unproductive in the sphere of philosophy, sooner trust than a Chinese merand, indeed, their literature generally will sustain no comparison chant or banker. In the with that of China. Only in the field of myth and legend has it last five-and-twenty years, he rebeen eminent. marks, the bank has had transac- "The Chinese can hardly be called warlike. Her vast territo- tions with Chinese in Shanghai ries China has acquired less by conquest than by colonization. The amounting to hundreds of millions, Japanese, on the contrary, are distingnisht by a great predilection but' we have never fallen in with for weapons and the trade of arms. They are born soldiers, pliable, a dishonest Chinese.' capable of self-devotion, wonted from of old to discipline, abso- " In view of the great extent of lutely intoxicated with warlike renown. the Chinese Empire, the difference "The Chinese inclines rather to of the tribes and dialects, and the the works of peace. In these he is industrious, saving, sober, and great independence of the several thoroughly trustworthy. The Chinese artisan, over and above his provinces, one in China can hardly skilfulness, has the virtue of absolute punctuality. You can not say speak of patriotism, but at most of that of the Japanese mechanic, tho he is just as skilful. As a ser- a consciousness of race, while the vant of the European the China·· man is matchless, working with no Japanese are inspired with a glownoise and with the regularity of a timepiece, faithful and honest, ing patriotism. Should a foreign altho the consciousness of his heaven-wide superiority to the for- power ever attempt to conquer eign barbarian never forsakes him. Inquire of the European merchants Japanese soil, and to take possesof East Asia as to their Chinese and Japanese business correspond- sion of it, it would meet with a reents, and you will find them unanimous in their praise of the sistance compared with which the Chinese merchant and clerk, and quite as unanimous in their com- obstinacy of the Poles, the stubborn plaints of the Japanese. The fact is, that in all the European bank- conflicts in the Caucasus, or the Ining-houses in China and Japan there are Chinese installed, and dian mutiny would be as nothing." that defalcations are as good as unknown. Mr. Chamberlain, for MADAGASCAR. years manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank at Shanghai, -Mr. Jonson, of the Norwegian mission, writing to M. Boegner, of the French Society, remarks: "It must be owned that it is by no means easy to govern the Mala- gasy; they are such liars, and so servily that they lie with the great- est possible address to gain the favor of their superiors; and when this bad habit of character enters into the service of the Jesuits, the result can only be a regular perse- cution, against which we have no help but in the help of our Lord."
-We see from the August Jour- nal des Missions that the French Catholic persecution in Madagascar is making rapid progress. The agents of the Jesuits have, for months, been threatening the Prot- estants that if they did not turn Catholic, they should be shot, but hitherto this has been little more than a threat. Now, however, we learn from the Journal the French
ENGLISH NOTES
are carrying out the threat in mur- populous neighborhood around derous earnest In various districts Christ Church, and has not only of Imerina and Betsileo, the two commended himself to his pastor, central provinces, a number of per- but to the large class of workers sons have been shot, most common- that meet there. The valedictory lyon mere discrimination, without service, which was largely attended, any form of law. Of course, they was characterized by great depth are accused of disloyalty, but every- of feeling and sympathetic interest. thing, communicated alike in the All seemed to know Mr. Geller, and Journal and the Chronicle, makes to hold him in honor as a brother it certain that their disloyalty con- beloved. Nor is this to be wonsists simply in adherence to Prot- dered at, for, tho still a comparaestantism in connection with the tively young man, his zeal for years London Missionary Society. has been conspicuous; and both as superintendent of the Lodging- The Devil, the Jesuits, and the house Mission, and as an open-air French Republic seem thoroughly preacher, his work has been atagreed to break up the chief Chris- tended with signal blessing. tian work in the great island, contemptuously reserving the lesser Outward Bound.-In addition to Protestant societies, especially the Mr. Geller, nine other recruits are Norwegian, to be devoured at lei- outward bound, four for China and sure. These men have been just as five for India. Of these Mr. Bitton, truly murdered by France for their who is appointed for Shanghai, is a Protestantism as the victims of St. distinguisht Hackney student, be- Bartholomew's. Catharine de Me- ing in the honors list of the Theodici was an atheist, flattering the logical Senate and "First Homes bloodthirstiness of Catholic fanat- Jubileeprizeman." Mr. EdwardF. ics, and her Republican successors Mills is a fully qualified doctor, the are just the same thing. son of a Madagascar missionary, was born in the Hova capital, That mischievous assumption and his destination is King-shan, that religion must make itself a Central China. Miss Alice W. servant of nationality, which has Esam has already served four years done so much evil in almost every in the China Inland Mission, and Christian country, seems to be now now, with restored health, is reraging in its fullest virulence in turning to a much-beloved land. France. Miss Mabel Neal is designated for Canton, and has been trained at English Notes. Dr. Guinness's Institute, in Poplar.
BY REV. JAMES DOUGLAS, M.A. The appointments to India are Mr. Nathaniel C. Daniell, a Cornish- London Missionary Society.-In man, whose labors as an evangeconnection with Christ Church, list have been greatly blest; Mr. Westminster, of which the Rev. F. Sydney Nicholson, a native of B. Meyer is pastor, a valedictory Yorkshire, and student of Hackney service was held on Thursday, No- College; Miss Annie Budd, of Hovember 3d, when Mr. Wilson H. merton Training College; Miss Geller, a student of Harley House, Maud Pepper, of Doric Lodge, Bow, Bow, and a member of Mr. Meyer's and Miss Annie R. Lloyd, who, church, was formally designated to after ten years' training at Nothis work in Hian-kan, China. Mr. tingham University College, be- Geller has proved a valued coadjutor of Mr. Meyer in his endeavor to came a certificated mistress, and is reach the outlying masses in the now enrolled among the teaching staff of the girls' school in Calcutta.
50 GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
[THESE statistics are designed to include only Missions among either non-Christian or nonreduced. Accuracy has been sought, but also completeness, and hence conservative estimates within the space afforded by two pages of this Magazine, a large number of the smaller and o:i 00 .!:i ~I .e 00 g " ".d~0," NAMES OF M,SSIONARY SOCIETIES IN 0 rg.~ .~ .- ",;" 'd.1e~ GREAT BRITAIN AND UPON THE CON- ..,.~ o:i .i_ll'0" ~ ~I z ~ TINENT, AND SUMMARIES FOR ASIA, ""d0 ._ @§§p: AFRICA, AUSTRALIA, ETC. o~ 'S" Q) 00 "'" p );'iii< ~.~ ,"00 -» 8~1 t~ .~_:1;o>:..~….- 0 S» OJ E'-0< " Q,) ""~"bl) O.;!? ",; );'i H" :.!:::: 0'" H — — ~ — — — Baptist (England) ………………… 1792 $420,890 118 34 118 5 275 40 825 London Society (L. M. S.) ………… 1795 762,215 160 28 152 70 410 398 2,417 Church Society (C. III. S.) 00 ……….. 1799 1,706,975 372 110 293 238' 1,013 361 5,680 Propagation Society (S. P. G.) …….. 1701 667,580 583 70 340 170 1,163 183 3,304 Universities' Mission ……………… 1859 121,620 30 23 1 30 84 10 117 Society of Friends……………….. 1867 59,675 0 28 20 19 67 0 429 Wesleyan Society……………….. 1816 653,779 60 90 120 40 310 150 3,922 Methodist New Connection ………… 1859 22,500 6 2 6 0 14 25 80 United Methodist Free Churches ….. 1837 49,865 25 7 10 1 43 4 10 Welsh Calvinistic ………………… 1841 53,982 15 1 13 6 35 5 314 Presbyterian Church of England ….. 1847 118,310 18 16 24 22 80 15 148 Presbyterian Church of Ireland…… 1840 114,010 22 8 17 16 63 8 261 China Inland Mission……………… 1865 192,000 60 173 270 190 693 14 462 Established Church of Scotland …… 1829 181,470 22 7 21 53 112 10 708 Free Church of Scotland ………….. 1843 425,280 65 51 67 73 256 23 1,343 Reformed Presbyterian…………… 1842 3,735 2010 30 9 United Presbyterian ……….•……. 1847 275,470 77 13 66 39 195 20 385 Other British Societies…….•…….. …. 718,000 35 306 178 4S1 947 35 3,069 Paris Society …………………….. 1822 125,384 37 4 34 0 75 7 310 Basle Society …………………. .– 1815 285,847 153 56 100 7 323 31 1,013 150,998 76 13 75 3 167 0 184 Berlin Society……………………. 1824 Gossner's Society ………………… 1836 45,000 18 14 20 3 55 19 440 Hermannsburg Society.•…..•……. 1854 61,594 56 0 53 0 109 0 402 Leipsic Society …………………… 1836 107,620 37 3 27 4 71 22 619 Moravian Church ………………… 1732 130,570 95 76 156 21 348 19 1,985 North German Society……………. 1836 33,000 17 3 10 8 38 1 50 Rhenish Society (Barmen) ………… 1829 144,480 105 4 86 13 208 23 21lB Eleven other German Societies……. …. 127,000 15 54 38 100 207 5 157 Fifteen Netherlands Societies…….. …. 158,156 57 33 80 2 172 12 601 Nineteen Scandinavian Societies….. …. 303,380 123 38 tj4 72 317 68 1,465 –"'I Societies in Asia,Africa,Australia,etc. …. 573,670 470 531 500 –.—-~ ',W< "'" ",""
Totals for Europe, Asia, etc…. " ….. …. $8,793,655 2-,9-291-,79-6 2,980 1,729 -9-,4-471-,876-43,7-29 — —– Totals for America ……………….. …. $5,255,006 1,372 592 1,521 1,269 4,754 1,767 16,194 Totals for Christendom …………… …. $14,048,661 4,301 2,388 4,501 2,998114,201 3,643 59,923
1898.J MISSIONARY STATISTICAL TABLES
Protestant peoples, and hence the figures of certain societies doing colonial work have been have been made concerning certain items omitted from some reports. Mainly in order to keep special organizations have bee:> grouped together.] -.S "Coo 2i …: 00 00 Countries in which "",a:l "PO'" ~"" Missions are Sustained. <!) ""~.9 '8"'O"J … ~~ 00 o…i 01) ………. '0 &.O..J~"; o "o"~, "S '" "~"g''j'' ~~ '0 .'Zoo .<:l ~~ "~~,~"0 S " >-< ~~·C 0 .<:l bE-< '" 0 ""'~.<:l OJ Q U1 ~0 '" – – – – – – – – – – – – — — — 1,100 1,084 53,284 3,365 200,000 650 38,458 India, China, Palestine, Africa,West 2,827 867 34,473 1,500 133,342 1,278 Indies. 6,693 62,785 4,221 233,110 2,171 4,467 1,483 38,000 3,200 208,000 50,390 China, India, Africa, Madagascar, 2,500 850 Polynesia. 201 1,722 163 6,705 67 30 92,804 Persia. China, Japan, India, Africa, North America. etc.
41,000 India, China, Japan, Malaysia, Africa, West Indies, etc.
3,084 Africa (Lake Nyassa and Zanzibar).
496 70 2,743 280 10,000 400 16,800 Palestine, India, China, Madagas- 4,232 2,652 44,573 2,221 130,000 car. 1,818 94 54 200 8,000 480 22,653 India, China, Africa (West and South), West Indies.
33 464 China (Shantung, Tien-tsin).
53 25 8,419 254 18,OCO 20 1,203 China, Africa, Australia.
349 292 2,948 358 13,245 241 6,542 N. E. India, France (Brittany).
22S 116 4,946 576 17,000 52 3,320 India, China, Formosa, Malaysia.
324 61 1,283 208 5,000 120 5,018 China, India (Kathiawar), Syria.
1,155 277 6,113 1,262 25,000 84 1,077 China (Fifteen Provinces).
800 105 2,077 206 10,000 225 18,811 India, East Africa, Palestine.
1,596 318 9,912 831 30,000 529 25,344 India, Africa (South and East), Ara- 12 bia, Palestine, New Hebrides. 3 248 Syria (Antioch. etc.). 2 43 3 150 580 294 21,028 1,079 50,000 304 18,100 India, China, Japan, Africa (West 4,016 750 12,158 2,200 35,000 and South), West Indies.
530 65,000 385 207 13,368 250 35,000 350 10,000 Africa, South and West, Tahiti.
1,336 520 17,174 1,870 33,740 406 15,049 South India, China, West Africa.
351 202 14,700 858 30,000 200 5,571 Africa, East and South, China.
495 150 13,020 970 28,000 120 3,140 India (Ganges, Chota, Nagpore).
511 147 23,939 1,760 35,250 89 5,579 India, South Africa, New Zealand.
690 205 7,349 355 16,070 216 6,323 South India, Burma, British and 2,333 171 33,301 1,300 94,812 German East Africa. 31 1,032 88 143 2,500 350 24,759 South Africa, Australia, South Am- erica, West Indies, Eskimo, etc.
34 873 West Africa, New Zealand.
506 246 27,464 781 64,317 230 10,982 Africa, East Indies, New Guinea, 50 1,533 China.
364 45 900 140 3,000 773 507 44,918 1,330 150,000 55 1,500 1,782 670 32,156 3,700 90,000 800 33,854 – – – 14,314 1.600 235,304 8,500 – -70-0,0-00- 1,200 155,538 — —- — — — 44,084 .2,_415,-24-1 12,137 685,017 – – 53,151 — — — — 20,946 15,681 -7-72,-950- 26,288 1,143,275 6,672 241,180 — -6,0-91 -3-56,-88-0 — — — – – 74,097 21,772 1,129,830 70,372 3,558,516 18,809 926,197
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
THE KINGDOM. method of reformation, involves not only ignorant presumption, -Our lives would be singularly but practical infidelity.-Dr. Colin incomplete if there were in them A. B1'owning, R.N. no chance for giving as worship. I am of the opinion, and very -General Brinckerhoff, president strongly, that we ought to hail of the National Prison Congress, every opportunity to give some- recently said: "I want to put it on thing for the advancement of relig- record, with all the emphasis I can ion, for charity, for the missionary command, that if we are to make effort of the Church, as a means of any large progress in the reformagrace, a. way of increasing our tion of prisoners, or in the pregenerosity and of reproving our vention of crime, or in the betternatural selfishness. Instead of ment of mankind, we must utilize suffering in ourselves any impa- more fully than we have heretofore tience with the collection box, we the religio'Js element which is inought to hail it with love and joy, herent in the universal heart of remembering the blessing of the man. You may call it a supersti- Lord bestowed upon her who crept tion, if you will, but yet the fact meekly to the treasury and dropt remains that man, altho he may be in her two mites.-Margaret E. a mere animal, 'whose little life is Sangster. rounded by a sleep' and ends with the grave, nevertheless is the only -Christianity can not be, must animal whose life is governed by not be, watered down to suit the what he believes, and who rises palate of Hindu, Parsee, Confucian- and falls in accordance with his ist, Buddhist, or Mohammedan; mental ideas." and whosoever wishes to pass from the false religion to the true can -Practical vivisection without never hope to do so by the rickety anresthetics-that is the apt phrase planks of compromise, or by the by which Dr. J. M. Buckley dehelp of faltering hands held out scribes the cutting down of approby half-hearted Christians. He priations to mission fields in order must leap the gulf in faith; the to avoid debt. living Christ will spread His everlasting arms beneath him, and land -Quoth Bishop McCabe: "How him safely on the eternal rock.- to get the Church to consecrate its Sir Monier Williams. money to God is the question of the hour. We could go swiftly onward -We hear much of various sys- with the work of evangelizing the tems of prison discipline, as the world, if we only had the money to separate, the silent, and the con- send the messengers of salvation. gregate systems, but unless the The total income of the Methodist Christian system be brought to Episcopal Church alone can not be bear, with Divine power, on the less than $600,000,000. One-tenth understanding and consciences of of that is $60,000,000. We give criminals, every other system, pro- $24,000,000 now. We rob God of fessedly contemplating their refor- $36,000,000, or $3,000,000 a month, mation, must prove an utter fail- or $100,000 a day." ure. We willingly concede to various modes of prison discipline -Church at Home and Abroad their just measure of importance, puts it this way: "If all the commubut to expect that human machin- nicants of the Presbyterian Church ery, however perfect, can take the would only deny themselves the place of God's own prescribed pleasure of eating one plate of icecream less every year and give the is no one word to express the idea saving to the Board of Ministerial of chastity, which can be applied to Relief, money enough would be a man; the word which denotes forthcoming to pay all the appro- this can only be used of a woman!
priations for aged and worn-out Neither is there any word which ministers of the denomination in connotes the same thought as our all the world." word' ought,' so that, naturally, -Rev. Myron Eells, missionary Hindi has no word for ' conat Skokomish Indian mission, science.' " Washington, puts himself on record thus: "On a recent Saturday I -And an English Wesleyan miswent by boat 10 miles, then walkt sionary, in Ceylon, writes in Work 12 more to Holly, preacht there and Workers of the exceeding diffi- Sunday morning, attended Sunday- culty of securing a sufficiency of school, preacht again at half-past good Tamil hymns for worship. two, after which I administered The people, in their entire intellecthe Lord's Supper. Then I walkt tual and spiritual make, are so unback 6 miles to Harrison, where I like Anglo-Saxons, and the two preacht at eight o'clock, after tongues are so radically different, which I again administered the that Watts, Wesley, etal., in a Tacommunion. It was the first time mil dress are intolerably senseless it had ever been administered in and dull. South India waits with longing for a native hymnist.
the latter place, and some church -"Provost Vahl calculates that members present had not partaken from 1845 to 1890 the number of of it for fifteen years." male missionaries was multiplied 3 -The intelligence comes that or 4 times, while that of women Prince Oscar and Princess Ebba, of missionaries was multiplied about Sweden, contemplate leaving Frid- 26 times." hem, their beautiful home on Gothland Island in the Baltic, and sail- -When an Armenian comes to ing to Africa as missionaries, in this country, and you find him not response to the appeal from jungle all that you had imagined, please and slave pen in that unhappy remember that for centuries he has land where men, women, and little been ground down by oppression. children are hunted as beasts, and, The bad side of his nature has been like beasts, sold for burden-bearing developt, the good side sadly and to be slaughtered for food. dwarft. Do not judge him by the Anglo-Saxon nineteenth century -An illustration of the variety standard. He can not stand it.' Be of the difficulties which beset trans- . just, and you will have more charlators of the Word of God is given ity. He thirsts for education, and by a veteran missionary in India, he needs the gospel of love. Will who tells us that Hindi "offers you continue to supply his need? special difficulty as a medium for Sometimes the refugees called me the expression of Biblical truth. an angel, and it was delightful that We have no word in Hindi for I could be a tangible angel, with , person,' none for 'matter,' as dis- plenty of English gold in my tinct from' spirit.' The word for pocket.-Miss Katherine Fraser.
'omnipresence' suggests rather YOUNG PEOPLE.
universal pervasion than what we -The International Committee mean by presence. There is often of the Y. M. C. A. reports that in difficulty in finding exact words thirty-one years the number of as- even for moral ideas. Thus there sociations has grown from 00 to 1,429, and the total membership tian Endeavor" was organized at from 15,498 to 248,734. Then there the mountain sanitarium, Ku-ling, were no buildings, now there are near Foochow, China. This society 330, valued at over $17,000,000 ; then is in existence during the tempothe expense of local work was $50,- rary stay of missionaries in this 000, now it is nearly $2,500,000. The healthful spot during the hottest international work in this country, part of the summer. Under their including all superintendence of leadership about 50 Chinese are orthe local organizations and the de- ganized for Christian Endeavor velopment of the departments, was work, which includes going out $522; it is now a trifle over $73,000. among the scattered villages of the mountains, talking to the people, -In the latter part of October an and inviting them to the services. All-India Epworth League Convention was held at Calcutta. There -Schools in the United States were addresses not merely from cost last year $185,000,000. Pupils missionaries who are members of numbered 14,500,000. Of male teachthe Methodist Episcopal Church, ers there were 130,000; female teachbut from representatives of the ers, 270,000. Expended per pupil, Christian Endeavor Society, and $18.92. There are in private schools Christian workers in every depart- 1,250,000 pupils, in public high ment in India. The League of In- schools, 4,000,000, and in universidia and Malaysia is in close affilia- ties and colleges, 100,000. There tion with the parent League in this were 1,500,000 colored children in country. It operates in 14 different the Southern schools. The value of languages in India. school property amounts to $456,- 000,000. -The following resolution was adopted by the General Missionary UNITED STATES. Committee (Methodist) at its meeting in Philadelphia: "We see in -In September last, upon the the million and a half of our young steamship Empress of China, no people organized into Epworth less than 42 missionaries took pas- Leagues and other young people's sage for their fields lying beyond societies, a most inviting field for the broad Pacific. Classified accordthe reception of missionary infor- ing to destination, there were, for mation and inspiration. The brav- China, 22; for Japan, 12, and for ery and heroic adventure that have Korea, 8. There were represented characterized the advancing Church seven societies-Presbyterian, 16, from the earliest ages will be ex- including 1 Southern Presbyterian, ceedingly fascinating to these and 3 going out independently; 13 young minds; therefore, Resolved, Methodists, including 1 from the That we direct our secretaries to do Canadian Methodist Church, and 2 their best to have these young peo- from the Methodist Episcopal ple's societies devote one meeting Church, South; Church Missionary each month to the study of the mis- Society, 6; China Inland Mission, sionary fields and cause." 2; Congregational, 3; 1 Baptist and the Society for the Propagation of -Canada and Great Britain have the Gospel, 1. Classified according past the two – hundred – thousand to homeland, England was repremark in the membership of their sented by 6, Canada by 2, Scotland Christian Endeavor societies at by 2, and the United States by 32. about the same time. -The report of The Tribune -During two years in succession Fresh Air Fund shows that last the "Sojourners' Society of Chris- summer 10,285 children were sent into the country for a longer or sionaries, men and women, assisted shorter period at an expense of by a force of 2,956 native preachers, $26,703, an average of about $2.60 teachers, and other helpers, are each. During the twenty-five years preaching the Gospel in 27 lan- since the establishment of the fund guages, and directing a great evan- it has benefited 161,609 children at gelistic, educational, and medical a cost of $398,491. The first year's enterprise. In 470 churches there record (1877) was 50, the next year is gathered a total membership 1,077, from which there was a very of 44,606, of 'whom 3,919 have steady increase until 1892, when made confession of their faith this the highest number was reacht- year. In 17 theological schools 179 15,236. students are in direct preparation for the work of the ministry. In -The Ohildren's Aid Society has 118 colleges and high schools 6,991 completed its fortieth year, and pickt youths of both sexes are in among many other good things is training, under the most favorable able to report that last year 20 day conditions, for a share in the work, schools and 12 night schools were and 43,221 pupils are under Ohrissustained, with 14,017 children tian instruction in 1,049 common taught and partly fed and clothed; schools." meals to the number of 763,950 were furnisht; in 6 lodging-houses -The American Missionary As- 5,848 different boys and girls found sociation, which occupies a station shelter, to whom 243,590 meals at Oape Prince of Wales, the most were supplied. During the hot westerly point of North America, weather a day's outing was given and has there a herd of reindeer, is to 42,353. One of the "graduates" assisting the United States Governof this institution is now governor ment in efforts to relieve the of Alaska. whalers who are ice-bound in the Arctic Ocean north of Alaska. -The churches are accomplish- The missionary has been authoring great good by their work of ized to render every assistance. education and by the planting of The station has the largest day Ohristian churches in Utah. The school in Alaska, with an average Methodist Episcopal Ohurch has 25 attendance of more than 100. It ministers in that field, 35 churches, has also an industrial department, 1,500 church members, 220·teachers and has aided in training the Eskiand officers in Sabbath schools, mos to herd the reindeer introand 2,165 pupils. The Presbyte- duced from Siberia. rian Ohurch has 28 ministers, 23 churches, 1,116 members, 237 Sab- -The Southern Baptist Convenbath-school teachers, with 2,302 pu- tion has 7 missionaries in Africa pils; 22 mission schools, with 2,300 and 7 native- helpers. There are 6 pupils, 4 of these schools being churches, with a membership of academies, and 1 a college. The 282, who gave last year $393. combined 'forces of all Protestant churches in Utah are 84 ministers, EUROPE. 98 churches, 5,101 members, 115 Sabbath-schools, with 7,653 pupils, Great Britain.-Losses caused to and 42 Ohristian day schools, with charities by the special jubilee col-_ 3,635 pupils. lections are reported in the Quiver. The diminution of income of the -The work of the American Society for the Prevention of Board last year is thus summa- Oruelty to Animals amounts to rized: "In 1,227 centers 543 mis- £10,000; that of the London City Missions to over £5,000; Dr. Bar- world has helpt to circulate these nardo's Homes, £4,900; Church of publications, and in 220 languages. England Home for Waifs and Its work dates from 1797. Strays, £2,600, and the Ragged School Union, £1,500. The British The Continent.-The Paris Misand Foreign Sailors' Society, Brit- sionary Society is straining every ish Home for Incurables, British nerve to meet the present emerand Foreign Bible Society, and gency in Madagascar, where the others, also ascribe a falling off in French government is manifesting receipts to the special efforts in such hostility to the London Misother directions. sionary Society, and is insisting on the use of the French language -The Mission World quotes among the natives. Already they several remarkable' statements on have sent out 9 missionary parties, good authority, among them: the last, which sailed on 10th No- " There are in the Christian Church vember, consisting of M. and Mme. over 100,000 proselytes from Ju- Rusillon, M. Robert, and MIles. daism, and in the Church of Eng- Petrequin and Rousseau. In all 17 land alone 250 of the clergy are men and 13 women have gone. either Jews or the sons of Jews. After deducting for deaths and re- As each Lord's day comes round turns, there are 26 French Protesthe Gospel is proclaimed in more tant missionaries in the field, inthan 600 pulpits of Europe by Jew- cluding missionaries' wives. The ish lips. Over 350 of the ministers Norwegian Missionary Society sent of Christ in Great Britain are out last year to Madagascar 12 N orstated to be Hebrew Christians." wegian missionaries, 2 French mis- sionaries, 2 French teachers, 1 -The Archbishop of Canterbury printer, and 3 women teachers. has dispenst with the use of wines at Lambeth Palace, where, during -The Netherland Missionary Soall Episcopal regimes since the ciety has just celebrated its cen- Reformation, such refreshments tenary. In 1797, under the founder, have been habitually served. Johann Vanderkemp, it commenced operations in friendly relations to -By the will of the late J. T. the London Missionary Society. Morton, of Aberdeen, some £500,- Early in the present century these 000 are left for missions, and seven- two societies jointly sent missionsixteenths of the residuary estate aries to South Africa and to Java, goes to the Moravian Church. Of but the work was soon given up. A this large sum, however, ·none is to little later they began work tobe available for use in work already gether among the Molucca Islands. undertaken, but, being paid in ten The N. M. S. did noble work for annual instalments, is to go to many years, but discontent sprl,lng open and sustain new work. up in 1858, and occasioned the for- mation of 4 societies, viz., the Gen- -The Church Missionary Society eral Missionary Society of the Rehas 48 medical missionaries in its formed Church, the Dutch Missionservice. ary Union, the Dutch Reformed Missionary Union, and the Utrecht -The London Religious Tract Missionary Society. In 1894 the Society sends forth its publications first and third of these societies at the annual rate of 59,000,000, and were united. In 1882 the Dutch its total circulation to date has ag- Lutheran Missionary Society was gregated 3,215,000,000. Every Prot- also founded. estant Christian mission in the – The Methodist Episcopal each with its central station and Church has pr0perty in Rome independent churches. The memworth $200,000, consisting mainly bers on the whole American Telugu of a large and commodious mission field exceed 55,000 in number. house, containing ample rooms for 2 chapels, 2 parsonages, a boys' col- -The first Parsee convert to lege, a printing establishment, etc. Christianity in India is still living. Bishop Foss regards this large in- His name is Dhanjibhai, and he was vestment as supplying ample evi- baptized in the year 1839. He is a dence that the Methodists are in minister of the Free Church of Rome "to stay." Scotland, and is held in high honor even by non-Christians in India. ASIA. He is now an old man still at work, tho of him it has been said, as Dr. India.-The Rev. William Carey, Candlish is reported to have said a grandson of the eminent mission- of Dr. Robert Gordon, "It is far ary of the same name, and now a more important that he should live missionary in Bengal, has issued a for several years more than that he booklet entitled "Christian Endeav- should do any work." His presence or in small Village Communities," is a benediction. in which he shows the value of the Endeavor movement in meeting -A Telugu Baptist Home Misthe needs of such communities as sion Society was formed at the first exist in India. In multitudes of meeting of the Telugu Baptist Consmall viHages where there are a few vention, held at Ramapatam in Christians, too few to maintain a August, at which 400 rupees were preacher, or even a teacher, yet subscribed, and it was voted to specially needing some organiza- send 2 native missionaries at once tion in which they may have fel- to the Chenchus, an aboriginal lowship and mutual help, these tribe of people numbering about Christian Endeavor societies just 6,000, living in the hills of the meet the need. Mr. Carey describes Nellore and Kurnool districts. one section in which there are now This is the first movement of the 54 separate societies, with 621 mem- Telugu Baptist churches toward bers. These small societies are missionary work for others, and is groupt together, and can be visit- a gratifying and encouraging exed frequently by some wide-awake hibition of growth in self-dependevangelist, or, perhaps, by a mis- ence and strength of Christian pursionary. pose.
-A Lutheran exchange states -Sixty-nine rescued famine girls that Superintendent Bahnsen, of who have been under Pandita the Brecklum Missionary Society, Ramabai's care for some time, were attended a church service in Pan- baptized last month by the Rev. dur, India, which lasted four hours, W. W. Bruere at Poona, on the and during which 186 native con- public confession of their faith in verts were baptized, including 32 Christ, together with 4 of the other heads of families. inmates of her Home, and a Brah- min, who has been the Pandita's -More than 32,000 are on the clerk for a number of years. books of the Ongole church (Baptist) as having been connected with China.-The new railroad from it since it was organizea in 1868. Tientsin to Peking is said to be They lived in about 1,200 different realizing more than $1,000 per day, villages. The original Ongole field Crowds of students have been flockhas now been divided into 14 fields, ing to Peking for the triennial ex- too weak to bear even the weight amination. Rather than come on of their clothes."-The Presbyte- the boats as of yore, they rode on rian. open flat cars. It is supposed by the authorities that the road from -I was very much imprest in Tientsin will be an advertisement China-both there and everywhere that will do more for railroads in -by the effect upon Chinese faces China than anything else. The of receiving Christianity. I could students will return to their prov- almost pick from a mixt assem- inces prejudiced in favor of this blage those who were Christians. more rapid and more comfortable There is so much brightness and method of travel. cheerfulness about their faces. And there is another thing I would -The city of Peking is so filthy speak of, and that is, that in China that it is deserted by all people (and I think that missionaries from who can get away from it in the China, from whom I have learnt summer. Our missionary, Dr. Vir- most of what I know, would bear ginia Murdock, who remains there me out in saying so) the converts for medical work, wrote in July have a very great desire to preserve last: "The city is full of smells, their churches pure. It is a re- dirt, and disease. I wish that markable thing how anxious they while most are away, notice could are for purity, and how strong they be given the rest of us in time to are against anything which is in- get out, and that the place could consistent. And I suppose there be cleaned; then have a fire big is no Chinese church in China in enough to take in the city, have a which the excesses and immorali- flood to wash out streets and sew- ties of the Church at Corinth, for ers, and an earthquake to turn in instance, are in any way-even in the whole! It would not be fair to the mildest form-repeated. And mother earth not to have a cleans- that says much for the training ing before turning it under."-lWis- and teaching which the Chinese '"s'ionarY,Herald. converts are having from the mis- sionaries.-Mrs. Bishop. -A placard against the binding of women's feet has been posted all -Rev. JeeGam, of San Francisco, over the city in the province of says of education in his native land: Honan. It was written by a non- "School life is very dull for the Christian Chinese literate, and is boys. They go to school at day- an interesting evidence of a dawn- break, and are dismist at sunset. ing consciousness that they have The schools are all private, except something to learn from the "bar- the universities. The pupils study barians" besides the making of out loud, and recite one by one, with cannons-in which they have, for their backs turned toward the many years, been willing to ac- teacher. If a boy makes four or five knowledge our superiority. Its blunders, his ears are boxt, and if arguments are quaint: "The mis- he makes more than that, the rat- fortune of binding feet makes not tan is brought into use. Should he only women suffer, but men too. make a complete failure, black Before bandits arrive men could rings, giving the appearance of often escape, but they have wives spectacles, are painted around his and daughters whom they can not eyes, and these he must wear until leave behind. Foreign women have school is dismist. Any boy would natural feet. They are fierce and rather take a severe rattaning than can fight. But Chinese women are wear those bogus spectacles. There is no recess, for it is the belief there whole of the tribes living in the that if a boy goes out to play he center of the continent between the will forget all he has learned. They Vaal River and the Zambesi. The are taught not to run, but to walk site of the institution will, of course, like gentlemen. " be in British territory, probably at Mafeking or Vryburg. -A medical missionary tells of several operations which resulted -Fifteen tons! 65,000,000 carats!! in restoring sight to the blind, and $500,000,000! !! of diamonds un- of another operation-the amputa- earthed in South Africa in 30 years, tion of a man's foot. This man, and gold worth $40,000,000 a year, knowing of the successful eye ope- rolling down her sands. rations, concluded that it would be a small matter for the physician to -" German East Africa now give him a new foot, and pleaded reckons 3 Roman Catholic apos- with him to do so. When the doc- tolic vicariats, viz.: Those of the tor confest his inability to furnish 'Vhite Fathers, the Bavarian Bene- him with a new foot, he still insisted dictines, and the Fathers of the upon it, saying that he was not par- Holy Ghost; 3 bishops, an apos- . ticular as to the kind of a foot; in- tolic provicar, 53 priests, 46 broth- deed, he would be satisfied with a el'S, and 43 sisters, a total of 146 cow's foot if he could get no other. missionaries, not including a nu- merous body of native catechists." AFRICA. -The Uganda Book Society is in -A conference of Kongo mission- a very flourishing condition. Dur- aries was held at Ikoko in August. ing the last eight months 13,200 Twelve members of the Baptist Bibles and portions have been mission were present. The fact that bought, and 20,000 natives can now this gathering was possible shows read the Bible. The receipts for how the appliances of civilization books during the past four years are advancing into the interior of have amounted to £3,000, two- Africa. Rev. Joseph Clark, the mis- thirds of which have been received sionary in charge at Ikoko, writes from Uganda. This represents an that these 12 missionaries repre- average of £500 a year paid by the sented an average service of 13 Christians of Uganda for Bibles, years on the Kongo, and 11 chil- prayer-books, etc., a truly wonder- dren in Europe or America that ful fact to be said of a people whose were born on the Kongo, and are civilization has not advanced be- now all doing well. This would yond a currency of cowrie shells seem to indicate that the Kongo is and cloth.-Church Missionary In- not such a deadly place for white telligencer. people as it has sometimes been represented to be. -A missionary in Livingstonia testifies to the importance of seek- -The London Missionary Society ing in education the development is considering a scheme for the es- of the spiritual nature. Intellec- tablishment of an industrial and tual awakening invariably follows educational institute for the civili- the perception and reception of zation of the heathen Bechuanas. spiritual truth, and change of life The new enterprise will be conduct- results from this. Formerly we ed on the lines of the famous Love- may have sought to interest the dale Institution in Cape Colony, people, but a vacant stare or utter and it will embrace within its scope listlessness has been the only resnot only the Bechuanas, but the ponse, while of intellectual ac- tivity or ambition there seemed to be none outside the daily round of -It is very gratifying to learn village life. Especially, as might that the revision of the Malay be expected, is this most markt in Scriptures, delayed for two years the women, who have so long been by disagreement in regard to the lookt upon as the slaves rather than word by which to designate our the companions of their husbands. Divine Lord when he was upon When, however, spiritual awaken- earth in the form of man, will be ing has taken place, the intellectual proceeded with immediately. The faculties remain no longer dormant, choice lay between Tuan and Tubut show themselves in the ambi- han. The Malaysia Message intion of the natives to master the forms us that the revision comalphabet and to read the Word of mittee were unanimously of the God for themselves. Following opinion that Tuhan would be histhis has come the desire for im- torically incorrect, not to say unproved houses and for acquiring truthful, for it is applicable only the arts of civilization-in fact, to the Godhead, and it is obvious the desire for technical instruction. that even those who most firmly believed that He was the Messiah, ISLANDS OF THE SEA. would not have addrest Jesus as " God," which would be the exact -One would not naturally look equivalent of Tuhan. When it to the Island of Mauritius as a became known, however, that the place which should yield a native revisers proposed to make the dis- Christian of high intellectual at- ciples address Jesus as Tuan, tainments, but the Christian Pa- "Sir," a great deal of alarm was triot of Madras states that one of manifested among a number of the the two scholarships awarded to missionaries and agents of the Bithe best students of the Royal Col- ble Society working in this field, lege, Mauritius, has this year been and a petition was sent home to won by an Indian Christian stu- the British and Foreign Bible Sodent. The scholarship entitles the ciety, in which the signatories deholder to pursue any professional clared that they would take no part study he may choose at any insti- in the distribution of a version in tute in the United Kingdom. It is which Christ was addrest as Tuan. of the value of $1,000 per annum, Owing to this disagreement the tenable for a period of four years, work of revision has been at a with a passage allowance of $375, standstill for about two years. Hapand a like sum for the return pas- pily, a compromise proposed by Dr. sage. H. Luering, of the M. E. Mission, has commended itself to the revis- -The work of the W. C. T. U. ers, and it is now believed that the among the native races of New end of the protracted controversy Zealand has greatly helpt in bring- and unfortunate delay has been ing back to Christianity many who, reacht. The proposal is that according to their chiefs, were re- " Lord," as a form of address to turning to their old superstitions. Jesus, shall be translated by the About 3,000 Testaments, hymn and Arabic word Rabbi, which is well prayer-books in the Maori lan- understood by Malays. The word guage have been distributed, 600 Tuan will be retained in a few inpledges circulated, and a quantity of stances as a translation of the protemperance and Gospel literature noun, where a frequent repetition distributed. Six Maori branches of Rabbi would be objectionable.- of the W. C. T. U. are at work Indian Witness. conducting 5 Sunday-schools and 6 Bible classes.
The Missionary Review of the World — January 1896
THE OUTLOOK: SOME SIGNS OF THE TIMES
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XIX. No. 1.-0Zd &ries.-JANUARY.-VoL. IX. No. I.-New Serie8.
THE OUTLOOK: SOME SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
,BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
Per~tllal vigilanee, is ll()t only tIle price of 'liberty, but tbe condition of all true intelligence and progress. God made the time-worlds. as well as the space-worlds: in the ages as well as in the stars He has a plan, and only he who watches while, he prays discerns the signs of the times, sees the plan of 'God,' and falls, into line with the march of God's obedient, hosts.
If the best chronology is taken ~s our standard, 'this new year is not, 1896, but 1900, of the Christian era, and' marks the closing year of the century. !tis well known among students of chronology that the familiar letters" A.D." do not originally stand for Anno Domini, but fO,r Aera J)ianysii, the era of Dionysius, surnamed Exiguus, the Little, from his small stature. This Roman abbot, originally from Scythia, who died in his monastery· in 540 A.D., was a man of great erudition, and, among other labors, carried on in chronology researches which gave him great celebrity. To this man, who died in the reign of Justinian, is traced the method of reckoning the Christian era which, since theeighlh century, has been, by so-called Christian nations, universally adopted, and which fixes the year of the Incarnation at the 753d year of Rome.
More careful computations, reckoning from at least six different points of observation, like converging paths all lead to one conclusion, that an error of at least/our years has occurred in the J)ionysian era, and that the Incarnation mllst date back to the year 749 from the founding of Rome, which would, according to the current reckoning, be 4 B.C.
For example, as the birth of Christ was certainly previous to the death of Herod the Great, which was just before the Passover, in the year 750 A. u., the year of the nativity cannot have been later than 749 A. u.
Again,John the Baptist entered on his ministry in the fifteenth year of Tiberius, which, reckoning from the latter's eo-regency, would put the Baptist's birth in the year 748 A. u., or early in the next year; and, as there were but six months' ditference in the ages 'of Christ and of His forerunner, our Lord's birth would occur not later than 749 A. u.
Yet again, our Lord Himself said, "Forty and six years was this temple in building j" and the eighteenth year of Herod's reign, when he began the rebuilding, would coincide with 732 A. u. This would make the forty-six years end somewhere about 778 or 779 A. u. If our Lord was then about thirty years old, His birth-year would carry us back to 749 A. u. Other confirmatory testimony, as collated and compared by Dr. Edward Robinson and others, conclusively fixes this same year as the date, so that the year now opening really is the year 1900, and will thus complete the nineteenth century, and introduce the twentieth, of the Christian era.
Might not a correction of the calendar be made in accordance with these facts ~ If Pope Gregory XIII. could reform the calendar in 1582, taking out ten days in October, to restore to its true place in the seasons the vernal equinox, and if Britain could, after one hundred and seventy years'delay, adopt the new style and count September 3d September 14th, why cannot the calendar of Christian nations be once more adjusted, so as to call this new year by its true name, 1900 A.D., if the conclusions of the best chronologists are to be trusted ~ And if so, what a celebration of the birth of Christ should be kept by all the followers of our Lord, as Christmas Day of this year shall complete the full nineteen centuries since the angels sang the nativity chorus over Bethlehem! What a spectacle might be presented to angels and men if there were a representative gathering of all evangelical disciples in the very land where the Light of the world first shone! What if nativity week could be kept at Jerusalem, Christmas Day itself being observed at Bethlehem! the whole celebration marked by the erection in Bethlehem of some permanent memorial, such as a home for common worship for all true believers, a halting-place for pilgrims to and from mission fields, and a center for missionary operations! 'Vhat if, on successive days, there were devout assemblies, presided over by representatives of the different branches of the Church of Christ, such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Richard S. Storrs, Bishop J. M. Thoburn, from India, Cavalier Matteo Prochet, of Rome, Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, of China, the venerable Andrew Thomson, D.D., of Edinburgh, William E. Gladstone, and others who at home and abroad are recognized leaders in missions !What a fit way to us4er in the twentieth century, with prayers and praises to Him who was born in Bethlehem in the days of Herod the king! What an incentive to a united and earnest effort to push the lines of holy occupation to the very outermost ends of the earth !
If this be true, that we are on the very verge of the twentieth century of the Christian era, the outlook is commensurately extensive and important. It becomes us to look about us and study anew our conditions, to Ieok back and review our conrse, to look ahead and be rell.dy for new risks and new duties. Without any attempt to exhaust a theme so vast in stretch and reach, we may well call attention to a few of the mere prominent signs of the times, which may be also to us signals of God, some encouraging, others, it may be, admonitory of danger.
1. First of all, it must not be disguised that this is a very critical hour in missionary history. It is about a full century since William Carey's arrival in India marked the starting-point in organized missionary effort_ There is no question in any candid, intelligent mind that the century has shown advance which is not by steps, but strides. What increase of general intelligence as to mission fields, religious systems, foreign peoples, and the biography of the heroes of mission history! What a new era of sanctified womanhood, now organized so widely for promoting acquaintance and cooperation with the work of a world's evangelization! What a marvelous crusade on the part of our young men and women in Christian associations, Endeavor societies, and last, but not least, the Students' Volunteer movement, now, like the others, belting the globe, and undertaking the occupation of all untilled fields! What a new epoch in medical missions, reviving the apostolic method of uniting physical healing with Gospel teaching and winning a way to the soul by ministry to the body! What a handmaid to the voice of the herald is the pen of the ready writer, made vocal in so many tongues by 1~he art of the translator and the power of the press! Who can doubt the drift of all the best nations, which are also the ruling nations of the world, toward the coronation of peace with the diadem of universal empire, by agreeing to arbitration instead of resorting to the arbitrament of war !
These are but a few of the hopeful signs on our horizon. They indicate both the fitness and fulness of times for the speedy occupation of the whole world for Christ, which never before could have been accomplished within such a brief space of time, and make especially emphatic the motto which should be emblazoned on the banners of the Church, "THE EvAN- GELIZATION OF THE WORLD IN THIS GENERATION."
II. We are in the midst of a general agitation in the direction of Church Unity, as it is somewhat vaguely called. The famous Lambeth platform, with its four planks, is a curious illustration of the whole movement. All other churches will be cordially received into union with the Anglican body, provided they subscribe three articles on which there would be no real disagreement, and concede the historic episcopate, which is the distinctive feature of the Episcopal Church. The Baptists, no doubt, arc equally ready for unity with all other evangelical bodies, if infant baptism is abandon"ed and believers' baptism, and that by immersion only, is adopted. This is Church nnity, not by mutual concession, but by one-sided absorption. "The lamb and lion lie down together, the lamb inside the lion." For one church to say to all the rest, " You must be like us if we are to agree," is what Dr. J. H. McIlvaine caIIed "an immoral tone of mind." More recently the Triennial Council of the Congregationalists submits another proposal, in which the sufficient authority of the Scripture, discipleship of Jesus Christ, the one Church of Christ, and liberty in the interpretation of the Scriptures, are the basis of mutual fellowship, cooperation in missions, and the prevention of unwholesome rivalries. 'It This is, perhaps, as wise and satisfactory a basis as any proposed, yet it embraces no confession of the Holy Spirit as the only source of regeneration, and" discipleship of Jesus Christ" is a vague term, easily perverted, which in these days would be held by twenty different sects in as many different senses.
One noticeable feature about this movement toward outward if not organic unity, which will be objectionable to many, is the widespread tendency to embrace if possible not only the Greek, but Roman Church in the alliance j and, in the popular cry for" charity," there is a new difficulty created-viz., the risk of appearing disloyal to love, in seeking to be loyal to the Lord Himself. Sometimes one is compelled to speak out plainly, at risk of being misunderstood, for a politic silence may be tacit consent to error, or even treason against truth. Ve may at least venture to ask a question or two. First, of what use is an external formal unity with internal division and dissension? The Roman Catholic Church is nominally one, but it represents beliefs widely differing. from the practically Calvinistic Jansenists, to the Jesuits who beheve most of all in their own infallibility. The Anglican Church is nominally one, but there is within it a ritualistic High Church, a rationalistic Broad Church, and an evangelical Low Church, and the fiercest war is waging within the ecclesiastical landmarks. Is not a nominal division, with real sympathy and amity, more the unity for which our Lord prayed, than a nominal umon covering a real division?
Some schemes of Church unity would never embrace all Christians. Some, who must be reckoned among the truest and holiest believers, cannot conscientiously join hands with Romanism ; for to them this is a question not of forbearing with minor differences, but of tolerating fundamental errors in doctrine and practice. To ask them to countenance, eveu indirectly, the worship of the Host in the mass, the intercession of saints, penance, purgatory, the abominations of the confessional, the idolatry of the Virgin and Joseph, the infallibility of the Pope, the surrender of the right of private judgment, and the withholding of the Scriptures from the people, is to ask them to wink at ten of the deadliest errors ever known in Church history, and they simply cannot do It. To them, moreover, the papal power represents not only a church, but a kingdom. A church has • The Committee on Christian Unity, consisting of Rev. Drs. W. H. Ward, S. W. Dike, A. H. Quint, and George E· HaJI reported, recommending as a basis of union: 1. The acceptance of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments inspired by the Holy Ghost to be the only authoritative revelation of God to man. 2. Discipleship of Jesus Christ, the Divine Savior and Teacher of the world. 3. The Church of Christ. which IS His body, whose great mission it is to preach His GosjlCI to the world. 4. Liberty of conscience in the interpretatiou of the Scriptures and the admiuistration of the Church. Such an alliance of the churches should have regular meetings of their representatives, and should have for its object among others: 1. Mntual acquaintance and fellowship. 2. Cooperation in foreign and domestic missions. 8. The prevention of rivalries between competing churches in the same field. doctrines and ordinances and spiritual laws and a spiritual constituency presumably of regenerate people; a kingdom has a temporal order, with civil laws and subjects, a territory to be ruled and a hierarchy or graded system of dignities. When Protestants are asked, therefore, to acknowl-· edge the papal system, they are asked not only to countenance the very errors against which they once protested unto blood, but to acknowledge as legitimate that wedlock of the Church and State in one body to which may be traced the parentage of a brood of evils of the most accursed character.
Many most earnest believers, who yearn to live in charity with all men and are eager to recognize Christ's likeness wherever found, feel compelled to maintain their separation from some professed disciples, because they seem to them to deny fundamental truths. It seems ungracious to stamp as heresy what so-called Christians hold and teach; but are disciples to be less brave than politicians? Who can withhold admiration from the in- trepidity of Edmund Burke, when he said to the Electors of Bristol: "I did not obey your instructions, but; I did obey the instructions of nature and conscience and truth. I maintained your interests as against your convictions!" If Daniel O'Connell could say, "I am a Cat/tOlie, but I am not a papist," and Pere Hyacinthe could virtually defend the great doctrines of the same Church while sacrificing himself in a protest against its perversions of the truth and unholy practices, why may we not discriminate between the right of a man to hold his religious opinions and our own right to protest against what we believe to be his vital errors!
The whole progress of the papacy, from the days of Phocas until now, has been a process of engrafting pagan errors on a Christian stock. One has only to read the history of Church councils to see how one scion after another was grafted on to the Church, until the original tree was no longer recognizable. Tile growth of papal pretensions may be well illustrated hy the tiara, or triple crown. At first a round cap, John XIII. encircled it with a crown, Boniface VIII. added a second, and Benedict XIJI. a third. And while many Protestants cordially acknowledge whatever truth the Roman Catholic Church conserves, they regard the papacy as a composite system, embracing at least five parts: First, a branch of the Church of Christ, holding much truth and embracing many honest, earnest believers; second, a philanthropic society, abounding in works of charity; third, a political powllr asserting a right to world-wide supremacy; fourth, an idolatrous system, a Christianized paganism; fifth, a Jesuitical organization, using not only secrecy, but falsehood. Now, as Judaism contained within itself representatives of true believers, like Zacharias and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna, and Joseph of Arimathea, but, alas! also ritualistic Pharisees, skeptical Sadducees, rationalistic ESRenes, secular Herodians; so Romallism is a heterogeneous compound, and any recognition of the faithful few in its communion must not involve sanction of the political pretensions, idolatrous corruptions, and Jesuitical subtleties, bound up with the system as a whole. This is the real position of hundreds who are inclined to charity, but who see that charity is in danger of running into laxity.
To maintain a separation and a protestation for conscience' sake is becoming more difficult, because Romanism is putting on of late years a new front. Witness the attempt at Baltimore a few years since to make it appear that papacy was almost the patron of our republicanism, despite the fact that the allegiance owed by every subject of the Pope to him, as a foreign power, is constructive treason; witness the present advocacy of temperance, popular education, and of civil service reform, in which Roman Catholic bishops are taking the lead, and the widespread activity of the Sisters of Charity-all of which tend in the public mind to obscure the fact that back of all this attractive guise lie doctrines and practices that demand as emphatic a protest as at the Diet of Spire !
If the union of churches could be secured for which so mauy are hoping, what would be the effect on missions? Would not inevitable questions arise on which new separations would be inevitable? Two devoted missionaries in China, one a Presbyterian and the other a Baptist, were so intimate as friends that they determined to undertake a joint evangelistic tour. All was as smooth as a placid stream, until the converts began to multiply and desired baptism; then the tour came to an end, from the simple impossibility of further agreement.
Moreover, it has often been said that a wholesome emulation is promoted by the variety of denominations, and that no one church would ever accomplish an aggregate of service equal to the sum of all now done by many different bodies. And, again, with more force it is argued that variety is the sign and fruit of education; that uniformity is born either of intellectual stagnation or slavery, and that, as soon and as surely as men begin to reason and think for themselves, individuality takes the place of uniformity, as a tree cannot grow without branching, and the larger and fuller the growth the more minute the ramifications. Amid the clamor for church unity it may be well seriously to ask whether any further unity is practicable or even possible than a federation or alliance in which there shall be a cordial allowance for all individual divergences, but at the same time a fraternal cooperation. Thousands of families, with widely differing household life, manners, notions, habits, and preferences may be united in one harmonious state or commonwealth. vVhy may not all evangelical churches, recognizing their agreements as fundamental and their differences as non-essential, work side by side without interference or needless overlapping ~ Meanwhile an opposite tendency, obviously at work, threatens a new schism, or at least secession. Louder and more earnest grow the remonstrance and resistance to the alarming spread of rationalism and secularism in the churches, which is seen even in England and America. Professor Howard Osgood, in the Detroit Baptist Congress a year ago, following an address of a prominent oollege president, wherein the results of the higher criticism were set forth and defended, read a brief statement of the most approved positions now held by this class of thinkers. He then asked if anyone would challenge these positions as unfairly stated j and, after pausing for a reply, astonished his hearers by adding that these statements were drawn verbatim from the writings of the deist Thomas Morgan and the infidel Thomas Paine! He then quoted one more sentence from Paine, which shows to what conclusion these premises led him: "My belief in the perfection of the Deity will not permit me to believe that a book so manifestly obscure, disorderly, and contradictory can be His work. " And yet these identical positions are held and taught tQ-day in Christian colleges and pulpits.
From the days of the Tractarian movement in Oxford, especially, three influences have been jointly operating to compel a new protest and sep&ra- tion of believers from the body of the Church as a whole: First, the ten- dency to rationalism drawn from the German theologians j secondly, the drift toward ritualism and Romanism, as manifested in the Anglican body, and rapidly spreading j and, thirdly, the growing irreverence with which a pretentious criticism is stripping the Word of God of its essential infalli- bility and inerrancy. There are a very considerable body of believers, by no means lacking in intelligence or .piety, to whom this state of things is becoming intolerable j and we greatly mistake if a new secession is not imminent, like that of May 18th, 1843, when five hundred ministers under the leadership of Chalmers laid down their livings in Scotland rather than consent to the interference and control of law courts in church matters. While the air is full of loud clamors for a blending of all churches in one, anotlIer movement, not so superficial, but perhaps even more resistless, is in the direction of separation. There are some left who hold to the 'Vord of God as an inspired Book, an infallible guide j who hold to the Church as composed only of regenerate souls, whose law is to be unworldliness j and who hold to simplicity of worship as the condition of its purity and spirituality j and if the churches as now existing continue to countenance rationalistic teaching, ritualistic encroachments, and secularizing methods j if theological professors are to be allowed to undermine the faith in the Bible, and godless standardR of art and life to displace the Divine ideals even in the house of God, there may be another procession of new Protestants walking some day out of our present Church councils or courts, to rally about apostolic standards and keep alive the ancient faith.
We are not alarmists j but we have seen both in England and in this country influences that are more disintegrating than unifying. When within the very Church of England there is an open and organized movement toward Rome, numbering hundreds and thousands of clerical and lay adherents j when, in dissenting bodies there and their corresponding denominations here, there is an equally open and organized movement toward doctrines which thirty years ago would have ranked any IDan as an infidel, unworthy to teach or even come to Lord's table, it is not a marvel if a discerning eye sees in the sky signs of a new pIotest.
III. The assaults on missions constitute another feature of the times. There are at work two opposing tendencies equally hostile to all evangelical life and evangelistic effort. On the one hand, much that calls itself scholarly criticism is practically the lowering of the Word of God to a human level; and, on the other hand, the various congresses of religions are lifting all religious systems to a Divine level j and between the two the cause of missions is losing hold on the popular mind. For if the Bible be not divinely infallible, its unique authority is gone; and if the Christian religion be not the one and only saving faith, its unique indispensableness is gone j and the command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature not only remains no longer imperative, but becomes wellnigh impertinent. Let us boldly confront the dilemma which modern criticism and miscalled liberalism force upon us. The assaults on missions get countenance from this double tendency of our times. Once concede that the Bible is a fallible guide, and that the Christ it presents is not the solitary hope of a lost world, and we may as well recall our missionaries. Why should we send thousands of our best men and women to the ends of the earth, at a cost of millions of dollars annually and a dearer cost of priceless lives, if a Divine command does not both justify and sanctify implicit obedience ~ And if all religions are stages in the evolution of a Divine faith and life, differing only in the degree of their development toward perfection, why intrude Christian ideas and dogmas upon people who have the same Divine upward tendency, and some of whom regard themselves at a higher level than ourselves ~ The disturbances in mission fields, especially China, have given occasion to a number of open or disguised attacks on missionary policy, and it has been boldly affirmed that the whole system of modern missions is a mistake. A prominent Scotchman some years since raised the question in Exeter Hall whether it were even proper to waste so many precious lives in evangelizing the Dark Continent; and more lately frequent newspaper articles appear, arguing more or less pointedly against the right or the expediency of sending Christian missionaries to other nations. Some writers contend that it involves needless exposure to the hostile influences of climate and of foreign peoples j others, that it is an invasion of the territory of another faith that has as mnch as any a right to be ; that it is an interference with what Carlyle called the "majesty of cnstom," a collision with prejudices and superstitions as impregnable as the hills, and calculated to provoke resistance and incite riot. While there is a loud caH for protection to the persons of Christian missionaries peacefully teaching the Gospel, it is replied that such violate the right of asylum and forfeit the right of such protection by forcing their Christianity upon unwilling adherents of other faiths. Such plausible arguments are the more amazing when it is remembered that, had they prevailed eighteen hundred years ago, Christianity would have died in its cradle, and would never have lived to become the mother of such millions of believers, with all the thousanu benignant institutions that are the pride and glory not of Christian churches and nations only, but of the race of man! When the first missionaries landed in ,Britain they found savages, and Jerome Ilays cannibals. Every step toward Britain's present leadership in intelligence and integrity, philanthropy and benevolence, was taken in face of hostility. Look at the transformations of the South Seas, and even of Japan; follow the work of McAll in Paris and the French provinces, acknowledged now even by the government to be invaluable as a police measure; survey the whole field of missionary triumph, and where would there have been one step of advance had such counsels prevailed as are now offered in respect to missions !
These assaults on missions strike at the very root of the tree of all evangelism, and the alarming feature is that, so far as they influence the Christian sentiment of the Church, they imply the abandonment of the fundamental principle of missions. The Word of God makes no doubtful testimony. It acknowledges that men hold lords many and gods many, bnt affirms one only Name whereby men must be saved; and it sends disciples forth to proclaim in unwilling ears the Christ who led the way in a mission to a revolted world, and paid the price of His intrusion and invasion into hostile territory by his own blood. Those who prosecute missions are disciples of one Master, whose sacrifice of Himself they expect if need be to share. The world is in revolt against God, and the proclamation of the terms of amnesty and reconciliation will not find ready reception with rebels. But we are to persevere. Love must qualify boldness, but boldness must give energy to love. A mild, meek, amiable spirit, which has no courage of conviction behind it and no energy of resistance; that cannot look hostile courts in the face and say, We ought to obey God rather than men, and cannot bnt speak the things which we have seen and heard; nay, that cannot rejoice in being counted worthy to suffer shame for His Mme, is not the spirit of apostolic times. When God has another Paul and Silas that will carry the Gospel into Macedonia, even if their only reception is the scourging, the inner prison and the stocks, and yet sing praises to God, there may be other eart,hquakes that shall set prisoners free and convert even hard-hearted jailers. Missions with no martyr spirit are not the missions of the Acts of the Apostles.
Saluting our readers with cordial Christian affection, we invoke npon them all a new anointing of the missionary spirit. What the year before us will bring forth only He knows whose chariot rides amid clouds of mystery. But history is big with great possibilities, when hours and even moments witness stupendous changes and miracles of transformation. Let us watch and pray and stand in our lot till the end of the days.
THE MOTIVE FORCE OF MISSIONS
THE MOTIVE FORCE OF MISSIONS.
BY REV. F. B. MEYER, LONDON, ENGLAND, ASSOCIATE EDITOR.
Gregory the Great, summing up the doctrine of St. Augustine, writes as follows: "The holy universal Church is one body, constituted under Christ Jesus its Head. Therefore Christ, with His whole body, both that which is now ou earth and that which reigns with Him in heaven, is one Person; and as the soul is one which quickens the various members of the body, so the one Holy Spirit quickens and illuminates the whole Church. Therefore the apostle says, , From whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly joined together, maketh increase of the body.'" It is here that we shall find the perennial motive force of missions. Not in cogent reasoning, nor in eloquent appeals, nor in the exposition of the results which have been attained during the wonderful century now drawing to a close, but in the intelligent appreciation and accentuation of. the union between Christ and His Church by the Holy Ghost, in virtue of which each member is subject to direct impulses and impressions from the exalted Saviour.
I. PRAYER FOR MISSIONs.-The missionary enterprise of modern times was conceived and cradled in prayer. As certainly as the sources of the Nile have been discovered in the great lakes of Central Africa can the rivers of modern missions be traced to the prayer-meetings of the early Methodists and the call for prayer issued by Jonathan Edwards. All along the line of history the progress of the Gospel has been in exaet proportion to the strength and volume of the prayers of the Church. It may be truly said that prayer has been the Nilometer which has measured the· extent and wealth of the harvests of which the desert places have been made to rejoice and blossom as the rose.
'Vhat a wealth of prayer has ascended to God on the behalf of missions from lonely souls isolated in sick chambers or foreign lands, which could do nothing else than pray; as well as from the Church, gathered in twos and threes, or in multitudes, but exercising her prerogative to bind and loose. !?till it becomes a serious question how the prayerfulness of the Church is to be maintained and increased; a demand which can only be adequately met by considering the true nature of prayer.
In its essence, prayer is the return tide, from the heart of the believer, of the purposes of God, as they are revealed by the Holy Ghost. The moisture of the ocean is drawn up by the sun, transported in the floating cloud-cisterns to the summits of the hills, there it is deposited as rain or snow, and begins to descend again to the ocean from which it was originally extracted. Similarly the prayer which prevails with God is that which emanated originally in the thought of the Father, passed through the heart of the Mediator, and was communicated to uc through the Holy Spirit. Throughout the Scriptures we have many references to Christ's prayer- fulness on the behalf of the Church and the world. On the pages of Isaiah we hear him saying, "For Zion's sake will I not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest." In his last discourse He told the disciples that He would pray to the Father for them, that He might give them another comforter. And in the Epistle to the Hebrews He is depicted as the great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession. The high priest in the old dispensation often entered the presence of God with the names of the people on his heart, the seat of love, and on his shoulder, the seat of power, and once a year, with a bowl of blood and sprig of thyme in his hands, pleaded for the entire nation. Vhat more vivid portrayal could there be of the ceaseless inter_ cession of that High Priest, who was once manifested to bear the sin of many, and who now appears in the presence of God for us !
In the days of His flesh He pleaded for His Ohurch, as in the sublime intercessory prayer of John 17 j for individu,als, as when He said, " Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee j" and for the world, as when He first assumed Ilis high-priestly functions, saying from His cross, "Father, forgive them; they know not what they do." Thus· He pleads still. For His Church, for His apostles, whether ministers at home or missionaries abroad, and for the world that lieth in the wicked one He says, "Father, I pray for them." Perpetually from His lips pours forth a stream of tender supplication and eutreaty, which makes glad the city of God.
We have been too much accustomed to think that these pleadings of the Divine Master are set in motion by the strong cryings and prayers of His saints on earth, and that He is simply the intermediary and spokesman of His Church, according to the sublime vision of the Apocalypse, where the mighty angel mingles much incense with the prayers of saintf', which He offers before the throne.. But probably the truth lies deeper. It is quite true that He prays in heaven the prayer we pray on earth, winnowing them of their selfishness, and asking what we would ask had we fuller light; it is also true that all successful prayer must receive His endorsement and authentication ; but it is a deeper truth that our best prayers are borrowed lights, the echo of His voice, the after-glow of His vision, the reflection of His eager desire. The body of Christ is brought into agreement with the Head by the Holy Spirit, who communicates to it by a quick sympathy and intention the thoughts and desires that are passing through the Savior's being.
Ve have two Advocates, one with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and one with us. As the one went up the other came down. As the one sat down at the right hand of the Divine Majesty, so the other sat in emblem on the heads of the twelve and in the Upper Room. As the one ever liveth to intercede in heaven, the other makes intercession in us for the saints and. for sinners, with groanings that cannot be· uttered. This is the clue to the mystery of prayer. It is all important that the Church on earth should be in accord with its Head in His petitions before the throne. And this accord is secured by the Holy Spirit. On the one hand He fills the Head, on the other the members. There is one Spirit of Life between Jesus in the glory and His believing people everywhere. One tide of life-blood, one system of nervous tissue, one ocean washing the shores of the metropolis and of the tiny seaport.
Let us be still, therefore, and listen carefully to the voice of the Divine Spirit speaking in our hearts, turning from all other sonnds toward His still small voice, and He will tell us all. Coming, as He does, from the heart of Jesus, He will impart His latest thoughts and convey to us His mind. In Him we have the mind of Christ. Then we shall know what to ask for. Indeed, we shall be swept along on the mighty current of our Lord's petitions. And when, in obedience to His Father's invitation, the Son asks that the heathen should be given Him for His inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession, we too shall fin~ ourselves praying for the same things in holy unison. Thus prayer goes in an eternal circle. It begins in tIle l1eart of God, comes to us through the Savior and by the Spirit, and returns from us again to its source. It is the teaching of the rain-drops, of the tides, and of the procession of the year, but wrought out and exemplified in the experience and practice of holy hearts.
H, then, prayer for the great missionary enterprise is restrained and formal in the individual or the community, it is symptomatic of some flaw in the fellowship of the member with the Head; let ns not deal with the symptom, but with the disease which is secretly at work; let us seek, above all things, that living union between the Head and the member through which the Holy Ghost can impress 011 us the thoughts that ani. mate the pleadings of the Divine Man on the throne, then we shall ask exceedingly abundantly according to the power that worketh in us. As Jesus pleads for individuals, we shall become burdened allOut them; as He pleads for native churches like those which cost Him so much anxiety in Asia ]finor, we shall plead for them; as He cries of persecutors and murderers, " Father, forgive !" we shall cry aloud for them also, and the result of such united petitioning will be, as of old, a Pentecost, sweeping those very men to the foot of His cross.
II. MISSIONARY ACTIVITY.-What a blessing Christ's earthly ministry must have been to thousands of sufferers! He passed through Galilee and Judea as a river of the water of life. In front of Him were deserts of fever blasted by the sirocco, malarious swamps of ague and palsy, and the mirage of deferred hope ; but after He had passed, the parched ground became a pool and the thirsty land springs of water, the eyes of the blind were opened, the ears of the deaf were unstopped, the lame man leaped as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sang. Turning to His disciples before He left them, He told them that similar works should follow them that believed on Him. They should cast out devils, speak with new tongues, take up serpents, drink deadly poison without hurt, and lay hands on the sick for their recovery.
But there were symptoms, however, throughout our Lord's ministry that He did not look at these as the greatest and best results of Ilis mighty energy. He forgave the sins of the paralytic man, borne of four, before He bade him walk ; and told the seventy to rejoice more that their names were written in heaven than that they had cast out a few demons. " The works that I do shall ye do also; and greater works than these shall ye do." That the apostles became increasingly aware of the same distinction i.s clear from the small space given in the Acts of the Apostles to their miracles compared with the greater attention concentrated on their discourses.
There is evidently a parallel to be drawn between the works wrought by the Lord during His human life in the physical sphere and on the bodies of men, and the greater works wrought through His Church during the present age, in the spiritual sphere and on the immortal destinies of men. Did the Lord give sight to the bleared eyes of the blind @ The Church is sent to open the eyes of the spiritually blind, that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Did He raise the dead ~ The Church may stand at the sepulchre, where the dead soul lies entombed, and cry, " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from among the dead, and Christ shall enlighten thee!" And as the Father led Him forward to ever greater works, so that the raising of Lazarus was a greater work than that of the daughter of J airus, we may expect that the wonders wrought in the spiritual sphere through the Church will grow in Importance and momentous issues till the close of the present dispensation. We shall yet see a nation born in a day. But what is the source of these greater works 1 In the Lord's ministry it is clear that the source of His never-ceasing activity consisted in the impulses which He was receiving constantly from the Father. He worked out what the Father wrought within to will and do of His own good pleasure. On one occasiol1, when challenged by His critics for working a miracle on the Sabbath, He replied, " My Father has wrought up to this moment of time. I am only working as He bids and prompts." Not only was He ever regarding the evolution of His Father's plan, but was ever conscious of the impulse of His Father's energy. To use His own words, He lived by the Father. This supplies the clew to the possession on the part of the Church of unceasing zeal and energy for missions. "Ve must depend on Christ, our Head, for the forthputting of His energy as He depended on the Father, who is designated by the apostle the Head of Christ.
For the. body of Christ to be stirred up to enthusiasm and endeavor in missionary enterprise by eloquent appeals from missionary platforms, by touching incidents that appeal to the emotions, by all the machinery of the modern missionary board, is like imitating the movements of life by the convulsive twitchings of nerve and muscle under the impulse of electricity. As soon as the current ceases the paralyzed limbs fall back into their former apathy. Where there is health, and the Head can exert its will on its members, there is no need for magnetic appliances. As the Father wrought through Christ for creation and redemption-for the un. folding of the history of Judaism up to the fullness of times, as well as for the works of His earthly ministry-so Christ is prepared to work through His people for those greater works-greater because what affects eternity must be greater than what affects time; greater because the soul is greater than the body, as the jewel than the casket j greater because the worm that never dies is more intolerable than cancer, the fire that is never quenched keener than fever. And where we are in living union with Him there will be no let or hindrance j but the goings forth of His mighty love to the salvation of men will pour through us with irresistible momentum.
Weare now in a position to understand the reasonableness of expect. ing greater works from the Church than were ever wrought by the Head. Clearly the Church has an argument to present to men which even her Master could not use. He could not point, except indefinitely, to the cross, its flowing blood, its testimony to a love that the cold waters of death could not stanch j nor could He count upon the cooperation of the Spirit in His convicting power as we can, but neither of these reasons will account for the greater works that have marked the progress of the Church through the ages.
Perhaps au illustration will best explain this further reason. Suppos. ing the great painter Raphael were to infuse his matchless power, as he possessed it during his mortal life, into some young brain, there is no reason why the genius of the immortal painter should not effect, through a mere tyro in art, results in form and color as marvelous as those which he bequeathed to all coming time. But suppose, further, that after having been for three hundred years amid the forms, souls, and colors of the heavenly world, he could return and express his present conceptions through some human medium, would not these later productions be greater works than those which men cherish as a priceless legacy ~ So, if the Lord were to work in His servants such works only as He did before He ascended to His glory, they would be inferior to those which He can produce now that He has entered into His glorified state, and has resumed the power of which He emptied Himself when He stooped to become incarnate. This is what He meant when He said, "Greater works, because I go to the Father."
The one cure, then, for lethargy of action or apathy of interest on the part of the Church is to be found in that profound word with which the Epistle to the Hebrews closes: "The God of Peace make you perfect to do His will." The better rendering would be " articulate, or put you' in joint." The members of the body of Christ are apt to become dislocated or stiff, hence the need of apostles and prophets, pastors and teachers for the articulating of the saints unto the work of ministering to the world.
A MISSIONARY ROMANCE
If we are in living fellowship with the Head He will work through us to fulfil His divine purposes. If, on the other hand, we are not used for the execution of those purposes which undeniably exercise our Lord during the present age, and which He is hastening to realize, we must attribute the failure to some break in the living union, some flaw in the connecting nerves.
Let it not be said that these considerations tend to quietism. They do, indeed, lead to the cessation of those fussy activities which are always abortive, but they tend to the increase of all those high Christian activities which never fail in their execution or design. The Apostle Paul could not be accused of quietism; he wrought more abundantly than all the apostles, preaching the Gospel from J ernsalem as his centre to Rome as his circumference. vVe have it in his own words that he strove according to the Divine energy which strove in him mightily. Christ wrought in him to make the Gentiles obedient in word and deed.
There is nothing, therefore, so much needed at the present time as a renewal of the belief of the Church in the Holy Ghost, and a larger measure of reliance on Him in its prayer-meetings and activities. Let us wait more persistently and constantly upon Him j let us make more room for Him j silent that He may speak j expectant that He may work j and surely as there was the early rain at the beginning of this dispensation there will be the latter rain at the close. When the whole body is in vital communion with its Head, new inspirations for prayer and work will begin to pour into its being and through its members,for there will be a repetition on a far larger scale of the spiritual results of Pentecost.
A MISSIONARY ROMANCE.-I.
CAPTAIN JAMES VVILSON, THE FIRST VOLUNTEER OF THE LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
BY GEORGE SMITH, LL.D., C.I.E., F.R.G.S.
Of the long roll of men sent forth by the London Missionary Society, which recently: held its first centennial commemoration, from Dr. Van_ derkemp down to David Livingstone and Chalmers of New Guinea, the first is still the most remarkable. He was James Wilson, ship captain, infidel, prisoner of the French, of Hyder Ali, and then, by the grace of God, the first to volunteer as a missionary to carry the Gospel in the good ship ])uff, which he helped to purchase, to the islands of the Pacific Ocean. The story of Captain James Wilson is unique in the history of Christian missions, so full of holy heroism and romance.
A century and a half ago a Captain Wilson sailed his ship in the trade from the great English port of Newcastle. The father of nineteen chil~ dren, he could not afford to give them much schooling, so he-brought up the boys in his own ship under his own eye from their earliest years. His youngest son was James, who thus lived at sea, amid influences of the worst kind, at a time when the mercantile marine of Great Britain was at its lowest moral point. When the war with America began the youth sought a career on land, in which his love of adventure could be gratified. There he served j there he took part in the battles of Bunker Hill and Long Island. The close of the War of Independence set him loose for other deeds. Returning to England, so good a sailor and fighter found no difficulty in securing a mate's berth on one of the East IndIa Company's famous traders and passenger ships. The high spirits of the youth and his knowledge of navigation commended him to his messmates and his officers alike j but he had not been long at Calcutta when he found that money was to be made, as well as a reputation to be gained, in the local mercantile or transport service j for that he left the East Indiaman.
These were the days of the war with Republican France and with the Mohammedan ally of the French, Hyder Ali, succeeded by his son, "Citizen" Tippoo. The great colonel, afterward Sir Eyre Coote, had defeated M. Lally at Wandewash, had ~aptured the capital of French India, Pondicherry, and had been rewarded by a seat in the Bengal Council, when the bungling soldiership of the British generals in South India summoned him to meet Hyder Ali, then close to the very walls of Madras itself. Captain James 'Vilson again and again ran the blockade which the French Admiral Suffrein for a time established on the Madras Coast, carrying military stores and supplies to Sir Eyre Coote. In 1780, when Hyder Ali burst on the Carnatie, Warren Hastings knew that the very existence of the East India Company was threatened, and spent millions to wipe out the disasters of Governor Whitehill and Colonel Baillie. Thrice Coote defeated Hyder Ali under most difficult circumstances, and all the time Captain James Wilson was running along a dangerous coast and up little known rivers to feed his force with the munitions of war. Courage and skill were never more successfully applied than by this Newcastle sailor, whose marine and military adventures extended from Bunker Hill to Negapatam in the East Indies.
At last, Wilson's over-boldness, when as usual attempting to pass the French fleet with military stores for Admiral Hughes, who had spent all his ammunition in a sea fight with Suffrein, led to his capture. He and his men were carried to the French prison at Cuddalore, where he found the crew of another British ship. Life was tolerable enough for the officers till the French commander received an order from Admiral Suffrein to deliver up all his prisoners to the tyrant Hyder, who had deliberately purchased them for three hundred thousand rupees, or a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The commander and his officers were indignant at the baseness of the transaction, but they had no alternative save obedience. Wilson determined to save his own life. Carefully observing the ramparts of tho fort as they rose from the river, he resolved to drop down at n~ht fall and find his way to the nearest British force. A brother officer and his Bctig'ali servant agreed to accompany him. The place of rendezvous was fixed, and the hour, being seven o'clock, when it became dark and the guard was changed. .
After waiting for the other officer, who did not appear, Wilson let himself drop down forty feet into the water below, striking, however, his chin upon his knees, and making a splash which, he felt sure, must have alarmed the sentries. After a little he found his way to the dry land at the foot of the wall, and there received his slightly-built servant in his arms safely enough; but the lad conld not swim, and the fort is in the midst of a network of rivers and backwaters. Thrice Wilson, with the Bengali on his back, had crossed the mouths of the Coleroon, and thcy were already within hail of Porto Novo at its principal entrance, when they were challenged by one of Hyder Ali's sentries. Plunging into the tidal current, they were soon involved in the breakers, which so frightened the native youth that Wilson returned to the shore, and sent him off to a friend. Again crossing the estuary, he found a canoe, in which he hoped to reach the Danish settlement of Tranquebar. Instead of this he was discovered by a party of Hyder's troopers, who stripped him naked, tied his hands behind him, fastened a rope to them, and drove him before them under the burning Slln some forty miles to his old prison. There he was chained to a British soldier, and thence the miserable band were marched on foot some two hundred miles to Hyder's capital and fortress of Seringapatam.
The horrors of that captivity have been described in more than one of the military biographies and histories of Great Britain. It was there that the famous Dnke of "Vi'ellington began his exploits when, at the close of last century, the fortress was captured and Tippoo Sultan fell fighting.
Only in one other instance have these horrors been exceeded, when Nana Sahib butchered the English officers, their wives and children at Cawnpore in 1857. As if James Wilson had not suffered enough, he had yet to undergo much more misery, compared with which death itself were better.
But God had great designs for him and by him, tho he knew Him not.
First of all, Hyder Ali himself offered him and the other captives liberty and rewards if they would enlist in his army and profess Islam. If not, they were threatened with tortures, long and lingering. Some are said to have yielded. Not so James Wilson. Tho ignorant of Christian truth and religious principles, he was a brave and patriotic man, who had fought his country's battles and valued her civilization. He refused, as the majority did, and was at once ordered to prison with a body of a hundred and fifty-three Highland soldiers of Colonel McLeod's regiment. Irons to the weight of thirty-two pounds were put upon him, and he was chained to a fellow, similarly loaded, night and day, Many a time when one of the two died the survivor remained thus attached to the festering corpse. In an open court-yard, exposed to the cold wind by night and the fierce sun by day, and starved till they feared to put a finger near their mouth lest they should bite it off, hundreds of Christian captives thus lay, and rotted, and died in the gloomy years of war in which, in South India, the eighteenth century closed. To add to his sufferings, Wilson was seized with dysentery, known as the bloody flux, which was a scourge of the foreigner in the tropics till the discovery of the ipecacuanha treatment forty years ago. Death seemed at hand, and he would then have died as do the beasts j but again God's longsuffering prevailed, tho he knew it not. Exchanging his miserable rice diet for a small and cheaper millet, he unconsciously effected a violent cure. -When only thirty out of a hundred and fifty-four survived, after such a captivity of twenty-two months, Sir Eyre Coote inflicted the third defeat on Hyder Ali, the few captives were released, and Captain James Vilson found himself in Madras, penniless and impenitent.
He gladly shipped as a mate to Bencoolen and Java, where, when at Batavia, the putrid fever, which was so fatal to the Dutch, well-nigh carried him off. He never got rid of the effects of his awful captivity, but he persisted in his trading, became part owner and captain of the ship, and at last achieved the fortune for which he had been working so long. After more than one relapse, and all along ignorant of or indifferent to the Divine hand which held his soul in life and was gradually preparing him for the highest form of service to the Master, he resolved to retire to England. It is a curious coincidence that John Thomas was surgeon of the East Indiaman in which he sailed. That first of medical missionaries, who was about to draw William Carey away from the islands of the Pacific, on which the Northamptonshire shoemaker had set his heart, to Bengal, made James Wilson only more determined in his infidelity. Neither by the persuasiveness of his speech nor by the gentleness of his life did he, Dr. Thomas, lead to Christ the man who so closely resembled him in temper and in adventures. The two disputed about religion, and mere controversy seemed to drive James Wilson farther from Christ. Thomas remarked after one of these disputations that he had more hope of converting- the heathen or Mohammedan lascars of the vessel than Captain Wilson. So it is that still, as in the days of our Lord and the twelve, some of His followers would call down fire from heaven. 'What a lesson to missionaries in all ages and lands, at home and abroad! Wilson landed at Portsmouth, bought a house and garden at Horndean, in Hampshire, asked an unmarried niece to be his housekeeper, and soon became known in the country round as "a worthy gentleman who had retired to affluence and ease from the East India service. "
He was only thirty-six years of age, and was so well satisfied with himself that he had no conscience either for the teaching of Providence in his past eventful life and preservation, or for the warnings of Scripture, which he did not believe to be a revelation from God, or for the example of his gentle niece, who sought to win him to faith and service. He was a Deist of the old school, and he gained so easy an intellectual victory over one of his neighbors, Captain Sims, a godly man, that he became confirmed in his scepticism. Vanity and pride so filled his heart that he turned God's goodness to him into an argument for the conviction that he was a special favorite of the Deity. But tho unable to give the self-suffi- cient and worldly captain any other reason for his own belief in the Bible than this, " He that believeth hath the witness in himself," Sims did not cease to care for his neighbor's sou!. Accidentally, as it seemed, Sims had his minister, Mr. Griffin, of Portsea, -with him as a visitor on a day . when he was asked to dine with Wilson, and the minister was)ncluded in the invitation. Sims saw his opportunity. Recurring to former debates, he appealed to his minister as, to a man equal to the controversy. Mr. Griffin deprecated discussion in such circumstances, lest he should be sus- pected of being present by some underhand arrangement. This only stimu- lated Wilson, who said: "I am glad of the opportunity to converse on the evidences of the so-called Divine origin of the Christian Scriptures, and I never met the clergyman yet whom I could not foil in a quarter of an hour." Thus challenged, the young minister accompanied his host to the garden, leaving Captain Sims with the niece and a lady friend, who was also a believer. It was a July sunset in a cloudless sky, when the work of soul-enlightening, soul-winning began. The Holy Spirit was with the young theologian, who had first silently invoked His power, according to promise. Step by step the two wrestled to this conclusion, pressed home on Captain Wilson with singular modesty but assured firm- ness, " If you reject the remedy provided by God, remember there is no other, and you may be finally wrong and finally miserable." As Sims approached them in the evening twilight, he said: "Has he convinced you, captain 1" to which Wilson replied: "I wiII not say much about that, but he has said some things I shall never forget. " He begged for a reading of Major Burns's" Christian Officer's Panoply," which he had before scoffingly returned to Sims, who had pressed it upon him, and he began to search the Scriptures for himself. He went to Mr. Griffin's service in Portsea on the next Sunday, when the prayers and the preachings alike opened his heart to the teaclling of Paul, in the eighth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans, as to how God had predestinated men to be conformed to Himself in His Son. The next sermon showed how those whom He did predestinate He aL'Io called, and Wilson sawall his past life in the light of that revelation. After solitary agonizing from darkness to light, the proud Deist, now a humble and joyful believer, visited Mr. Griffin to tell him this: "I have no language to express the happiness I now feel. The gratitude I owe to God will, I hope, be expressed in the life I have yet to live by my zeal in His service bearing some proportion to that which I 'have manifested in the service' of Satan." The two joined in magnifying the grace of God. In 1796 James Wilson became a member of Orange Street Chapel, Portsea, and the good work was completed under his friend's preaching on the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, when he fully comprehended that he had been saved to be the means of saving others. " What," he now ever asked himself, "has my faith induced me to do for others ~"
The London Missionary Society had been founded the year before; its first Secretary, Dr. Love, and his directors had resolved to begin operations in the new island world revealed by Captain Cook in his three voyages, and they appealed for volunteers to go forth as the first missionaries. Captain James Wilson was the first to volunteer. He placed himself, his marvelous experience, and his fortune practically at the disposal of the society. All his worldly plans and visions vanished in the light of the heavenly vision, to which he was no longer disobedient. After continual journeyings to and from London, distant from his home sixty miles, to make preparations for the voyage which he was to conduct, he sold Horndean and went up to London, where he established his niece. On June 28th, 1796, he purchased the ship Duff for five thousand pounds, and on August lOth she sailed from the Thames under this resolution, "That a mission be undertaken to Otaheite, the Friendly Islands, the Marquesas, the Sandwich, and the Pelew Islands, in a ship belonging to the society, to be commanded by Captain Wilson, as far as may be practicable and expedient. " Thus was the missionary sea-captain made for the mission by the Spirit of God, and began the work of Christianizing the islands of the sea, which had so long waited for His law, even during the seventeen Christian centuries since the British Isles first heard the good news of God. The story is told in that now rare quarto volume, published in London in 1799, "A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, performed in the Years 1796,1797,1798, in the Ship Duff, commanded by Captain James Wilson. Compiled from Journals of _the Officers and the Missionaries, and Illustrated with Maps, Charts, and Views drawn by Mr. William Wilson. With a Preliminary Discourse on the Geography and History of the South Sea Islands, and an Appendix including Details never before Published of the Natural and Civil State of Otaheite, by a Committee Appointed for the Purpose by the Directors of the Missionary Society. "
How Wilson and his thirty missionaries fared, and what has sprung in the first century from that expedition, we shall see hereafter.
A Hindu woman wrote to Victoria, Empress of India, recounting the many terrible wrongs under which the women of India labored and pleading with her to have them righted. With the recounting, the burden of their wrongs came on her afresh, and in bitterness of soul she crilld; "0 God, I pray thee, let no more women be born in this land."
THE FOREIGN MISSIONAItY WORK OF THE SALVATION AltMl'
THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY WORK OF THE SALVATION ARMY.
BY ROBERT E. SPEER.
The Salvation Army is a missionary movement. It has been so from the beginning. Its leaders were sent of God, and the movement which they established has known but one thing-its mission to the lost; but the lost are in every land, and it is impossible to confine to anyone land any movement which seeks to bring back to God the masses of His lost ones. Every living movement is a missionary movement. As a recent editorial in the Pittsburgh' Times on the missionary enterprise succinctly stated : " A party which should content itself with supremacy in a single State would quickly fall into decay. An idea worth entertaining is worth push- ing, and the more energetically it is pushed abroad the more influence it will command at home." And back of this is the mighty propulsion of the order of the risen Christ.
The Octobcr number of The Conqueror reports in Australasia, 482 corps and 1527 officers; in Sweden, 175 corps and 658 officers; in India and Ceylon, 186 corps and 584 officers; in France and Switzerland, 111 corps and 421 officers; in Denmark, 70 corps and 267 officers; in South Africa, 55 corps and 195 officers; in Norway, 63 corps and 267 officers j in Holland, 61 corps and 282 officers; in Jamaica, 34 corps and 57 officers; in Germany, 21 corps and 68 officers; in Finland, 17 corps and 58 officers; in Belgium, 14 'corps and 34 officers; in Argentine and Uruguay, 10 corps and 41 officers; in Italy, 7 corps and 29 officers; in Japan, 15 officers; in Icelto!nd, 4 officers; in Spain, 3 officers; in British Guiana, 3 officers; in Great Britain, 1217 corps and 4283 officers. In the ,main, fields have been avoided where officers would have to acquire a new language in order to be of service. "A Year of Grace, ,. one of the publications of the Army, declares of China: ",Ve have not as yet seen Ollr way to add to our existing responsibilities by attempting an attack on this vast empire," and suggests, as explaining the slow progress in South America, that the officers sent out from England h!lve to learn the Spanish language.
The most interesting field in which to observe the missionary operations of the Army is Indi!l, where the Army has been at work for thirteen years, and where it reported for the year 1894, 188 corps and 3513 ont.. posts, with 6 training garrisons for native cadets, 322 officers, 184 cadet~ in training, 13,573 soldiers, 73 schools for children, 3 Homes of Rest for sick officers, 4 Rescue Homes for Vomen, 1 Prison Gate Horne, and 1 fll:rm colony.
The Army's supreme method is direct, enthusiastic assault upon the strongholds of sin. It sets about these assaults with the instinct of victory which Bishop Thoburn, in "The Christles.s Nations," declares to pe the only justifiable Rpirit in the missionary army. ",Ve who are at the front," he declares, and Commissioner Ruhani.Bai would agree, " have no other thought than winning the battle in which we are engaged. We never expect to lower the banner which has been placed in our hands, and as the years and ages pass along we confidently expect the strongholds of sin one after another to be beaten down, and temples of righteousness to rise upon the right hand and the left." The reports of the Army work in India are full of this fervor-e.g., "A Year's Advance," page 30 : " Enthusiastic welcome of colonel to the Cape. Huge crowd at two days'
soldiers' meeting. Vadasary feast to 300 village children. Two days'
officers' councils closed with half-night of prayer, everybody wonderfully blessed and cheered. Thalakudi Barracks opened. Three babies dedi- cated to God; 500 people praying and 50 souls seeking salvation at mass open-air meeting." Or this description of a meeling, from the same report, page 25 : .. Soon after five o'clock the troops began to arrive and take up the positions allotted to them. The ground was admirably situated for making a successful demonstration, the meetings had been well announced, and it soon became appar· ent that there would be a large crowd. By eight o'clock nearly all the soldiers were present, one lassie officer whose corps is situated seven miles off bringing in one hundred soldiers with her. Lively singing, the firing of bombs, letting off of fireworks, the beating of drums, and a stick dance were all brought into requisition to fill up the time before the arrival of the colonel. It was quite late when the welcome news reached the waiting crowd of some fifteen hundred people that the colonel was on the ground. She had no sooner taken her seat than tremendous volleys rent the air, and soldiers from each corps marched up to the front, presenting her with garlands, until the colonel was buried in flowers. This over, Ensign Yesu Patham was called to tbe front and gave out a. song which,'accompanied by plenty of hand.clapping and a lively jig from some of the most enthusiastic and boiling-over soldiers, went with a proper swine. Prayer followed, and in connection with tbese meetings nothing has been mOTe remarkable than to see the crowd of men and women, whu until lately were devil·worshlpers, all on tbeir knees, and in audible voices following the leader of the meeting in prayer to tbe living God. The meeting now commenced in real earnest. A testimony from a well-known late devil-dancer, in full Salvation Army uniform, was very interesting. He had been a worsbiper of twentythree different deities. or devils, and was much in requisition by the villagers around when they were visited with an epidemic. and his gainR from these ignorant people were often large. He was also a great drunkard, swearer. and wife· beater. but was now well saved. a Salvation Army sergeant. and living in peace with his wife and all otbers in the village. Another devil-dancer from Ilindiadi, before giving his testimony, made his way to the front and presented the colonel with a quantity of relics from the temple which they had abolished since becoming Salvationists. These were mounted on a board, and consisted of the knife used for killing fowls or sheep, which the people would offer to appease the wrath of the devil. the anklets worn by the devil-dancer when dancing. the temple bell and tripod. This gift was gracefully received by the colonel amid tbe tremendous enthusiasm of hundreds of recently converted devil.worshipers. When this had somewhat subsided, the colonel said she was glad to see them. She had loved them before seeing them. and now she was actually with them, to receive this reception. so much beyond ber higbest expectations, she felt she loved them ever so much more," Mrs. General Keer, whose husband had formerly been for many years . in the Indian service, a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Somerville, who went to India in 1893 to see the work of the Army for herself, testifies to the accuracy of this representation. "The roar-shout of welcome when Muthabaranum introduced me was tremendous. I felt as if I would die of the sudden and overwhelming noise. Native voices and instruments, women's whistles, drums, and all combined and acting from heart-earnest- ness-yon can picture the awful thrill the noise occasions. They placed a lovely wreath round my neck. The contrast between the savage bar- barism of themselves and their customs and these lovely wreaths-the very essence of grace-is remarkable." "After the meeting that night they had a salvation dance with sticks, singing redemption, deliverance words all the time. It was a beautiful thing! A set of eight men with short batons tramped it. They strike their sticks together like swords.
This dancing used to be for the devil, with arrack; now it is for God.
They do it once a week in the moonlight. I never saw the sense before of ' Praise Him in the dance.' It was really eight Davids dancing before the Lord. It was as distinctly native in time and tune and action and style as possible. " The enthusiasm of the Army's work and its distinctive methods are perhaps not better illustrated than in the Boom Marches, of which the following is a description from "Behold their ·Walls," the report of the Indian work for 1894 : .. A Boom March meeting is a very interesting affair, I can assure you, and if you will accompany me in these pages. I will take you to one. The village of C – is selected for an attack, and announcements of our intention are duly made by our pioneers. who go on ahead to arrange the meetings, test the feelings of the people, and in general smooth the way for the troops to follow. By even· ing the head of the march is spied by a sentinel posted on the lookout. Soon some thirty or forty red· jackets, with banners flying and bugles braying, sweep through the narrow streets to the public square. All the village is gathered. The place is lit up, and a cot, covered with some gay cloth, is put in a conspicu· ous place for the chief gurus or officers to sit on, so that the pleased people may look upon them. As soon as the chief gurus enter they are received with a tremendous volley. The meeting is then started by some well·known tune, which every one can join in. Earnest prayer is offered, while all kneel with closed eyes. Definite testimonies are given, with soul·stirring bright singing in between. The interest never flags for a single moment. No yawning, no going to sleep there. Men, women, and children all wide awake, until at last the leader rises and lays the choice before the people of Christ and His service, with persecution in this life, and in the world to come life everlasting, or the devil and his service, with darkness and eternal misery hereafter. A solemn hush falls over the eager, listening faces. Heart strings tighten, for many, many are in the valley of decision. There is no having to ask the people to kneel, • just to please us ,- they understand that if they kneel with us they are ours, to share henceforth our persecutions and our wrongs. It means their ceasing to worship the devil or go to his temple. It means accepting our Christ, to be known from this time forth as Salvation Army soldiers. Hallelujah, the shout rises, as they, one by one, .towly yield. .. Soon every officer is down among the people, praying with some, pleading with others, and pointing others to the cross. Soon shouts of victory are heard everYWhere, for great has been the slain of the Lord. The converts are then instructed, the officers introduced as theirs, and are, if possible, left in the village the same night. And thus we sweep on, in each place leaving behind some one to shepherd the sheep, and rejoicing nightly over fifty or sixty, it may be one hundred, one hundred .and fifty, or two hundred precious souls seeking salvation, until our supply of officers runs short, and we are obliged to stop opening for the time being."
The Army faith claims the conversion not of single individuals only, but of villages and communities. The report for 1893 defines this as the proper faith for an Army officer : " A Salvation Army officer In a village, tho apart from the town and all its advantages, feels as happy or more so than anyone else possibly can, and living in a barracks made of mud and thatched with cocoanut leaves, sometimes in a small room attached to it as officers' quarters, devotes his time entirely to the salvation of the whole village. The village is not, among others, uninfested with thieves, drunkards, harlots, cattle-stealers, cock-fighters, devil-dancers, gamblers, etc., so he plans and schemes how he can reach them and point them to Christ, who can change their live8 of sin. The program of work for the week is before him, and before commencing to do anything, he, in the night, gets under a tree in the jungle, and there with his lieutenant, if he has one, spends some hours in close communion with the Lord, and gets a mighty baptism of his power and love, which makes him desperate for Jesus in the fight.
"His whole ambition now is to speak to the people of the love of Christ. Visiting and War Ory selling is a wide door opened for him to accomplish his purpose. He spends at least eighteen or twenty hours in visiting during the week. Of course he cannot visit as many houses as he can in a town, as the houses are scattered about here and there. Yet he does not pass one house without trying, in some way or other, to be a blessing to its inmates.
"Begging is another favorite means of the village officer. This he does almost every day of the week. By this means he reaches the hearts of the people he cannot gain by visiting and War Ory selling, wins their sympathy, and shows them that he is entirely depending upon them, whose spiritual and temporal welfare he is living for. He not only makes the people willingly help the work of the Lord, but makes his corps self-supporting, and thereby lessens the burden of the headquarters."
Of bona fide village conversion, Mrs. Keer unqualifiedly testifies: "Oh, if you could have just seen and heard those givings of testimony, you would not have doubted whether these villagers, converted in a lump, were saved or not I" "I have only one thing to say about the movement here, and that is that it is purely Pentecostal and beyond all human nnder- standing. The whole village is converted I" Of another village the re- port for 1894 says: "To-day in that village every soul is a Salvationist, and at their own desire Christian nallles have been given them." The reports and Mrs. Keer's letters alike are unqualified in their statements as to the genuineness of these conversions. "It is a real movement of God's spirit," writes Mrs. Keer, " as remarkable, and much more so, than the Irish revival, because these are heathen brought to God in fifties and hundreds, and they stand well, and snfier, and give, and astonish their caste neighbors and co-pariahs." In vigorous language" Behold their Walls," page 15, declares: " Tobiah to the front again. God bless you, Tobiah! Howl and gnash your teeth, but it will all be vain: the walls of fair Jerusalem are rising! One of the Nagercoil Tobiahs or Sanballats stated in a London paper that no such con- version of entire villages had taken place-at any rate, none to his knowledge. We take this opportunity of asserting not one but many such cases have taken place, where all the inhabitants have publicly abjured demonolatry and accepted Christianity, joined the Salvation Army, and to-day are not unsuccessfully learning to fully follow Jesus Christ as their God and Savior."
The reports do not suppress, however, statements which are of anxious interest to the careful missionary student. " Behold their Walls," pages 12, 28, and 73.
" Only lately a fearful famine faced hundreds of the poor, helpless villagers ; but their new gurus, the Salvation Army officers, had the satisfaction of obtaining work from the government for them at a very fair rate. By the kindness of friends they were also enabled to give food to many, old and young. They also fed hundreds-I mean, kept them alive-by boiling rice and giving them the congee made into a sort of rice soup." "In the above village (Nairug) every soul reckons as either a convert or soldier. At one of their big national festivals, when it is customary after cooking special food to offer it to the gods before eating it, they all brought their food to the officer instead, and told her to pray and bless it fer them. 'As we have forsaken our gods,' they said, 'you must be to us in their place.' One of t.he men, finding his wife had been to the temple to go through the customary ceremonies at the festivel, thought it his duty to reprove her for it by a good beating." "The wild ;:~&ik soldiers have increased to five hundred; and the Army among them has gained a new name-that is, , Red god8.' "
With all this aggressive evangelistic effort, however, there is not wanting, as the statistics already quoted have shown, an enlarging emphallis upon educational and institutional work. " 'Ve have been forced," says "A Year of Grace," page 54, "to combine a measure of educational work on behalf of our own people, confining ourselves to merely elementary and useful knowledge, and adding to this such a system of warm spiritual influence as to keep the great question of the salvation of every pupil perpetually to the front." And page 5 : "If it be indeed true that the hope of a nation is in the cradle, it is difficult to exaggerate the im. portance of this department of religious enterprise. It has often been remarked th::t in the most sweeping revivals of the world the best and largest results have been reaped among the young." In the Cape Comorin District twenty-one primary schools were reported, which, says" Behold their "Valls," page 14, "strengthen the people's belief in our permanent stay among them, and proves to them that we mean to teach, help, and elevate them, as well as to alleviate their hard condition in life. This assurance was necessary in the face of interested and reiterated statements made by the Tobiahs to the contrary." There are also Rescue Homes, a large and widely sought dispensary, and a farm colony of 557 acres. It is to be hoped that the experience of the Salvation Army in this last particular may be more encouraging than the experience of the missionary societies with the Christian village system has proved. The Army does not share the views of many of its advocates in this country, as to the uselessness of schools. "A Year's Advance" describes the school at Sabamarti as " one of the most promising features of our present work, ",hich bids fair to become one of the best grounds for training the future Indian leaders of the great Salvation Army."
The Army has not overlooked the necessity of the development of selfsupport, as " A Year's Advance" shows: .. The month.of February was made memorable by the launching of a scheme that had long been contemplated by our general and commissioners-that of selfsupport-the success of which Is very largely due to the strenuous and untiring efforts put forth by Staff-captain Isu Charan, who, for the time being, was told off to introduce it.
" The full meaning of self-support is the entire cost of any given work met by the people for whom the work exists, including cost of management and all the expenses of the different headquarters, as well as the supply of food and clothing to the officers in the village corps, and the payment of the corps expenses; but progress has not yet been made so far as this. At present efforts are being directed to get the people of each village, both saved and unsaved, to keep their officers supplied with food and clothing. Much more than this has been done in many corps in various parts, but there is yet much more to be done.
"The system of self-support that was adopted was simple, and in accord with the ideas of the people. Each soldier was expected to give one pice in cash or one sir (about a pint) of grain per week per family for the support of their officers. This was to be quite separate from the usual collections in the meetings. The village was divided into wards, and for each ward a local officer appointed to see that every soldier therein gave his pice regularly. These gifts were to be given to the corps treasurer, by whom they would be delivered to the captaiu after the amount had been entered in a book. Copies of the Jangi Pokar (Gujarati War Cry), containing the rules of the system, were posted up in each ward and in the sergeants' houses, so that the soldiers should become thoroughly acquainted with the scheme. It was found that much more money was given, in proportion, than grain, altho our people are so poor.
.. Staff-captain Isu Charan, writing a few months later on the subject, ' Selfsupport in Gujarat, Past and Present,' gave the following summary of their position in this respect : " , Gujarat is coming out victorious after a struggle long and hard, and of such a nature that those who loved it most had their faith and strength sorely tried. Self-support, or rather support of the stationed officers by the local soldiers, is the thing which was thought impracticable. For even this much, without the support oC superintending operations, the leaders prayed, and toiled to make the thing understood and carried out. The low-caste soldiers are poor, and accustomed to the Idea, In the Christian religion at least, that the rich sahlbs come to give to them. Outsiders said that our Gujarati officers would all clear off and never return if they had not to go to the sahibs for bread and butter, but to the people for bread only, and that uncertain and poor. Those officers have had to suffer to win-many were dismayed, not seeing so clearly as the gener,.l and others the absolute dependence upon these lines of not only the impport of the workers, but the very chance of all the soldiers working out their own salvation (not working for it). Some Gujarati officers left under the first struggle for support; s'till, on the whole, we never knew any people endure so well. We foreigners sometimes thought we saw the turn of the tide, sometimes not. We waited for the people themselves to decide it. That is what they are now doing. Hallelujah! Family officers have returned. Cadets are coming in again, and our total is higher than ever it was.
" 'The people of the villages, saved and unsaved, never before showed so much confidence in God's army, or listened in such numbers to its teachings. In the Bhll districts the officers have food given them and laid up for the monsoons, and they are preparing to do without even clothing allowance. With the increase of the work, as great a mountain as ever remains to be faced in the carrying on of its superintendence; for the local needs the soldiers have to add works to their faith, and for the general supervising operations, that rupees may come fast enough, we have to add faith to our works.' ..
Even among these poor, the blessing of self-denial has been earnestly taught. The feature of Salvation Army work in India which has received most attention has been its adoption of the manners and customs of the natives, with the self-sacrificing devotion necessary for this purpose and the econ- omy in the conduct of mission work which has been supposed to result from it. "Behold their 'Valls" tells of the introduction of the Army's work into India by Commissioner Tucker, who at the outset set the ex- ample of attempted identification with the people.
" The year 1882 stands out star-like in the annals of our glorious Army's history, dawning as it did a new epoch in its ethics, eternizing the Pauline doctrine of ' all things to all men,' as was emphasized in the person of our beloved Commissioner Tucker, who, like St. Francis of Assisi, wandered about barefooted, a voluntary outcast from wealth and pleasure, till he became to India's people what St. Francis was to his-that is, an embodiment of holy, consecrated humanity. A. little drop of the same Divine love had fallen in the commissioner's heart, and constrained him to become poor for India's sake, to take upon himself the garb of a poor fakir, that, by being an Indian to the Indians, he might happily win a few."
Native names were adopted by the foreign officers. Miss Booth, now Mrs. Booth-Hellborg, is called Ruhani Bai j Miss Barrington became Cap- tain Adarawanti, and Major Grundy became Major Eshwar Das and mar- ried a Hindu wife_ Mrs. Keer is especially enthusiastic over this adoption of native customs: "I watched a Salvation Army officer wash his clothes in a river where sometimes tigers come to drink. It was moonlight, and I could easily see how the practiced hand brought the cloth heavily down at a particular angle on the stone, so that the work was rapidly and effectually done. It struck me that. I had never seen or heard of a settled European missionary in India washing his single change of raiment before. Why need such an elementary style of life be adopted? Then I had a new view of the elastic and wonderful devotion of the Army. In particular districts its officers wash in rivers or tanks, be they clean or foul, that they may the more effectually become one with the poor people, who have so washed their clothes from time immemoriall The simple cloth and jacket and turban are hung up to dry 'and put on again without any ironing."
One of the fruits of this poverty is the necessity for begging, of which Mrs. Keer writes without concealment. "The Army begs at each port on board the ships, and is so poor in its headquarters that it would really be a cruelty in me to misrepresent them. The men-officers, and frequently the women, if not in ill-health, coming from India to Ceylon, travel steerage-deck-entirely, and it is awful with a lot of coolies on board in a storm! The hardships of the Salvation Army in India no one can fathom in imagination. I am glad I bave seen a little of their sufferings. I am ever increasingly filled with wonder at tbe Army." She berself wrote on October 30th, 1893, that she had not had a shoe or stocking on since she arrived on the 13th, but that, however, she was unable to eat the hot curry of the people, but had cold fish and tea. After a few days' experience in the work, and having slept two nights in a mnd hut, Mrs. Keer wrote: "By this time I utterly and forever had decided that this was the way to do, if you wanted to get at the people." All this, however, she believes to be worth the cost. "Wholesale crucifixion to likes and dislikes, and a determination never to come down from the cross, would be the only way to begin and continue. Yet, certainly, Europeans can't do continuously all that natives do. The Army has had to modify much, but it still is, far out of sight, a native thing beyond any other mission in the land." "As Ambai said to me: ' No one knows what they will haye to go through when they come to India j but all who do the work say it is lovely, and worth the cost of personal feelings. The life at headquarters, being sort of English, none of the village officers enjoy.' For my own part, I do think village life in some ways less unpleasant than life at these headquarters in a sort of a fifth-rate European style, mingled with some objectionable native conditions." "The Salvation Army is the hope of India because it lives crucifixiou and holiness."
The Army in India would seem not to be overlooking the necessity for proper training. Village young men and women are gathered into the training garrisons or are stationed out in villages under the immediate eare of some experienced officer, and weekly or oftener are gathered at some district center for regular instruction. The understanding, at least in Gnjarat, is that cadets will receive no salary, and only such sustenance as can be raised among their own soldiers. Of course the organization is monarchical. "A ride of some twenty-eight miles from Poona," says "Bchold their ·Walls," page 26, "brings us to Major Yuddha Bai's headquarters, where she reigns and rules as Queen Ahsolnte. Her division contains at present 4 sections, with some 13 corps manned by 24 officers, 10 candidates, 149 soldiers, and a miscellaneous following of some 305 recruits.' , This would seem to he in miniature the organization of the whole Army, over which the general is supreme, and throughout which his jnftuence is unmistakably felt. "Behold their W aJls/' page 8. " Throughout the whole of our Indian territory rang the battle-cry: • General expects evel'y man to do his duty.' So Madras answered the call by gathering her forces together and starting the campaign with a half night of prayer. And it was this little muster, while hearts were melted and weighted with the load of eternal tlIings, that formed the daring plan of capturing one hundred prisoners from the enemy. God was great, their cause righteous, so they must expect great things, yea, do great things; so they resolved to add to their jubilee honors by raising fifty soldiers and bringing fifteen cadets to the Training Home. So with faith that laughed at impossibility, backed by prayer and hard work, they led an attack on the forts of darkness, capturing 124 prisoners, recruiting 71 soldiers, and swearing in 22 cadets. Glory to God !"
The optimism of the Army's work finds ample expression in its reports, as does also its consciousness of self-sacrifice. " Behold their Walls," page 6. "Between that ever-memorable year 1882 and this 1894, stretches a vista of twelve years. If the area of those twelve years could be focused on paper, brought panorama-like before the eyes. of the world, what a sublime spectacle would it present! What spanless oceans of unselfish, loving service, what spanless seas of victories, gilded and garnished by unvoiced sufferings! How full of those tender sunlight and shadow touches, that waken music in our hearts, when we read the story of Him who walked by Galilee." Or" A Year of Grace," pages 49 and 50 : "No one who has given any time to examining the fabric of heathendom, colossal tho it be, can hesitate to believe that it is daily approaching a complete and universal collapse. In a few decades at most Buddhism, Hinduism, Mohammedanism, and fetishism will be as completely wiped out of existence as the Druidism of Great Britain. Looked at from a lteathen standpoint, Christianity has somewhat lacked the enthusiasm, the coloring and demonstration which the Oriental mind associates with ilie declaration of his religious convictions, and it has maintained a foreign element, or aspect, which has been distasteful to the national prejudice. In these respects the Salvation Army has appeared wonder· fully to supply the missing link, and has presented Christianity in such a manner as very largely to obtain non-hostile consideration."
These quotations from the official reports of the Salvation Army are set down out of kindliest sympathy with the Army, to give a clearer under- .standing of its work, with which all friends of missions have great sympathy, and for which they desire every success, however solicitous they may be as to particular features of the Army's operations and methods. It must be borne in mind that Major Jai Bhai, who has been in India about thirteen years, has had a longer experience than that of any other Salvation Army officer in India ; so that there has in reality been time for no one of the leaders of the Army in India to enter very fully into an understanding of the thought of India and the life and language of her people. And there are some features of the work of the Army which, in the judgment of many, it would be desirable to have modified. One objection made in India to the work of the Army, writes a careful observer from Calcutta, is that " it does not insist on baptism (and that is the only thing that keeps back many natives. Hindus can do everything Christian except be baptized or take communion without breaking caste). In their reports of conversions, they count everyone who says he accept.;; Christ asidl:l from his willingness to be baptized. It is a question whether in native communities the Army does not do distinct harm by recognizing as Christians those who refuse to obey so ,definite a command as to be baptized." In his little book on " Christian Service among Educated Bengalese," Rev. Robert P. Wilder speaks of an interview with Mrs. Booth-HcUborg, in which he told her of the way in which many students who seemed to be on the threshold of making an open Christian confession, fell back on the plea that the Salvation Army does not baptize, and asked: "Are not the friends and members of the Salvation Army Christians ~ If they do not regard baptism as essential, why should I regard it so~" Mrs. Booth· Hellborg's defence was: "If baptism were so important, God would have revealed its importance to my sainted mother and to my good father. "
"I do not think," adds Mr. Wilder, " that the Salvation Army leaders and sympathizers in Europe and America realize how seriously they injure Christ's cause in India by disobeying His plain commands concerning baptism and the Lord's Supper. Missionaries in India are practically unanimous in the belief that baptism is the test for educated Hindus. A Babu mar cease worshiping idols; he may neglect the Hindu Shastras and read the Bible; he may believe in Jesus and confess Him openly by word of mouth-all this will not make an outcast of him; but the moment he is baptized persecution begins; then, and only then, he Is regarded as really a Christian by his Hindu friends. "
Complaint has been made against the Army also because of its trans- grelilsion upon territory already comparatively well occupied by other mis- sionary societies, and for its apparent willingness to enter into competition with these other societies, even to the extent of diverting their converts and native helpers, while there are still large regions wholly unoccupied.
The report for 1894 states that" the Tittuvilli District has been the most successful of our fields so far." And yet of this very district Mr. Duthie, a missionary of the London Missionary Society at Nagercoil, writes : " Tittuvilli. let, me remark, is a small district under a native pastor, whose head station is six miles from Nagercoil. It is a rice·growing part of the country, with a considerable number of pariah villages. The IJondon Missionary Society has been working there for many years. The pariahs there were in slavery when the missionaries came, and were set free by them many years ago. Much labor and money have been expended upon these people. Every village has been visited by our preachers hundreds of times, and great numbers in the courS6 of these years have been brought under the influence of the Gospel. We have now in Tittuvilli 15 congregations, 1773 adherents, and upward of 1000 children in our schools. Tittuvilli and Nagercoil districts have had more Christian workers for many years than can be found in any other country districts of India of the same size. Let this fact be noted. Yet this is the locality upon which the Salvation Army has been concentrating its forces for the past three· years, their work in numerous other places having been abandoned.
" But I proceed to state a few particulars illustrative of their methods of working in Tittuvilli; and, that there may be no mistake, I give names of places and people as far as possible. At present the Salvation Army work is carried on there by about fifty·seven officers or agents in fifteen villages, only four of which were purely heathen. In every one of the other eleven the London Missionary Society has been working for many years. The people of one village, called Velankadu, consisting of sixty-seven adults, was reported in the War Cry two years ago as having become entirely Christian. According to the 0'1"1/, they had all become Salvation Army' heroes j' but when inquiry was made, soon after the statement appeared in print, not a Ollristian could be found in the place. Up to this time, also, that village is entirely heathen. The headquarters of their work is at a village called Talikudi, which has been a London Missionary Society center for many years. They have a meeting-house there within two hundred yards of the London Missionary Society chapel. Fifty-six of our people have joined them, of whom fifteen are employed as ' gurus,' or agents, and in that one village, while the London Missionary Society has one evangelist, two schoolmasters and two Bible-women, the Salvation Army officers are nineteen in number.
" In Puliady there are no heathen, all are London Missionary Society Chris· tians; yet recently the Salvation Army went in there also and conducted meetings. At South Arasankuli, which has but one street, where the London Mis· sionary Society has been working for a long time, meetings were held on October 3d by Major J aikodi. Flags were displayed in three places. one fiag being opposite the London Missionary Society chapel. The two 'gurus' working there were formerly in London Missionary Society employ. One, called Asseer, got four and a half rupees j present pay in Salvation Army, seven and a half rupees. At Chekkadi the London Missionary Society has forty Christians. The heathen there number about thirty-seven. The Salvation Army has begun work in that village also. In fact, as our native missionary states, where there is a Christian congregation, and eRpecially where there are people who have backslidden or have been excluded from the London Missionary Society communion from any cause, there the Salvation Army goes and begins operations.
" As to their methods of working, a favorite plan is to visit just before the London Missionary Society worship begins; to express a desire to have prayer in a house; and in this way to make attendance at the regular service a matter of difficulty or impossibility. Sunday work, after worship, is allowed, which no doubt is a recommendation to some. Moreover, efforts have been made which have been successful in several instances, 1 regret to say, to entice our London Missionary Society agents, as in Coimbatore, to join them on promise of higher pay. A dis· affected deacon (Varempettan) of one of our churches has been taken on as a • guru,' and draws seven and a half rupees per month. Rival schools are established in some parts within a. quarter of a mile from the London Missionary Society schools.
" Our native pastor complained 0. short time ago to Yesubatham, staff-cap. tain, of some of these things, and particularly about their enticing away our agents by offering them higher pay. The reply was that he was not aware that anything of the kind was going on, and that he should make his complaint to officers of lower grade.
" As to TittuviIli, truth compels me sorrowfully to say, after two or three years' experience, that instead of being what Christian workers everywhere would rejoice at, a valuable evangelistic agency to' raw heathen' in thousands of places in India as yet untouched by the Gospel, the whole method of Salvation Army proceedings there is well calculated to provoke strife, to cause divisions in Christian congregations, to unsettle Christian workers, to foster the caste spirit. to lead to the disregard of the Lord's day and the ordinances of the Lord's house, Christian people at home and elsewhere, who support the Army, being mean. while led to believe, by a system of reporting which has been &hown over and over again to be utterly hollow, and worse, that the Salvation Army is gloriously marching on to victory, • raw heathen' in t7wu3ands being swept into the Chris- tian ranks, when, in fact, no such thing takes place. But to collect a crowd by means of torches, a band~ shouting and dancing, is, in this country, and espe- cially among the easily excited pariah people, the easiest thing possible. The abandonment of idolatry and becoming steady, patient disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ is a different matter altogether."
This same difficulty and other possible perils of the Army's work are kindly but firmly treated in an earnest and dignified letter, which was issued in 1889 by the missionaries of the nine societies at work in Madras.
.. The work of the Salvation Army in India has been much extolled by some , critics, and attempts have been made to claim for it a measure of success far greater than that which has followed the missionary work of the societies; but such attempts have been made on wholly insufficient grounds.
.. The statistics of the Army for India have not been tabulated with exactness, and its official reports have not placed before the public all the facts on which a true verdict should rest. While we earnestly desire the success of every mis- sion agency, which in the spirit of Christ seeks the salvation of India, we are compelled to state that in South India the work of the Army has not been suc- cessful. Recent statistics, and statistics are the approved and applied test of the Army itself, show that its adherents, few of whom are really the result of its own work, are decreasing in number. It has swelled its ranks with the converts of other churches, who have not been improved by the transition, and many of them hltve again returned to their own folds. The whole of its work has been done within areas under process of evangelization by other societies, and only where churches have been planted and work firmly estabIlshed by other mission agencies have Salvation Army agents planted themselves, and only to exert a disturbing infiuence on existing churches. By such a course only, unjust and objectionable as it is, has it been possible for the agents of the Army to exist in India. Compelled by their rules to seek local self-support, they have found it easier to exhibit their need and appeal with success to Christians than to appeal to Hindus, and in this way they have diverted funds from other Christian work. Only the merest fraction of their support has ever come from non·Christians. Tho there are many districts in which from want of laborers no missionary work is done, the Army has carefully avoided these. It has been compelled to seek the common necessaries of life first of all, so that the choice of fields has been determined not by the spiritual needs of Hindus, but by the material needs of the Army.
" It has been affirmed that the agents of the Army have been able to come into closer sympathy with the natives of India than missionaries do, and that they have done this by discarding the dress and customs of Europeans. Both these statements are incorrect. For at least two centuries the Englishman has been a familiar figure in India. To this generation he is now almost as familiar as the Mussulman. To Hindus his dress seems to be even attractive. While no Hindu dreams of adopting the Mussulman costume, thousands of Hindus are now adopting the English dress; it is impossible, therefore, that what is familiar and attractive can at the same time be specially repellent. All who know anything of human nature will agree that not by a particular dress, but by intelligence and true sympathy, do we find access to the hearts ot men. Soul must touch soul. And eating curry and rice with one's fingers and wearing long hair are poor substitutes for a knowledge of the language and thought of Hindus. We are certain that the weight of intelligent testimony entirely confutes the Salvation Ai'my statements on this matter.
.. Following the assumed success of the Salvation Army, the question has been raised, 'Could not a cheaper European agency be employed with advantage in the mission field?' To this we reply that any European agent who is efficient and who is duly maintained will be useful. With regard to the Army, however, we would point out that the cost of its European agents in India has never been made known. Further, it should be noted that the number of deaths among them has been exceptionally large, and the number of those laid aBide by sickness very great as compared with other mission agents. By death, by sickness, or by retirement from mission work, the number of its agents has baen terribly reduced, and we attribute this alarming waste and unnecessary wear and tear to the way of living imposed on the agents of the Army. Again, the average stay 'of these agents in India is notoriously brief, and since most of them have never become acquainted with the vernacular, their value as effective agents is more than doubtful. The plan of operations which the Army has adopted, and according to which its agents are compelled to work, is such that while all the disabilities and risks peculiar to life in India are needlessly multiplied to them, there has been no compensating gain in efficency or in power; and since Christianity is not Hinduism, why an English evangelist in India should resemble a Hindu beggar is not evident.
"In eaprit de corp8 and in completeness of consecration to the work which they are sent to do, the agents of the Army have our sincere respect; and because we desire to see the Army no longer a parasite, but a powerful and permanent missionary agency, we would urge attention to the following points-viz.: " 1. That a higher standard of intelligence be fixed for its European agents. "2. That begging, as now practised, cease to be compulsory. " 3. That they be not compelled to denationalize themselves by renouncing European dress and customs. " 4. That its work be dune in fields chosen in consultation with other societies, so that unnecessary friction and waste may be avoided. " 5. That its agents receive an allowance sufficient for their support. " 6. That, since influence is cumulative, the itinerant system be less violently practised, and agents be permitted to remain for a longer period in places where they are calculated to be useful."
The Army is not unaware of these criticisms, as passages like the following from "Behold their Walls" indicate: "Vith a heart broken, melted, and permeated with this Calvary love-this Christ essence-Commissioner Tucker was commissioned by General Booth to build a wall of salvation around India. And in spite of the caviling, envious Sanballats (critics), Tobiahs (churchmen), the Ashdodites and Arabians, of difficulties, sicknesses, hatred, and persecution, a fair and goodly wall is being raised, a grand portion of which already encircles sun-bedazzled Hindustan, and embraces many a village in storied Ceylon. So the walls are rising, the burned stones from the heaps of rubbish are being revived, while our poor little two-legged Sanballats (critics) waste their precious God-given time and talents in writing columns for the devil's manual of misstatements and distorted truths. We wish them joy in their dirty work."
NEW FORCES FOR MISSION WORK
It· is greatly to be desired, however, that the Army will not so flatly refuse advice kindly proff!Jred to it by men of as great earnestness of spirit as its own officers, of much deeper acquaintance with India, her languages, her religions, and her people, and with a much longer missionary experience. The true friends of missions believe that the Army has a place in missionary work, that it stands for some valuable principles. Some of them agree with Mrs. Keer that "sad harm has been done to converts by missionaries who taught natives European ways. A harvest of extravagance and worldliness is now being reaped in native Christian circles in cities, directly traceable to this mistake. " The Army stands for neglect of hampering conventionalities, for the instinct of victory, for simplicity of method, for the need of a present and complete salvation from sin, for an indigenous, self-denying, self-supporting, selfextending Christian organization. It needs to be careful, however, lest its divine impulse degenerate into martial enthusiasm j its self-sacrifice into self-satisfied and pharisaical asceticism. It should work with the other missionary societies rather than as their competitor and antagonist. It should beware of mistaking a change of clothing or of song and dance for a living faith in Christ. It should inquire whether much of its militarism is not as European as the ways of which Mrs. Keer complains, and is not likely to be as fruitful of harm. It is felt by many, also, that the Army needs in India wiser and stronger management. The discipline of the Army needs to be better adapted to the needs of the country, and there seems to have been wanting that harmony of view among its Euro. pean officers which is the condition of the fullest blessing of God. Many friends and helpers of the Army's work, also, have been unable to suppress a feeling of regret at the boastful tone of "Behold their WaIls j" and while they pray that the Army's work may be ever more and more successful in every land, they do not fail to add the petition which has been the strength of the Moravian Church, "From the unhappy desire of being great, good Lord deliver us. "
NEW FORCES FOR MISSION WORK.
BY ERNEST B. GORDON, BOSTON, MASS.
The present century is westering to its close. It has been, by com· mon consent, the very culmination of all the centuries, prolific beyond previous conception in all fields of human activity. It has been also a century in which the Divine hand has made itself felt as never since the apostolic era. It has been a century of opportunity. It has been a century of expansion. It has been a century of intensive religious experience, too, as well as of extensive missionary operation. It rose upon a world lying in the shadow of death. Darkness was upon the face of the deep'. Whole continents were not so much as explored, t4I say nothing of being opened and evangelized. It closes upon a world clear in every direction to the advance of Christendom-a world the farthest points in which can be reached in a few weeks by Christian agencies. It closes with a missionary movement unparalleled in its successes-a movement whic~ is yearly gaining strength and tidal propulsion; for India is trembling on the brink of a landslide; Japan, after reaching the farthest point of reaction, is turning again with redoubled energy toward Christ; Africa is ablaze in a hundred points-in Uganda, in Basutoland, in Madagascar ; Russia is being honeycombed with a vital nonconformity; China is entering upon an era of Renaissance in which the patient labor of a generation of missionaries will doubtless now reap its full harvest. World over the fountains of the great deep are breaking up. 'VorId over one finds indications of great, solemn, incomparably important changes. Christianity, in fulfilment of the Divine program, is becoming a universal religion. The Gospel of the kingdom is being rapidly witnessed to throughout the world.
When we turn, however, to the home agencies in this earth-wide work of evangelization, we find much that is discouraging. America and England, in common with the commercial world at large, have been suffering from serious and long-continued financial depression. From such epidemics Christians are, of course, not quarantined, and the practical effect on the operations described above has been that which naturally results from shrinkage in income and retrenchment in plans. Not a missionary board but has been aftlicted with the incubus of deficit. Not a local church but has received its quota of circulars describing the pressing urgency and sore need of the executive committee directing at headquarters. The resources of the churches are ample. The wealth of Christia~s has been too often dwelt on to need restatement here. It is in sense of obligation and in extent of spiritual vision that their poverty lies. Without an enrichment in these directions it is doubtful whether the repeated recurrence of these periods of distress can be warded off.
Pending such an enrichment of the inner life of present-day Christianity, we must cast about for other means of carrying on the appointed work. It is an open question to the writer whether or not, in view of the extraordinary changes in the world since the days of J ndson and Martyn, the method of conducting Christian missions is not in a large degree archaic. Conditions were such in the early part of this century as to make unavoidable the substitution of "send ye into all the world" for the received version of the passage. Such an interpretation is by no means so pertinent nowadays, when the whole world is open to alien residence and accessible at the shortest notice. To distribute Bibles in Rome fifty years ago meant imprisonment or worse; to disembark on Japanese soil meant the loss of one's head; to undertake mission work in three countries out of four was equivalent to martyrdom. Long distance w.ork was then a necessity. It behooves us now, however, in view of these changes, to inquire whether we are really working with the right end of the lever. Is it not possible that the distressful financial situation has a lesson in it for the Christian Church ~ And may not that lesson consist in a new emphasis on the personal equation, the return to a literal and personal interpretation of the great commission ~ This doubtless may seem hazy and impractical to many readers. Consider a moment. The last federal Congress passed legislation looking to the imposition of a tax on incomes. This, as all know, was set aside by the courts. Suppose, however, that the law had stood, that the assess- ments had been drawn up, and that one could have gotten free access to the lists. What a story would they not have told us! 'Ve should have there read of hundreds of thousands of incomes contribnting less to the work which Christ set us to do than to the Government at Washington for its new ironclads and improved ordnance. If we could get more precise information, we should learn that all up and down the land are scattered Christian men and women, with incomes little or large, yet sufficient for support, whose interest in this great epoch- movement is confined at most to an annual subscription and to a diligent I attendance upon missionary meetings. To such we address ourselves. They constitute the reserve force, the landwehr, which should be called into immediate action. The representative system cannot last much longer: A missionary propaganda conducted solely by proxy will soon be felt to be an anachronism. We need a new RefOl'mation, which shall emphasize the universal missionary function as the German Reformation did the universal priesthood of believers. A general movement, a Christian diaspora, can alone cope with the gigantic needs of the situation. The destruction of Jerusalem scattered'the brands which.fired the whole Roman world. The exile of Stundists has in our day been instrumental in the diffusion of the Gospel through much of Central Asia, Siberia, and Asia Minor. Is it possible that Christians of England and America need the heavy hand of persecution before starting on the mission which has been entrusted to them as to chosen children ~ The paid missionary should be to the Christian Church what the picket is to the main army. Steadily has he advanced; farther and farther has he pushed toward the enemy's lines. Has he now the requisite support- ing column at his back? Have the numerous outlying regions which he has reconnoitred and cleared been occupied 1 Is the work of the Chris- tian Church accomplished when she has thrown far out in front her thin line of missionaries ~ Are there not thousands with sufficient to support themselves comfortably in Palestine, in Japan, in Egypt, and elsewhere, who are instead taking their ease in the quiet and safety of the home Church? Now and then one finds independent workers in the field-in the Church Mission in India, for example, and in the China Inland Mis- sion ; but could not these be multiplied by hundreds if the situation were clearly brought before the minds of home Christians? Would it not be possible to establish a League of Self-supporting Volunteers, to organize a Bureau of Information which should supply intelligence of the particular needs of different fields,. and advice concerning cost of living, safety of person, climatic conditions, opportunities for Christian companionship, etc.? Could not volunteer substitute teachers in this way release for more distinctly evangelistic work those engaged in teaching history and mathematics and English in mission schools? Could not such enlist for short terms-five or ten years-not committing themselves necessarily for life residence?
Everybody knows how ubiquitous is the trader in the remoter regions of the earth. Scarce a tribe in Africa but has rued his coming; scarce an island in the South Seas that is unacquainted with his cheap manufactures and illicit liquors. It is not so generally known how largely men of culture, wearied with civilization, have betaken themselves to the wilderness. We know how Stevenson loved Samoa, choosing it as both home and burial-place before his Scotch birthplace. Tahiti offered for years a like refuge to the brilliant Pierre Loti. Madagascar became the adopted home of Le Conte dc Lisle. Olive Schreiner lives with her husband far up in the great Karoo of South Africa. Lafcadio Hearne has married a Japanese wife and settled down in a Japanese village, and Count Tolstoi has left the brilliant life of Western Europe for the isolation and monotony of Russian village life. Surely Christians have a higher, a more urgent motive to expatriation than the nefarious profit of the trader or the caprice of an ennuied litterateur. Surely, if the Pauline spirit has not entirely died out of the Christian Church, some may be found who without the entanglement of official connection stand ready to reinforce as volunteer anxiliaries the impaired regular forces of Christian missions.
Such a movement could be greatly facilitated if we could disillusion possible volunteers of the supposed universal formidableness of the missionary life. It is a mistake to suppose that missionaries are always and everywhere subject to hardship and suffering. Undoubtedly this was so in the inception of the missionary movement of our century. Doubtless it is so in many quarters now-along the fever-haunted coasts and riverbottoms of Africa, in the intolerably crowded cities of China, and in the thrice-heated plains of Southern India. On the other hand, there are fields for missionary labor which have a charm and attractiveness far surpassing that of the home-land itself. Of the uplands of Ceylon, for example, one could say, in the appropriate words of an Arabic inscription upon the Taj : "If there is a paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this." Indeed, this fact is now so generally recognized that Ceylon is becoming one of the favorite resorts of the idlers of winter-time, a sort of Asiatic Riviera or California. And speaking of France, where could one find a more promising field spiritually than among her people, weary of Romanism, disenchanted of the Sodom.apples of pleasure-seeking, ready to consider and accept the way of life 1 What would not the McAll Mission give for a contingent of one hundred newly enlisted self-supporting workers for the evangelization of French cities-a sort of lay order like the Tertiaries of St. Francis 1 And from the point of view of personal expenditure and personal discomfort (tho it may seem unheroic, indeed, to dwell on this), where would one suffer less than among the kindly peasantry of Normandy and the Limousin 1 Then consider Italy, with its multitude of unfolded and uutaught. Why should Christian men and women, who perchance are without especial cares and responsibilities, prefer taking an interest in missions at home, in New York or Chicag9, to taking a part in missions in Florence or Rome 1 Are there not great possibilities of usefulness here 1 Could we find a sturdier stock than the peoples of Piedmont and Lombardy 1 Could we find more necessitous ones than those of Sicily and Calabria 1 Are there no Christians wintering in Asheville and St. Augustine who could spend their spare months in Naples and Girgenti to the greater glory of God and to the hastening of His kingdom? The ·Winter Mission of English Christians among the English-speaking people of India is a precedent which could be followed elsewhere. And, not to mention other European fields, what shall we say of Greece and of Spain, so long closed to missionary effort by religious exclusiveness and bigotry 1 Are not these countries purposely open for those unable to undergo the dangers and hardships and persecutions of the back provinces of China and the Hinterlands of Africa 1 If one should draw up a list of places fitted for such volunteer effort, what a category of Edens he would have! Not to recall again the numberless European fields, there would be the lovely islands of the Hawaiian group; Samoa, with its great hotels at Apia ; Darjeeling and Simla and Naini Tal, in the foot-hills of the Himalayas-of gloriously even clime, under the shadow of the gigantic Alps of Asia j Utacamund in the Nilghiri Hills, with its marvelous rose-hedges and sunsets; Hakone, Kyoto, Nikko, and a hundred other places in Japan-for Japan should be a veritable stronghold of the independent mission. No mission-field has a more tractable people, none is more delightful iu climate, in historical association, in present-day interest j none has a larger community of Englishspeaking people (save India), and missionaries are-we speak from personal acquaintance-of all people, the most neighborly, the most Christian, the best informed. No country has a smaller criminal residuum, in no place is life safer. European women can go through the loneliest roads in the country wit.hout fear. What opportunities at every tea-house to teach the way of Jesus, as Jesus Himself taught it by the well of Sychar ! Where could a volunteer colporteur, with bag and bicycle, find better openings for effective work than along the great highway of the Hokkaido, with its innumerable villages, its passing traffic, its journeying wayfarers 1 Further, it is a peculiarly opportune time for such enterprises in the Sunrise Kingdom. The new treaties have made the interior accessible as never belore since the first opening of the country, and recent events have resulted in a gratifying subsidence of the anti-foreign feeling of the J oi faction. Nowhere, again, could one have a greater choice of climate, if this should happen to be a consideration. The cold and snows of Yezo and the sub-tropical vegetation of Kiushiu indicate the wide stretch of the climatic arc. We can, indeed, conceive of no happier place for a joyous missionary service than in this land, under the long shadows of Hiyesan and of Fujiyama.
We have pleaded for a new exodus, an outpouring into the ends of the earth of those who are able to go, like the medireval vavasor, who furnished his own horse, lance, and armor. Yet there is a final reserve (we say it in spite of traditionalists of missionary policy) which has been brought into play with little success as yet perhaps, but which with proper management can be used with real effect. We refer to the mission supporting itsclf on the field. Objection will be immediately taken j yet we have high precedent, for did not the greatest of all apostles write that his own hands ministered unto his necessities ~ And if Paul could sew tentcloth in the intervals of his evangelistic work at Thessalonica and Athens, might not, for example, men trained at Princeton and Amherst write correspondence for American papers while laboring in the high places of infidelity in Paris and Vienna ~ The writer knows of a Russian journalist, converted in a Baptist mission in the former city, who is an efficient coworker in his spiritual birthplace, and even succeeds occasionally in introducing the Gospel surreptitiously into his contributions to the home papers, spite of the keen surveillance of Orthodox censors.
And, again, in more distinctively pagan lands are there not opportunities which American ingenuity could avail itself of for the futherance of mission work ~ We speak not of China and India, where the illimitable ocean of economic competition would soon drown all such efforts. Yet even here, in outlying dependencies, much might be done. Why, for instance, could a self-supporting mission, organized by Christian farmers of Kansas or Nebraska, not be established in Korea V One could hardly want better conditions-an inexhaustible soil, high prices for products (for butter, cheese, potatoes, and such supplies generally are imported to the East from California, Switzerland, and Australia), a ready market in the treaty ports of China and Japan, and the Nippon-Yusen-Kaisha steamers to carry produce to these points_ When the land has finally quieted down after its experiences of yesterday, and has become straightened out by the efficient administrators of Japan, it will be, in the writer's thinking, no worse a home for Americans than the alkali, drought-afllicted, storm-torn prairies of our country. Surely in the interim of five years which men require for the mastery of their new language, such employment would be welcome to many and a source of sufficient income to defray the outlay of the preparatory period. There is no Quixotism here. We believe the farmer has his place in the missionary economy as well as the physician, the school-teacher, the translator, and the theologian. This is especially true of South Africa, It is a common enough thing for a brace of Scotchmen to settle in the highlands of Pondoland or Gazaland, there to build houses and plant vineyards. This they do with no ulterior purpose beyond the m,ere getting of a living; but surely 1here must be Christian artisans and farmers who could do the same thing, while making their final aim the evangelization of the populations of degraded blacks all about. The Cape General Mission and the Baptist Mission in' South Africa have both received, we understand, from Sir Cecil Rhodes, large tracts of land for such colonization. We doubt not, if Bishop Taylor's experiment could be tried in these temperate and lovely highlands of South Africa, it would meet with a success besides which that of the Congo Mission would be accounted partial and meager. And finally, to say nothing of the possibilities of such enterprises in Argentina and Chili, we believe that before long the most beautiful spot on the planet, the Yale of Cashmere, will be opened to a movement of this sort. One envies the life of the twentieth century, Protestant, Benedictines, who shall organize a self.supporting community for the evangelization of the Mahommedans of this Avalon? Life in partibu8 infidelium would then be (whatever it may be in the fetid cities of India and China) full of the accessory joys which nature brings.
We throw out these suggestions because we believe the times ripe for a forward movement of this character. The dawn of the new centuries is to nations what the opening of the new year is to individuals. We are about to burst, with hearts of expectation, as Magellans and Drakes of time, into the silent, undiscovered sea of a new century. Christianity must prove to the world that she is of the future as well as of the irrevocable past. If the world shall see in tM Church a mere congeries of social clubs, as it too often is in English-speaking lands, or a State official supported for semi-police purposes, as she evidently is on the Continent of Europe, woe, then, to Church and to world, for the one has failed in her appointed work, and the other has lost its unspeakable opportunity and hope. If, on the other hand, by her activities, by her self-sacrifice, her other worldliness, she shows herself conscious of her mission as the representative of Christ before all men, as the temporal agency of the Holy Spirit in the evangelization of the world, new recognition will be accounted to her and to her Lord in the years that are upon us. No legitimate means to such ends, therefore, are to be contemned. The Salvation Army-so bizarre, so uncouth, so all-conquering-is before our eyes, an omnipresent warning to any who may be hidebound in their worship of conventional methods. It will not do to deter recruits, to object to experiments. It will not do to refrain from encouraging and stimulating both. Every form of effort in every field is the program of the new years, for repentance and remission of sins must be ,preached in His name among all nations.
BARElLLY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT. 4.1
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED A.ND CONDUcTED BY BEY. J. T. GIIA.CEY, D.D.
The Bareilly Theological Seminary. ished his education and was much in- terested in mission wOl'k, but was early BY REV. T. J. SCOTT, D.D., BAREIJ,LY, called to the better world. In this hall INDIA. is a large beautiful symbolical paint- This institution is situated at Bareilly, ing, six by eight feet, consisting of five a city of 180,000 inhabitants, and the emblems-the Bible, the cross, an olive capital of Rohilkund, one of the North- branch, a crook, and over all a crown, western Provinces. It is the first suspended in radiance. This painting Methodist theological seminary found- and a life·size portrait of Ernest Kip- ed in Asia. The need of an institution linger were sent out by the parents.
for training native preachers was soon This seminary has at present a small manifest in the history of the mission, endowment of $50,000, with buildings but not until 1872' was the mission able valued at $16,500. The institution is to undertake the work. A timely gift chartered or .. registered," as it is of $20,000 from Rev. D. W. Thomas, called in India, under the Government then of the India Mission,·and who for- of the Northwest Provinces, and has tunately had some private means, en- its legal Board of Trustees, who care for abled the old India conference to take the institution and its funds.
this enterprise in hand. A small na- The course of three years' study is tive preacher's house was used for the substantially that of any such institu- lecture·rooms, while some cheap build- tion in the United States, except that ings that had been erected for some not so much is made of Hebrew and native Christians employed in an ex- Greek. The teaching staff at present perimental industrial school, were util- consists of two foreign missionaries and ized for students' dormitories. The five nati ve professors and teachers.
school opened with a class of eleven. Connected with the seminary is a Four years later Mr. Philo Remington, normal department for training teach- of Ilion, N. Y., gave $5000 to aid in ers for the mission primary and higher the erection of more permanent build- grade schools. The preparation of ings, and with this sum duplicated by Christian teachers for the mission the Mission Board, Remington Hall, schools is an important work. The full the central building, WIIS erected. It is course of study takes four years. This a brick structure consisting of a cen- normal department also serves as a .tral cruciform hall, surrounded by four preparatory department of the semi- class-rooms filling in the building as a nary for such students as may be de- square, with a large library and read- ficient in secular knowledge. Many ing-room on the top. To the left of pastor.teachers have gone out from this this building is Butler Hall, erected in department.
1890, in honor of Dr. Wm. Butler, the An important part of this institution founder of this mission, by funds con- is the Woman's Training SchooL Most tributed by many admiring friends. of the students who enter the theologi- This structure is one story, uniform in cal seminary, from the cnstom of early style with the central building, lind marriage, are married men. Early in consists of two fine lecture halls. To the history of the seminary the experi.
the right, in 1898, Ernest Hall was built, ment was successfully tried of training uniform in style and size with Butler the wives of the students to cooperate Hall. It was erected by Rev. E. S. with them in evangelistic and pastoral and Mrs. E. R. Kiplinger, in memory work. The wives who cannot read are of their son Ernest, who had just fin- taught and then trained in what is callcd the Bible·readers' course. This fits dents come from tracts bordering on them to enter the homes of Hindus and the Hindustani territory, and such men Moslems and give instruction in Bible can preach in at least one more lan- truth to women and children. They guage, thus reaching at least 50,000,000 can also aid the pastor in instructing more. The energy with which the the women and children of his charge. work of this mission is spreading 'l'he importance of the training given among these millions makes more mani- to the wives of the students cannot be fest the importance of this school. In over·estimated. In India women espe- the year 1894 more than 17,000 souls cially must work for women. In the were added to the Christian community towns and villages the preacher cannot in North India alone. The workers address mixed audiences, as in Chris- who have gone out from the school are tian countries. Men alone assemble to scattered in a population equal to that hear in public places as a rule; and in of the United States. }Ien are needed the homes pastoral ministration cannot well trained in doctrinal and pracbe as unconstrained as in Christian tical morality, who can act as pastors countries. Hence, the great need of for the incoming multitudes of Chriswomen trained to reach women in India. tians. Striking evidence is to be met indicating that caste is fast losing hold This department of the seminary is on the more intelligent classes. The beset with some difficulties. The wives great deep of this vast population of not only manage their domestic duties India must soon break up. Antiof caring for children and preparing Christianity stands ready to capture the food of the family, but they have the multitude who must soon abandon their regular school hours. The diffi- the old faith. Hence the need of such culty of managing the children when an institution in training evangelists to the mothers are studying suggested the meet the crisis. An intelligent faith kindergarten department in more recent ready to give an answer for its hope years, which is suitably organized and must meet an intelligent skepticism. is under trained teachers. Now, While The Church should make of this school the mothers are at their studies, the something worthy of this great opening. children are being trained in kinder- Some testimony to the importance of garten drill. Here, then, is the en- this institution is here recorded : 8emble of a unique theological seminary, where the husband is trained as preach- Bishop Foster pronounced this the 'er, pastor, and evangelist, or as a teach- most important missionary enterprise er and lay evangelist, and his wife is in India. Bishop Ninde said he was trained so as to cooperate with him in strongly impressed while in India with evangelistic and pastoral work, and the invaluable aid this school affords their children have the advantage of a the workers. Bishop Thoburn, " Our regular kindergarten. theological school has become more than ever a necessity to our work." At the present date the attendance at Dr. Ellenwood, Secretary of the Presthis institution is about 80 men and 50 byterian Board of Missions, says: "A women. There have gone out 205 friend said to me, of all the higher ingraduates of the three years' course, 77 stitutions he had seen, the one belongon a partial course, 61 from the nor- ing to the Methodist Episcopal Mission mal school, and 192 from the woman's at Bareilly seemed to him best adapted department, making a total of 535 to meet the widespread wants of a mistraip.ed mission workers sent out. This sion. " Bishop Mallalieu was most proseminary has a great opportunity in the foundly convinced of the immeasurfield represented. The students are able importance of the Bareilly Theotrained in the Hindustani language, logical School. which is understood by 100,000,000 people. Besides this, some of the stu- The endowment so far has mostly taken thc form of permanent founda- dead wall. One is almost afraid of tions for scholarships. A thousand dol- men becoming nominal Christians when lars invested gives the support of a hard put to to avoid the trouble of argu- man and his wife. A few endowments ing it out."
of $500 for single students have been The best material is the Siamo·Chi- given. At present the Board of Trus- nese race, which has sprung up as a tees are calling for a few thousand dol- result of the abundant immigration of lars to build additional dormitories, and Chinamen who marry native wives.
$40,000 to enlarge the endowment to These, whose devotion to ancestral meet urgent present need. In no place worship and other forms of Chinese can a suitably endowed theological superstition has been naturally weak· seminary accomplish more than in this ened. still retain much of the Chinese great mission field. energy and grit, and what work has been done among them has afforded the best results. The Japanese have been Gospel Work in Siam. compared to plastic clay which can be molded; the Siamese to sand, which BY J. E. BUDGETT MEAKIN. lacks in itself the cohesion necessary for the sculptor, and the Chinese to .. I believe there is no country more granite. which withstands all tools but open to unrestrained missionary effort the best, but which lasts forever. For than Siam, but I believe that there can many years the American Baptists car- bardly be a country in which it is hard- ried on an intermittent and desultory er to make an impression." work among the Chinese in Bangkok, Such was the summary by one of the forming also several outlying stations, workers in Bangkok of what he had and altho they seem now to have aban- been telling me about the special fea- doned the field, the native converts tures of the task before him. Complete are going ahead themselves; but un- religious liberty is guaranteed by gov- til the Baptists formally renounce ernment, and missionaries can with lit- operations here, tho they have no tle difficulty settle wherever they will, representative on the spot, others while traveling is free to all, and the hesitate to enter the open door. They treatment that well-behaved foreigners need at least a dozen workers in receive at the hands of the natives Siam, and the cause is losing ground as leaves nothing to be desired. The real long as they hold back. The Roman difficulty is to make an impression on Catholics have extensive missions here, the lethargic minds of the people, and it is from among the Chinese that whose impassive inactivity is never most of their converts are drawn, but more marked than in connection with while the Baptists are nominally at religion. None but those who have work among them, the American Pres- tried it know what it means to address byterian Mission, the only other society.
II crowd or II succession of individuals engaged here, has a most commendable without an objection being raised, but hesitation to take up this important without the leas.t signs of an impression branch. The Chinese in Siam are not having been made. "It is like bom· a mere handful; the whole country is barding an earthwork," said one of the saturated with them, and in their hands missionaries; "one's shots are buried, is almost all the trade and commerce and nothing is seen. It would be are· but that with Europe.
lief even if one hearer' got mad' about What Siam owes to the missionaries it. There is a point to which the already it would be difficult to state.
Siamese will yield, as if they would do Half a century ago she was one of the so to any extent, but when you get to most backward of Asiatic countries, the important moment of all you find a ruled despotically, and unbenetited by the progress of the outside world, to as well as at one or two stations nearer which, with the exception of China, the Gulf of Siam. To a great extent her doors were absolutely closed; but their work has been educational. and the messengers of the Gospel, who were by no means one of the least important waiting to enter China when that results of it was the request, many should become possible, who reached years ago, for one of their number to her shores in Chinese junks, succeeded assume the direction of the schools in so impressing the people and their which the government was then estabrulers that in due time treaties were lishing. Hospitals have also held a willingly entered into with their gov- prominent place in their operations, so ernments, and Siam was opened up. that most of their men are styled doc- Then there came to the throne a king tors by the natives. Street preaching who, while a Buddhist priest had and colportage are likewise employed sought a missionary for a tutor, and with success, however meager the imhad proved no unapt scholar, under mediately apparent results may seem. whose rule the old order fell, and Siam In several places a very real work is entered the race of nations. She has being done by independent workers yet far to go to take her place from among the brethren, and I had among the foremost, but she has made the pleasure to meet with one good rapid strides, and is distanced only by Christian doctor adding mission preach· Japan among the nations of the farther ing to the labors of a private practice. East. That her progress has not been '1'he Roman Catholics are hard at work what it might have been can only be in many parts, and that with apparent attributed to an increased experience good success, for the natives see no of Western ways and Western men, great difference in calling the goddess who do not commend themselv~s as of mercy Mary, and in changing one men who love dollars and hate the no.· set of priests and rites and superstitions tives. It is the same old story here as for another. The Romanists are, not, in every newly opened country, the however, liked, and make but poor greatest obstacle to the spread of the headway among the Siamese them- Gospel is the example set by men of selves, tho the self-denying and devoted the oationalities with which the name lives led by many of their missionaries Christian has unfortunately become place them in great esteem personally. identified-men who cannot sufficiently Their popular name is "Big-foot peo· run down the missions and missionaries, pIe," by one native explained to me as whose presence CWits reilections on the having reference to their custom of Iives they waste ('n wine and women kissing the toe of the Pope, and by anand wagers. I feel that as an indepen- other as indicative of the way in which dent resident abroad I both can lUld they tread down the people, for in Siam must say what the missionaries do not the foot is considered the most unworoften care to, much as I deplore the thy member. One of their methods is facts. Exceptions to the rule there are to make settlements of converts, acindeed, and mission work owes more quiring the land, and making it unto them than folks at home imagine. pleasant for all but their own people, The really Christian man of business or or those who are willing to join them. the official wields an imiluence quite They also mingle in political and legal distinct from that of missionaries. questions when these serve their pur- poses, thus getting into very bad odor. Mission work in Siam is practically Wherever they are they erect fine in the hands of the American Presby- churches, a necessity in a creed in terians, who maintain a considerable which the ceremonial plays so imporforce iu Bangkok, and have a most im· tant a part. portant work some distance up country in the tributary State of Cheung Mai, The favor with which the Protestant missions are regarded, on the other whatever to be of the nature of sin, re- hand, is very evident. They have all garding perfection as the destruction of along shown themselves the true friends every natural inclination, can easily be of the people, and quite recently one understood. Work among such people of them was asked to make special in· is like building in a swamp; there is quiries during his travels into any no ground to go upon, no moral basis, causes of local complaint, and to report no fulcrum. With many there is not them at headquarters, a task which for even a belief in God, while Buddha obviotJ.s reasons he felt bound reluc- himself is not considered as a personal tantly to decline. While calling with influence. Sin is regarded as entailing a missionary on the Minister for the In- its own punishment, and evil is only to terior, His Royal Highness brought up be averted by the propitiation of con· the question of a site for a new mission trolling spirits. Even when a man has station in a distant province, about got so far as to believe in the sacrifice which the local authorities had raised of Christ, it is difficult to make him see difficulties, offering to personally se- the necessity of a moral life, if not to cure the best available place on an ap- work out his own salvation.
proaching visit to that part. He then Though the more liberal education went on to express his opinion on the of the late king did not make him a methods employed. "I think that a Christian, it enabled him to see the great many missionaries make the great folly of much that was bound up with mistake," he said, "of abusIng the re- Buddhism, and as its head in this coun- ligion already existing. If instead of try he instituted a reformed creed, this they would bring their philan- closely approaching that of the mod- thropic and medical work more to the ern Japanese and of Buddha's Western front, and show what the love of Christ admirers. Its followers are practically has led them to do for the poor and atheists who acknowledge Buddha only suffering, they would not fail to gain as a great moral teacher, whose system the people's real esteem, and then of ethics they adopt, while they dis- would be the time for them to listen to card everything supernatural, and all the words of Jesus." the intermingled cult of spirits. But The religion already existing in this this has only affected the few, and su- case is a corrupt inheritance of Bud- perstition of every sort is as rampant dhism mingled with a little Brahman- as ever. The one prevailing idea is the ism and a good deal of spirit worship. necessity 01 "making merit" byerect- It was said by one of the king's broth- ing temples, feeding the priests, mak- ers that 80 per cent of the people were ing pilgrimages, liberating captive ani- ignorant as to what Buddhism really mals, etc., but practical deeds of kind- was, for to begin with they make an ness and self-denial, or of provision for idol of Buddha, presenting worldly pe· the sick and poor, as met with in China, titions as to a god to one whose highest seem hardly known. Ancestral wor- virtue was that he knew nothing of ship forms no part of the Siamese creed, this world. Were they genuine Bud- but its place is in some measure taken dhists, they would at least make some by the necessity under which sons are attempts to follow the moral precepts of making merit for their mothers.
of that creed, but of these they know This is one of the real difficulties the next to nothing. having received it only missionaries have to meet, as men con- as im ancestral legacy, and the grossest vinced of the truth of Christianity can immorality prevails. Even the exter- see no hope for their mothers, espe- nal observances of Buddhism are but cially if they are already dead, and imperfectly known, and the benumb· some who have been convinced have ing, deadening results of a religion yet refused baptism on this account.
Wllich holds all affections and emotions A feeling based on so noble a trait is not to be rudely uprooted, but it has to up under Christian infiuence, on acbe reckoned with. count of the baneful effect on the whole character of a life spent beneath the Yet, after all, these questions will pall of Buddhism, notwithstanding that have to be ultimately faced by the na· one of the most active converts had tive workers as they are raised up, for been for years a priest. .no country has ever been thoroughly evangelized except by its own people, Incident!! of the Struggle in Ja.pa.n. and all the foreigners can hope is to be made the means of setting the work on BY DAVID S. SPENCER, NAGOYA, JAPAN. foot and to welcome the first· fruits, the seeds from which will furnish the wait- It is my purpose to record UDder this ing soil. So the question as to the heading some facts and incidents which quality of the native converts becomes have come under my knowledge, in of even more importance than their order that others may the better undernumber, and I was glad to find that a stand the nature of the work of win· fair proportion of the Siamese became ning Japan to Christ. It will be seen soul·winners, especially in the province that heathenism dies hard; that the of Nakawn, where I was assured by bringing of a country to accept the one who had just returned from a visit teachings of Jesus as its guiding princi· to them, "the converts take to evangel- pIe is not a small task. There is nothing istic work as ducks take to water." A whatever in these incidents which curious feature, however, is the way in would at all discourage a Christian' which a Siamese on conversion, at once man, for the battIe is not ours, but the hands in the name of his wife also, Master's. A thoughtful worker says even tho she has never yet heard a again and again to himself, ., Why do word of the Gospel. One good man of the heathen rage 1" In spite of .perse· whom I heard had been so impressed cutions, boycottings, mobs, riots, and with the way in which a certain con- the machinations of bad men and devils, vert enjoyed his new·found faith, that and even the mistakes, the unfaithfulwithout going into details he at once ness of professedly good men, the cause put down his name as a convert, to- of Jesus goes right on conquering the gether with those of his absent wife worl:l. "Our God is marching on." and family. The jubilant convert himself had not yet been bapti7.ed, but I On October 8th, 1893, I dedicated the was told by a Presbyterian missionary church at Komaki. The morning ser· that he had" alreaiIy developed Meth· vices passed off without event, there odist proclivities," bursting out in his being but few present, and of these near· prayers with responses, repetitions, and ly all were Christians. A few Buddhist exclamations, an additional proof, add· lookers-on lingered about the door; but ed my informant, that denominational a crowd of Buddhists gathered in the distinctions were greatly matters of evening in a house they had secured for temperament. the purpose on the opposite side of the street, and as soon as our evening ser· During my stay in Bangkok I have vices began, they began to show signe had the pleasure of intercourse with of life. While Hatanoshin Yamaka was several of the Lord's own people gath- speaking a crowd of them came in, ered from among this nation, and the filled the room and sat down, mixed traveling Christian knows no greater with the Christians and those who did joy. Space will not permit my recall· not oppose us. They frequently inter· ing the pleasant times I spent with rupted hy remarks, questions, and the some, or what I learned from them, but like; but as they could Dot throw Ya·. the opinion was strongly expressed to maka off the track in this way, they tried me by a foreigner that for future work- another pIau. At a preconcerted signal ers we must depend on men brought all arose, caught the lamps and extin- ing and correction. The last I knew he guished them. scattered the oil on the was still in the hands of this priest, worshipers, smashed the lamps, the practically a prisoner for his faith. in windows, the doors, and the front of the Lord Jesus. Nothing is yet known the house, wrenched the clock from of him, or of what the outcome is likely the wall, and broke up the meeting. to be. I could give many similar cases.
There being an insufficient number of The workers in the Methodist Prot- policemen present to control the mob, estant Church desired in the fall of 1894 it was thought best not to try to go on to rent a building in Nagoya for use as again that night. But the police were a chapel or kegisho, in addition to what advised that a meeting would be held they were already using. The section the next night, and that violence must of the city in which they would locate be controlled. The police came, and so was chosen, and a house was finally did the Buddhists, in large numbers. rented of an old man living in the The latter tried to disturb the meeting neighborhood. Of course all business again, but they were completcly out- had to be done through native workers generalled, and we won a victory. of that mission. The contract was Two young men had for a long time drawn, signed and sealed, and the been secretly attending our Christian money paid over. The man was of a services at the Shinsl1iro Church, hiding Buddhist family. The Buddhists heard in a back room in the dark to hear the of his transaction, and came to him to preaching, and quietly withdrawing protest that such a thing was wrong ; thereafter_ They had had an earnest but the owner took the ground that desire to know the truth, and our work- under the Constitution he had the right, ers there had taught them. Finally the as a free man, to rent his house for any young men asked me to baptize them. lawful purpose to any law-abiding man This could not be dOlle publicly because or set of men. Then the persecution '
of the opposition of their friends. I began. These Buddhist opponents held talked with them carefully upon the a consultation meeting in the temple, to possible consequences of their receiving which they called the owner, and there baptism, and warned them that they argued, threatened him, and used all would have to meet persecution. They efforts except force to compel the man declared that they did not fear on ac- to yield, but to no purpose. He held count of possible persecution, but were that the renting of his house for Chris- prepa.red to receive it, even to the dea.th tian. purposes was within. the class of if necessary, but thought that they allowable actions under the constitution, should be permitted to receive Christian and he would not yield. Then stronger baptism. I baptized them one night measures were adopted. A house op· last fall in the hotel where I was stay- posite his was secured by the Buddhists, ing. The next day they announced to and an indignation meeting held of the their respective families that they had people of the neighborhood to decide become Christians indeed, and had set- what should be done. It was proposed tled the matter by receiving Christiau to deport the old man, but some thought baptism. Both were subjected to per- this a wrong thing to do, as it would be secution, in one case severe. The fa- a mean thing on their part to inflict such ther of this young man was unrelenting, a man on any community. Another vicious. He demanded that the son proposed that they get a large kettle recant at once and come back to the and soak him or boil him in it till he family faith. Threats were made, dif- would do as he ought, and follow the ferent forms of penalty were imposed, dictates of their pure and holy religion.
and finally the father brought the son This meeting was continued for some to Nagoya and put him in the hands of time, and served as a sort of boycott of a noted radical Buddhist priest for train- the owner from all around him. Finally 80shi (a class of ruffians hired to intimi- hood, capable of being manipulated by date by forceful measures) were hired the priests, the Christians lost all they for the purpose of systematically perse- had expended, and were compelled to cuting the old man till he should yield. give up the project for the time. Tbe These 808hi followed the old man, search- battle has to be won on some lines inch ing his house with clubs in hand, so that by inch. he was obliged to hide with his friends in the country for safety. But he did Makoto Komatsubara ("Little Pine not yield, and this method of pressure Woods)" and his wife, Tazura, became falling to accomplish what the priest Christians in the city of Shizurka some wanted, they approached the old man's ten years ago, and joined the Canada wife and compelled her family to say Methodist Church. In youth this man that if he did not repent and take the had been a heavy drinker, and had sufhouse back from the Christians they fered a heavy penalty of his sin. Faith would take from him the wife with in Christ changed him, and he became whom he had lived for years. the moth- a temperate man. His family and er of his children, the companion of his friends, however, did not favor his beyouth. The storm grew so thick that coming a Christian. Better go on the old man could stand it no longer. drinking and die Ii drunkard than have He could endure personal inconvenience, anything to do with Yasu Kyo. He even ;mlIering ; but to lose his wife was recently removed with wife and chilmore than he could bear, and the oppo- dren to Nagoya, and united by letter nents, through her friends, had control with our Second Methodist Church. of the situation. He finally came back The intense summer heat has caused to the missionary weeping, threw down him to become ill, and his ailment has the money and asked for the contract. taken the form of brain disease, resultbegging them to ask no questions for ing in insanity. I have watched the conscience' sake. The Christians took poor man with intense pity. Perfectly the m(mey, gave up the house, and harmless in action and physically well, marked the strength and the methods he is a strong ,man paying the price of of the Buddhists. sinful pleasure. The older brother and older sister of this man have, since his In Nagoya, a city of 200,000 people, all sickness, turned against him because of burying grounds are connected with his profession of Christianity. They the templcs, of which there are some declared that unless he would openly 2000 Buddhist with some 5000 priests. renounce his faith in Christ they would exclusive of Shinto temples and priests. not own him as a brother. In Japan Up to the present, when a Christian dies an older brother has certain rights and he must be buried in a potter's field, a power over a younger. They greatly answamp Bome distance from the city, in noyed him. but neither he nor his wife which only beggaIs were formerly would yield to their demands. The buried. Though a man may be a legal brother became furious, said the whole owner of a lot in a Buddhist burying· cause of trouble was Christianity. ground, he cannot be buried there ex- When he could no longer afflict the sick cept as a Buddhist. The mother and man because of his insanity, they, the child of our devoted pastor, Brother H. brother and sister, violently persecuted Yamaka, a graduate of Drew Theologi- his wife. She was compelled to cease cal Seminary. together with all Chris- attending church, tho she stoutly detians dying here, have had to be buried clared her faith in Jesus. She conin that swamp. At one time the Chris- tinued for some time to send the chiltians purchased a plot of ground for a dren to our Sunday-school, but finally burial·place ; but as it requires the con- the opposition became BO great that she sent of three different parties, one of could not even do this without danger, which is the people of the neighbor- P FUHKIEN PROVINCE o CHINA FORMOSA Copyright, 1895, by Hun & EATON, New York.
From" Missions and Missionary Society of the Methodist Epis copal Church." and the children ceased to come. I province. Archdeacon Wolfe has won called to see her recently, but the house distinction; the two Drs. Baldwin, one she had occupied was vacant. Her of the A. B. C. F. M. and one of the troubles had multiplied, her husband Methodist Board, together with Dr.
probably hopelessly insane and in the Maclay and Bishop Wiley, were found- hospital for confihement and treatment, ers and leaders here. The hospital and her little child had died, and the perse- general medical work of the two Amer- cution for Christ's sake had become so ican Missions are of great value.
strong, that she had been compelled to take the remaining children and go back to her father's house for shelter Notes from the Field.
and protection. Her husband's family CHINA.-Rev. W. M. Hayf's, writing has money enough to care for her and from Tungchow, near Chefoo, China, the husband well, but she can get none under date October 7th, 1895, says: without renouncing her faith in Christ. .. The events of the past five months Three days ago I saw Mr. Komatsubara, are almost the reverse of what nearly a harmless lunatic, his family driven everybody expected and predicted last away, and he in the hands of strangers. spring, and should I have written of the outlook at that time, it would only October 1, 1895.
have been another confirmation of THE MAP OF FOOCHow PROVINCE.- Paul's conclusion that .. prophecies shall fail." Progress seemed imminent The map which we present of the Foo- last spring, but the intervention of Rus· chow Province,or Fukien Province more sia, France, and Germany convinced precisely, will be of interest and use to all China that change was not yet a neceswho desire to locate the scenes of the sity. The Conservatives are in power massacre of last summer, and the sta· again, anti-foreigners are being pro· tions where missions of the Methodist moted to office, and many of the people Episcopal Mission and others are at are trying to persuade themselves that work. It is placed at our service China beat Japan, after all. The streets by the courtesy of the publishers of of this city last week were placarded Missions and Missionary Society of with immense pictures presenting the the Methodist Episcopal Church, for high dignitaries of China meting out which work it was specially drawn, justice to the despised Trojan. aud which is nea.rly ready for market.
It consists of three volumes, an exten- BURMA.-Mr. F. D. Phinney, Super- sion by Rev. J. T. Gracey of the original Intendent of the American Baptist Mis- work by Dr. J. M. Reid. The new vol- sion Press, Rangoon, Burma, in a per· umes comprise the history of seventeen sonal note under date of September 1st, years of work, 1878-94, not in the orig- 1895, says: .. There is a turning tow- inal publication, and cover a period of ard Christianity on the part of the Bur- astonishing development of the Society mans that is as pleasing as it is surpris- and its work, both at home and abroad. ing. There have never been as many Hunt & Eaton, 150 Fifth Avenue, are baptisms right along as ~here are now.
the publishers, and will receive orders It is the custom of the Burman church for this work at once. to have the ordinance of baptism ad· The American Board, the Church of ministered at the close of the morn- England Missionary Society, and the ing preaching service, between that zenana mission of the latter church all and the Sunday-school. These bap- have Buccessful missions in this prov- tismal services come with marked fre- ince, which contains a population of quency, and the candidates are nearly 15,000,000. Some eminent names are aU adult converts from Buddhism, one found in the list of missionaries of this here and another there in the villages in this district who come in to the That is something which is almost un- city to join a church. The reports are known in Burma. coming from a.ll over the field that the way in which the Burmans listen is Every American, irrespective of re- different from all the past. They have ligious preferences, must have intense more of interest, read and talk more in- interest in the missionary force in East- telligentlyand with less of bigotry, and ern Turkey, and every Christian should' more priests are throwing off the yel- be given much to prayer for the preser- low robes than ever before. You want- vation of the lives of such noble men ed to have me tell you what the people and women in peril. We say in peril, are doing and what they are thinking not because they will probably be delib- about, and I have told you. Fifty vil- erately assaulted, but because the Sul- lages in a lump on the frontier, the most tan is unable to keep the police of the degraded of the peoples of the country, empire if he WOUld, and the fleets of the are asking for teachers and preachers. Dardanelles are paralyzed because Eu- The Roman Catholics have tried their ropean Christian powers are incompe- best to get teachers into these villages, tent, and we use the word deliberately. but have been told most emphatically They are incompetent to devise a way that they will have Baptist teachers or out of the imbroglio that will not in- none. The Catholic villages in this part vol ve their flying at each other's throats. of the country are not creditable to The ~ame of empire from the Grecian the name of Christianity. Our native ArchIpelago to the North Pacific shore churches are doing more for themselves line is the most extended known in cen- than ever before, and home and foreign turies, and it is pretty plain that if the mission circles and societies are being kingdom of Christ IS advanced it will formed among them, and are doing be because political powers as lIsual good work. A few years ago a mis- will be driven along the paths of the sionary party, a Karen preacher and his Divine purpose despite the lack of moral family, were going over into Northern principle or any other principle domi- Siam, and when past the frontier were nating them. .. It is not by might nor simply blotted off the face of the by power" that Christ's kingdom makes earth. It was many months before a advance. trace of them could be found. They had been murdered for their money, and It is a matter of regret that we find buried. The local missionary society our space too limited to present a be- (Karen) which had sent them out called coming review of several timely books for volunteers to take up the work to which will help on the kingdom of our which they had been sent, and had to Lord. Revell Company have just issued choose between the volunteers, for there .. Persian Life and Customs," by S. G. 'were more volunteers than could be Wilson, the best book of general infor- sent. mation on the subject within our knowl- edge. It is lucid in style. comprehen- U This morning I witnessed the bap- sive in the ran&,e of topics, and as tism of two pupils in our Baptist col- entertaining as it IS instructive. .. From lege here. The spiritual tone of the far rormosa," by Missionary Mackay, college is decidedly good, and the pro- is a revelation of that island by the most portion of professing Christians in the eminent authorities, living or dead, on upper classes probably above that in things Formosan as a whole. .. Ram- some American colleges. This is Chris- bles in Japan," by Canon Tristram, is tian education for a certainty. We are an entertaining account of what this not troubled here, as are the missionaries eminent divine saw and learned in the among the Hindus of India, with organ- land of the Rising Sun, with the aid of ized opposition to bazaar preaching on his daughter, a resident missionary of the part of those who have received all some years in that land. He seeks to their education in mission schools. compare Buddhism of Japan with that of Ceylon and of China. All these books are well illustrated.
A. better book to study at the begin- ning of the NewYear, to get a forceful. fresh and inspiring survey of the past and outlook for the future, than Rev. Dr. D. L. Leonard's" A Hundred Years of Mis~ions" (Funk & Wagnalls Com- pany) it would be difficult to name. It is a thoughtful and unique treatise worthy of permanent place in mission- ary literature.
FmLD OF MON1.'HLY SURVEf"
I1I.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
BY D. L. PIERSON.
Monthly Topios for 1896.* Russia and the Greek Church. Abyssinia and Eastern Sects. JANUARY. NOVEMBER. Outlook. General Survey. South America. The Mormons. FEBRUARY. Young People's Work.
The Chinese Empire.t DECEMBER. Confucianism and Taoism. Formosa. Syria and Palestine. The Opium Traffic. The Jews. Educational Work. MARCH. NOTES HERE AND THERE. Mexico. Central America.. There is at present a state of unrest West Indies. throughout the whole world, Christian City Missions. and heathen, civilized and savage. .. Wars and rumors of wars," outrages, APRIL. financial instability, and in many cases the half·suppressed mutterings of a India, Burma, and Ceylon. general anarchy are disturbing the Hinduism, etc. peace and prosperity of nations the Woman's Work for Woman. world over.
MAY. In the United States the financial crisis is scarcely over, the missionary Siam and the Laos. boards are still weighed down with a Malaysia. heavy load of deht, and the Christian Buddhism. church-members are slow to respond to Unoccupied Fields. their earnest appeals. Strikes and gen- eral friction between labor and capital JUNE. are every-day occurrences. Utah, just entering upon statehood, seems to many Africa t and Madagascar. to bring forehodings of an unhallowed haven for polygamists and those of The Freedmen in America. loose moral principles. Many fear The Slave Trade. strained relations with England he- cause of the Venezuelan difficulty and JULY. the Alaskan boundary dispute. All these things affect missions directly or The Islands of the Sea.§ indirectly. The mission boards are en- Circumpolar Missions.~ deavoring to hold their ground, tho North American Indians. lacking sufficient support; in some cases The Liquor Traffic. there is even an advance to new terri- tory. Foreign missionary rallies arc AUGUST. awakening many slumbering Christians, and are scattering information as to Papal Europe. the great work of God in the world's Roman Catholicism. evangelization. Bihle Work. Dr. Ebenezer Erskine says, in regard SEPTEMBER. to the future of the negro, that four facts have come to be regarded as quite Japan. settled : "1. That the negro is here to Korea. stay, and that his future home is to be Shintoism. Medical Missions. Chinese and Japanese in the United States.
OCTOBER.
Mohammedan Lands, and Relig- ion.
* It is our intention to have one or more arti- cles on these subjects, in the months to which they are assigned, together with references to other articles in previous number.. Those desiring to contribute are requestsd to h~ve their article in our hands two months previous to the month to which their subject is assigned.
t Including Tibet. t Except North Africa and Egypt, which are assigned to October.
§ Including Australasia.
,I Alaska, Greenland, Labrador, etc.
,. Turkey, Greece, Arabia, Persia, North Afri- ca, and Egypt. chiefly in the Southern States, all plans hold the government, of which they for his transportation to other countries have for a. time gained the upper hand. being regarded as impracticable. 2. Should they succeed, we may hope that That the negro is capable of improve- the last closed door of the Neglected ment. He may be educated and Chris- Continent will be opened to the Gospel. tianized. 3. That the negroes are im- Venezuela is in difficulty with England proving in their worldly circumstances; and Peru, and other republics are by that many of them are becoming land- no means at rest. owners; that others are entering into business, or becoming mechanics or The whole civilized world is stirred tradesmen. 4. That the negroes as a with indignation and horror at the class have not improved in morals as massacre of thousands of Christians in they have in their material condition. Asia Minor. Rumors of a partition of To save this race and to save the nation Turkey, the deposition of the Sultan, from their demoralizing influence, Chris- etc., are occasionally heard; but while tians of all Evangelical denominations it seems that order is being gradually must take hold of the work of their restored in the disturbed districts, the Christianization and the moral and in- solution of the Armenian problem has dustrial elevation of the race with a by no means been reached_ The Turk strong hand and a firm and persever- and the Kurd have not paid the penalty ing faith. " for their active and passive criminality. and judgment will doubtless descend Less than 250,000 Indians arc now to upon them from heavenly powers if not be found in the United States (exc1usive from earthly. of Alaska). They are scattered through 20 States and 5 Territories, of which As everyone knows, the situation Indian Territory contains the largest iG critical in the extreme. The Mosnumber (71,856) and Texas the fewest lems seem determined upon the de- (290), The Indians are susceptible to struction of the Christians, and only the religious impressions when they can be providence of God and the fear of the protected from contaminating outside results has prevented the massacre of influences. They are willing to be civ- missionaries and all en masse. 'l'he ilized and Christianized; they have limit of Armenian patience seems to at least fair industry and capacity for have been reached, but they are for the self-support. Over 32,000 Indians are most part powerless. The causes of now taxable and self-sustaining citi- their dissatisfactions with Turkish rule zens. These do not include 5 civilized are many and long standing. Besides tribes, numbering 68,371. Educational personal extortion and outrage, the mission work is being carried on among burden of taxes has brought the Arthem by Methodists, Presbyterians, Bap- menians to poverty and famine. A tisl.S, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Russian officer, Colonel Lazareff,* gives and Friends, in addition to Government some facts relative to the" varied and and independent schools. The missions original" sy~tem of taxation imposed on are situated chiefly in Arizona, Indian Armenia. Here are a few of the as- Territory, Oklahoma, the Dakotas, Mon- S€ssments: tana, Washington, and Nebraska. Interesting and successful work is being 1. An exemption task paid for redone by the Methodists and Church lief from military service, amounting to of England among the tribes in British about $1.50 per year, imposed on every America. member of the family-children, aged and crippled not exempt. If a head South America is for the most part, of a large family is unable to pay the as usual, in a state of unstable equilib- tax, he is punished by arrest and flogrium. Colombia has experienced civil' ging, and his household goods or cow war. Liberalists in Ecuador seek to " Translated in the Literary DigeIJt_ must be sold to satisfy the tax collec- tent recognized leader. There seems, tor. however, little probability of any im- mediate disturbance on a large scale. 2. A tax on the land and crops-from The future is still uncertain; but the $1 to $6 per acre, according to the qual· outcome will doubtless be overruled ity of the land.,. and one eighth of the to the glory of God. We expect a value of the harvest. widened opportunity for the spread of the Gospel as soon as the immediate 3. Everyone having an orchard pays effect of the war-the excitement, ani· about $22 annually. mosity, and general disquiet of the peo- ple-has passed away. 4. Hay tax: $2 for eight loads. 5. For each cottage a tax of $1.50. The Japanese Christians are still 6. For a stable, from $1 to $3. somewhat inclined to break loose from 7. A mal'riage tax of 50 cents on the the guidance of foreign missionaries, and bridegroom. to conduct the evangelistic work without 8. A sheep tax, 20 cents each. outside aid. The missionaries are con- 9. A tax on every male over fourteen vinced that this would be a mistake, as for the maintenance of roads, fortresses, the native Church is not yet estab· and barracks. lished on firm enough doctrinal basis. There are also numberless taxes ou The new treaty opening the empire almost every conceivable occupation more freely to foreign residents is a and on each tree standing in one's lot. great gain, and will doubtless be speed- Besides these there are excise taxes on ily taken advantage of. Japan's danliquor and other articles of consump- ger from infidelity and over self·confitilln. The Kurds are free from nearly dence is great, but the people are not all of these taxes, paying only for one unaware of the benefits of Christianity, third of their sheep and being allowed and the Christians are advancing to forto make their own returns to the asses- eign missionary work in their dependens;)rs. These facts fully expJain the de- cies. A war is threatened with Russia crease in the Armenian population and which it is earnestly hoped will be Armenian emigration. With such a averted, as this would probably be more system, manifestly designed to ruin and injurious to missions than the conflict Bta1"1!6 out tIM Armenians, Turkey hard- with China. ly requires, in order to attain her object, recourse to such additional meth· Siuce the war has ended, the prosods as the late wholesale massacres. pects of missions in Korea have been The years 1894 and 1895 have cer- brightening. The Government is still tainly been most eventful in the history somewhat unsettled, but is friendly to of Ohina. While she has held together missionaries, who are constantly and for more than forty centuries, and has confidently praying for reinforcements by her conservatism defied the modern of workers and greater harvests of ideas of progress and civilization, she souls. The former indifference of the has now lost a part of her territory, and people has given way to a Willingness may be compelled to open her doors to to hear the Gospel, which amounts ill the advance of the heralds of a Chris· Bome cases to eagerness, and large contian civilization. The war with Japan gregations can be gathered without diffihas proven a serious matter to China; culty. Some of the leaders in the Gov- Japan seems on the road to prosperity, ernment have declared their conviction while her neighbor and old enemy is that only as the Christian religion pertorn with riots and even rumblings oi meates the mind of the people can Korea rebellion. The whole empire seems to expect to be lifted out of ber deplorable be honeycombed with secret societies, condition. The king, in an audience which are ready to rise in open rebel- with Bishop Ninde, expressed his gratifilion, massacre the foreigners, and seize cation that so many American missiona· the government had they but a comparies had been sent to Korea to teach and apologize for or to urge the importance to heal his people. New centers are of medical missions. He who is ignobeing occupied by the small mission rant of their claims is either so lacking force on the ground. Japanese Bud- in information as to scarcely belong dhism is beginning to assert itself at to this century, or is so oblivious to the capital, which has been invaded by the sufferings of his fellow·men in a large number of Japanese, and a new heathen lands as to make him beyond Buddhist temple will soon be seen aris- hearing or beneath notice. The teach· ing on the site of an ancient marble er, the preacher, and the healer should pagoda in the center of this city. In conquer heathenism together in the view of the present opportunity, the name of Christ who combined in his missionary force in Korea is lament- work these three spheres of activity. ably small. But while Christians may believe in medical missions, the practical results Work in Formosa was interrupted do not evidence a realization of the for some time by the excitement of the great need for more medical missionpeople at the cession of the island to the aries-not while it remains true that Japanese. Quiet has, however, been in the United States there are 4090 restored, and the work is progressing physicians to every 2,500,000, and in quietly but certainly. We may confi- China only one to the same number. dently hope that before many years the whole island will not only be civilized, The missionary outlook, however but Christianized. The story of the dark and lowering the clouds may seem marvelous transformations here is of in the immediate horizon, is brightthe most intense interest.* bright as the promises of God. It is hoped and believed that the Christian The outlook is bright for Tibet. The world is becoming more aroused to the disagreement between the members of duty, the necessity, and the privilege of the original Tibetan Pioneer Mission is witnessing in the uttermost parts of th" being used by God to set two missions earth. While there are attacks here instead of one watching and praying and there upon missionary purposes and for the opportunity to preach the Gos- policy, there are, on the other hand, pel in this Buddhistic stronghold. The many honored and capable witnesses negotiations between Great Britain and from secular circles who are giving no Tibet give hopes for an open door in uncertain testimony to the value and the near future. need of missionary work. There is a call at home for more men and more One result of the impotence and fail- money, and abroad for new stations ure of the Chinese Government has been and increased facilities for work. that the Dalai Lama, who, contrary to the usual Chinese custom, has been al- The broad facts of the state of the lowed to attain the age of nineteen, has world require to be often placed before claimed for himself the temporal as us, and they utter their pleadings as we well as the spiritual supremacy in his look at them. There is about one own country, and has informed the Christian minister for every 900 persons Chinese minister resident at Lhasa that in Great Britain. and to every 800 in the he owes no allegiance to the emperor. United States; one for every 200,000 in This may have an important influence Japan, one for every 250,000 in Africa, on Tibetan missions, as it has been one for every 300,000 in India, one for greatly owing to Chinese power and every 400,000 in South America, and one authority that Tibet has been hitherto for every '700,000 in China. Are the closed against foreign travelers and forces of the Christian Church wisely teachers. distributed? If all Christians lived for the worid's conversion, great residential There is now little need to either changes would shortly take place.
* Read ." From Far Formosa," by G. L. Mc- :Kay. F. H. Revell, New York, $2.00..
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
In view of the conflict of statements ism has taken possession of them. The as to the Sunday issues of newspapers men from Bach, from Gossner in Ber- in Japan, from a private letter of Rev. lin, from Hermannsburg, from the Mora.
H. Loomis, for twenty years agent of vians, have rarely been university men."
the American Bible Society at Yoko- Mr. Allan W. Webb writes from hama, dated August 21st, 1895, we make this extract : Geeling. Victoria: "In regard to the publication of •• Within the last ten years the inter- Sunday newspapers in Japan, I am in- est in foreign missions in Australasia formed by one of the staff of the Japan has increased immensely. Prior to that Mail that the Nippon and Yomiuri there were but few of the children of Shimbun issue a paper every day alike; our own land in foreign tlelds. The but the others print an edition Satur- Wesleyan missions in the South Seas were recruited from Australia, but be- yond that the Australian churches had day afternoon or evening, and there is hardly any if any representatives. no issue Monday morning, because Sun- Since then our own sons and daughters day is a day of rest (underscored by Rev. have gone to China, India. Korea, New Mr. Loomis). My informant gives his Hebrides. New Guinea, and Equatorial opinion that this is the custom through- Africa and South Africa, and the enout Japan (as in Tokyo and Yokohama). thusiasm grows instead of diminishing. He also thinks that this has been the course adopted by the publishers of Had the funds of the respective socieach newspaper from the time it was eties been larger, many more would first started" (in these twenty-three have been sent out. The financially years). crippled state of the colonies tells upon missionary enterprises as well as upon others. Yet there are evidences of the fact that our faith in the God of mis- sions is strong enough to face growing The authority of Rev. Mr. Loomis, a responsibilities.
cautious man in all his statements, is " The training home for female for· sufficient; but this from one of the eign missionaries, under the charge of staff of the Japan Mail, the largest Mrs. Warren. has in it at present eight paper in Japan, should settle the ques- or nine young women destined to protion. Virtually the 550 papers and ceed to different parts in the service of periodicals in Japan these twenty-three the churches. years observe the day of rest. .. The Australasian branch of the China Inland Mission has just accepted eight young men candidates to go out in September. " The Ku Cheng massacre awakened Professor Howald Osgood, of Roches- universal grief throughout Australia. ter. promises to say something to our While the secular press was crying out, readers soon on " the electric connection .. Wherefore this waste?" the heroic between a belief in the Bible as the veritable Word of God and a belief in the mother of two of the martyrs (Mrs. duty and success of missions." And Saunders. a resident in Melbourne) was rejoicing in the honor the Saviour had put upon her and her daughters in per- mitting them thus to suffer for His he well remarks that "when a man name. begins to doubt the possibility of foretelling, and the foretelling found in the The Australian Board of Missions has Bible, there is no possible basis for mis- charge of the work of the Church of sions except in a desire to improve the England in Australia and islands admorals of others; but that is not strong jacent. Its last report says: .. One enough to move his purse. If mis- word fittingly describes t1).e work of sions, home and foreign, are the ther- this board-the word progress." A self· denial effort in the year 1894 con- tributed largely to the cheering results mometer of the state of the churches, reported. The most important mission is the New Guinea Mission. In 1891 it it would be a good idea to compare all suffered a serious loss in the death of that has been done by graduates from its pioneer leader, the Rev. Albert tije Qerp}an universities since rational- Maclaren. It has now a staff consist.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
lng of two ordained ministers and four "During the past five weeks some lay workers, with five South Sea Island five hundred Moors, Jews, and Spanevangelists. The Rev. C. King, M.A., iards have died in Tangier from cholera. its head, appeals for more workers. He The Moslems say that a little man is requires at least half II dozen European riding about on a white horse shooting missionaries aud forty colored teachers. arrows at different people, and those who are wounded suffer from cholera. The BeHenden Ker Mission is devoted Very many of them refuse to take any to the aboriginals of Northern Queens- medicine, saying it is useless, and addland. The Rev. E. R. B. Gribble is at Ing that the followers of Mahomet who its head, assisted by three lay workers die of this sickness are sure to be aud two colored laborers. The success saved." of this mission and the prospect of its extension lead to a pressing of its Oentral Ohina Ohristian Missionary claims: and the aboriginal mission is that on Lake C.)ndah under the Rev. Oouvention. J. H. Stahle. The religious results of this mission are not very striking, but The seventh annual convention of the the Gospel is elevating morally and so- missionaries representing the Disciples cially this degraded people. of Christ in China was held in May last The Melanesian Mission has its own in Nankin. bishop, Dr. Cecil Wilso? In t~is .mission there are 8929 baptIzed ChrIstIans, This society supports work at five of whom 1111 have been confirmed; there are 12,183 persons under instruc- stations, all in the valley of the Yangtion in 122 schools with 381 teachers. tse: Shanghai, Nankin, Wllhu, Chll- The staff consists of the bishop, 10 white clergy and 9 native clergy and Cheo, and Luh-Hoh. 3 European lay workers. In spite of the war, the cause of Christ In addition to these the board carries bas made good progress. At its comon mission work among the Chinese mencement cOUldderable hostility was resident in the Australian colonies. The agents include Mr. Cheok Hong shown toward all foreigners. One of Cheong, an educated and refined gentleman, who has passed through a regular our missionaries, while traveling theological training, and who speaks through the country, was stopped by a English with perfect purity and ease. In addition to Mr. Che3ng there are group of soldiers and rather roughly nine other missionaries to the Chinese. Night schools are vigorously and suc- handled. After debating the propriety cessfully worked in connection with this mission. of throwing him in the river, they finally The Baptists of Australasia have released him. Later, by the efforts of chosen East Bengal as the field of their the officials and the wide circulation of operations. About twelve years ago a revival of missionary interest resulted their proclamations, the people were in the sending forth the first ladies for zenana work, and since then these mis- made to understand that there is more sions have gl'own year by year. There than one foreign country, and that none are over eight millions of people in the district in which they work. South but Japan had rebelled-so the procla- AustraJia has Faridpur, Victoria, Mymensing, New South Wales, Noakha:li, mations read. Tasmania, assisted by South AustralIa, Paboa, and New Zealand, Tippera. Even many of the officials bave ap- There are twenty-five European la- parently not yet learned that American borers six of them men, the rest wom- and European countries do not pay en, with a full stall' of native assistants. tribute to the .. Son of Heaven" at The work among the Garos has been most successful. Last year 144 were Pekin. Now that peace is declared, baptized. There are now about 350 converts connected with the mis3ions. some are saying that the Americans haeI The Rev. Silas Mead, M.A., and the injured t.he .. great country's" people Rev. W. T. Whitley, M.A., are about to visit this field. in aCapluifnoirsnhima eanntdtheelseEwmhpereer,oranbdadthuai-t as Our correspondent in Tangier, Mo- rected them to put a stop to tbe ravrocco, Rev. N. H. Patrick, writes: ages of the Japanese; that the Amed- cans were unable to do so by force of arms, and so had bought them oft' with several hundred millions of dollars.
The ease with which the mandarins have quieted the suspicions of the peo- ple in this district and turned their hos- tility into friendliness is proof that their statements of four years ago and since were false, that they could not control the people and prevent riots. The few instanc.es of ill will since t.he proclamations are the exceptions. One of our number, on visiting an inland The latter during the year provided for 257 in-patients and 86 opium pacity. was seized as a Japanese spy. tients. At the two dispensaries there were seen 4012 new cases and 6512 old The offer by our viceroy of fifty taels ones.
for every Japanese bead made some We have prayed most earnestly that God might overrule this cruel war for people very patriotic. Thll gentleman the furtherance of the Gospel. We believe we are entering upon a new era placed in this unpleasant predicament in the history of mission work in this land. had his passport with him, however, The governor-general, Chang Chihand as soon as the magistrate heard of Tung, has already taken steps to reor- ganize the army of this region on Westthe alIair he took: prompt measures for ern models. lIe is also building a ma- . cadamized road through his capital his release, and caused the informer to (Nankin), and seems determined to in- troduce many improvementR. We trl}st make a public apology. that as the Chinese adopt Western ClV- ilization they may be led to see that There were twenty-one baptisms dur- that which is the source of all that is best in Western civHization is the reing the year, and there are in addition ligion of Jesus.
between twenty and thirty inquirers. E. T. WILLIAMS. NANKIN, CJJINA, May 19, 1895. One old gentleman, sixty-two years The editor owes it to himself and his of age, is a retired official. For many readers to say that the sentiments of years past he has been an earnest seeker Dr. Jessup's article In the December after truth. He read a great many number do not represent his own, as to Buddhist books in search of peace and the fulfilment of prophecies touching hope. but found nothing satisfying un- Israel, etc. til a few days ago he accepted Christ. As this is a Re1JieUl, there is n, manifest A native physician living on a small propriety ill allowing contributors to island in the mouth of the Yang-tse present their own views, even when on Kalng came all the way to Shanghai to minor matters they do not altogether urge one of the missionaries to visit his accord with those of the editor; and home and preach the Gospel there. He this has been the policy pursued, unless was first interested in Christianity by the divergence touches fundamental reading a copy of "Martin's Evi- truths. But while giving Dr. Jessup thus full dences, .. and was led to the present step opportunity to represent his own opinby reading in the Ohung-Si-Kiao.HlIJui, ions untrammeled, the editor cannot for- Pao an account of the conversion of the bear to add at least a demurrer. This leader of a vegetarian sect on the neigh- method of dealing with prediction, in boring island of Tsung·mlng. our opinion, makes havoc of all proph- A certain Mrs. Liu, of Shanghai, was ecy. Dr. Jessup seems to us to contraa most violent persecutor of her daugh- dict himself. In one paragraph he ter, who had become a Christian. Last makes Israel only another namefor tlle year she wag taken ill, and a Bible- ohU'I'ch of God, and on the next page he an refers to the final salvation of Israel, woman, Mrs. Lee, visited her frequently. as a body now maintaining its separaand showed her much kindness. But the thin~ that softened Mrs. Liu's heart tion, etc. Again, he says that if the was seemg the Bible-woman kneel on prophecies referring to His kingship are her dirty floor and pray for her. Her to be taken literally, then, as •• Messiah was to be an earthly king, He hall never prejndice being removed, it was not come." Of course He has never yet long before she had followed her daugh- ter into the church. A more curious case is that of Miss Young, who was said to be possessed of a devil. She was a terror to the whole nei.ghborhood. I shall not attempt to explain her con- dition, as Dr. Nevius's book, just pub· lished, goes very thoroughly into the wlwle question. It is sutlicient to say that the Chinese all regard it as devil possession. This girl was chained itl her hDme; yet the fil'st time she heard the message of the Gospel she was won- derfully calmed, and restored to her normal condition. She is now sitting at the feet of Jesus, "clothed and in her right mind," and has also led her younger sistm; to Christ. These are some of the triumphs ot the Gospel during the past year. En- couraging reports were also received from the boarding-school and the hos- pital. _…. come as an earthly king-that is re- of the secretaries, that always form the served for His second coming. staple of the diet, did not fall behind the usual standard of merit. The No- For ourselves we have found it abso- vember MiBsiona;ry He'l'ald is always a lutely necessary to observe the distinc- thesaurus of missionary literature-a tion Paul makes between" Jew, Gentile, volume in itself. and Ohurch of God," which are never confused in the New Testament; and Dr. Palmer's report on finance, of to observe also the distinction between course, awakened great interest, urging the offices of propbet and priest, what that before March 1st, 1896, the $115,- Christ fulfils from His incarnation to 000 debt with which the fiscal year His second advent; and the kingly began be wiped out-a pity, indeed, which He is to fulfil in the glory of His that such a grand board should be half second coming. paralyzed by a debt that equals one fifth of the annual appropriation to its Probably some of our readers will be work! stirred up to present more fully the counter argument under the impulse of A " Disciples Union of the Order of Dr. Jessup's paper. the Double Cross" is now organized-a movement for world-wide medical mis- The Maroh of Events. sions. The name is taken from a device representing two crosses, one overlying The eighty-sixth annual meeting of the other, and the extremities of which the A. B. C. F. M.. in Brooklyn, in Oc- bear respectively the initials of the tober, under presidency of the vener- words" body" and" soul." able and beloved Dr. Storrs, was, of course, largely attended. The presi- This new International Order has dent announced a conditional gift of been recently established by Dr. George $25,000 from a nameless giver for the D. Dowkontt, of New York, and condebt, and thns early a stimulus was sists of four guilds: the Physicians', given to the subscriptions for this ob- Students', Nurses,' and Helpers' guilds. ject. The board mectings have been The purpose is to affiliate all Christian models in their way of interesting and physicians, with those who are studying inspiring missionary gatherings. Tho the art of healing for both body and soul, presence of such men in the chair as and all who are disposed to aid by pray- Dr. Hopkins and Dr. Storrs, the ad- er, work, or gifts, in a great internadresses and papers of such masters of tional association. F. G. Strickland, missions as Drs. Anderson and Clark of Hiram, 0., is corresponding secreand Smith and Treat and Means, and tary, and will reply "to any inquiries. the noble addresses of the fOIemost mis· We have thus one more organization to sionaries from the great fields of the be known as the D. U. O. D. C., the world, have combined to make these oc- main end of which is to send medical casions like the annual gatheriugs of missions to the foreign field. the tribes in the Holy City in ancient times. Since the Andover controversies The map and chart used in our Nocame in to interrupt the harmony, these vember (1895) issue were kindly loaned meetings have never regained their for- by Miss Guinness from her very valuamer prestige and spiritual power, bnt ble book, "The Neglected Continent." they are still a noble contribution to the The book is now so well known that cause of missions. On this occasion Dr. acknowledgment is scarcely necessary. Farnsworth, of Turkey, Dr. Chauncey Goodrich, of North China, and others The Church Missionary Society, like them gave variety and charm to which represents the evangelical porthe meetings; and the splendid papers tion of the Church of England member· ship, gives in its latest report details of of the late C. H. Spurgeon. Anyone world wide operations during the ninety- who Is disposed and qualified to enter sixth year of the society's existence. on this work may communicate with 'fhe total receipts amounted to £272,000. Mr. Duncan at Metlakahtla, Kitchikan, One way in which the increase in the Alaska. missionary force has been effected is by the addition both of honorary missiona- The thirteenth Mohonk Indian conries and of missionaries specially main- ference, again meeting at Mr. Smiley's tained by their own families, or by in- Grand Hotel at Lake Mohonk, had one dividual friends, or by small societies. hundred and fifty guests this year to 'fhese now number one hundred and consider the needs of these much-negfifty-four. In most cases, these con- lected and long.oppressed natives of our tributions to support the donors' " own country. This modest annual confermissionaries" are independent of, and ence is quietly doing untold good in additional to, their regular subscrip- moulding private opinion, public sentitions, and they come chiefly not from ment, and even governmental legislathe wealthy, but from the rank and file tion in behalf of the Indian trioos, and of the society's supporters. helping them upward in their manly struggles toward education and Chris- This, the greatest missionary organI- tianization. The Indian problem is one zation in the world, has impressed us, of the perplexing questions of our day, after much observation of Us methods, demanding the utmost resources of as deservedly outranking all others philanthropy, statesmanship, and Chrisamong all the denominational boards in tian wisdom. The Y. M. C. A. is doing the apostolic character of its methods noble work among them; various eduand spirit. It has a very large num· cational institutions, like those at Carber of missionaries in the field, and yet lisle, Pa., and missionary efforts put keeps out of debt; its prayer services forth in their behalf, have all been are most frequent and fervent, and its greatly owned of God, notwithstanding harmony wonderfully maintained. No the prejudice awakened in the red man reader of the Ohurch Missionary Intel- by political and commercial wrongs. ligencer needs to be told what a power that pamphlet is in its intelligent. advo- These Mohonk conferences gather tocacy of missions, or how pure and ex- gether such men as President Gates of alted is its tone. Amherst, ex-Commissioner Morgan, Commissioner Browning, Superinten- Annette Island, Alaska, given to dent Hallman, General Whittlesey, William Duncan for his New Metla- Herbert Welsh, Dr. Riggs of Santee, kahtla by the United States, is now in· Captain Pratt of Carlisle, ex·Senator volved in the boundary disputes, as was Dawes (author of the Dawes Bill, stated in our previous issue. providing for lands in severalty), Gen- eral O. O. Howard, Dr. Sheldon Jack- There is great need of a fully qualified son of Alaska, Commissioner Harris, medical man, who should be married, Superintendent Skinner-in fact, the and who with his wife would be willing best counsellors on the Indian question heartily to throw themselves into the which the country can provide; and a evangelistic work of that most interest· few full-blooded Indians add a practical ing mission. Mr. J. D. Bluett, who proof of what can be done by education from 1884-94 was associated with Mr. and piety in making the red man a rep- Duncan as medical missionary, was with resentative citizen and Christian. great regret obliged to go back to England. There need be no difficulty as to —, stipend if a suitable man can be found. An American would be preferable. Mr. The Zenana Bible and Medical Mission. Duncan's views aro identical with those At the annual meeting, at London, Eng., in April, under the presidencyof Lord Kinnaird, a most encour- is a serious blow to our work. This republlc. said to be the most advanced aging account was given of tile year's in Central America, seems in religious liberty to be putting the clock backoperations. Progress and blessing were ward. The Central American Mission has agents in the interior, some learnmanifest in every part, while fresh ing the language, others doing good work. openings were arising all round. "Surrounding republics are in a de- The Rev_ A. R. Cavalier gave a brief plorable spiritual condition. Fields abstract of the report. The medical ready for the seed, but very few to work at Benares, Lucknow, and Patna sow. Why this part of the continent Las grown wonderfully. Baptisms has been so long neglected by the Protare reported from many stations, while estant churches of the States is a questhe government inspectors report most tion often asked by visitors from Eusatisfactorily of the educational work. rope and other parts.
Mr. W. T. Paton's financial state- "In connection with the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society we are seek· ment showed that the society has now ing to give the Gospel to the people in reached an annual income of £20,000 ; this place and along the railroad, as with twenty-four new missionaries, fur- also the coast. At Bocas del 'I'oro we ther funds are now required. have a mission, also the lH.ethodist Free Church. But thenatives are in igno- The Dean of Norwich moved a reso- rance of the pure Gospel of Christ. Oh, lution of thankfulness for the extension that some Elijah would arouse the of the work, which was seconded by churches in the States to nriae and take Mrs. NikambC, a native of Bombay. possession of these countries I A more needy or promising field cannot be The Rev. G. H. C. Macgregor moved found. B,r all means prevent overlapa resolution in favor of extending the ping at thIS time of day. The field is village mission work in India, and Miss too large, time too precious for this to Fallon, from Allahabad, sp()ke from be continued. Our business is to cover personal experience regarding the value the field as speedily as possible_ Alas I of such work and the need to extend it there is still a tendency when new among India's villages. ground is broken to rush in. All the churches would do well to pause before .Joshua Heath Sobey, Baptist mis- Paul's words: "Not where Christ was IIlready named, not building upon ansionary, writes from Port Limon, Costa other man's foundation. They shall see where no tidings of Him come. And Rica, C. A., September 22d, 1895 : they who have not heard shall under- stand." .. We have been in this country now over seven years. For some years I In her annual address to the World's was the only Protestant missionary in the country. Woman's Christian Temperance Union, .. Our work has been chiefly among in London, June 19th, Miss Frances E. the English-speaking. My helper. Rev. J. Hayter. is learning the Hpanish with Willard spoke in pari as follows: a view to work among the natives. Before either the British or American Bi- " The missionary societies are our ba· ble societies had agents in this country sis of hope, and will be for many years to we were privileged to circulate thou- come. There are 280 of these associasands of copies of the Scriptures, both tions with 9000 missionaries from for· in Spanish and English. eign lands, and native preachers and teachers to the number of 55,000. Four- " The British and Foreign Bible So- teen million dollars are annually inciety kindly responded to our appeal. vested in missionary work, and in round The bishop and priests don't like the numbers 3,000,000 of human beings are Bible, and do their utmost to keep the directly associated with these missions people from possessing a Cl'py. 'Vhen either as members or close friends. possible they burn the book. In places The Scriptures have been translated where we have labored for years, and into 220 languages spoken by Dlnc with some degree of success, the bishop tenths of the human race, and 160,000,- threatens to build a Roman Catholic 000 copies of the Bible have been circuchurch in every such place. Four are lated sin(',{l this century begsn. Four already ordered, so you see we have fifths of the Continent of Africa are alprovoked them to works. A system ready under European control. Forty which produces results such as we see compels to the conclusion that the papal church needs the Gospel of Christ as much as the so-called heathen. One great need with us is suitable places to conduct worship in. The government l1as prohibited open-air services. This missionary societies, 700 foreign mis- the same stupid, God-dishonoring thing sionaries, and 7000 native preachers are as of old, when the people of Lystra deat work, and about 1,000,000 of the clared that the gods "had come down population are already under Christian in the likeness of men. " As the bishop passed through Pungo Andongo, a king influences . ft'Om the interior came to open up trade; .. The opening of China and the in- so he arranged a cot in his own room for the repose of his majesty. Next dependence of Korea are events of great day the king said to Mr. Shields, the significance in the work we have be- missionary: "I heard in my own counfore us. Japan has risen like a star try of the bishop with the long beard. from the horizon toward the zenith He is not a man at all ; he is a god come among modern nations. Her Red down to men. Last night when he Cross Society and the army order in- came into the bedroom I saw him take viting the missiollaries to furnish every off Ws head (wig) and lay it down by soldier with a copy of the New Testa- his bed, and yet he had a head same as ment are indications that the Japanese before. I was scared nearly to death, are not lovers of war, but may_ be ex- and trembled all over. If he had pected to combine with the Western touched me then I would have died. powers, so much admired by the Island He is the god that piled up these great Kingdom of the East, to substitute ar- bitration for the sword. .. The least-known country of the world has been Thibet, but by a new treaty with Great Britain through her Indian Empire, the first open treatyport has been established beyond the border of that mysterious realm, whence the Mahatma will soon vanish under Pungo mountains. If I could have got the light of Christian civilization. gut of the room I would have run for my life, but the god was between me " A young Englishwoman, a physi- and the door, and I couldn't get out. cian, has been escorted from India to When I go home to my people I will Afghanistan by a special embassy from tell them that I saw a god, and came the Ameer, and has made an impres- near to the end of my life." He could sion so favorable by her ministrations not be induced to risk his life in that among the women of the court, that room again. there is every reason to believe that she will be followed by others of her class, There is a tree of death in Java. and that mountain kingdom will come The natives call it the Kali Mujah. Its into touch with the electric shock of breath would kill birds and even huthe new century. man beings. One day when Rev. E. S. Ufford was chasing a bird of paradise, "This heritage of ours, the planet he noticed that it dropped suddenly to earth, has now been practically explor- the ground, under a tree. He examed in every nook and corner, and every ined the tree, and began himself to feel place will soon be so near to every strangely, as the odors from its leaves other place that communication can be began to be inhaled by him. His head had from the centers of civilization to swam, and ringing sounds came to his the circumference. The darkest, sad- ears as though he were being chlorodest spot, the' open sore of the world.' formed. He hastened away from it, is the Turkish Empire, from which but procured a specimen and sent it to happily many branches have alreadl America, which, it is said, is the first been knocked off, and others are practi- one transplanted in our soil. .. What cally sure to be-first of all hapless Ar- a striking illustration this is of the tree menia and Macedonia. Whatever evil of death, which has been planted in our tends to its own cure heaps up its own fair America by the distiller I It has retribution-prophesies its own remedy; leaves for the blighting of the nations. the blood of the Armenians revealed I see the young, the middle-aged, the the wound. The sick man of Con- old, chasing the birds of pleasure, and stantinople will find its territory closing closely round him, his maligned power will recoil upon himself, and Christian education and civilization may be trusted to lift even the Turk, the most malevolent member of our great family circle, to the level of decencv and afterward decorum among the nations of the earth. "
Bishop TaylorarraJgns heathenism as then falling down beneath the dark shadow of this baleful tree, to die there, victims to the treachery of a few. Mrs.
never to rise again. Would that we Stewart (wife of Rev. Mr. Stewart, who was killed), with her children and maid, might lay the ax at the root of this were up the mountains, where my daughtree !" ters and their friends usually spend the l!ummer, and I suppose the maid and Among the victims of the Chinese some of the children have escaped. I think, from what I know, they were massacres were the Misses Saunders, most likely attacked at night."
and their mother shows the martyr " The elder Miss Saunders found her medical knowledge very useful. She spirit in rejoicing to be accounted studied further in China under Dr.
worthy to suffer in giving them up to Gregory, a medical missionary. From death for the Lord's sake. Her con- eight to twelve daily she received pa- tients, dressed their limbs, and preversation about it is beautifully saintly. scribed for them. Then after lunch she A few facts about these heroic daugh- went out with Miss Elsie Marshall, a ters may interest our readers : friend, who used to preach, and my daughter to prescribe for the listeners. They were born at Brighton, Eng- By this means they got hold of the peoland. At the time of their confirmation ple. Then they always took a Biblp- they began to seek a field to work for woman with them, because she had the Lord. Mr. Beauchamp and Mr. more ready command of the language, Hudson Taylor fired their hearts with and the Chinese trusted her more, and the stories of the woes and wants of the so they worked from day to day."
heathen, and they both decided to dedi- This elder daughter passed her second cate their lives to this work of missions. examination in the language last May, In 1892 they got the chance they had after being out fifteen months. The been waiting for, and were accepted as younger daughter passed her first ex- workers if they would first qualify amination last Easter, and was prepar- themselves by some additional study. ing for the other. The elder was This they consented to. The eldest twenty-four and the younger two years daughter spent six months in the Mel- her junior. Great success has attended bourne Hospital gaining medical knowl- the work of the Christians in China.
edge, which has been invaluable to her. At this particular place, Kucheng, there Then they got training in theology. On are five hundred Christians. Mr. Stew- October 16th, 1893, they left Sydney for art baptized eighty last time he held a China. Their home has been at Ku- baptismal service. It is a glorious work.
cheng. Of course little is known yet Miss Gordon worked with the Misses of the actual massacre, but something S':mnders, and shared their fate. She of the state of affairs prior to the event. should have been away during the mas- Those Vegetarians, the avowed enemies sacre, July and August being the holito law and order, have been causing day months. Mrs. Saunders'S daughmuch trouble. They are the rabble, the ters hoped to come home on furlough, scum of society, the nihilists of China. but had dedicated themselves to their The morning papers stated that they work. Indeed, if the mother could acted under the direction of the man- have sold her property she would darin, but these ladies have testified have gone herself, aud has not given that the mandarin was very kind to up the idea of going even now_ She them, and promised to protect them. declares she would go to-morrow if " May not the seeming kindness, and she could dispose of her property. the assistance in their murder, be just Mrs. Saunders frequently referred to another instance of the duplicity of the the "glorious deaths" of the victims, Chinese character?" was the question anti counts them" privileged to die for put to the mother. the Lord." She says: "I do not think " The duplicity of the Chinese char- of their bodies. I think of them in acter is no worse than the duplicity of heaven. If I had two other daughters some Christians' character," she replied I would send them to follow in the footwarmly. "I stand up for the Chinese. steps of their sisters," was her noble at- They are not to be judged by the work testation. One of the last sentences of their rabble any more than we should penned by Miss Lizzie Saunders to her if the strikers had perpetrated outrages. mother was as follows: The respectable Chinese are a fine peo- " Lord Jesus, Refiner and Purifier of ple, and I exonerate them_ My daugh- souls, cleanse and make holy for Thyters and their friends had onl,t returned self; and in the trial of faith which is home, after going away tIll it was more preciou8 than gold which perish- thought safe to return, and bave fallen eth, we can remember that He said, ' If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.' nothing except to indoctrinate Korean But it was not possible. If it had youth in a new and composite faith in been possible where would all those which Buddhism, Shintoism, and fraghosts be that will rejoice because their ments of other beliefs and unbeliefs are robes are washed white in the blood of heterogeneously mingled, the Koreans the Lamb? They could not be in glory would be as well off without such teachshouting Hallelujah to the Lamb that ing. Christian missionaries, like Dr. once was slain, and if the cup could Baird and his fellow-workers, can at pass from our lips we would go empty- least give to Korea a positive and defihanded to the gate of heaven. We nite gospel of salvation. The missionwould never know the joy of living ary in that country is hedged about alone with Jesus. He is unspeakably with peculiar difficulties, no doubt, but precious. He comes so near. I love this is nothing new. We have only to Him so. He draws one with cords of study the acts of the Apostles to see all love that never fail, never break, never the hindrances of modern missions long hurt. " ago exemplified. It will never be easy work to convert men from sin to God, Anyone seeing the comfortable home but the salvation of a single soul is the young ladies abandoned when they priceless in God's sight. left" The Willows" to labor in China would know that only devotion to their A very prominent and discriminating work would induce them to make the change. Both were beautiful girls. The elder was an excellent pianist, and both were well fitted to shine in society, and had every inducement to give themselves up to a life of pleasure.
They chose differently.
friend of missions writes: About Korean Missions.-Rev. Mr. "I have been reading Henry Nor- Baird, of Fusan, says the new Bud- man's' People and Politics in the Far dhism of Japan takes all it can from East. ' It is very brilliant and instruc- Christianity and other sources to arm tive, but of course from the point of view of a ' Britisher ' and a club man; itself with new aggressive and propa- and his criticisms of missions and mis- gandist methods. Emissaries, of the sionaries are ignorant, prejudiced, and new Buddhist creed in Japan are visit- untrue. I will just indicate the pages ing the old Buddhist monasteries in on which they are found, as others may want to turn to them and refute them- Korea, endeavoring to persuade, them I saw in the Outlook a protest against to adopt the m~thods in use in their own them-pages 280, 281, 282-304, 305, 306, country, and offering to take Korean 307, 308. " He quotes the phrase as applied to youth thither to be educated. 'fhese them, 'ignorant declaimers in bad Chioffers have been accepted by some of nese,' and endorses it. 'Protestant mis- the Korean officials, and when the sionary tracts are distributed bearing young men are suitably indoctrinated, coarse illustrations of such biblical inci- dents as the swallowing of Jonah by they are to return as propagandists of the whale and the killing of Sisera by that faith among their own people. Dr. Jae1.' 'Moreover, … the Protestant Baird does not think that there is a sin· missionaries have circulated the whole gle Japanese Christian in Fusan, and Bible in Chinese. But they have re- cently seen their error.' 'There are says that the entire Japanese influence some men among the Protestant misthere is anti-Christian and immoral. sionaries of the highest character and Japan owes to the introduction of devotion. . •. These, however, are a Christianity, and of the civilization small minority.' 'At any rate, in con· sidering the future of China, the miswhich owes all its greatness to Chris- sionary influence cannot be counted tianity, its elevation to a new level as a upon for any good.'
nation. Yet, with the perverseness of "This is his conclusion of the whole human depravity, there is a tendency to matter, and with this last he dismisses the subject. It makeE any intelligent blend all religions into new combina- student of missions very indignant, and tions, which certainly never has worked vitiates his testimony on every branch well. If missionaries of Japan can do of information upon which he wrote."
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEON.UlD.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign twelve centuries been under the civil· Periodioals. izing power of the Buddhist religion and the Confucian philosophy, while BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, the Malagese have been worshiping rude idols, the Tribune pronounces MASS. these a hopelessly savage people, and gives the French carte blanclw to work MADAGASCAR. their will on them! France is very much obliged to it, and as for truth, -The New York Tribune informs no one looks for it ou such a subject, the public that great interest has been in such a quarter. felt in Madagascar since the official and wholesale acceptance of Christian- Our English race has professed Chrisity by its people, and that many have tianity for about thirteen centuries, and looked upon it as a fulfilment of the this has exercised a powerful and adprophecy that a nation shall be born in vancing influence on the softening and a day, and that hopes have been enter- puriflcation of our manners. Yet are tained that lbdagascar might become we to·day in reality anything more an enlightened and progressive power than imperfectly reclaimed barbarians? like Japan,but that her people, not- The Germans have been called Chriswithstanding their acceptance of Chris- tians for something over a thousand tianily, have made no real advance in years, and can anything better be said civilization, and remaining savages of them? A work thnt is laid out for have met the fate which seems reserved eternity may well require an reon to acfor all savage peoples, by falling under complish. Therefore if the Malagese, the dominion of a civilh.ed power_ in a body, were to accept Christianity to-morrow-and that not to please the This is a specimen of the kind of in- Queen, but of their own motion-they formation as to missions that may be would remain less than half civilized expected from one of our great news- for genera.tions yet. The declaration papers. The" official and wholesale" of the Tribune, however, that they acceptance of Christianity consists in have made no real advance in civilizathe more or less nominal adherence of tion, signifies nothing whatever except about 600,OOO-largely computed-out that the editor wishes to please the of a total population of about 3,500,000 French and the unbelievers. It is ut- -that is, of about one sixth. It is terly contradicted by facts. To say true, the real and nominal Christians that the two central provinces-which belong almost exclusively to the ruling almost alone come in question-have races of the Hovas and Betsileos, form- made no real advance in civilization, ing about one third or perhaps one half even though weighed down by slaveI'Y of these. There has, therefore, been and despotism, under the influence of no "official and wholesale" acceptance a thousand schools, and the constant of Christianity even by the dominant proclamation of the Gospel of purity, race. And yet because the barbarous righteousness, and humanity by sev- Hovas and BetsiUios, surrounded and eral thousand preachers, is to contrainfluenced by an equal number of far dict the nature of the human mind, and more barbarous tribes, over whom they the testimony of scores of observing and exercise a little more than nominal au- conscientious men. However, as it is thority, have not, in a single generation, at present of much more consequence themselves remaining half heathen, to please the French than to tell the made Madagascar a highly civilized nation like Japan, that has for some
EXTlU.CTS AND TRANSLATIONS
truth about the Hovas, the Tribune is the J()Urnal des Mi88ionl, referring to wise in its generation. the proposition made by some English CHINA. men-heathen, evidently, not Christians -" Turning from the [Kucheng] massacre to its causes, the question be- -to guard against trouble with China comes a little perplexing. Indeed, It will be wise to suspend our judgment by forbidding Englishmen to go to until the results of the commission are made known. But the theory wbich China as missionaries, very justly reat first found favor in the public press, that this sanguinary plot was due to re- marks, that it is for the governments, ligious fanaticism, will not bear eXlUIlination, and must be dismissed as untena· and not for the missionaries to deterble; for religIous fanaticism in Chinn is conspicuous by its absence. Race mine how far they will concern themfanaticism is strong; contempt and hatred for foreigners are common enough, selves with outrages upon the missionand are almost universal among the cultured gentry and official classes, the aries, but that the question whether li~at£ and the mandarins; but, as the Rev. George Cockburn, of the Church Christian men and women shall proof Scotland Mission at Ichang, now at home, In a letter to the Abe,·dun. Free claim the Gospel throughout the world Pres8, says: "No people are so latitudinarian. You may have any relig- depends on the authority of Christ, and ion, or no religion, and you will offend none of their prejudices. This is the not of human governments. No Christestimony of all who come into close personal contact with the Chinese. tian man could possibly hold himself Anti-foreign and not anti-missionary feeling is the potent influence at work. bound in conscience to obey a law of Gradually, the best-informed organs of opinion in this country are coming to his government forbidding him to go see this-notably, the Times, in an article which appeared on August 13th. abroad as a missionary. It would be Indeed, the indignation meetings held by the foreign communities in various beyond its legitimate competency, It treaty ports in China disprove this theory of religious fanaticism. The entire might as well be proposed to forbid community, as with one voice, has de· clared its conviction that it is the safety, the preaching of Christianity at home. treaty rights, and liberties of foreigners generally that are threatened, and that That will probably be the next step. it is the mandarins who are the offenders and need to be taught that their The old pagan worship of the State a3 wily plots can hoodwink no one. This will grow clearer to the treaty powers supreme in everything is making rapid as they proceed to investigate the situation, and we may safely leave this side progress; but England will probably of the question in the hands of the British Government."-The Oll/ron.ick. be the last country of Christendom to -Professor F. HERMAN KRUGER, in succumb to it, the last in which the reign of AntiChrist will be established.
However this may be, the history or the Church is one long series of ad- vancements won against the will of the State, and she would cease to be the Church if this should cease to be true of her. "We ought to obey God rath· er than men." When Christians cease to be refractory fanatics in the eyes of the world, they are no longer Chris- tians. In everything temporal, they are bound to be submissive and obedi- ent, but when Cresar undertakes to check the very essence of the Church, which is diffusion through the world, he becomes the deputy of the great enemy. .
.. , It is very singular," said a learned Chinese, who believes in Christ, 'that foreign ships came here, and all said they were better than ours. Foreign steamers came, and all are glad to travel in them. Kerosene came over, and all. sal9. "This light is better."
Foreign calico was imported, all round
GENERAL lUSSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
about began to use it for clothes. For- tal.phrases."-Dr. FABER, in Zeit8clwift eign needles were imported, all agree fUr Misswnakunde. that they excel ours; but the foreign doctrine came, and nobody wants it. It -" The Western powers are greatly is very singular.' "-Da'TUJk Mi88io'TUJ- indebted to Japan for having destroyed so many illusions as to China, illusions Blad. kept up for years back by interested foreigners, and which unhappily have – " It appears that it is the sex of not been seen through by their excelthe adult victims of the tragedy of lencies, the foreign ministers. Facts Kucheng, who, except Dr. Stewart, now speak a distinct and very serious were all women, that has particularly language. for such ears as can hear. provoked criticisms in certain circles of The missionary work"-this was writthe United Kingdom. It was also a ten before the outrages in Fuh-klen genuine consolation to learn by testi- and Sze-chuen-H has thus far not been mony of Dr. Gregory, that they died hindered by the war. Since the murinviolate; but the predominance of the der of Mr. Wylie in Manchuria at the feminine element in many of the Eng- beginning, we have nothing of simila'r lish and· American miBBions is none the occurrences. There are even indicaless an abnormal thing. The woman tions that the miBBionaries are beginought to remain the helper of the man ning to be regarded by the mandarins in missions in heathen countries as well with more intelligence and therefore as elsewhere; it matters little whether with more respect than formerly. The as wife or transient inmate of a family; French patronage of the Roman Cathobut to confide to young women quite lic missions may appear to involve alone, whatever their number, an evan- some danger to China, but Protestant gelizing post in a heathen city, appears miBBions cannot appear so, divided as to us decidedly opposed to the part they are among several treaty powers. which Providence has assigned to the The repJesentatives at English and weaker sex. On the other hand, the American diplomacy have foresight and good which ladies, placed in these cir- tact enough to recognize and also to accumstances, accomplish, is undeniable, knowledge the great political signifiand it would be hard to refuse their cance of some 1500 Protestant missionservices for the simple reason that there aries, whose sphere of influence emare too many of them compared with braces the whole empire. A transforthe numbers of the stronger sex in the mation of China is only possible with work. We see then only one way of help of the energetic cooperation of meeting the difficulty, it is that the Christian missions, for nothing else will men go abroad in sufficient numbers to ensure a speedy and extended influence re-establish the equilibrium. God on the masses of the people. May God grant that this may come to pass soon!" direct all to the salvation of the mil- -Revue des Mi8sions Contemporaines. lions. "-Ibid.
-" To me it seems impossible that -In a later letter Dr. FABER remarks: China should flourish again unleBB the "Meanwhile, peace has been concludpalace can be delivered from the gov- ed, but on neither side do the armed ernment of women and eunuchs, and preparations which are going on seem unless polygamy among the mandarins to indicate any hearty confidence in its and men of rank can be abolished. continuance. Perhaps these prepara- Moreover, idolatry and ancestor-wor- tions are In view of the possibility. ship are cancers that consume the mar- that M Hung Chang may be overrow of the land. This is true, notwith- thrown and the old conservative party standing the opposing assertions 01 the come to the helm. At this distance we antagonists of missions, who endeavor can get no trustworthy accounts of to veil their malignity under;sentimen.
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATION••
what is going on in the palaee. The world is their pat"lsh, for whieh they Emperor is stlll too young not to be are O/flMJJerabl6. We are neither lack- dependent on those around him. The ing in the capacity of religious enthu.
Empress dowager appears to be more siasm and the courage of self-sacrifice, taken up with herself and her own nor are we lacking in the necessary glory than with any thoughts of moth· money in the land; we are lacking erly care for the 400,000,000 of the only in a right organization of our people. Prince Kung also appears evangelical strength for aggressive de- powerless. ,Li Hung Chang has more velopment, and in a recognition of our enemies than formerly. Despite the missionary obligation to the whol6 world, great services which this great states· an obligation to be restrained by no man of China has rendered to his na· patriotic limitation. We Germans come tive country, there now allpears in his late into the mission-field, yet we CO'lm, past policy one portentous failing. He and that with so much the greater has not. known how to train for the weight. May God graciously so order higher range of the public service men it !-Pfarrer KRANZ, in Zeitsclvrijt fU1'
of professional skill and of firmness of MiBBionskunde.
character. There is a lack everywhere -Considering that the Unitas Fra· in the cabinet, among the imperial offi· trum and the Halle missionaries went cials in the provinces, in the army, in out so long ago, it can hardly be said the navy, in the technical schools, of that the Germans come late. What is serviceable, reliable men. II evidently meant is, that German Protes· -" Some days ago I received from a tants are late in coming to a general rec· friend In Hongkong a letter in which ognition of their duty.
he related that a secretary of the Church "If we will bear well in mind the Missionary Society, who was there on vices and irregularities which deformed a tour of inspection, delivered in a the Gentile churches of Paul's time, great hall a discourse on the missionary especially the Corinthian Church, we obligation. In it he portrayed the should be spared many temptations needs of the heathen and the enormous and disappointments. The apostle's greatness of the missionary field, and deep intelligence of human nature, and then said that England and America his knowledge of the natural life, even must do the work commanded by among the Christians, shows itself in Ohrist, 'for what can we expect from the following passage: 'Lest, when I Germany?' We German missionaries come again, my God will humble me feel this criticism bitterly, above all, among YOIl, and that I shall bewail because, measured by what has yet many which have sinned already, and been achie'Ded, there is much truth in have' not repented of the uncleanness, it; but yet is not wholly true. I can· and fornication, and lasciviousness, not give up the hope and the faith that which they have committed.' We mis- we in the future can yet expect grest sionaries out of the Western lands are things from Germany even for mis· too much Inclined to treat the Chinese sions. Only let the land of Luther converts as if they were of our sort.
first rightly recognize her missionary Doubtless we are to regard them a8 our obligation, let the genuine Christians brethren in Christ, but we should Done in Protestant Germany gather them· the less learn from the apostle to dis· selves in a decisive confession of the tinguish children from those of full one Lord, and recognize one another age. For thousands of years the Chi· mutually as brethren, and over against nese Inheritance has been Idolatry and the world as responsible bearers of the worldliness. It is unreasonable then Gospel, then they will soon become to expect of them that strength of faith conscious that not the narrow bounda- and spirituality of view which may rea- ries of Germany, but the whole great 80nably be required of us. It is ex-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
traordinarily difficult for them to reo room, the house being then set on tire. nounce superstition in every form, .. The nurse and Miss Nellie Saunders when everything about them is steeped died endeavoring to protect the chilo in supeNt.ition, not. easy to be open and dren. 8.Jld their bOOies also wale left in honorable, pure and clean, where every· the burning house." By the heroism body is just the opposite. We must of the second girl, Kathleen, the eldest first convince ourselves whether there girl, who was badly wounded, and the is any Christian life at all in them, and three young ones were rescued from thon we must follow the example of the flames, being carried or dragged to the great apostle of the Gentiles, and the house where the American lady, have confidence that this inner life Miss Hartford, was staying. " The will grow, and that God is faithful, younger Miss Saunders was killed out· through whom they have been called side; and the five C. E. Z. M. S. ladies into the fellOWShip of His Son. He were attacked outside their own house, will fulfil His work among the Chi· Miss Codrington alone escaping death. nese, as He fulfilled it among the Co· rinthians. The Gospel is A POWER of Since apparently all Is quiet now at God; and so long as it abides among a Fuh·kien, Mr. Lloyd, Mr. Martin, and congregation, this will also reveal this Miss Boileau return to the mission at power in the renewal of the heart and once, and the two new men appointed to life of every member. "-Dr. ERNEST it, the Revs. F. E. Bland and J. A. Cut· FABER, retranslated from Zeitschrift fillr ten, accompany them. For the present MiMiomkunde. the nine new ladies designated for the work are detained, tho it is hoped they -Pfarrer KRANZ remarks that a man may yet sail this year. who can both speak and read the Chi· nese of cultivated conversation (Kuan· In response chiefly to urgent requests hoa) is no nearer ability to read the from Ireland, where Mr. and Mrs. written classical Chinese (Wenli) than Stewart were so well known. a Xu· a man who can speak and read French clteng Mem01'ial FUnd has been opened. 1Iuently, is able to read Latin, of which Funds have freely come in; but no ap· the French is a profound modification. peal for money has been made or will There are, moreover, three grades of be made. Wenli, the most compressed of which cannQt be read without a commentary. West Indies.-Accordlng to the Bish· The least compressed is that of novels, op of Sierra Leone. who has just reo which seem to be as popular In China turned from the West Indies. good as with us. The middle Wenli is offi· openings exist there for the enlistment cial and commercial. of missionary recruits for Africa from the negro population. An earnest ap· English Notes. peal for Europeans to lead parties of African evangelists into the Temni and BY JAMES DOUGLAS. Mendi countries has been received, and the committee of the Church Mission- OhU1'ch MiBBiona'l'1J &ciety.-Details ary Society would welcome three or have arrived from Fuh·chow of the four men of suitable gifts should they Ku·cheng massacre, which were de· be led to offer themselves for this exlivered in London at mid.day on Satur· tensive work. day, September 14th. Happily the ac· tual murders had not combined with West Africa.-In sequence to what them the nameless horroN suggested we have just written, it is pleasing to by some of the wild telegrams. Mr. find that as the result of a missionary and Mrs. Stewart were not burnt alive, Tccruiting comps.ign undertaken by the but were killed instantly in their bed· Rev. W.·'E. Humphrey, Principal of the Fourah Bay College, and the tutor, the Rev. E. T. Cole, about 100 young
ENGLISH NOTE••
men offered themselves for missionary PrCflbyterian Ohurch of England.- work and were interviewed. After An interesting account Is given of Dr. deductions were made on various Lyall's farewell address, given recently grounds, 60 were left, 9 married and in his native village in Berwickshlre, 51 unmarried. Among these it is hoped prior to his leaving for China once a few at least will be found suitable to more. He explained who" the Black occupy under tried teachers some new Flags" are, the Chinese bravoes, who, stations either in the Temne or Mendi in contrast with their countrymen on countries, or both. the mainland, have been able to put under some kind of arrest for the mo- W68tern India.-Two Parsees, a ment the march of the Japanese from brother and a sister, have been baptized the north to the south of Formosa. and ha ve renounced their Zoroastrian- These men are villagers for the most ism. The sister first came to the knowl- part who have become habituated to edge of the truth; and as far back as war because of the necessity imposed November, 1894, applied for baptism, upon them of being ready at any hour but was deterred by her brother, who to repel the incursions of the mounthreatened to put an end to his life, taineers that watch their opportunity to should she carry out her purpose. The prey upon the villages. scales have fallen from his eyes, and together with his sister he has made Dr. Lynll also gave an account of the avowal of his adhesion to Christ. mission hospital in Swatow-the largest in China-which has an average of 180 The Bhit Mi88ion.-Ditllcult and slow in-patients all the year through, and de· exceedingly is the work among the tailed the growth of the native churches Bhils in the Bombay Presidency. The in that region, three of which are selfrecord as it now stands is 24 baptisms supporting, each baving an ordained after fourteen years' labor. pastor.
Society for the Propagation of the Gos_ Wesleyan Missionary Society. – A pel.-This society is doing its best, brief sketch is supplied in the "Misamid much that is discouraging, to hold sionary Notices" of David Tonga, now the fort in the extensive and sparsely with the Lord. In the little kingdom populated province of Manitoba. An of Tonga, for a quarter of a century, endeavor is made to place a clergyman he has been the foremost Tongan, the wherever needed if a guarantee be late King George alone excepted. He given of £60 or £80 toward a salary of was a born leader of men; and his rank £140 or £160. The total amount raised as II BOul-winner is illustrious. When in the diocese itself was £14,250. It is very young he began to preach, and deeply to be regretted that the mission his first convert was his own father. college has a debt of £9500. Early in the seventies he became a dis- trict minister, receiving a circuit ap- Bloemfontein.-The work of the So- pointment in 1876. He had numerous ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel seals to his ministry, He was also one in this diocese, while subject to excep- whose faith shone grandly forth under tional fluctuations, has its clear quota trial. Neither persecution, nor the of encouraging results. Fifteen Basu- spoiling of his goods, nor the breaking tos have been received into the mem- up of his beautiful home, nor banishbership of the church recently after a ment made him to swerve or so much most careful test. It is felt by the as dimmed his hope. Such men are workers that these have come to them bright lights in their day, nor has their to call them forth to seek that others shining ceased when they theIDSelves in Basutoland may hear and receive the are lone. words of life.
&ENJil:&A.L HIlI8rONARY INTBLLIGJilNCJil_
ltatUt1C1 of the JUllionary Soo1et1el of·the [TlI'II811 tabl. blelude only Mieeionl to non-Christian and non-Protestant peoples, and 80 they omit the United States_ The tlgures are derived almost wholly from annual reports, and relate in the main blanks, and hence where official tlgures were not at hand, conservative estimates have been made_] ~ Missionaries_ Native Laborers. – J… N£JIlIIl OJ' SOOl1IITI'JliI. !.;i 'el_ l ! 0 ~ i g .; .sa~ 'E +l ~ 0 a 'E ~ ~~ 0 ~ ~ ..g"… 3 0 ~ ~~ )l ~ r,..
——————- American Board _…………….. -. _. _… -. 1810 $716,837 187 17 187 180 572 242 2,847 Baptist Missionary Union ……..•….•..•. 1814 681,256 185 34 157 115 491 255 1,680 southern Baptist Convention ………••.• ,. 1845 …. 125,417 40 35 16 91 80 89 Free ~aptist …………………………… 1886 25,611 9 23 10 12 54 28 218 20,000 3 5 2 3 13 1 6 ……….. Seventh·Day Baptist…….. ,… 1842 Christian (Disciples)………•…•.•.•••.••• 1875 88,514 19 3 18 9 49 3 60 American Christian Convention •..•…..••. 1886 27 3 15 Lutheran, General Conncil ……..•…••.• ,. 1869 5,000 4 …. 1 3 19 2 145 Lutheran, General Synod•…•…………. 1837 5 19 3 203 20,892 8 …. 8 50,000 10 …. 4 Methodist Episcopal …………………… 18U 992,807 242 46 2'Jl 148 687 323 S,S46 Methodist Episcopal, South…•.•..•….••. 1846 214,324 53 4 47 5 111 57 201 Methodist Protestant……..•………..• , . 1882 15,806 I; 1 6 3 15 3 17 3,200 2 …. 2 ……… Wesleyan Methodist ………… 1887 3 7 …. 10 …….. .. Protestant Episcopal .••…•.•• 1885 269,491 42 27 22 19 110 81 424 Presbyterian………………………….. 1837 865,709 248 48 260 168 724 241 1,996 132,338 Presbyterian, South.•….•. …………… 1861 50 7 41 30 128 29 141 24,06lI cnm~rland Presbyterian•..•.•……•….. 1828 4,034 5 …. 56 16 3 24 17,168 . 8 Associate Reformed Presbyterian, South..• , 1879 3,900 .. 33 9 4 10 Reformed presbyterian (Covenanter)…….. 1856 ~ 18 … 84 Reformed Presbyterian (Gen'l SyLod) …… 1836 5 II 6 I; 8 …. 37 5 …. 3 ….
United Presbyterian…………………… 1859 132,807 32 1 80 31 94 25 498 30,620 Reformed (German)…………………… 1878 111,288 6 …. /; 2 13 9 41 Reformed (Dutch) ……….. , ………….. 1836 9,608 Evangelical Association …•••••••••.•••..•. 1876 ,8,600 27 5 26 18 76 43 348 20,000 German Evangelical Synod.. ………….. 1888 32,661 3 …. a …. 6 …. 14 36,488 11 …. 53 United Brethren………………………. 1863 :1,416 7 …. 31 237,497 Society of Friends …………. …………. 1871 135.120 16 10 4 6 36 14 26 Canada Baptist……………………….. 1866 11 34 11 19 75 9 82 Canada Congregationalist……………… 1881 11 …. 11 10 32 10 162 Canada Methodist…………………….. 1873 1 …. …. 1 2 4 33 …. Canada Presbyterian………………….. 1844 " 23 32 88 82 80 33 13 80 35 111 6 61 – – – – – – – – – – – Twenty-Six Other Societies………………… 35 95 -171 9, 435- – 10 -360 434.711 126 Totalll ………….. ……. i'I ……….. …… $5,472,772 1,441 365 1,280 1,0701 4,129) 1,46613,177 United States and Canada for 1894-911.
work done in non-Catholic Europe, while covering that in behalf of Indians, Chine!!e, and Japanese In to 1895, tho sometimes the year includes a part of 1894. The aim has been to leave the fewest poBBible ~ ~ :i .~ . ..J. o" . I">< ot ~ ~-;;- ;j~ ",,'" .~.. !S~ .8 l!lS i'" ""<".""",: t~ Countries in which ~ .; j Missions are Sustained. o ell 0 1jO '0 0 :p ill "<": ~ ~ ~ ell ;e; E-t — – – —- —- —- – 3,418 1,266 44,413 3,~66 141,129 1,165 48,874 Africa, Turkehi India, China, Japan, 2,121 1,054 102,351 244,000 1,240 25,321 4,484 10,000 BuMrmicarohn, eIsniadia,exCichoi,nSap, aJianp, Aanu,stAriaf-. 180 199 3,493 581 15 707 272 14 729 51 1,519 94 3,216 rica, France, SEaln. China, Japan, A rica, Italy, Mexico, Brazil. India (Southern Bengal), 19 2 100 8 140 2 37 Ohina (Shanghai).
109 30 875 101 1,750 10 919 India, China, Japan, Turkey.
22 28 220 10 800 2 40 Japan (Tokyo, etc.).
164 198 1,763 350 4,484 102 1,893 India (Madras).
222 12 5,905 1,200 14,370 199 5,393 India (Madras), West Africa.
4,033 510 43,855 8,855 97,000 1,446 40,813 China, Korea, Japan, India, Africa, 312 Bulgaria, Mexico. South America. 136 7,804 1,277 16,332 45 1,116 China, Japan, Mexico, Brazil.
32 14 87b 47 800 14 648 Japan (Yokohama).
17 2 250 10 600 5 208 Africa (Sierra Leone).
584 206 7,762 241 17,000 142 6,082 Africa, China, Japan, Haiti, Greece.
2,720 719 37,065 3,897 105,000 912 32,942 India, China, Ja~an, Korea, Africa, 270 931 ChSiynrai,aK, Poererasi,aJa~paan,nlAshfrAicma,eGricreae.ce, 40 38 2,653 160 8,000 27 Italy, Mexico, raz!l.
10 617 40 1,200 4 150 Japan, Mexico, Indians.
19 11 245 54 500 4 91 Mexico (Tampico, etc.).
52 10 ~ 8 500 10 596 Northern Syria, Asia Minor.
4.~ 9 582 274 1,317 11 283 India (Northwest Provinces).
592 247 10,901 1,283 23,000 247 12,608 Egypt, India (Northwest Provinces).
54 41 1,960 235 4,500 2 218 Japan (Tokyo, Sendai, etc.).
419 269 5,197 408 12,000 155 5,694 India, China, Japan, Arabia.
20 17 727 118 1,200 1 25 Japan (Tokyo, Osaka).
64 12 460 25 1,165 17 572 India (Central Provinces).
62 23 6,491 280 17,000 15 1,250 China, W1lst Africa.
157 40' 793 77 1,800 27 834 Mexico, .Alaska, Jamaica, Ohina, Japan. 194 35 3,215 408 10,000 68 1,086 India (Telugns).
8 1 20 8 250 2 95 Africa (West Oentral).
168 106 6,070 225 12,000 556 2,812 Japan (Tokyo), Indians.
172 283 2,774 141 7,000 88 5,210 China, India, New Hebrides, West Indies. – -795- – -127 – – -4,0-04 – -31-5 – -8,5-00- – -56- -2-,73-8 17,306 5,669 304,111 28,437 761,936 6,683 203,402 THE KINGDOM. the Christian scholar-from the strong woman, who could lift a patient from -At the Episcopal Triennial Con- one bed to another, to the refined and ference held in October in Minneapolis highly trained lady, capable of setting Bishop McLaren preached a sermon the standard of woman's morality and which may fairly be called tremendous intellectual life at a high and sacred upon the Mission Love of our Lord pitch." Jesus Christ, from the text: "But when he saw the multitudes, he was -The same speaker remarked that moved with compassion on them, be· " he was often discouraged at missioncause they fainted, and were scattered ary meetings by hearing prayers offered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd" for the opening of doors-when during (Matt. 9: 36). Here he found the the last thirty years no less than 700,- Christian motive, and held with great 000,000 people, formerly inaccessible to vigor and earnestness that such love the Gospel, had been made accessibleshould throb in every breast. and by the prayer for labor(lrs, when the Volunteer Student movement had -The House of Bishops, in their let· provided the workers. These were, ter to the Episcopal Church, declare therefore, not prayers. Prayer was that the large gifts of a few laymeu asking for what you have not got and cannot stand as the measure of the gen· want to get. What, then, is the real erosity of the Church, and make the honest prayer for 1895? '0 Lord, statement: .. We can never hope to open my purse.' That is what you are rise to the measure of our opportunities wanting; what you have not got." and of our obligations to meet their., until every baptized man, woman, and -Just such weak-kneed pastors can child shall give freely, systematically, be found by the score and hundred in conscientiously. to the support of the every denomination as the Assembly Gospel and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Herald had in its eye: "A Presbyterian Christ. " pastor notified his congregation re, centIy that he felt that the church was -Dr. John Talmage, who died not not called upon to do anything in the long since, after forty-five years of present emergency of our missionary missionary life in China, when asked boards. At the close of the service one about the sacrifice of a foreign mission- of the members of the church came to ary, replied: .. The missionary of him and said that her mother desired Christ knows no sacrifices. His work to make an offering for the Relief Moveis all joy, nothing but joy. It is a sac· ment of $200, and wanted to know rifice to be shut up in this land away whether it should be sent independently from my foreign field and the blessed or through the church. and said tbat service of offering salvation to the there were others in the congregation heathen." who felt that they also ought to give for this cause." -At the centennial anniversary of the London Missionary Society Dr. -Our colored brethren are waxing Lindsay, of the Free Church, suggest- practical, and are proving their faith ed that .. mission work should cover a by their works. for at a negro confervast variety of men's and women's ence recently held in Selma, Ala., the powers and gifts consecrated to the ser- following questions were discussed: vice of Jesus Christ. But one depart- "Evils of Excursions," "The Mort· ment of the work should not 'blow gage System and Its Evils," " Do the cold' upon another. In these days we People Practise their Religion through were learning that a missionary might the Week 1" "How can we Secure be man or wQman, evangelist or educa- Better Homes among our People?" tionalist, hospital nurse or high-school " Are the People Wasting their Money mistress-from the Christian artisan to in Useless Lawsuits?" "Hindrances school for little Arab chndren on the to Success." Nne.
-And Booker T. Washington, of -Rear-Admiral Kirkland, who not Tuskegee Institute, is helping them long since put himself on record as esforward in the good way, for he says: teeming the missionaries in the Levant "I have recently spent several weeks "a bad lot," has himself since been with the senior class in studying men found so lacking in capacity, or so instead of books. Each member of the " derelict, " as to be detached from duty class has gone into the country and and ordered ,home.
studied a family I finding out the num- -" The day that I arrived to receive ber and age of the family; whether in consecration, when that venerable pia· debt or free from debt; whether or not neer bishop, Bishop Kemper, was the the crop was mortgaged; whether the presiding bishop, and my heart melted land was owned or rented; how many into tenderness, after the consecration acres cultivated; the kinds of crops, he laid his hand upon my head and whether or not it was one or a variety; said: 'My brother, do not forget those the kind of food consumed; whether wandering red men whom Jesus Christ or not the cultivation was poor or wishes us to bring home.' That after- good; the number of fowls, cattle, noon, by another singular providence pigs, dogs, cats, etc., owned; the ed- of God, the Rev. Mr. Hoffman, that ucational conditions and opportuni- pioneer missionary of Africa, came to ties; the moral and religious condi- me and said: 'The last thing before I tion, noting especially to what ex- left Africa our African Christians tent poverty atIected the moral and re- placed in my hands $75, the result of ligious life. Some of the class have their own earnings, and they send it to gone into the city of Montgomery and be their gift to any heathen people of made the same kind of study of 27 fam- America for whom the Church should ilies there in the lower strata of life, establish a mission.' And the first dol- making a special study of the methods lar ever received by me for Indian mis- of religious worship in certain churches sions came from converted 1>lack men in Montgomery, especially with a view in Africa. "-BiBkop Whipple.
of finding out how much connection there -Truly, in Jesus Christ we are all of i8 between the loud ',Amen&' and' Hal- one spirit. The news of the Ku·cheng lelujahs' in elturch and the mural, in- massacre created a great sensation in dustrial andfamily life oftheindi'Didual. Australia, which had given to the mis- This whole study has proven intensely sion two of the martyred women. One interesting and profitable, especially of the most remarkable meetings held the sound, healthy remedies that indi- in Sydney was that of the Chinese resi. viduals in the class suggested for pres· dents there, heathen as well as Chrisent weakness and evils. It.is proposed tian, which filled one of the largest to extend the investigation next year halls. The speakers were all Chinese. stm further." Their aim was to express a sense of -According to Robert E. ,Speer: their feeling of shame, sympathy, and "This [missions] is the world's one determination to erect a public memocertainly triumphant movement. It rial to the martyrs. It is said that the cannot fail. Emerson declared, forty memorial wm take the form of a capiyears ago, that what hold the popular talized sum to provide for spreading faith had upon the people was ' gone, the Gospel among the Chinese in AU!!- or going.' He asked why we should tralia and in China through the Church drag the dead weight of the Sunday· Missionary Society. school over the globe, and lived to see his own daughter holding a Sunday. -One who ought to know declared publicly the other day that Presbyte-
MISSIONARY INTELLIGENOE
rians constitute one fourth of all "the -Mrs. Charles Green, of Baltimore, evangelical missionaries who are striv- is having built at Old Orchard, Me., a ing to spread Christ's kingdom in the "seaside rest" for missionaries of all world. " If this be true, what honor churches when recruiting from their and what responsibility are accorded to labors. They will be expected to pay that church. 75 Cents a day for lodgings, with every comfort. Their meals will be free. -The occupation of the explorer is The place is being beautifully fitted up, not yet by any means gone, for affirmed and will probably be dedicated early in Professor 1. L. Tobley, in an address June next year. before .the London Geographical Congress: .. Leaving out of account the -Upward of 500,000 of the native very imperfectly known regions of women of India were relieved last year Central Asia and the interior of the by the medical staff and appliances of northern parts of both North and South the Lady Dufferin Fund. The number America, as well as the similar areas of has gone on increasing annually at a Africa and Australia, there is an aggre- rapid rate. It is nearly ten years since, gate area of about 20;000,000 square in obedience to the charge laid upon mUes of the surface of the globe as yet her by the Queen-Empress, the govquite unexplored. This aggregate is ernor-general's wife formed the fund made up as follows: which bears her name. It has in that time employed 73 women doctors of vari- Africa… . •. . •. . . . •. . . . . 6,500,000 square miles. ous degrees of qualifications, has estab- Au.tralia ……………, 2,250,000 .. lished 57 hospitals and dispensaries in North America………. 1,500,000 various parts of India, and has trained 262 South America. .. . •. •… 500,000 women in the several medical colleges. A.la……………….. 21;0,000 I.land….. • •.• .. … •• .. 500,000 -In New England, notably in Ver- Arctic regions………. 3,500,000 mont, women are increasingly employ- Antarctic regions•……. 5,000,000 ed as evangelists and pastors for desti- tute fields. They go in couples, they Total …………… 20,000,000 live among the people, visit much, and have charge of all the services during WO~IAN'S WORK. the week and on Sunday. Among the number during last year was one of the -A widow of Cleveland, 0., pos- daughters of the editor-in-chief of this sessed of wealth and deeply interested In missions, supports 13 foreign mis- REVIEW. sionaries, and now she is making a mission tour around the world, thus deep- -In October last the Lutheran ening her own interest in the work and Church, General Synod, set apart 6 cheering those who in every land must deaconesses who had completed a course receive her with joy. of training to take charge of the Mother House in Baltimore. Five of the num- -When the native Christians at ber were trained in Kaiserswerth, Ger- Benito, West Africa, were dismissing many.' their three missionaries, they prayed: .. May they be preserved from storms ~ -The Methodist Woman's Foreign at sea, be kept in health, have moon- Missionary Society met in St. Louis light on their journey, meet their October 27th, to hold the twenty-sixth friends in peace, and may their friends annual meeting. Eighteen returned be willing to let them return. " missionaries were present, and 20 had been sent out during the year, 8 going -A woman of the Danish nobility, to India, 10 to China, 1 to Japan, and Duchess Schimmelmann, has renounced 1 to South America. Six are medical the pleasures of the court, and is labor- graduates. The report of the treasurer ing as an evangelist among the poor was as follows: Received from . and destitute fishermen along the coast. She proceeds from place to place in her own yacht.
1896.J GENERAl.. HISStONAlty tNl'Et.t.lGENCE
New England branch •………..••……,4O,1fa1 people's societies of the Lutheran Church in Illinois. In addition to this, New York " ………••••……. 50,000 the society paid $150 toward the build· ing of its church. Philadelphia ……………….. 28,089 Baltimore .. … .. .. . .. …. …. 11,886 Cincinnati …. .. .. .. .. .. .. …. 37,~ Northwestern" ………………. 66,404 -The Roger Williams Free Baptist Des Moines ……………….. 24,116 Society of Providence, R. I., raised Minneapolis …. .. ………. . .. .. 8,908 more than $250 the past year, over half Topeka …. …. …. .. .. …. 13,m Paclllc .. .. …. ……. .. •.. 5.938 of which was given to foreign missions.
Colnmbia River" .. .. .. .. .. . .. . .. .. .. 2,891 This society has 60 members, and the Total………………………….$289,227 money was raised by the envelope srs- -The New York branch of the tem and by personal subscription. No above·named society issues this pledge " pay socials."
to be signed by its members: "Because -Even the hens in Tennessee are to I believe it to be my Christian duty to be given the privilege of adopting the Inform myself of the spread of Christ's Harris plan of a weekly contribution to kJn,gdom in the world, I hereby prom- missions, for a number of Junior En· ise to spend at least one half hour each deavorers in that State have obtained week in reading missionary literature. " per~ion from their parents to have for missionary objects the proceeds YOUNG PEOPLE. from all the eggs laid on Sunday.- -TheEndeavor societies of New York CongregationaZiBt.
City contributed nearly $50,000 to mis- -The Epworth Leagues of Texas sions last year. The SOCiety in the Six· have pledged themselves to support 3 teenth Street Baptist Church supports married missionaries of the General 3 foreign missionaries. The largest Board this yeai'. The Leagues ot Ala· amount reported is from Mount Morris bama. will support Miss Worth, who is Baptist Church-$1425. The Navy now on her way to Japan. The St.
Yard society reports a large number of Louis League Union assumed the ex- missionaries working in the uttermost penses of Miss Willie Bowman at the parts of the earth without money and Scarritt Bible and Training School for without price. One band of 15 on the ODe year; the Epworth League of St.
United Slates steamship Cluwleatun has Paul's Church, St. Louis, paid Miss Ida very recently raised among themselves Worth's expenses for two years; the $500, and are about to open a Christian Kansas City Union met the expenses of Endeavor home at Nagssski, Japan, one student last year, and has pledged the first in Asia. Many of the societies itself for an equal amount this year; have adopted the Fulton plan of 2 cents while the leagues in Nevada and Lex· a week,. and are giving regularly. ington aided still another student.
-The Congregational Juniors of Brighton, Mass., had a good time at UNITED STATES.
their thank·offerlng meeting, October -Scan the appended table and learn 20th, when 23 mite-boxes were brought how it .. happens" that New York in, containing $18. This sum was in· City is such a moral storm center. creased by the CODtents of the birthday jug, $21.50, making $39 in all that Germans…………………………. 403,784 these Juniors have given within seven Irish…. …. …. . .. . .. . •• … . •.. … … . 399,348 months for missions. Unclas8i1!ed and miscellaneous……… 173,120 Bnssians and Poles… …………….. 80,235 -The Lutheran Y. P. S. C. E. of ltaJiBJUl.. .. .. .. .. .. •.. • .. .. .. •.. .. .. . .. 114,324 m., Lena, French… ……………………….. 16,289 is pledged to pay *75 an- Hnngarians.. .. …. .. …. …………. 15,555 ( nually for five years for the support of Bohemians. … …….. .. .. …. •… . .. .. 12,287 Rev. Will M. Beck, who expects to go Total foreign popnlatlon.•••.•.••••• 1,154,900 to Africa as a mi88ionary of the young American born, including nejp'oes.. 300,299 – Utah hal gone Republican by a and held as a part of the Dominion of Small majority, though as it appears, Canada, and so he and his much-enonly because of the preference and In- during converts are still under the vexfiucnce shown for that party by the au- atious rulings, to escape which a few thorities of the Mormon Church, whiCh years ago they forsook home and all holds the balance of power and wields they had.. it only to further its own schemes. The cloven foot was revealed during EUROPE. the campaign, when the ruling priesthood Issued an order that no .. saint" -Last year £28,454 was raised and should accept the candidacy for any expended in the London Missionary office without having tlrst gained the Society's mission·tlelds abroad,· the permission of the ecclesiastical authori- larger part of this representing direct ties. contributions for the support of church ordinances and the propagation of the -The American ltfiB8W'IWIf1J (Congre- Gospel. gationalist) for October is a delight to the eye, as well as a feast to the heart -The Chinese Christians of Hankow of a lover of his kind. sent· their congratulations to the Lon- don Society to which they owed the -The Presbyterians have been be- Gospel, on the occasion of its centenstirring themselves most vigorously of ary, in the form of an address and motlate to payoff their great miSSionary toes in four pieces, worked in gold debt. In particular the synods of D- cord and variegated silks on satin scrolls linois and Ohio have each been holding or banners, and these of the largest a congress of missions, and in New size ever known to be used. York City, November 15th, was held a great gathering, which was addressed -A new temperance socIety, under by ex-President Harrison, ex-Secretary the supervision of leading medical of State J. W. Foster, and Rev. F. E. men, has been formed in France, the Clark. members of which propose to study the means of extirpating alcoholism, to -Major W. H. Clapp, who is an exterminate its effects, to propagate a army officer, and for several years has knowledge of the evil in all social cenbeen in charge of Indian agencies, holds ters, to group the greatest possible the red man in high respect and esteem. number of citizens together who wish He declares: ., I never saw nor heard its disappearance, to raise public opinof a drunken Indian among the three ion against it, to set an example of temtribes over whom I have charge," perance by abstaining from alcoholic and yet they have abundant op- drink, and to teach children the prinportunity to obtain drink. They do ciples of temperance. not seem to care for it. The tribes of which I speak are the Arickarees, the -Alas, the poor prisoner of the Vati· Gros Ventres, and the Mandans. The can, how grievously he is cribbed, cab· Arickarees have never been at war with ined, and confined! For, as the Weltthe white people, and their boast is minater Gazette has it: .. The Pope's that they have never killed a white person is sacred and inviolable. Any man. They are very honest, and noth- attempt upon his life is punishable in ing has ever been taken from stores that the same way as an attempt upon that have been left open and temporarily of the king. The Supreme Pontilf is without an occupant." entitled on all Italian territory to sov- ereign hOllors. He is allowed to retain -Recent intelligence is to the effect his own guards, a sum of $625,000 is that William Duncan's New Met1akaht- paid for his civil list. He retains inla, on Annette Island, which was sup- alienable sovereignty over and possesposed t. be in Alaska, is to be claimed .&ion of the Vatican, the Lateran aud Castel Gaudolfo and all their appurte- interwoven with the woof. Magnifi- nances and precincts.. •. The Pope is cent it is in its extent, in the variety of accorded a private postal and telegraph its resources, in the wonderful history 5enioo under his own control, and en- which has been "Wtought upon it. It tirely free from that of the civil power. is a robe of Oriental magnificence that All tbe papal training-schools and col- has been dipped and soaked in blood.
leges in Rome arc exempt from the In- But it is. to bear, as certainly as God terference of the State." liveth, as certainly as the cross was -The Hungarian House of Magnates, raised on Calvary, as certainly as the after having deliberated for the fourth human soul remains sensitive to Divine time on the Freedom of Worship Bill, inspiration-it is to bear by and by, and and by 118 against 112 votes, adopted not far hence, the monogram of Christ the provision whereby it is rendered on all its glittering expanse.-Dr. R. S. permissible to leave or join any com- Storr3.
munion, ·or to make declaration of not -It is a new experience for us old professing any particular creed. The residents in Syria to look out upon rail- House then passed by 120 to 113 votes way trains passing in the distance and tbe clause permitting conversion to see the French locomotives dragging Jude.ism, thus removing the last ob- their burdens up the cogged track over stacle to Liberal legislation dealing Lebanon toward the Bukaa and Damas- with ecclesiastical alfairs.-Reuter. cus. The passenger train is ten hours ASIA. in passing over the 120 miles, scaling Lebanon at an elevation of 5000 feet Islam.-Atrocious slaughters in Sas- above the sea. The road. was opened soun, in Trebizond, in Constantinople, August 4th, and already the freight and now in Harpoot, in which the tratHc is so great that three freight Turks are the butchers and the Ar- trains a day cannot meet the demand. menians are the victims! Then, as if As we arrived August 12th from New this wholesale bloodshed were not suf- York, we have not yet been over :the ficient, in the last-named city these road to Damascus; but Dr. Crawford Bame furious fanatics must needs fill to tells me that the ride from Damascus the brim the measure of ill-desert by up the river Abana to the fountain of destroying the bulk of the buildings of Fiji, and on to Zebedany, under the the American College, inflicting a loss dense shade of poplars, and by the roarof some $100,000 I Lord, how long? ing river, is most refreshing and de- Ah, that united Christian Europe lightful. The ride over the heights of might smite and subdue and compel Lebanon is no less so, with its bold to decency at least; and if need be, scenery and magnificent views of the set up a joint .. protectorate" over the distant sea and the rocky mountain entire Turkish Empire. It is high time gorges_-Rev. H. H. J688Up_ that the feet of these savage and red- India.-Indian Mohammedans are handed intruders ceased to profane the loyal subjects of the Queen-Empress, and sacred places of our faith. they also sustain close relation to the -Men think that Turkey is to put Sultan, who is in a sense the head of an end to the propagation of the Gos- Islam, tho not exactly the representa- pel in that great empire. The Turkish tive of the caliphs or successors of Mo- Empire always seems to me, as I look hammed. The loyalty of the Moham- at it on the map or in its history, like a medans of India has been quickened vast. magnificent Oriental rug. stamped and strengthened by England's long- with splendid and stately figures, em- continued friendship with the SUltan.
blazoned on every side with heroic com- Should trouble arise bctween England bat, and with threads of gold and silver and Turkey the Mohammedan subjects of the Queen will regret the occur- lessors by the educated young men of renee; but they are too well aware of Bengal."
the advantages of British rule to risk -During the past year the railways much for the sake of the Sultan. The of India carried over 130,000,000 pasquestion has already occupied the at- sengers and 20,000,000 tons of goods. tention of Mohammedan papers in India, Their aggregate receipts were 280,000,- and the intelligent and temperate style 000 rupees, or nearly $100,000,000. of discussion is an assurance that England's just advocacy of the cause of -The last report of the Arcot (Re- Armenia will make no trouble in this formed Dutch) Mission tells what large country.-Indian Witne88. anfi solid gains have been made in thirty years. Between 1864 and 1894 -Let a man lose caste, and his pun- the out-stations have increased from 6 to . ishment is at once banishment from the 118; the churches. from 7 to 23; navillage well. Let that be inflicted, and tive pastors, from 1 to 9; catechists, the temptation to purchase readmis- readers, and teachers, from 37 to 172; sion into caste, with its privileges of the communicants, from 291 to 1996; free access to water, is very great. Let while the adherents have increased a man become a Christian, and from nearly sevenfold. The native contributhe attitude of his neighbors toward tions have increased from 175 to 275'7 ' him you would think he had committed rupees, and the pupils from 322 to 4856. matricide. From the day of his bap- The past year has also been one of prostism, he or his wife will have to tramp perity. The out-stations have increased through the blazing sun, with a heavy by 13, the communicants by 37, and waterpot, to some distant supply of the total gain In the Christian commuwater whenever they want to bathe nity has been about 500. or cook. Sometimes it happens that the man will have secret friends kind – Writing from Kalimpong, the head- ' enough to bring him water now and quarters of the Thibetan Mission, Mr. again after dark, and save him his jour. Cecil Polhill·Turner gives us a very inney for that evening; but no one out teresting account of the progress of here will endure that sort of help for events. The little party of missionaries long. In their eyes it is only empha- is still waiting patiently for the opening sizing the fact that they are pariahs, of the country, and fully occupied and they will leave a village rather than meanwhile with the study of the sustain treatment to which they, as Thibetan language. Kalimpong is de- Hindus, are peculiarly sensitive. scribed by Mr. Polhi1l·Turner as "a quiet, little country village, admirable -Principal Morrison thus writes re- for study, and, in the winter especially, garding the large number of students frequented by Thibetans bringing wool who have enrolled themselves in Church straight from the closed country." of Scotland Mission College for the ses- sion 1895-96: "Our numbers are again China.-A missionary asserts, that up, our total being considerably larger some of the Chinese have such wonder· than that of any other year in the his- ful memories that they can recite chap- tory of the college. There are in the ter after chapter, and some of them First year class, 137 most of the New Testament.
Second 183 -During the past year, the Ameri. can Bible Society sold and distributed Third 60 In China Bibles and portions thereof' to the extent of 385,875 copies. Fourth" 170 550 Ours is the largest mission college in -This is the statement of G. S. Mi- Bengal, which shows the confidence ner, of the Foochow Methodist Mission: that is placed in our missionary pro- .. In 1893 I had 3 day schools, in 1894, 16, and now I have just 100, with about WorId; and his book in behalf of 3000 pupils. Within the past six Western civilization, which he wrote ·months we have brought fully 2000 from his studies and travels in Ameri- children under Christian influence for ca, had a considerable effect in restor· the first time." ing the dynasty to the throne, of which -Some two years since two Swedish the present Emperor is a member. Permissionaries were slain by a mob at haps his greatest benefaction was the Sung'pu, China. A report now given founding of a school, known as the in Ohina'8 Millions shows that the blood Kewgijiuku University, which is secof these martyrs was not shed in vai!!. ond only to the Imperial University at It seems that a Ohinese woman read of Tokyo, in point of numbers and rank the faith and patience of these mission- of scholarship. Mr. Fukuzawa comes aries, and was so impressed by what from the common people, and is known she was told that she traveled to an- as the" great commoner;" and What other city in order to ask the mission- shows above all the character of the aries about the religion which could mlln is that he has never allowed himproduce such fruits. "What is it," self to be carried away by his success, she asked, "that makes you Jesus and has modestly refused to accept decpeople so different from us? We call orations, honors, or even the peerage you' foreign devils;' our people have from the Mikado.-.New York Intkpenmartyred two of your teachers who dent; only did good to our people, and you -The Presbyterian Church in Japan show no revenge and receive me as a is about to undertake foreign mission- friend." She was told that this was ary work. At the recent meeting of the teaching of Jesus, who died for us the synod, the mission board was di- when we were enemies. This woman. rected to begin work in Formosa as who was termed" the Chinese Queen soon as possible. President Ibuka, of of Sheba," continued for two weeks Tokyo, and President Ogimi, of Steele with the missionaries to learn of their College, Nagasaki, were appointed to faith and doctrine, and then returned visit Formosa, examine the field, and to her own city to tell her neighbors: report to the mission board, while $3000 .. These Jesus people know how to love are to be raised among the Japanese their enemies." churches for this new work.
Japan.-Yukichi Fukuzawa is the -Rev. J. D. Davis writes thus to the .. Grand Old Man of Japan," tho he is Pacific of one of the darker phases of some twenty years younger than the the situation: .. A few of those who members of that more famous trium- have been among our most earnest, virate-Gladstone, Bismarck, and LI faithfnl workers are resigning their Hung Chang. More than any other places and leaving the ministry. We man, he has brought Japan to that posi- have not a single pastor at present in tion which she now holds among the the great centers of Tokyo and Kyoto. civilized nations of the world. Thirty- Our Doshisha University ha&.'opened five years ago he visited America, and with about 400 students, but the classes on his return home introduced the in the higher departments are all small. 'Webster Dictionary to his countrymen, We have only 25 in the theological dea book that is considered the founda- partment, as against 85 three or four tion of Japan's intellectual power; he years ago. There is, however, a growalso introduced English into all the ing conviction of the barrenness of these ' schools. In days when Japan was di- extreme views and an earnest seeking vided into two parties-one for and the on the part of many of the pastors and other against foreigners-he advocated evangelists for the presence and power the opening of his country to the New of the Holy Spirit." -Mr. La.fcadio Hearn in the Octo- British South African Company has yet ber .Atlantic has an impressive article to pay its first dividend, but its capital on .. The Genius of Japanese Civiliza- stock, held at £2,000,000 to start with, tion. .. He finds nothing permanent, is now £16,000,000.
everything shlfting-sa.ndals of straw, -The new Moravian Mission in East dwellings cheap and frail, the greater Central Africa grows apace. The part of the 60 capitals the empire has fourth station in Nyassaland has been had have completely disappeared, etc. fairly commenced. Mr. Theophil -Advlces from Formosa. are to the Richard reached Utengula, Merere's effect that the Japanese are gradually present capital, on March 18th. He subduing the tribes that are opposing was alone, for Mr. Kootz, his compan- occupation of that island. The natives ion, had been det.alned on the road by are making a stubborn resistance, but an attack of fever, and did not arrive are steadily being overcome. until the 21st. Meanwhile, Mr. Richard AFRICA. had several Interviews with the" Sul- tan," who gave him a friendly recep- -The Congo Railway continues to tion, and permitted him to choose a site make steady progress; trains are now for the mission. running 65 miles inland toward Stanley Pool. -The Universities' Mission is severely stricken by the recent loss of three of -The Christian Alliance proposes to its statt-Blshop Maples, Its gifted and plant a line of stations 1000 miles long, devotejl leader, who, with Mr. Joseph from Matadi to Lake Tanganyika, on Williams, was drowned by the capsizthe eastern boundary of the Congo Free Ing of the steel boat on Lake Nyallsa, State. This will require the opening and Rev. G. W. Atlay, who was killed of 40 stations, and the sending out in by the Owangwara. the next three years of at least 100 new men to open them. -The stroke of lightning which end- ed the career of Menelek II., Negus of -The transcontinental telegraph line Abyssinia, removed one of the most inproposed by Mr. Rhodes several years teresting and energetic of African ago-to cxtend from the Cape to Cairo princes. He was of the Sholl. tribe, and -was not, when first proposed, regard- claimed lineal descent from King Soloed seriously by the general public; but mon and the Queen of Sheba. When it already extends, it seems, from the King John was killed by the Mahdists Cape to Blantyre, in the Shire High- In 1889, !Ienelek, who had long ruled lands, and during his present visit to the Shoas, achieved the sovereignty over England Mr. Rhodes wlll probably or- the other Abyssinian tribes, and was der, he says, .. a further 500 or 1000 recognized as Negus by the Italians miles" of poles and wire. The south- when they advanced inland from Mas- ern end of Lake Tanganyika is to be Bowah. Menelek was friendly to Eurothe first objective point, and thence the pean arts and civilization. He Importline will proceed along the western ed Swiss engineers and artisans, who bank of the lake, through Congo terri- built stone houses, bridges, wagon tory, to British posts in Uganda and roads, a flour mill, baking ovens, and a. along the Nile. blast furnace for smelting iron. He in- -Mr. Stanley sa.ys that more than duced his people to engage in various 200 English companies are operating in handicrafts by his personal example.
South Africa, and largely on the capi- While he lived, the Italians met with tal furnished by the subSCriptions of many difficulties in their colonial humble investors. Some of these com- schemes; now that he is dead, there Is panies hllve not paid dividends yet, but no one to: ettectively dispute their ascen- not one of them has made shipwreck in dency In the Abyssinian hlghlands.- the bankruptcy court. The great Zibn', Herald.
The Missionary Review of the World — May 1894
KINDNESS OF "THR CU"GRCH AT HOllE AND ABROAD."
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVII. No. 5.-0ld &rieB.–MAY.–VOL. VII.' No. 5.-New SerIu.
THE TRUE CHARM AND POWER OF MISSIONS.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEl!'.
That which constitutes the value 'and virtue of incense is an invisible, impalpable, and subtle principle, called perfume or odor. A similar charm, supposed to invest acceptable offerings, gave them the name of "sweet savor offerings," and caused such expressions as the "savor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God," to be applied to unselfish service.
Comparison of many passages of Scripture will show that the essence of this acceptable savor is found in unselfishness, self-oblivion, or self loss. The savor of selfishness is offensive to God; and just as certain pungent, aromatic odors were supposed to overcome or annul the offensive smell of burning victims, the odor of a spirit that renounces all self-gain in an absorbing passion for His glory is represented as neutralizing what is distasteful to God, and so becomes the secret of all acceptable, sweet savor offerings.
Here lies, perhaps, the grandest of all arguments for missions-that they both demand and develop the highest self-oblivion. It is a peculiar mark of the incapacity of a worldly mind to appreciate spiritual truth and motive, that the very objections raised to missions, that commercially and selfishly they" do not pay," are in God's eyes the reasons for them. They make no appeal to the carnal, and hence evoke the nobler and more godlike principles within us.
The hope which inspires missionary effort is not the hope of seeing adequate results, such as in the material harvest of human enterprise justifies the sowing; God sometimes grants abundant returns, but not always, nor to the actual individual who has put forth the greatest measure of effort. The supreme hope of the true missionary is that he may witness for Christ to the unsaved so faithfully and fully that his Master at His coming may approve him with His own '~ Well done."
The hope thus set before us is so much above the sphere of time and
THE TRUE CHARM AND POWER OF MISSIONS
sense that it weans us from the world. It tends to make disciples unselfish and spiritual; to loosen the tie by which carnal objects are held, and make all else seem small in comparison with things to come. How can he who consistently studies for his Lord's approval lay up treasure here or plan for an easy life of selfishness? While preparing his soft nest the midnight cry may be heard. If the end of all things is at hand, what have we to do with treasures or pleasures, possessions or pursuits, which Christ's coming could interrupt, condemn, or bring to naught 1 If, step by step, human enterprise, worldly civilization, scholarly cultUl'e, or even churchly progress, can bring on the latter-day glory, we may have a pretext for building as though all we build were to last at least a thousand years ; but if all these things are to be dissolved and our best work brought speedily to the fiery ordeal, if only the gracious fruits of the spirit in our walking and working with God are to survive those trial fires, if all superficial success is then to appear as failure, let us spend our force and faculty upon what cannot be turned to ashes. And because, when this aim to be f.ound approved of the Lord at His coming really dominates the soul, we become uncarnaJ, unworldly, unselfish, it proves and approves itself as an aim inspired of God.
Here, then, is another vital link between spiritual life and the work of soul-saving. No form of service demands, for thorough doing, m'ore unworldly, unselfish devotion than missions. Much so-called "Christian work" is leavened with self-love, and may be prosecuted in the energy of the flesh, and perhaps its real inoontive may be found in the very worldly hope of rich returns and prompt payments in temporal advantage. The railway magnate may give large sums to build schools and churches in new settlements along the lines, and do it on commercial principles; for the church and school form a nucleus for population, and population means travel and transportation, and so revenue to the railway and larger dividends to stockholders. Much that we call "benevolence" is to God's eyes the cloak hiding the shrewd, calculating Shylock who has an eye to business.
The fact is itself an argument and an appeal that, so soon as the Lord's coming ceased to be felt to be imminent, and was projected indefinitely into the distance, the remarkable evangelism of primitive days which fed on this truth, declined and decayed, and has never been revived. It is but the few who flame with zeal for missions; the great body of professed disciples treat the work with apathetic indifference, or contend that it " does not pay!"
Cut to the core of this apathy, and you find simple selfishness. This carrying the Gospel to those in the far-off regions beyond is a work which in its very nature forbids us to expect any returns. These distant, destitute souls cannot recompense us ; we must wait for our recompense at the resurrection of the just, and at no point this side! The most frantic appeals for the perishing millions along the Congo, beneath the shadows of the Himalayas, or in the valleys of Korea, will be unheard and unheeded by those whose hearts are so electro-plated with greed that they have the ring of metal, and answer only to the touch of money. Of course missions do not pay, if "pay" means compensation to avarice, appetite, ambition, or any form of temporal self-interest and self-emolument. Missions are not a mint to coin sovereigns. Missions at home no doubt" pay." To evangelize London's millions applies healing salve to festering ulcers upon the body politic; to raise the condition of any great city guards the safety of our homes, life, liberty, property, temporal peace and prosperity, and pulls up anarchy by the roots. To evangelize the most remote districts of America's" great West" likewise" pays;" the returns are sure, though the harvest may take longer to ripen. Men who care nothing for the cross promote facilities for normal growth and healthy development in the remotest members because it helps the commonwealth; and it needs little thought to see that a thorn in the farthest extremities of the body inflicts such a pang on the whole body that the whole body stoops and bends, bringing every other member into service to pluck it out. And, therefore, city missions and all home work within our own borders appeal, more or less, to commercial enterprise and selfish instincts.
But mark the difference! A plea for South Sea cannibals or African Hottentots; for the half-idiotic Cretins of the Alps or half-brutal Maoris of New Zealand; for the stupid Esquimaux, or the stupefied opium smokers of China; for the chattering human baboons of Patagonia or the aboriginal barbarians of Australia; for the far:off Coreans or the exclusive Lama, worshippers of Thibet-an appeal for money and men to help uplift and save these needy souls has no hold or grip on selfish and unsanctified human nature. To give money for such a purpose is putting it into a bag with holes, never to see it again or any good from it. So, at least, say worldly-minded disciples.
We join no issue here. Missions to the heathen seldom do show adequate results in one generation. It is doubtful whether God means they shall. He puts before us this work as the most unselfish in which we can engage, and nearest in motive and spirit to that which brought our Redeemer to this earth. The spirit of missions is the Spirit of Christ because its essence is unselfishness; it gives to those from whom we cannot hope to receive, and bids to the feast those who cannot bid us again. Whoever by prevailing prayers, consecrated gifts, or personal work sets up the banner of the cross upon Satan's citadel, amid Brahmans and Bu:ddhists, Confucianists and" confusionists," Mohammedans and Jews, Parsees and Papists, fetish-worshippers and devil-worshippers, must, first of all, have the mind of Christ far enough to be emptied of self. He must humble himself and be obedient unto death; the carnal must die if the spiritual is to live,; the miser expires when the missionary is born; he who would save others, himself he cannot save.
It is utterly vain to try to prove to a selfish soul that it pays to give money, children, one's self, to bear the good news to the superstitious, degraded, half-imbecile pagan. Dr. Thomas Laurie's five hundred pages may. blaze with tributes to what missions have done for science-for geography, geology, meteorology, archreology, philology, ethnography; for natural, social, medical, and political science; for literature and culture, mechanic -arts and fine arts, history and poetry, commerce and common schools; nevertheless the more light you pour upon the selfish eye the more it contracts j and the carnal mind does not see that missions to the heathen are the most economical and practical investment for gold or lifeblood. To those who look from no loftier level than this world affords, it is worse than waste for heroic men and seraphic women to sacrifice themselves in such fashion, daring climate, disease, want, and even human brutes, to do their worst. Though a sweet savor of spikenard thus spreads amid the rank and rotten growths of paganism, yet the fair flask of costly alabaster is broken. Henry Martyn was a mistaken martyr. William Carey would better have stayed in Britain. Adoniram Jndson not only threw away in Burma his own precious life, but withdrew from civilization to a premature death three of the noblest women ever nurtured in refined society. Think of Harriet Newell dying on the Isle of France at twentyone, and Mrs. Grant in Persia at twenty-five j of John Williams beaten to death and eaten by Erromangan cannibals; of bishops Patteson and Hannington brutally assassinated; of Samuel J. Mills expiring on the sea in the service of Africa at thirty-five, and Nott broken like a reed in the first year of acclimation; of Levi Parsons' death at Alexandria, within two years, and Pliny Fisk wasting in Syria his splendid scholarship and wealth of languages, and, in two years more, following Parsons; of the young and brilliant astronomer Stoddard star-gazing in Persia, when he might have been the rival of La Place and Le Verrier r What if Morrison did give the Bible to China and Hepburn, t<1 Japan; if Livingstone did explore Africa, and Duff create high schools in India; if Peter Parker did push medical missions into China, and Clough gather the largest church in the world at Ongole ; if Eliza Agnew did become the mother of a thousand daughters at Oodooville, and Fidelia Fiske, at Ooroomiah; if Hogg and Lansing did make the Nile Valley bloom with plants of righteousness, and Cyrus Wheeler dot the Euphrates' banks with self-supporting churches; if William Duncan did bujld a Metlakahtla out of red Indians and Mason and Boardman organize the wild Karens into five hundred self.supporting parishes; if Mackay did celebrate his twelfth anniversary at Formosa with his twelve hundred converts, and Paton found Aniwa in barbarism, and in three years and a half left it a Christian island; what if the missionaries themselves, after a long period of trial, both of their powers and patience, cannot be drawn by any bait or driven by any terror from the work they love r To the worldly disciple the mission field is simply a necropolis, one vast sepulchre of blighted lives and buried hopes. The dust of nearly a thousand missionary martyn! enriches the soil of India alone. Hundreds have died on Africa's pestilential coast in process of acclimation. In the South Seas hundreds of saintly souls have given their bodies to be burned in cannibal ovens. " To what purpose is this waste 1"
Vainly does the selfishness that clutches the bag of temporal advantage wait for an answer. John may read the mystery ~here Judas cannot. The disciple who is not too far below the level of his Master finds enough explanation in his Master's example of uncompensated love and sacrifice. He remembers that it was One who at thirty-three laid down His life a sacrifice, who said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." These are what the Iron Duke called our" marching orders" j and if we fall in the unequal contest, we may at least have written above us a tribute like the famous inscription by which Simonides honored the Spartans who fell at Thermopylre : "Go, stranger, and declare to the Lacedremonians that we died here in obedience to their divine laws."
Because the blessed hope of our Lord's return has so refining an influence on character it is very mould and matrix of missions. Its whole tendency is to make us unselfish, to relax our grasp upon material treasures and carnal pleasures j to fashion us " not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life." It makes all time seem short and the whole' world seem small j' dwarfs the present age. into insignificance and lifts the peaks of the age to come into loftier ~ltitudes, on a nearer horizon, in a clearer view. It so magnifies the approval of the coming Lord as to make present compensation for .service and sacrifice appear trifling.
In the seven Epistles to the Churches, which open the Apocalypse, our Lord uses His advent as a perpetual admonition and inspiration. The Ephesians could well bear, have patience and not faint j the Smyrnese endure the ten days of tribulation j the Pergamoans hold fast His name and not deny the faith j the Thyatirans resist Jezebel's seductions j the Sardians keep up their watch and keep their garments white j the Philadelphians keep the word of His patience, and the Laodiceans, from lukewarmness wax ardent and fervent, for the Lord's coming was always at hand, when all trials would cease and all triumphs be complete.
Mr. Moody well says, "When this truth really takes hold of a man the world loses its grip on him. Gas stocks and water stocks, and stocks in banks and railroads are of very much less consequence to him now. His heart is free when he looks for the blessed appearing and kingdom of the Lord." Our brother hits the nail on the head with the blows of his simple Saxon hammer. Worldwide missions meet in worldly minds two fatal objections: the world is too wide and self is too narrow. The cares of this world, the deceitfulness, of riches, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, choke all growth in the grace of selfoblivion. Work is waste unless it pays in current coin. Charity is mistaken sentiment unless it "begins at home" and stays there. Fields
JAINISM
near by sown with corn and cotton yield better, surer, quicker crops than fields far off, where Gospel seed brings such slow, slim, uncertain har· vests. Marble mansions on the stately avenues of a metropolis are better investments than mission churches, schools, and hospitals, that are chronic beggars, always in a strait betwixt two-whether to give up the ghost themselves or make others give them more money. Strange indeed that even selfish eyes cannot see that it is a living, growing boy that wears out his trousers and outgrows his jacket, and that it is a prosperous work which needs more room and more help! Strange indeed that we have not learned nature's own lesson that it is the most precious seed that takes the best soil, the most costly culture, and the longest season to bring to harvest.
JAINISM.
BY REV. JOHN ROBSON, D.D.
The seventh century before the Christian era seems to have been one of religious ferment, development, and change in India. .The Aryas, who had entered the land from the northwest, had established themselves as the dominant race, and looked down on the original inhabitants as socially and religiously inferior. The nature worship, which they had originally held in common with their kinsmen of Greece and Rome, and w-hich, in the worship of Varuna, * had attained the highest theological and ethical conception attained by any natural religion, had become miserably debased. A system of ritualism and magic had killed out the simple worship that had been paid of old. Those who guided it-the Brahmans or praying ones-had usurped the rights of worship which had originally belonged to all, claimed to be themselves gods, and therefore a race by themselves superior to all other men. This claim they had strengthened by giving religious sanction to divisions of classes inferior to them. Next to them came the Kshatriyas, the royal or warrior caste ; after them the Vaisyas, the mercantile and agricultural caste. These were the twice-born or superior castes, while underneath them the once-born Sudras wereslumped together as a fourth caste. Thus society had come to be divided into four castes, and observance of caste law had been elevated above observance of the moral law.
While this priestly and social tyranny was being developed, philosophic thought was being developed also, and it was seeking to explain the origin and nature of the universe and the condition and destiny of man. The tendency of thought was pantheistic, though it had not assumed so decided a bent as in modern Hinduism. The doctrine of transmigration of souls had established itself as the best solution of the inequalities of human life.
* God of heaven (ovp"….). Karma, or the power in the acts of one birth to determine the condition of future births, was coming to be looked on as the supreme power in life; and deliverance from these repeated births was coming to be looked on as the great aim of human effort. How to attain this was thc problem that was exercising the religious thought of the time. The Brahmans taught that it was to be attained by sacrifice, and by worshipping them and the gods ; but others taught that it was to be attained by right life, anti specially by renouncing thc world and living lives of thc severest absti. nence and self-denial.
Among those who helpcd to give practical definiteness to tllis teaching was Piirswaniith, king of Aswasena. According to tradition, he had lived about two hundred years before the time of which we are writing. He gave up his kingdom, lived a hermit life in the desert or in mountain caves, and took the name of Jina, or conquerer-i.e., conqueror of worldly lusts and ambitions. Large numbers followed him, and were hence called * J ainas or J ains. Much is not known of his teaching. It was from Mahavlra, who lived two hundred years later, in the seventh century B.C., that the religion took its definite form. He was of the same royal house as Parswaniith, and became a follower of his; but in one respect he went beyond his master. Parswanath had carried his asceticism so far as to have no covering but a piece of white cloth; Mahavira carried his to the point of dispensing with all covering whatever. He did not, however, carry all his coreligionists with him in this new departure. Hence two sects sprang up among them, the Swetambaras, or "clothed in white,"
and the Digambaras, or " clothed in space. "t In the form which Jainism finally assumed these two are considered the last of a series of twenty-four saints, or Jinas, who have at various times appeared on earth. The name usually given to them is Tirthankara. With the exception of the two last they seem to be mythical, though in the myths regarding the first of them, Rikhal Deva, there seem some traces of historical truth.
We shall understand the teaching of Jainism better if we compare it with that of Buddhism, which arose about the same time. According to the dates now generally received, Gautama, from whom Buddhism sprang, was a younger contemporary of Mahavrra. The Jains claim that he reo ceived his teaching from their sage, but of that there is no evidence. It is much more likely that they both worked independently on the thoughts that were then exercising men's minds. What they have in common is the ideas of the age and the instincts of human commience. In working these out they are wide as the poles asunder. At the same time it is not • In Sanskrit the modification of the original vowel in a holy being's name by "a" indicates a follower or worshipper. Thus we have l'ai.hnava, a worshipper of Vishna,. Saiva, a worshipper of Siva,. Bauddha, a follower of Buddha: and Jaina, a follower of Jina.
t This theoretical asceticism is not now, as far as I have been able to observe, carried ont by even the religio1}S men of the sect. impossible that Buddha may have reeeived an impulse from the older Jainism that had come from Parswanath. According to tradition, the incident that finally decided his eourse of action was the sight of an ascetic who had conquered the desires of the world and lived in holy meditation.
It is interesting to notice that all these reformers were of the royal, not of the Brahmanieal caste. It seems as though the old warlike spirit were ehafing at the dominance which the latter had attained in religion, and were determined to break its yoke. It is to be noticed that the hatred of the Brahmans is much more strongly and spitefully expressed in the early Jain than in the early Buddhist books, and this seems another indication of an earlier origin. * To institute a full comparison between the two sys&ms would swell this paper beyond all reasonable dimensions. We shall, therefore, confine ourselvelil to a few leading points. Both systems are atheistic in the sense of not admitting any deity above the general system of the universe. Buddhism in its first teaching carried this principle consistently out by making no provision for worship, while J ainism, as we shall see, made such a provision in its very inception.
The final goal of man Buddhism teaches to be annihilation j J ainism, a state of stable ineffable bliss. The Buddhist conception of Nirvana was not originally either annihilation or a state of absorption into the soul of the universe, but a state of deliverance from all desires leading to extinction of being. It has latterly come to mean rather a final state of existence, free from all disturbing influence and free from the conception of some of the earlier Jain books.
It is in the teaching with regard to the attainment of this end, however, that the similarities and divergences of the two systems are most marked. Both teach that it is to be obtained through the observance of the moral code, and this code is given in a negative and positive form.
The negative code of the two systems present little difference. J ainism forbids, first, killing j second, falsehood j third, stealing j fourth, adultery j fifth, worldly-mindedness.
Buddhism forbids, first, killing j second, stealing j third, adultery j fourth, falsehood j fifth, the use of strong drink.
It will be observed that the only important difference is in the fifth command. J ainism seems to take in the Rweep of the tenth command of the Mosaic decalogue j Buddhism seems to have the limit of a religious order rather than of a religion. But we must remember that this part of Buddha's law was only for the laity. It was a step to the higher law, designed specially for those who renounced the world and entered the priesth(»d-as all could who wished-through which alone Nirvana was to be attained.
* so in Europe the :61'st symptom 'of the reform movement was the bitter attacks on the Roman Catholic priests. On the positive side- Jainism enjoins, first, mercy to all animated beings j second, almsgiving; third, venerating the sages (tirthankaras) while living, and wor. shipping their images when dead; fourth, confession of faults j fifth, religious fasting. Buddhism enjoins, first, charity; second, purity; third, patience j fourth, courage j fifth, contemplation j sixth, science. On this side it will at once be seen what a great moral superiority belongs to Buddhism. The first of its commands includes the two first of the Jain table. On all the rest Jainism is silent, and their place is taken by certain rules for religious practices. These last have practically found a place in later Bllddhism, but it has a far broader ethical basis than Jainism, and is calculated to build up a far finer moral character. Having a moral basis, and throwing the celibate open to all ey'ually, Buddhism has thus emancipated itself from caste and local restriction and attained the elements of universality. Jainism, on the other hand, by making the reverencing and worshipping of the tirthankaras a term of its moral law, has limited itself to a narrow sect. It teaches, in fact~ that only those saints and their worshippers who happened to be on earih at the time of their final incarnation have entered the beatific state. The Kalpa Sutra, in giving the narrative of the various tirthankaras, is careful to state the number that entered hliss along with each by virtue of his merits. Thus, according to Jainism, the only hope for final salvation is being again on earth when the next tirthankara shall appear, and worshipping him so as to share his beatitude. It is thUs not surprising that, while .r Buddhism has come to be a world religion, ainism has continued to be one of the narrowest sects of India. But it is this very narrowness which has enabled it to maintain itself in India, while Buddhism has been expelled from that land. Hinduism found in the latter a rival which could not exist alongside of it, which must either expel it or be expelled. Therefore, when thoroughly aroused, it expelled it from the" land of the Aryas." It found Jainism a sect which could exist alongside of it or within it without causing it much danger, and so had no difficulty in tolerating it. Thus it is that Jainism is now the only survival of what we may call the Buddhism movement once so powerful in India, and by its environment it has come to be little more than the name of a caste of Hindus. It is confined, in fact, to some of the Vaisyu, or mercantile castes-Seths, or bankers and wholesale merchants, and Baniyas, or shopkeepers-who represent more than any other the religious vis inertia! of India.
The Jains at present number a little over one million four hundred thousand. They are found chiefly in Rajputana, Guzerat, and Western India. They are mostly enterprising men of business, and a great part of the wealth of the commnnity is in their hands. In some of the native States they have obtained considerable political power through their wealth. In Udaipur, the oldest and most honorable of the Hindu States, the office of prime minister is hereditary in one of their families. Generally under English rule they have a security and prosperity greater than they ever enjoyed before. The English Government tends to protect commerce and to enforce bargains and sales. The mercantile community take advantage of this, drive hard bargains with the agriculturists, an9- so are getting a great part of the land under their power. The English rule is therefore popular with them, but by the Rajputs-the warrior caste, the modern Kshatriyas-and others it is sneered at as a" baniya-raj," a shopkeeper's rule.
If we turn' to the development of religion among them, we see all the corruptions which human nature would naturally bring into Ruch a system as I have sketched above. They adhere strictly to certain minor moralities and neglect the weightier matters of the law. The solitary moral precept in their positive code illustrates the whole spirit of their religion, and, in fact, gives it its distinctive, outward character among the various religions of India. It enjoins mercy to all animated beings. Animated beings include insects as well as men j and in the eye of a Jain the life of a flea is as sacred as the life of a man, and its destruction as great a sin. Some of their sophistical devices to get quit of vermin are rather amusing, but hardly bear repetition. One great act of religious merit is to feed ants and such like. A single handful of rice wiII thus supply the daily wants of hundreds of lives, whereas if given to a man it would not supply a single meal for a single life. Then mercy is restricted to not taking life by violence j it does not require avoiding giving it pain. A Jain has no scruple in mercilessly overloading his bullock 01' his horse and urging it with goad or whip till it falls down from fatigue. When it is too old to be serviceable it is a sin, against the law of mercy, to put it out of pain by shooting it, but it is no want of mercy to withhold its food till it dies, when the owner will weep over its fate. Mercy, too, does not forbid leaving a fellow-being to perish if you do him no positive injury. Almsgiving is, of course, commanded, but that means giving to religious mendicants or devotees. That is an act of religious merit, but to give to a starving, low-caste man is a stupid waste of substance.
With regard to truthfulness, the Jains are much the same as the average Hindu. Lying is considered an essential for the trader, and he will bring any amount of lying to the striking of a bargain j* but when it is struck he wiII loyally adhere to it, and will not falsify his ledger. Their ideas of chastity are also those of the Hindus j but it says a great deal for their regard for women that they are the only caste in Rajputana in which the females are in excess of the males. t • When the English officer in charge of the native state of A1wur during the minority of the late ruler was carrying out some improvements, he directed a row of pipal trees to be planted in a new bazar. Now the pipal tree is considered an abode of the gods, and no Hindu dare tellHes under its shade. At once all the baniyas in the bazar rOBe in rebellion and insisted on the pipal trees bein!( taken away. " How can we trade, " they said, " if we are not allowed to lie 1"
t Among the Hindns and Mohammedans the males were about 12 per cent in excess of the females at last census. Among the Jains the females were 2kl per cent in excess of the males. The need for worship among the Jains finds satisfaction chiefly in the worship of the tirthankaras or of their religious guides. Pilgrimages to the shrines of the former are one of the principal religious acts. This would seem, indeed, to be the foundation of their systcm. Tirthankara means "author of a firth," or place of pilgrimage. It is true the J ains say that their tirth is a moral tirth. None the less are the shrines sacred to the various tirthankaras visited by numbers of pilgrims. That especially of Rikhab Dev, the first of the tirthankaras, in the midst of the wild hill country of the Bhils to the south of Udaipur, draws annually thousands of pilgrims from all parts of India.
There are two classes of priests among the Jains, the Dhundhias and the Jatis. The former, who include females as well as males, are wandering ascetics. They have not much learning; they maintain their sanctity by their great care not to destroy insect life. They have always a cloth over their mouth, lest any insect may be drawn in by the inhaling of the breath. They carry a broom to sweep the ground before they sit down, lest they should crush any animal. As may be supposed, their company is more sought by insects than by men, but they are considered very holy.
The Jatis are somewhat superior to these. They have each their temple and parish, and must be instructed in the Jain holy books. They are celibates, and maintain their order by adoption. They adopt sons from all castes, mostly from Rajputs and Brahmans. I have not met any that were originally J ains. They are supposed to carry out in their own persons the requirements of Jainism, while the laity worship them and bring them gifts, that they may benefit from their merit. The first native of India that I was privileged to receive into the Christian Church belonged to this class. He was originally a Rajput, had been sold by his parents to a Jati in a time of famine, had been educated by him as a disciple, and at his death inherited his money and the diocese in which he was the spiritual head. He had' been trained up to all the tricks of the priesthood, and gave me an insight into some of them, It is one of the rules of Jati life to drink only water that has been boiled, so as to avoid destroying insect life; but they may not boil it themselves or order it to be boiled, as that would be committing the same sin. So when he went to one of his villages he went to the first Jain house, and asked if they had any boiled water. If they had not, he went on to the others; and if he failed to get it anywhere, he came back to the first house. They would by that time have it boiled and cooled and ready for drinking. He had not told them to boil it, but they understood quite well what was expected. They, of course, incurred the sin of destroying the life in the water, but that did not matter for them, as they were laity. Their priest was preserved from sin, and they benefited from his merit.
Certain fasts are enjoined on the Jains, but these, too, are observed by proxy, the Jati fasting while his flock worship him and bring him gifts.
MALAYStA
The fast is observed in public, the Jati sitting on an elevated daiS in presence of his worshippers, so that there may be no doubt as to the reality of the fast, and giving additional potency to the function by reading aloud the sacred books. But a cloth must be over the mouth to prevent insects entering, and this cloth can be conveniently arranged to hang down over the knees while sitting. Under it a good dish of provisions can be concealed, which may be slipped into the mouth without the worshipper's notice. My informant told me that such a fast had been the occasion of a bitter quarrel with a brother J ati. They had agreed that they would each take a certain amount of confectionery during the fast. He found the amount agreed on rather too little, and was faint at the end; when he discovered that his companion had taken double the quantity, and came through the fast quite fresh. This he considered a breach of faith, which made him break with him altogether.
In the midst of all this his conscience was working. He found nothing in the Jain faith to satisfy his religious craving; he felt that the whole system of the priesthood was one of fraud and a hypocrisy. Often when the multitude was worshipping him he felt so wretched that he wished he were a dog, and was sometimes tempted to commit suicide. He sought a satisfaction for his cravings in one of the secret sects of Hinduism, but its moral character disgusted him. He came to hear of Jesus Christ, found in Him all that he wanted, and ended his days a zealous teacher of His faith.
He has had few followers as yet either from among the priesthood or the laity. Christian missions have hitherto made little impression on the J ains; but the moral and religious needs of human nature exist within them, and if Jesus Christ be faithfully preached to them, they will come at last to recognize Him as the only one who can satisfy them, the Holy One who can give salvation to all who believe in Him in every age.
MALAYSIA.
BY REV. W. F. OLDHAM, PITTSBURG, PA.
To the southeast of Asia, stretching from Siam to Australia and from the Indian Ocean to New Guinea, is a vast archipelago, presenting a most inviting study to the geographer and ethnologist and of increasing interest to the Christian missionary. Here are found such considerable islands as Sumatra, Java, Celebes, Gilolo, and continental Borneo.
Through this archipelago runs a line of fire. Up through Sumatra, running the length of the island, throngh Java, Borneo, the Celebes, the Philippines, and then on east through New Guinea and north through Japan. Along this line is a spine of volcanic peaks rising to great heights and liable at any time to active eruptions. On both sides of tuis line of fire the land is wonderfully productive, and large crops are raised of such rich tropical products as pepper, nutmegs, sugar, coffee, tobacco, rice, gutta-percha, etc.
As a whole, the islands are exceedingly fertile and beautiful with a gorgeous beauty unknown outside the mid-tropics. The waters amid which they sit are mostly shallow, and the deep-green tints of the shallow ocean, the perennial verdure of the islands, the opaline tints on the lofty mountain-tops, and the glowing azure of the ofttimes cloudless sky present to the eye of the admiring traveller such a scheme of color as the earth can scarcely duplicate.
On these islands lives an estimated population of thirty-six millions of people. These are for the most part of two races, the Malay and the Papuan. The former, an Indo-Chinese, differentiated from the parent stock by centuries of residence in their island homes. In some respects inferior to their continental progenitors, in others they are superior. In the main truthful, brave, kind to their families, capable of friendship, though subject to terrific gusts of passion, and, when aroused, unreasonable and obstinate, the Malay race, in all its subdivisions, ought certainly attract more general attention from the Christian churches of England and America. A wave of Islamic conquest has swept over these islands during many centuries, and the large bulk of the Malay races own fealty to the Arabian prophet. The chief propagators of Islam have been the Arab traders, who, by marrying with the Malay chiefs' daughtexs and by superior commercial sagacity, obtain ascendancy in Malay communities. The Dutch officials, too, who rule the more populous islands of Malaysia, have too often been the friends and helpers of the Moslem propaganda. As it was in British India years ago, so it has been till recently in the Dutch East Indies. Godless men in the military and civil employ of the Government, disliking the Christian missionary's standard of morals, and preferring the looseness of Mohammedanism, have covertly, if not openly, thrown their influence on the side of the false prophet. As yet, however, of large sections of the Malay peoples it may be said they are but veneered with Mohammedanism. The old nature worship is yet strong with them; and I have seen in parts of Java, nominally Moslem women carrying offerings of flowers just as their heathen ancestors did. There has, however, of late years been a yery large increase in the number of Malay pilgrims to Mecca. The steamboat companies advertise widely, and the honor put upon the returned pilgrim or " Hadji" is such as to induce thousands to brave the perils and discomforts of the journey. The effect of this pilgrimage is, in the main, to deepen Moslem fervor. The pilgrims have suffered for their faith, and it becomes of larger worth. Their devotion brings them great honor in their own community, which is further reason why they should be devout. The Dutch Government begins to perceive that the deepening hold of Mohammedanis~ is likely to breed mischief. Whatever else the "Hadji" mayor may not learn on his pilgrimage, he does learn to hate the "Kafir," the unbelieving dog of a Christian. In the recent past a more active interest has been shown by Government officials at large in ihe efforts of the Christian mis:;:ionaries, while some of them, earnest, godly men themselves, are of great assistance to the Christian cause. The other race found in the archipelago is the "Papuan," from the Malay " papuwah-frizzled," referring to their" mop heads. " These are ocean negritoes, and differ markedly from the Malay in physical and mental characteristics. Physically the Papuan is not equal in prowess to the Malay, who has invariably driven him from the coast and the rivet banks to the interior high lands. Yet the Papuan is taller and more comely, and will ultimately probably leave the Malay behind, for he has more vital energy. Papuan slaves are often men of ability, and are pro. moted to high office. They have greater feeling for art than the Malays, and decorate their canoes, their houses, pots and pans, etc., with elaborate carvings in admirable taste. They have, unfortunately, a decided taste for human flesh j but from this they are being rapidly reclaimed, and they have the great excellence of being almost incapable of untruthfulness. Among these native peoples scattered all through the islands, and destined ultimately to greatly influence the archipelago, are thousands of Chinese. As a miner, as a cultivator, above all, as a petty tradesman, the almond-eyed stranger appears everywhere, and wherever he comes he easily secures a footing, and because of his superior industry and intelligence forges to the front. Any plan of evangelization of these islands which overlooks the Chinaman will be at fault. Law-abiding, orderloving, intelligent, the Chinese settlements throughout the archipelago should be seized as outposts in any wide scheme of Christian conquest.
The Dutch Government politically controls by far the largest part of the archipelago j and Dutch missions are, as we would expect, the most numerous and widely spread among the islands. The Church in Holland, however, has never risen to the height of the magnificent opportunity that God has laid at her doors. Indeed, God-given opportunities always far outrun the readiness of the Christian Church to use them j and the Dutch have been quite as responsive to the needs of the Indies as the British have been to those of the greater India they govern. The principal societies at work are: 1. The Netherlands Missionary Society, which began early in the century through its representatives Messrs. Kam, Buckner, and Supper. Kam, who first settled in Amboyna, was a notable man, and after valuable and heroic service he died in 1833. This society's usefulness lIas been much crippled by its defection from the evangelical faith. Rationalism, however it may commend itself to some of the scholars of the Church in Christian lands, never fails to throttle earnest mission enterprise. Happily a better state of things begins to appear j and men who are not Rcoffers at the "blood-theology" of evangelical Christians are putting new vigor into the society's missions. They number eighteen missionaries, with ten times as many native helpers, and twenty thousand converts. Next in numbers and importance among Dutch missions is : 2. The Dutch Reformed Missionary Society, which now numbers some six thousand converts. The notable thing about this mission is that it has gained its great conquests in the province of Djokjakarta, which was closed against missionaries. An elect lady, Mrs. Phillips, the wife of an official, converted, I was told, by reading an extract from one of Mr. Moody's addresses, threw herself into personal work for Christ among the natives around her j God blessed her testimony, and the result has been a great awakening and ingathering. Some of the dear brethren scarcely enjoy this attestation of the Holy Spirit to woman's effectiveness as a preacher j nevertheless, the Church in this unofficially evangelized province is the green spot in all Java.
3. The Dutch Missionary Society, with seven missionaries and some native helpers, is faithfully working among the Soudanese. Add to these several smaller societies. such as the Ermolo Missionary Society, the Java Comite, etc., and you have the entire force of Dutch missions at work in Malaysia. The show~ng is not reassuring. Vast populations are practically unreached. The activity of the Christian Church is far behind the Moslem propaganda, and Mohammedanism is fastening itself more deeply every year upon the people. The Dutch churches are doing what they can, but infected in part by rationalism, the wave of missionary enthusiasm does not rise very high j and though the Government in these later years is more sympathetic and helpful, there is loud and urgent call for other Christian bodies to go to the help of our Dutch brethren against Islam and nature worship in these populous islands.
Answering in part to this call, there are at work in the Netherlands Indies: l. The Rhenish Missionary Society, of Germany, with missionaries in Borneo (South), Sumatra, and Nias. The missions in the latter two islands are yery successful. Especially among the Battaks, old-time can· nibals, docs the Vord of God prevail.
2. The British Foreign and Bible Society. No words of mine can too highly praise the yigor and thoroughness with which this society, under the efficient direction of Mr. John Haffenden, is sowing these islands with God's Vord. Great revivals will surely come in the future, judging from the eagerness of the people to buy" gospels" and" portions" which, published in cheap and very portable form, tell in their own tongues to the various peoples of the archipelago the "wonderful things of God." The entire archipelago is traversed by these indefatigable colporteurs. Even into the Philippine Islands one of them penetrated, only to be driven away by the intolerant and unspeakably corrupt and evil liviI1g Spaniard Romish priests.
In North Borneo is Sarawak, the romantic kingdom of Rajah Brooke. Here is a splendid mission of the English Episcopal Church, led by the scholarly Bishop Hose. This mission, however, is confined to the Dyaks and Chinese, the king fearing trouble from the Malays should Christ be preached to them-an unworthy fear, from which may timo and the providence of God deliver all concerned! This English mission is found operating also in Labuan and in the Straits Settlements, which is an English colony.
Of all the missions in Malaysia the most successful seems to have been that conducted in the North Celebes region, where tens of thousands of islanders, before they were captured by the Mohammedan faith, came en masse into the Christian camp. They seem to have been received and baptized j but these tender though honest babes in the faith were not sufficiently carefully trained in the new faith, and seem to have taken on only such a veneer of Christianity as many of the Javanese have of Mohammedanism. Left to walk by themselves before they were able, many of them have lapsed. Some have gone to Islam j many live a low type of semi-Christian life. The Roman Catholics, ever on the alert to enter into other people's labors, have begun an active mission. The Netherlands Missionary Society is now endeavoring to repair the waste places. The Government, too, is growing helpful and sympathetic j but a great deal of work must be done over again before Minnehassa, the " pearl of missions," recovers the lustre of its early Christian days.
The American churches have done but little for Malaysia. India on the one side, and Japan r.,nd China on the other, have presented such populous continental areas that hitherto the efforts of American Christians have been but sparsely directed to this southeastern Asiatic archipelago.
While waiting for China to open, the American Board seems to have supported a few mission stations, but on the opening of the treaty ports in China these were abandoned, and the missionaries proceeded to China. Two young men, Henry Lyman and Munson, were sent to the Battaks of Sumatra. These pioneers were killed and eaten by the cannibal savages, and the project was abandoned. It is cheering to know that these same Battaks, since approached from the south by German missionaries, have largely yielded to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The comparative spiritual destitution of this section of Asia was so impressed upon one of the churches of America-the Methodist Episcopal (North)-that in 1885 Bishop Hurst, then visiting India, appointed tM writer of this article missionary to Singapore. A mission on a selfsupporting basis was begun among the English-speaking people of Singapore, an island of great strategic and commercial importance. This island commands the Malacca Straits, and is the commercial entrepot of Southeastern Asia. It is one of the commercial navels of the world and floats the British flag. Its polyglot population of Malays, Tamils, Chinese, and Europeans is in close touch with all the surrounding islands, with China, with India, and with Europe. In the beautiful harbor of Singapore ride the ships of all the sea-going nations of the world. Chinese junks and Malay dhows jostle the ocean racers of England and France and Germany. A free port, knowing nothing of customs duties except on a very few articles, here come large cargoes of tobacco, hides, rice, tea, tin, rattan, coffee, india-rubber, and sugar. Commercial activity in foreign ports is usually accompanied by two things, moral laxity and mental alertness. The morals of Singapore are not high. The readiness of its people to receive new ideas is far beyond that usual in the East.
The American Methodist Mission, beginning work among the English.. speaking, founded a self-supporting English-speaking church. This church has never received a penny of support from without. Beginning with seventeen members, it now numbers over one hundred, and has given over a dozen mission workers to the varied enterprises that now cluster around it.
Parallel with the work in English has grown up a mission to the " Baba," or straits-born Chinese. These enlightened and progressive Chinamen, British subjects, seeing that the American missionary really desired to serve them, rallied around him, and were at the expense of providing for him school·houses and furniture at an expense of over $12,000. The English Governor, Sir Cecil Smith, of that class of enlightened rulers who have made the English name famous through Asia, quickly perceived the usefulness of the American educational missionary project ; and a large "Anglo-Chinese" school, numbering' from four to five hundred scholars, entirely self-supporting, is now located at Singapore. Another similar institution is fast growing up in Penang ; and through the prestige and kindly feeling generated by the schools our evangelistic missionaries are finding free access to the peoples around them. A medical mission, a Malay press, an orphanage, a Tamil church and school, and constant itinerant preaching among the Malays are all forms of activity in which the American missionaries are now engaged.
It would greatly help in the extension of God's kingdom among these most interesting races if some other branch of American Christians-say the Methodist Episcopal Church (South) or any other-would select some part of Sumatra, or, with the consent of the Dutch missionaries, some part of Java, or the Celebes, or East Borneo as a mission centre, and from there, in consultation with the Dutch and American brethren already on the field, project a wider and more insistent evangelism among these islanders. They will otherwise year by year be more firmly intrenched in Mohammedanism, with its inordinate conceit and intolerant and fierce bigotry. If anywhere in the mission world the King's business calls for haste it is in the fair and beautiful islands of Malaysia.
A MISSIONARY'S EXPERIENCE IN JAMAICA AND OLD QALABAR
A MISSIONARY'S EXPERIENCE IN JAMAICA AND OLD CALABAR.* BY REV. J. J. FULLER.
This is a jubilee meeting. Fifty years of Christian efforts; fifty years of Christian prayer; fifty years of Christian missions ; and fifty years of contact with young hearts and young minds-these have matured your insti- tution and kept it up until the present day. 'When I was told that this was your Jubilee, my mind went back to the fact that you and those that have gone before have had a hand in bringing about some of the great changes that have taken place in the countries of the world. Among the many nations and peoples with whom you have had to do or whom you have helped, . my nation and people, and my own native country, and Africa itself, have borne some of your good wishes, have seen some of your kindness, and have had some of your earnest prayer for the spread of the kingdom of Jesus Christ among them.
Fifty years shows a great difference in ~y own country, which is one of the British possessions in the West Indies-the island of Jamaica. Fifty years ago that land had, comparatively speaking, an unlettered people, just emerged, as it were, from the bondage of slavery. It was only then that schools were thrown open and that the children of the col- ored people of my home were permitted to take the Bible in their hands. It was not until slavery had been abolished that we were permitted to wor- I!hip God freely. Before then our fathers had to worship God in the dark night. They had to hide themselves in caves. They had to meet their missionaries on the banks of the rivers. They had to hide themselves in all sorts of corners in order to worship God. But by the efforts of mis- sions, and by your sending missionaries to heathen countries to preach the Gospel, you have not only benefited the peoples to whom you sent the Gos- pel, but the blessing has rebounded with tenfold force, and benefited Great Britain herself; because it was not until you sent missionaries that the awful deeds and cruelties of slavery were brought before the English pub- lic. And no sooner did England know what slavery meant and what sor- rows it caused, the families it scattered, the homes it broke up, and the way in which men were degraded and brutalized by it, than she at once put her shoulders to the wheel, and so the curse was removed from off the British standard.
I believe that it was in the year 1834 that Great Britain paid twenty millions of money for the abolition of slavery. The day when that Act was passed in England, the day on which it had the signature of the sovereign, • This remarkable address was delivered at the IlCtieth anniversary of St. Panl's Missionary 8oclety, In connection with the mercantile honse ofHltcheock, Williams & Co., London, England, January, 1893. Mr. Fnller is a native of .Jamaica, W. I., and was born in slavery, and has spent the latter part of hie liCe in Old aalabar. Bnt he wlll tell his own story.-ED. that very day I-then a boy-was one of those that were set at liberty. I was eight years old when England passed the Emancipation Act. I was there. I remember being carried by my mother to the office, so that my name might be registered. But it was in the year 1838 that the great day came j and I shall never forget it. Our parents had to serve a longer time than we did. It was only children of a certain age that were set at liberty when the Emancipation Act was passed in 1834. In the year 1838, on the 31st day of July, our missionaries-among them William Knibb and James Philippo-gathered the fathers and mothers together j and they thought that, if England had done such a great thing for us, we ought to give slavery a very respectable burial j and so we did. We had a firstrate mahogany coffin made j and, as some of our fathers were carpenters and cabinet-makers, they put all the polish they possibly could upon that coffin. It looked very respectable. And they had not only that, but a splendid grave, fit for a gentleman to lie in. We had all the implements of slavery-the whip, the torture iron, the branding iron, the handcuffs, a piece of the treadmill, the coarse frock, the coarse shirt, and the great hat (all things which were used ill slavery)-put into that coffin and screwed down as close as possible. At about half.past eleven o'clock, on the night of July 31st, there were fourteen thousand people and five thousand children gathered, and I was one of them. I remember that, as soon as the half hour came, the appointed signal was given all through the island, so that at that hour, I believe, every colored man that was to be found on the island of Jamaica was on his knees! And, as the clock began to strike the hour of twelve, William Knibb stood over the grave, and, at every stroke of the clock that sounded out the hour, he cried, " The monster is dying / The monster is dying / The monster is dying /" and when the clock struck the last stroke of the twelve, he cried, "THE MONSTER IS DEAD! BURY HIM!" We lowered that coffin into the grave, and that mass of human beings rose on their feet and sang the doxology : " Praise God, from whom all blessings flow."
And I can remember looking into my mother's face and seeing tears rolling down her eyes, while I, as a child, looked up and thought what a happy time it must be. As soon as they had sat down, all of us children rose on our feet, and we sang a piece that had been taught us j and that piece was: .. Send the glad tidings over the sea, The chain is broke, the slave is free; Britannia's justice, wealth and might Have gained the negro's long-lost right."
We sang that song j and I rememher our marching, five hundred of us, to the Governor's house, where Sir Lionel Smith read the proclamation of freedom to all.
Now, it is more than fifty years ago since that happened j but, within that time, during the fifty years that have just passed, let me say that God in His own way has given testimony to the truth of His promise, that where the Gospel goes that Gospel will prove the power of God to salvation. We turn to our own country of Jamaica to-day, and we find that, within this half century, God has not only removed the curse of slavery, but we have become a Christian people with Christian institutions. Folly, superstition, idolatry, and witchcraft, in which our fathers believed, have all passed away j and to-day there is not to be found upon the whole island of Jamaica, taking all the different denominations that are therein, a single missionary church-all have become self-supporting and independent of missionary societies.
One could scarcely expect such a great change j but not only have we become a Christian nation, independent of missionaries societies, but we have been taught by the missionaries who came to our country that freely we have received and freely we ought to give. So, on the island of Jamaica to-day, we have an independent Baptist Missionary Society of our own not at all connected with the society in England, and which sends ilie Gospel to the heathen afar off. This is the result of one half century.
It was supposed, you know, that the black man had not got any brains. They say that our heads are too thick. Phrenologists have looked at our heads and said that there are too many bones there j but missionaries that have gone to our country have felt that it is a very good thing that we have had a thick head, because, if we had not-if we had your soft head -all the brains would go! You know, when you get to our country, the first thing that you want is a " helmet. " God has put our helmet on without giving us the trouble of making one. But our missionaries have found out that the black man lacks only opportunity and privileges. If you give him them, God can develop that man as well as any other.
Our missionaries, I say, have tried it. In the island of Jamaica to-day we have about two hundred and seventy Baptist churches. The Presbyterians have got their churches j the Church of England have got theirs j the Wesleyans have got theirs. Some of the two hundred and seventy Baptist churches seat two thousand people j and seventy of those churches are ministered to by young men, well qualified in our colleges, and who are now preaching the Gospel side by side with their European brethren. So much, friends, for the success of the Gospel in our land. Then we have Suuday-schools, high schools, grammar schools, and colleges of all the different universities. God has honored the men who went to our land and preached the Gospel, and given them encouragement by showing them that Africa, with all her supposed degradation and all her real degradation, is capable of receiving the Gospel j and if we give it to the Africans, He who said, "Go into all the world," has promised that He will be with His disciples.
I just say so much with regard to my own country j but I have myself been engaged in mission work for forty-five years. Some people say, " You do not look that yourself'" but I have had forty-five years' experience in a savage country. When the Baptist Missionary Society started their mission on the West Coast of Africa, my father was one of the first who went out to carry the Gospel to the land of our forefathers. Soon after he left I felt a determination also to join the mission and go out to Africa; and, in the year 1845, I landed on the 'West Coast of Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea and in the Bight of Biafra. When we landed there was no Bible, no written language. None of the people had ever heard the name of Jesus Christ. The natives there were all savages, naked, degraded, and depraved. Everything that repelled the eye and sickened the heart presented itself before us as we landed. We saw human sacrifices. People say that the Africans are cruel. I have not read of any heathen countries where cruelty does not exist; but it is what they are taught. In Africa, when we got there, we found that the people believed in some future. What that future is they knew nothing of. Because of this belief not a king died but so many men and so many women were put into the grave with him. There was not anyone that died in that country without somebody being accused of being responsible for it, and they administered to the person poison for witchcraft. There was not an infant child whose mother died but the child was put alive into the coffin with its dead mother and buried. In one part of the country there was not a twin child born but the poor mother of the twins was flogged to death, and the children were put to death immediately, because the witch doctors said that they were cursed. The people believed this; and they had carried on such horrid customs for centuries. When we got there we found that this was the condition of the people. They were running about perfectly naked. They were without hope and without God in the world. Within a short period of the missions having been established among them the people had their language put into a written form, and they had the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, translated by Alfred Saker and by the Presbyterian missionaries. To-day we have men that have been trained there preaching the Gospel among their own people. We have churches formed, and we have schools that have been established. The people are being taught to read and write.
I remember the scene when we landed in Africa. I had scarcely been there a month before one of the kings of Calabar died. A horrid sight was brought before us in the many people that were put into his grave with him. The grandson of that king that died soon after we landed in Africa, is to-day one of the elders of a Presbyterian church; and if you go into his house you will find that every morning the open Bible is on his table aud he is conducting family worship. The old custom of burying the living with the dead is wiped out and gone. I remember going into t.he Cameroons, and after I had opened my window in the morning, looking across the river, I saw many canoes with people dressed up in all their war dresses, and their .spears and swords were brandished in the sun. They had their war caps upon their heads. I took my glass and looked, and I found that the decoration on the bows of all those canoes was nothing else but human heads. I went up to the chief and said to him, " What do you do this for 1" He looked at me very much astonished that I should ask him such a question. He said, "What 1" Pointing across the river, I said, "Look yonder." "Why 1" he said. " What about that 1" I said, "why do you do such cruel things 1 It is not right. " He said, "You people come into this country, and you live here, and you say that you are good people-and that is true enough-but do you tell me that, when I die, my sons arc to put me into an empty grave alone, and nobody with me 1" When I told him" Yes," he looked at me and said, "You are a fool." Then all his sons came up directly and said, " What is the matter, father 1" And he told them. He said, "This man, who has como to live in this country, says that when i die you boys will put me into an empty grave, alone, with "no one with me." And they looked at me and grinned their savage grin; and they turned away and said, " Father, do not believe him. He is a fool and he is' a foreigner. What does he know 1 Let him alone." I stand here to tell you that that same chief lived on until the old custom of burying people with the dead was completely abolished. In his town, about fifty yards from his own house, stood a little chapel, and the preacher in that chapel was none other than one of his sons, who was preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If God, in such a short time, can produce such a change, surely prayers for missions and for the extension of Christ's kingdom in the world have a proof that they are being answered by God, when we think of the present condition of the people, and think of what was their former condition, when we saw them in their degradation as naked savages. The other day I had a letter from the church in the Cameroons to say that they had built a chapel for themselves that will seat one thousand people, and that the membership of that one church had grown to seven hundred; that the people had collected for themselves among themselves no less than £999, and had established fifteen different stations in different parts of tho country since I left, in order to spread the Gospel among their own neighbors. I say that Africa, with all her degradation, and with all her ignorance, desires to have the Gospel; and if it is given to the people, they, of themselves, in their own country, will spread that Gospel if they only know and hear the truth preached to them. I believe that the time will come, and that the time is not far off, when Africa, with all her degradation and darkness, will rise. We remember. that fifty years ago, up the Congo River, no one had ever heard the Gospel, and we looked upon it as a hard soil to work; but to-day the Scripture is being translated into their own tongue, their young men are being taught to read the Bible, Christian churches are being formed, and some of the cruelties that the missionaries met when they landed first in the Congo are gradually being removed; so that the time will yet come when we shall see a great change in the work of God among the people in Africa. I remember standing at my door and seeing one of the chiefs coming across. As he was coming I looked at him. He was a great man, a man of position in his country; but the only covering that he had was the fibres of the plantain tree combed out and a great cap on his head with parrots' feathers. He had a great bullock horn across his breast, and he walked as stately as ever. Several of the princes were following him behind, all of them being dressed in the same way. I called to this man as he passed my door. I said, " Mikani," and he looked round, but he would not answer. I called again, but he wonld not answer. I called a third time, llnd one of his followers turn~d upon me and said, "What do you want?" "Why," I said, "I only want to speak to him. I want to ask him a question." The man said, "He will not answer you." "Why? What have I done?" He replied, " Why, the man has just been into his superstitions, and he has sworn that for nine days he will not speak to anybody except by signs. At the end of nine days he will go back to the place where he came from, and after that he will converse as of old." I thought it was of no use to trouble him any more, and I let him go. After the nine days were over I went .to his house. I saw him sitting at the door; and just as I got to his house I saw this bullock's horn that he had across his breast hanging across the threshold of his door. I looked at it, and then I looked at him and said, "Do you mean to tell me that. a big man like you, in such a position as you are, believes in such a foolish thing as that?" The man was rather insulted. "'Vhat do you mean?" he said. "Why," I said, " look at that thing. Do you mean to say that that thing has any power in it ?" I said, " Let me take my penknife and open it, and I will show you what is in it. " There was nothing in it but some red clay, parrots' feathers, dogs' teeth, pieces of the skins of animals, some of his own hair, and a little bit of his own toenail. I said, " I know what is in it. Do you mean to tell me that you believe in that stuff ?" He answered, " Believe it ? Yes. " He said, " If I have that thing hanging at my door no witch will dare to come into my house. If she comes, before she crosses the threshold of my door she will be dead." I said, "You do not believe that rubbish, do you ?" " -Well," he said, " I do. And that is why you missionaries all die. You come into this country, and the witches know that you have not anything to keep off the witchcraft, so they kill you ; but they will not come near me, because they know that I have got something to stop them. " Well, I made it my business to visit that man day after day and try to convince him, but it was no good. I could not do anything. Six months after that I was sitting in my little study room, and I heard the drum that tells of death. And I knew what it waS. When a chief dies the sound of that drum tells the tale, and the missionary has to be immediately on the move. I took my hat directly and started up and got to the chief's place. I said, " Mikani, who is dead?" He hung his head down for a minute, and then he said, " One of those princes that were with me on that day." "Why,"
THE REV. JOHN L. NEVIUS, D.D
I said, "you told me that the man that had got that thing would nbt die. Did not that prince wear one of these horns ?', " Yes." "Did he not have a cap~" "Yes. " "Did he not have that same horn~" " Yes." "Then, how is it," I said, "that he is dead?" And the poor fellow hung his head down for a moment. Then, lifting up his head, he looked full into my face for a few moments, and he was silent. Last of all I saw him stretch his hand, and he took hold of the horn as it hung across the door, and removed it from its place, and flung it across the road, and he said, " I will try yours." Where is he to-day, friends? Go to the Cameroons, and you will see a native minister there preaching the Gospel; but on the right hand of that native preacher, who is preaching the Gospel, sits a gray-headed man, and the very look of that man's face tells us of his inward happiness. That is the same man. He has tried and found that there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved but the name of Jesus Christ. He is the head deacon of the church, and the membership is now about seven hundred. There is a congregation of perhaps a thousand gathering together there now. I remember that upon my landing in 1845 these people were rank savages and brutal in every act, and not only so, but they were naked savages; and to-day we see them clothed and in their right mind, and thc congregation with their dark faces and their bright eyes are worshipping the same Saviour that we love ; and when I see this I know that the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ will win its way wherever it goes.
Thus, friends, I think I have told you enough to Rhow you that your prayers have been answered and your efforts been accepted of God. I will only ask you to pray more and do as much as you can for Africa, for she has still got her millions that need the Gospel to-day.
THE REV. JOHN L. NEVIUS, D.D.
BY REV. GILBERT REID, WARSAW, N. Y.
On the death of the well-known and revered missionary, Dr. John L. Nevius, it may be profitable for his fellow-workers to pause for a moment and recount briefly the work which he has done. The worth of his work demands more than a passing reference. Though only in his sixty-seventh year, he was numbered among the veterans for the unusual amount of his mIssiOnary experience. He was drawing nigh to the round number of forty years in the missionary service, when he bowed his head as he sat talking in his study at his home in Chefoo, and yielded up his spirit to God who gave it. A gentle passing away, like a calm breath of a summer's breeze-a falling asleep.
Dr. Nevius is first to be remembered for his work in a literarY line.
DR. NEVIl:S ON A CHINESE ,"VHEELBARROW BEFORE HIS RESIDENCE AT CHEFOO. CHINA."
ltl94.) THE REV. Jo.HN L. NEVIUS, D.D
One o.f the mo.st po.pnlar and co.ncisely co.mprehensive boo.ks o.n China was o.ne which he wro.te early in his career, called" China and the Chinese," first published by the Harpers, and no.w issued by the Presbyterian Board o.f Publicatio.n. In Chinese the leading treatise o.n theology was prepared when he was a yo.ung missio.nary at Ningpo., and lacked o.nly the latter topics of systematic theo.lo.gy-a deficiency which he hoped to meet befo.re he clo.sed his labo.rs. Ano.ther bo.o.k in Chinese o.n "Entrance to. Truth" has been used fo.r many years no.t o.nly by o.ur o.wn Presbyterian Missio.n, but also. by the missio.uaries o.f o.ther societies, in the initiative rudimentary stages of Christian instructio.n. A very valuable pamphlet in English o.n " Metho.ds o.f Missio.n W o.rk" has been carefully studied fo.r its fairminded and bro.ad-minded investigatio.ns, based o.n tho.ro.ugh experience: Already we understand that parts o.f this are to. be reissued by the Bo.ard o.f Fo.reign Missio.ns as a guide, o.r at least a suggestio.n, to. o.ther fields o.f o.ur Church. One o.f the last results o.f his study was a bo.o.k o.n " Demo.niacal Po.ssessio.n," which, we understand, will so.o.n be published j and which, we kno.w, will present the mo.st co.mplete and careful examinatio.n o.f this very difficult pro.blem. Other literary effo.rts attest his ability j and we o.nly regret that he cDuld no.t live to. co.mplete the wo.rk, so dear to. his heart, o.f aiding in the revisio.n o.f the Mandarin version o.f the Scriptures. No. sentence o.f his, either in Chinese o.r English, was penned witho.ut tho.ught, and every tho.ught was actuated by a stro.ng desire to. be fair and .true.
Seco.ndly, let us no.tice his wo.rk as a Christian instructo.r. This he was rather than an educatio.nalist. The Bible was his text-bo.o.k, and no.ne o.f his teaching was secular. If he taught theo.lo.gy-and as such he was witho.ut a peer-it was always a biblical theo.lo.gy. Bo.th in the Ningpo. and Shantung missiDns he was frequently appo.inted to. train men fo.r the ministry j and many o.f o.ur best native pasto.rs rejo.ice to. call him "teacher." When in late years he fo.und himself surro.unded by a gro.wing evangelistic wo.rk, he set apart the summer and winter mo.nths to. special instructio.n, either o.f leading inquirers o.r o.f his cho.sen classleaders. I remember, during my first summer in China, as a guest at his ho.me, the large"number o.f callers fro.m amo.ng the fo.reign residents, so.me o.f who.m were" men Df the wo.rld," who. came to. see his class, and went away to. praise it and so. co.mmend the who.le missio.nary undertaking. This teaching idea he carried into. all o.f his evangelistic effo.rts, and every statio.n o.f Christian co.mmunicants and inquirers was a Sunday-scho.o.l, with every o.ne a teacher and every o.ne a scholar. He emphasized the wo.rds in the – Master's final co.mmissio.n, " teaching them Christ." This idea, clear and simple tho.ugh it be, has been made such by Dr. Nevius more than by any Dther man.
In connectio.n with this we no.te no.w his evangelistic wo.rk. By the pro.vidence o.f Go.d he wa.s led into a section o.f the co.untry fruitful o.f conversio.ns, nearly a week's jo.urney fro.m his ho.me at Chefo.o.. Hence his evangelism took the form of " country itinerations." During this period he was generally absent from home half of the year, more often in the spring and autumn months, but twice, at least, during the cold winter days, stopping at chilly Chinese inns, or riding from station to station of poor country Christians with the thermometer near to zero. It is impossible to outline this work, so carefully unfolded in his " Methods of Mission Work." Its chief feature was the effort to utilize every native, and then establish a church without the support of foreign funds. It was selfdevelopment and self-support, but always under the guidance of the Spirit, and by a study of the Bible. That work was practically transferred to others prior to his last return to the United States, and is now managed by native pastors or other of our missionaries, centred at the station of Wei-hien. Dr. Nevius built on no other man's foundation; and the foundation which he laid was strong and " in Jesus Christ."
One of the openings to this evangelistic work came through the relief rendered in the famine of 1879 and 1880. Not that those relieved became the inquirers, but that such a display of benevolence commended the Christianity which taught it, and broke down centuries of prejudice. In this famine-relief work Dr. Nevius was especially successful in the system adopted, and one which has guided others in similar work during later years. It was a system of common sense, kind to the needy, but guarding against tricks, deception, and confusion. Dr. Nevius was an exegete and a theologian. He was also level-headed, a man of affairs.
In this same practical line was his work of introducing foreign fruits into China. Agriculture was his recreation, but as such it was far other than mere playing. The result indicated the care, the wisdom, the patience, and the toil. Many a person has gone to view his garden in Chefoo who never cared for any other kind of missionary undertaking. In fact, this often annoyed and chagrined him, to have persons ignore all his efforts in evangelistic instruction, and compliment him as a fruit-raiser and horticulturist. Nevetheless, it shows that every faculty and knowledge can be made useful in the missionary work, not only as an amusement to one's self, but a benefit to others.
We will only notice one other feature of his work-viz., his success as an adviser and missionary speaker. We refer especially to his efforts in this country. Very few have excelled him in influendng young men to become missionaries; but never with the assertion, that it was another man's duty to be a foreign missionary. Anyone who desires to appreciate his candor, his breadth, his fairness, his judiciousness, should read his article in the MISSION ARY REVIEW of May, 1893. on " The Student V01unteel' Movement." We quote only one sentence: "I have been in the United States on furlough three times, and paid many visits to theological semin~ries, with a view to gaining recruits for foreign missions, but have never dared to use the least. pressure in urging a student to be a missionary. " As one who was led through him, first to think of the claims of
AFTER TWENTY YEARS. :J47
foreign missions, and then to decide to go as a missionary to China, I can testify 1.0 the truthfulness of this attitude of his. How helpful were his conferences with the students! How sympathetic his suggestions to the perplexed mind! And this same quality remained with him iu China, where all missionaries were glad to consult ]lim. If he had only been stronger physically, no better man could have been found to take the place of Dr. Arthur Mitchell as Secretary of the Board. But, alas! both of them are gone; and all through life we shall miss them, rejoicing only because we are not of those" who have no hope," trying to reverence their names by following more their fine Christian spirit.
AFTER TWENTY YEARS. * THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN 1873, 1883, 1893.
A few notes on the advances made in the last twenty years by the Church Missionary Society may be helpful to friends of missions in every land.
First, as to the number of missionaries. The subjoined table is indeed most significant : 1iJuropean M!'ssi07laries on the Roll: 1873. 1883. 1893.
Clergymen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 203 222 329 Laymen ……………………… 15 34 71 Women ……………………… 11 15 134 Total. ….. , ….. 229 271 534 Even excluding the women, the number has nearly doubled; t and it will be observed that while the increase in the first decade was only 19 clergymen and 19 laymen, the increase in the second decade was 107 clergy- men and 37 laymen. The proportion of university men has also greatly increased. In 1873 they numbered 44 ; in 1883, 65 ; and in 1893, 158.- The number of missionaries reported in May, 1873, as added to the roll in the preceding twelve months, was seven; in 1883, twenty-one; in 1893, eighty-nine. The 1873 Report mentions" 1 graduate from Cambridge accepted during the year;" the 1883 Report mentions 3 graduates accepted; the 1893 Report, 16 graduates.
The native clergy and teachers appear in the statistical tables as follows: 1873. 1883. 1893. Native clergy……………•….. 143 240 284 2,582 4,042 " lay teachers……..•••..•• 1,830 493 892 " female teachers ……….. . 375 Total………….. 2,348 3,315 5,218 * Reprinted from a Church Misslouary Society tract.
t The figures are for May last. The autumn reinforcements have made further large addltious. It will be seen that the increase in the native clergy has been slow of late. This is mainly due to the large number of deaths in the last decade ; but it is. true that the nnmerous ordinations in West Africa and South India in the former decade find no parallel in the latter. But the lay and female teachers have multiplied rapidly; and this little table will show some of our missionary brethren who have fancied that native agency was being neglected in favor of European agency, how little foundation there is for their fears.
The distribution of missionaries at the three periods is very interesting. In the following table we omit women, because we could not estimate the growth in the Indian staff without including the C. E. Z. M. S. aud I. F. N. S. : Distribution of .Hissionaries–Men only-Ordained and Unordained.
1873. 1883. 1893.
West Africa….. __ . …………… 17 10 18 East Africa………………. _… 1 22 37 Palestine, Persia, Egypt, etc.. . . . . . 9 14 23 North India (including Punjab and Sindh)…………………. 66 73 116 Western India………… ……. 12 10 13 South India…………………. 44 28 45 Ceylon………………………. 12 19 20 Mauritius, etc……………….. 6 4 5 China……………………….. 18 24 44 Japan… …………………… 2 9 24 New Zealand…………………. 17 18 15 Northwest America ………….. ,. 12 18 29 North Pacific………………… 2 7 11 TotaL ……………… 218 256 400 Of course the increase is most marked in those missions which were in their infancy in 1873, such as East Africa, Persia, Japan, and North Pacific. Putting them asidc, we find that of the older missions, West Africa and South India, though they have more men than ten years ago, have only returned to where they stood twenty years ago; that Western India, Mauritius, and New Zealand are about the same; and that the real increase has been in North India, Ceylon, China, and Northwest America.
At first sight one would expect that the doubling of the missionary staff would mean a doubling of the expenditure. But this is not the case. We should be very glad if it were. The amount expended per missionary means, a great deal more than the amount each missionary costs. The more efficient a missionary is the more will his work develop on all sides, and the more will money be needed. It is so at home. An active clergyman spends more in his parish than an inert one, because he does more. So in the mission field : the higher the expenditure per head rises, the better. But the reason why ithas not yet so risen in the C. M. S. missions is that the increase in the staff has been so recent and so rapid. Many of the missionaries are still in the language-learning stage, and cost little more than their small personal allowances. As they grow in efficiency the work will cost more, for it will mean native evangelists and Bible-women, schools, rest-houses for itinerating, medical appliances, and a host of other things.
There are, however, two other reasons why the total expenditure has not grown so fast as the staff. First, a good many of the recent additions are at their own charges. We have now 15 men and 53 women who are honorary, and 5 men and 9 women who are partly so, without counting those who are specially supported by individual friends of the society. Secondly, an increase in women costs less than an increase in men. A single woman's allowances are less than those of a single man, and less than half those of a married man.
Still the increase in the expenditure is large. The average of the four years preceding 1873 was £155,644. '" The average of the four years preceding 1883 was £202,200. The average of the four years preceding 1893 was £244,844. These figures include expenditure on special funds. The corresponding amount for last year, ending March 31st, 1893, reckoned in the same way, was £255,917. For the current year it is estimated to be £265,759, including only those special funds which directly aid the General Fund, such as the Extension Fund, the Mid-China Fund, etc. And the estimates lately passed for the year commencing next April amount, after allowing for considerable probable savings in various directions, to £274,955. , Thus we are spending now over £100,000 a year more than we spent twenty years ago. This is the kind of fact that makes one wonder. No one at that time, nor for years after, could have anticipated it. The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.
Let us next look at the reports, and try and realize a little of the progress in the field in the twenty years.
Take India first. We do not expect to find in old and well-organized missions the startling progress displayed in newer fields. Yet the development of the India work in the twenty years is in many ways striking. In 1873 French had lately started the Lahore divinity school, the first of its kind in the country. Now we have divinity schools also at Calcutta, Allahabad, Poona, and Madras, besides the simpler institutions for training native agents in the southern missions which existed before. In 1873 the society's attention had not been specially drawn to the non-Aryan Hill tribes, although the Santal Mission was already bearing promising fruit. That mission has since been largely developed, and the Gond and Bheel missions have been established and converts been gathered in.
But the Punjab shows the most remarkable growth. In 1873 the society had only one medical missionary-in the Punjab or anywhere else- * Multiply these amounts br five to a.certain the llumber of dollars. indeed, not one when the Report was issued, for Dr. ElmsIie was dead and his successor had not yet gone out. Now the Punjab has 10 medical missionaries. In 1873 the staff for Amritsar consisted of 2 men, the Revs.
R. Clark and a. Hoernle, and Mr. Bateman alone was beginning to itinerate in the district. Now, for the same area of work, there are 15 men; and still more remarkable is the extension of woman's work under the C. E. Z. M. S. That society has now 33 ladies within that area, the oldest of whom had only just gone out in 1873, besides 9 single ladies connected with C. M. S. and all the wives. Batala, Tarn Taran, Ajnala, Jandiala, Fathgar, Narowal, Bahrwal, Clarkabad are all new names within the same district-i.e., the great plains surrounding Amritsar. The two great girls' boarding.schools at Amritsar, the boys' boarding-school at Batala, the splendid book-shop at Lahore-the two latter the result of Mr. Baring's liberality-are among the more conspicuous developments. Another generous benefactor, George Maxwell Gordon, had in 1873 but recently joined the Punjab Mission; and now, we have not only the bright memory of his example, but the Lahore divinity college chapel and the missions at Pind Dadan Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan as the fruit of his munificence ; while, partly owing to his inspiration, Sukkur and even far-off Quetta have been occupied.
South India does not show such developments as these, because it was more fully worked then; but 1873 was the year which saw the native Church in the C. M. S. district.s of Tinnevelly fairly started in selfadministration under Dr. (afterward Bishop) Sargent; and the Telugu Mission has spread in all directions since that year.
Five new dioceses have been established in India in the twenty years; and of the 7 bishops who have been consecrated for them, 4 have been C. M. S. missionaries-viz., French, Speechly, Hodges, Clifford, without counting Sargent, who was an assist.ant-bishop without a diocese.
We never rest our case upon statistical returns of converts and adherents, for they so inadequately represent the real progress achieved; but the fact that the native Christians connected with C. M. S. have risen 70 per cent in the twenty years-viz., from 69,000 to 117,000-is a fact whose significance is indisputable; while the native agents of all kinds have almost doubled in number, from 1600 to 3060.
Next look at China. In South China, in 1873, C. M. S. had 3 missionaries-viz., 1 at Hon Kong and 2 at Fuh·chow ; and there was 1 F. E. S. lady at each of those two cities. Now, several brethren, and sisters too, live in the interior of Fuh-Kien; widespread itineration has been organized in Kwan-tung; and Pakhoi has been occupied in a corner of China untouched by any other mission. C. M. S. has 20 men and 8 women on the South China staff, including 4 medical men; and the splendid band of 28 C. E. Z. M. S. women has developed the Fuh-Kien Mission in a wonderful way, not only since 1873, but since 1883. In 1873 C. M. S. had 26 native age~ts in South China, and less than 300 Christians. Now the agents are 268 and the Christian adherents over 10,000. Mid China does not show a growth equal to this j still, Mr. Hoare's college at Ningpo, Dr. Main's great mission hospital at Hang-chow, and the village work in the Chu-ki and Tai-chow districts are extensions worth notice j in addition to which there is Mr. Horsburgh's Interior Evangelistic Mission in the distant province of Sz-chuen. The development of woman's work also must not be omitted. In 1873, and again in 1883, C. M. S. had one single lady in Mid China j now it has 20. Again, up to just before 1873, China had had but one English Bishop. The consecration of a C. M. S. missionary, Bishop Russell, to the newly formed quasi-diocese of what was then called North China, is an item in the 1873 Report j and since then another C. M. S. man, Bishop Moule, has succeeded him in that portion of his sphere now called Mid China, while a third C. M. S. man, Bishop Burdon, presides over the southern diocese of Victoria, Hong Kong.
Pass over to Northwest America. In 1873 the consecration of Bishop Horden had just marked the first step in that development of the Church which has now carved eight dioceses out of the vast mother diocese of Rupert's Land; and a large part of this work has been distinctly the work of C. M. S., which almost entirely supports 4 of them and helps 3 others. The society's expenditure in those great territories has risen from £6000 to £16,000 ; and it is emphatically true of the many tribes and languages comprised in them-from the Crees and the Sioux right away to the Tukudh and the Eskimo-that " People and realms of every tongue Dwell on His love with sweetest song."
And this is without passing the Rocky Mountains. Cross them, and we come to a mission which then consisted of only Metlakahtla and Kincolith, but which since then has sent the Gospel to tribe after tribe of the interior, has established itself in the islands, has brought into the Christian Church the fiercest of all the races of that coast-the Hydahs of Queen Charlotte's Island-and now, despite many trials, presents, under Bishop Ridley'S wise and devoted leadership, a bright spectacle to all who love true and pure missionary work.
Weare now among the younger missions; and what shall we say of Japan ~ In 1873 the first English missionary in that wonderful land had just come home sick, and the second was alone at Nagasaki. It was in the Report of that year that the sudden burst of new civilization in Japan was recorded. The public edicts against Christianity which had adorned the Government notice·boards for two hundred and fifty years had just been withdrawn; and the expansion of the C. M. S. Mission from one man to five was resolved on. In 1883 the 5 men had increased to 9 men and a woman (as usual, not counting wives) ; and there were 350 converts. Ten years more and the staff had become 24 men and 19 single women; 7 Japanese had been ordained (in the C. M. S. ~Hssion alone, besides others) ; and the Christian adherents are 2450. Moreover, they have combined with the Christians attached to other Anglican missions, and have formed a real native Church with its own canons, etc. j and its total membership exceeds 4000. It was- in 1883 that the archbishop selected a C. M. S. missionary (Poole, of South India) to be the first English bishop in Japan; and in 1893 his successor, Bishop E. Bickersteth, has arranged for the appointment of two additional bishops, specially for portions of the C. M. S. field, and nominated by C. M. S.
Pass from the most radical and forward of non-Christian countries to the most conservative and stationary, and view the Mohammedan lands of the East. Persia, in 1873, was not recognized as a C. M. S. mission field at all j and although Dr. Bruce had been there three or four years, his name stiII remained on the Indian list. Not ti1l1876 was the Persia Mission formally adopted. The year 1883 saw an extension of its work in the occupation of Baghdad j and 1893.sees fresh and important plans formed for further development. Egypt is very far from being a stationary country since the British occupation; but that occupation began in the year reviewed in the 1883 Report, and it was in that very year that the new "Egypt Mission" first appeared on the society's list. Palestine, too, though stationary enough so far as its Moslem rulers are concerned, is now yielding to the forward movements of the day; and nowhere does a C. M. S. mission show more marked development than in that sacred land. In 1873 only Jerusalem and Nazareth were occupied by 2 ordained and 2 lay missionaries. Two years later, Bishop Gobat handed over to the society his stations and work; other extensions have followed; Jaffa, Gaza, Ramallah, Salt, Nablus, Acca, and Haifa were successively occupied; and now the 4 men have become 13 men and 22 single women. All our missions in Mohammedan lands received an impetus from the Mohammedan Conference arranged by General Lake at the C. M. House in 1875. They are striking examples of the society's new development in woman's work. No less than 30 ladies are now employed in them, whereas even in 1883 there was not one. So also with medical work. In 1873 there was no C. M. S. medical missionary in those countries; in 1883 only 1 ; in 1893, 4, and 2 more going out.
And what shall we say of Africa ~ Of West Africa we need not speak. Our recent extensions are not much more than revivals of developments begun at different times in past years, but checked by various difficulties. But East Africa is the most signal instance of unlooked-for progress in the whole period. In 1873 John Rebmann was alone, old and blind, at Rabai. There he was found by Sir Bartle Frere, who, on his return to England, came to C. M. S. in June of that year and urged the establishment of a freed slave settlement, to found which Mr. Salter Price went out in the foUowing year. But 1873 is still more memorable as the date of Livingstone's death, which instantly roused both England
THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER CONVENTION A.T DETROIT
and Scotland, and led to many African expeditions, both missionary and otherwise. Then, in 1875, came Mr. Stanley's challenge to Christendom to send a mission to Uganda. What need we say more ?-except that the one C. M. S. missionary of 1873 has multiplied to fifty in 1893.
Mter such a retrospect, the question is, .Are we to stand still! Surely the Divine Word to us is, Go forward,. and the promise, Oertainly I will be with thee.
THE STUDENT VOLUNTEER CONVENTION AT DETROIT.
BY D. L. PIERSON.
It is significant that the largest and most representative Student Convention ever held should be also the missionary gathering having the largest number of accredited delegates that ever met in America, or perhaps in the world. Ten years ago such a convention would not have been possible, but now by the Spirit working through men thoroughly on fire with missionary zeal, and by the organization of Volunteers, the flame has spread with marvellous rapidity all over our land, and one of the results is seen in this recent convention.
The history of the movement is too well known to need repetition here. The organization has outlived much unfavorable criticism, survived many perils, overcome many difficulties and much opposition, and continues to increase in numbers and effectiveness. And now, in its eighth year, this is probably the most effective agency for spreading, fostering, and utilizing the missionary spirit that anywhere exists.
The first Volunteer Convention met in Cleveland in 1891, and was one of extraordinary practical and spiritual power. It marked a crisis in the history of the" New Crusade." Before that time the mistakes natural to youth characterized the movement, and even friends regarded it with suspIClOn. Since then, however, its policy has been developed and the organization perfected, so that the Detroit Convention stands unique among missionary gatherings, and indicates a firmly established and undeniably successful enterprise. It was attended by more than double the number of students, from twice as many educational institutions, as at Cleveland. Conceive of twelve hundred young men and women, from nearly three hundred institutions of learning in the United States and Canada, representing the flower of our land, coming together for the purpose of considering the great question of the speedy evangelization of the world, and prayerfully to seek light as to their place in this great work, and preparation for it j and with them, to impart inspiration and guidance, gathered also the leaders of missionary enterprise from all· over the world, including fifty representatives of various missionary agencies, fifty returned foreign missionaries from almost every heathen, papal, and Moslem land, and many other missionary speakers and Christian workers-conceive of all these conditions, and a slight estimate may be formed of the forces pres- ent to make this convention a power in the heart and life of each delegate. Among the principal speakers were Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, Drs. Arthur T. Pierson and A. J. Gordon, Miss Geraldine Guinness, R. E. Speer, L. D. 'Wishard, and Dr. Judson Smith, besides mauy others, representing all varieties of experience and degrees of enthusiasm, from various lands and different departments of the work at home and abroad.
The method pursued in the convention was probably the only one feasi- ble for the presentation of the many phases and spheres of work under consideration. The mornings were given to the consideration of the organi- zation and its methods and the preparation of the volunteer, the afternoons to simultaneous sectional meetings for the discussion of different forms of mission work in various fields; and the evenings to the claims of mis- sions and the spiritual conditions of success. It being impracticable to give in these pages more than a brief and general glance, the reader must be referred for details to the printed verbatim report which ·is soon to be published.
One prominent characteristic of the convention was the spirit offervent prayer which pervaded the proceedings. Prayer opened, closed, and per- meated all the discussions and transactions, consequently it was an in- tensely spiritual convention, and the work of the Holy Spirit in separating and preparing His workmen was, of all things, made most emphatic. An- other featnre, closely allied to this, was the fact that Jesus Christ was ex- alted as Lord and Saviour. In His name were the delegates welcomed, and in His name urged to go forward conquering and to conquer, preach- ing His death and resurrection, living His life, and abiding in Him. Be- cause Christ was the unifying principle which made all hearts one, perfect harmony pre,-ailed throughout, although representatives from nearly forty denominations and missionary agencies, and missionaries young and old, and each having strong personality, were brought together on one common platform. Not a note of discord was heard from beginning to end. It was a magnificent demonstration of the true basis of Christian union, the living unity found in love and allegiance to one Lord, and in the contem- plation of the great work He has commanded.
THE PURPOSE AND WORK OF THE VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT was clearly defined and forcibly presented in a number of brief addresses, which served to remove the prejudice of ignorance, restore confidence, and commend the principles of the movement to the minds of all interested. The watch-cry of the Volunteers, "The evangelization of the world in this generation," the command of Christ, "Go make disciples of all the nations," and the mot- to of Neesima, " Let us advance upon our knees," were hung up in large letters before the assembly, servlDg to impress the eyes of those present as they have already moved the hearts of all Volunteers, expressing their desire, aim, and spirit.
The purpose of the movement, as stated by Mr. Mott in his masterly report of the Executive Committee, is to lead students to a thorough con- sideration of the claims of foreign missions upon them, to foster this pur- pose, to unite Volunteers in an aggressive movement, to maintain an intel- ligent interest at home, but especially to secure a sufficient number of qualified men and women for the work of evangelization of the world in this generation. The declaration card, reading, "It is my purpose, if God permit, to become a foreign missionary," forms a simple basis for membership and organization. One of the perils of the movement has come from the misuse and misinterpretation of this card. It is not a pledge, but the statement of a purpose toward the accomplishment of which men study and work, looking for God's continned guidance, and only changing their purpose as they more clearly see His will. Without this "declaration" there coulq be no firm basis for the movement. It leads to a definite decision, helps men to remain firm, and enables them to do more for missions during their preparation. Results show that a definite and early decision is best.
The work of the movement has been carried on in the educational schools of the United States and Canada by means of travelling and corresponding secretaries, etc.
Mr. D. W. Lyon gave as reasons why bands should be formed in every institution: (1) To give mutual stimulus to members; (2) to gather information j (3) to discuss reasons for going j (4) to secure power in united prayer. The bands also form a basis for enlisting new men, and hold ,important relations to the college, the movement, and the churches.
The results are seen (1) in the fact that the movement has now 32,000 members in 477 different institutions of the United States and Canada. It has also extended to Great Britain, where there are 700 Volunteers, and to Scandinavia and elsewhere. (2) In all of these places it has exerted a marked/influence in increasing the knowledge of missions, reacting beneficially upon other departments of religious study and work, and increasing the spirit of consecration. (3) It has been the means of increasing the number of those expecting to go abroad. (4) It has doubled contributions to missions in colleges and seminaries in the last three years. As a practical result 686 Volunteers are already in the field, and of the British V01unteers at least 90 per cent have sailed immediately on completing their course of study. More missionaries have sailed from America in the past two and one half years than in the preceding five and one half.
Among the points of policy emphasized by the Executive Committee were (1) efforts to establish the movement in new sections and among new classes of institutions, especially in young women's colleges; (2) more thorough supervision of work already begun; (3) more earnest, prayerful pressing of the claims of the unevangelized upon fellow-students j* (4) a more comprehensive course of study outlined; (5) increase in contributions; (6) keeping in closer touch with Volunteers already on the field, and (7) most of all, absolute dependence on the Holy Spirit for light and life.
The PREPARATION OF VOLUNTEERS was ably discussed and much valuable advice given. Dr. Judson Smith, of the American Board, emphasized thorough intellectual furnishing as essential to any great work. Education gives breadth and ability to use one's powcrs, training every faculty to its true end. The call for cultured as well as consecrated intellects is urgent. The missionaries must be able to master the language, to study the people among whom they labor, to organize churches and train native ministers and teachers, to give instruction in schools, colleges, and seminaries, and to translate the Bible and create a literature. All this demands mental training. Volunteers should not delay, nor unduly hasten to enter the field. Time to prepare is implied in the call. God wants our best. Dr. Geo. W. Knox added that a man who shirks work may be called to cobble shoes in the United States, but he is not called to cobble them in China, and that while God nses among the heathen the" foolishness of preaching," we are nowhere told to give them the preaching of foolish. ness.
The practical preparation was outlined by Rev. H. P. Beach, of Springfield, Mass. The Volunteer is to be " all things to all men." He advised him among other things (1) to become acquainted with the officers, polity and policy of his board; (2) to study his chosen field as to its strategic points, the climate, people, religions, the work accomplished, and the successes and failures as pictured in missionary biographies; (3) to know some· thing about keeping accounts, practical work of gardening. carpentry, etc.; (4,) to study the 1aws of health, dentistry, preparation of the dead for burial etc.; (5) to be able to use the camera, printing-press, and magic lantern, and know how to start industrial, normal, and kindergarten schools; (6) to study to be an organizer and pastor, but, above all, to be skilled in personal work. This last point was frequently urged by the missionariesthat the most effective way of winning souls is hand-to.hand, heart-toheart work, and they added that men should begin at home and not wait to reach the foreign field.
The spiritual preparation for the work was powerfully presented by J. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission. He urged the students not to be dependent for a blessing upon any human agency, bnt to seek the filling which will surely be followed by an overflowing. To know God we must know His Word. Mr. Taylor testified that he had never put his trust in God's word and met with a disappointment. We must seek to be * Keith-Falconer said when about· to start for Arabia: "While vast continents are shrouded in almost ntter darkness, and hundreds of millions sn1!'er the horrors of heathenism and of Islam, the burden of proof lies upon you to .how that the circumstances In which God has placed you were meant by Him to keep you out of the foreign field." such men as God can use. Take time for communion with God. Do not wait till your concert is over before you tune the instruments. There was never but one life of perfect development-that of Christ, from the cradle to the cross j but all true Christian life now develops backward: it begins at the cross and moves toward the cradle, growing toward childlike trust, docility, and humility. Be insulated from the world if you would receive and retain God's electrifying power. One can- not go to a heathen land without growing either in grace or sinfulness. " Satan may hedge us about, but he can't roof us over"-cannot pre- vent our looking up. If any cloud comes between us and God, it is our own fault. No one need go to foreign lands to preach theism, ethics, or philosophy-these are already well developed-but we must go to preach Christ and Him crucified, and this we can do only after a personal knowl- edge of the glorified Son of God in our hearts j we must be able to give a reason for the faith that is in us deeper than any from apologetics j it must be from experience. Such were some of the golden thoughts expressed.
The PHASES OF WORK were discussed in sectional meetings by those who have had varied experience in many different lands. The evangelistic work was presented by H. N. Frost, of the China Inland Mission, Rev. Spencer "Walton, of South Africa, Rev. Gilbert Reid, of China, Rev. F. G. Co·an, of Persia, and others. To do this effectively the missionary should be " boiling over with the Spirit, and steeped in the Word." The best evangelists are those most filled with the love of Christ. This is far more necessary than a theological training. The most important work of the missionary is the training of native agents, and they make the best evangelists. For this work there should be a close spiritual contact between the native and the missionary, that the former may receive help in his difficulties and learn to know God's Word and be brought nearer to Him. In most countries itinerating can be done only part of the year. It is a method especially adapted to reach the lower classes and those occupying country districts. The missionary spirit of the past was marked by large expectancy, mobility of station, and absence of anxiety, and these should always mark the work of an evangelist. The true policy is to strike the great centres, and from there reach the outlying districts. Christ exemplified what a true Christian should be-a light-bearer, a life-giver, and an expression of Divine love. His law was diffusion, not concentration.
Educational work was treated of by Rev. Robert A. Hume and Dr. Boggs, of India, Dr. Wainwright, of Japan, Dr. Dennis, of Syria, and othcrs. The one end with all missionaries is to establish the Gospel in heathen hearts. Educational work is but one means to this end. Its object is to impart spiritual life and powe1·. Educational influence extends throughout the life of the pupil, it gives an opportuni~y for appeal to a bigoted and conservative community, forms a basis for occupation, makes a centre for Christian teaching, awakens interest in parents, and quickens a desire for better things in the heart of the pupil. It is a method for the rescue of the children from their degraded homes, and gives them intellectual and religious training. It also reveals the capacity of the pupil for other work, and develops the powers for distinctive service as missionary agents. It gives an opportunity for hand-to-hand contact with pupils regularly, as is impossible even in home work. A diseased and stunted mind is as much an object of sympathy as a diseased and stunted body. Objections to educational work come from the conviction of some that but few workers come from the schools. This is doubtless often due to the fact that the evangelizing idca is not kcpt foremost, and because, as is to be deplored, non-Christian and even heathen professors are in some instances employed in Christian schools. It was, however, stated that in some schools in China education draws men into the ministry, and in the American Board schools at least conversions are more numerous in proportion to the number who come in contact with the message in this way than through any other methods. Besides this, educational work improves the capacity of heathen languages to express God's truth, and it nproots heathen ideas and implants new ones. The problems of the work assume very different aspects in different countries, and the work meets with various successes according to the field, the methods, and the agents.
Medical work was discussed by J. Hndson Taylor, Dr. Dowkontt, and Rev. W. R. Lambuth. The great need for more physicians, both men and women, was shown from the vast populations, destitution of medical aid, prevalence of disease, and barbarous methods of treatment of the ill and the injured. Medical missions are also the great entering wedge of the Gospel in many places. They break down prejudice, and present Christianity in a concrete form. Dr. Dowkontt said: "Christ commands it, sympathy demands it, wisdom dictates it, and experience endorses it. " There is a special need of women physicians with hearts of love to minister to their wretched, degraded, and secluded sisters of China and India.
The WORK ON VARIOUS FIELDS was considered in simultaneous meetings. China was found to be pre-eminent in the mind of most of those present. About twenty missionaries were present from this field, and over half of those present, expecting to go out this year, expressed a wish or design to go there. The claims of this great land were presented by J. Hudson Taylor, Miss Geraldine Guinness, and others. While the population of the Chinese Empire is nearly seven times that of the United States, the number of Christian workers is only one ninetieth of those in this country. Fifty years ago the prayer was that God would open the doors; now it is that He will send more laborers. There are seventy aboriginal tribes who do not speak Chinese; the languages of only three of them have been reduced to writing. There is not one missionary for every five hundred towns in North and 'Western China. The number of opium smokers is variously estimated as from 2,000,000 to 20,000,000. The women especially call for the Gospel. According to Chinese superstitions eighteen hells are open to receive them, but it is only by living five hundred virtuous lives that one of them may be born as a little boy, and after many more trials be enabled t() reach the lowest of the nine heavens. As reasons for going to China Miss Guinness stated (1) that 1,000,000 die each month without God; (2) that 400,000,000 are living without Him, with no peace for the present or hope for the future, and (3) that Christ wants His disciples to take His place there as witnesses. When Christianized, China will be a great -evangelizing agency; the native convert makes a natural evangelist. There is great need for literary men and women to reach the 2,000,000 of the literary class and to educate the common people. The Chinese have a great desire to be educated by Vestern men, and much encouragement is given by those in authority. Vork is carried on by social intercourse among the higher classes and by street preaching, tract distribution, and personal work among other classes. The greatest obstacle is the prevailing superstition, but seed has been scattered in chapel, school, hospital, street, and home, and much has fallen ou good ground. There are now 50,000 converts and 150,000 adherents, with 550 churches, of which over 100 are self·supporting. The language has been greatly enriched in power to express Christian truth, and the number of missionaries has tripled in the last fifteen years. Past achievements are the guarantee for future success.
Missions in the Levant were discussed by Rev. G. A. Ford, of Syria., Rev. F. G. Coan, of Persia, Mr. Sampson, of Greece, and others. Dr. Dennis emphasized the past and present strategic importance of these lands. (1) They represent 100,000,000 souls who need to be won back to the true faith. (2) Moslems have always recognized and despised an apostate church-Jesus must be made beautiful in their eyes. (3) Capture Turkey and you capture the head of Islam. (4) Languages offer a great v(lhicle for the truth. Arabic alone reaches 40,000,000. (5) The Levant is the training ground for missionaries for the whole of the Orient. The political situation in Turkcy is the great obstacle to mission work. The population is heterogeneous and the government alien. Persecution of Christians is prevalent, partly because a change of religion means alienation from the State. The great need is for men of intellectual and spiritual power together with tact and breadth. There is a spirit of nnrest under the ecclesiastical yoke. In Persia, at least, work among the Mohammedans has met with some success. Five hundred villages were reached there last year, and many hundreds of Mohammedans are seeking Christ. Educational work, especially that among the women, is very important and effectual in Syria.
Japan was represented by George V. Knox, D.D., and others. There is a need for men trained in special lines for Japan; not conspicuous leaders or men with preconceived ideas of methods or sceptically inclined -men with ability to do both educational and evangelistic work. An exact knowledge of the language and people, their religious philosophy and characteristics is important. Trained natives are efficient, and must be allowed to lead when qualified. Woman's work is especially important for teaching and visiting in the homes. Women of Japan are very conservative, but the girls are impressible. The present crisis in Japan is due to two political factions-one seeking to make the Emperor responsible to the Diet, and the other desiring to keep the present constitution. The former faction has advocated treaty enforcement, compelling foreigners to reside only in treaty ports, as a means of bringing about treaty revision in favor of new tariff laws. At present the Liberal party (not advocating the enforcement of the treaty) is in the ascendancy.
Korea, as was stated by Rev. F. Ohlinger, is a land practically without a religion. In India religion rages like a fever, in China it is multiplied a~d is a problem of domestic economy, in Japan it is a fad, while in Korea it is an accident and has a holiday. There are only seven temples worthy the name in the country. Itinerating may be carried on nine months of the year.
The need of missions in Papal lanis is unquestioned. Papers were read on this subject by Rev. H. M. Lane, Rev. J. M. Lander, of Brazil, and others. Brazil is to-day about what it was in 1610, when the Jesuits sought to convert the people simply in order to control them. The priests are leaders in everything except morality, in which they and the people are shockingly deficient. Republicanism is the result of thirty years' teaching by missionaries, and its overthrow would mean the demolition of much of their work. The chief difficulties are found in ignorance, unconsciousness of sin, indifference, and dislike to change on the part of the people. Eighty-seven per cent of them can neither read nor write. The Bible has been a closed book to them. They are, as a rule, tender-hearted and bright, but weak, lazy, and untruthful, while the intelligent class are cynical and sceptical or agnostic. The hope of Brazil lies in the interior. Woman's work in the homes is to be emphasized, and there is great need of literary men to create and translate a literature. The best preparation for success among them is a study of the Roman Catholic Church.
Africa calls for evangelists, industrial laborers, and physicians. All the continent is under European control except Morocco. The chief difficulties arise from Moslem and papal influence, and the liquor and slave traffic. Forty-eight out of the two hundred Volunteers present at this conference expressed an intention to labor in the Dark Continent.
India was the subject of discussions led by Rev. Robert A. Hume, Dr. W. B. Boggs, Rev. R. Thackwell, Dr. A. T. Rose, of Burma, and others. The statement made at the Parliament of Religions, that the motto in which the Buddhist glories is, " The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man," was pronounced a prodigious mockery. Caste is the greatest enemy of brotherhood, and there is a marked tendency toward scepticism and a turning to the study of the early religions of the country. The best native workers are .from the depressed classes. India's greatest need is for zenana workers and medical missionaries, men and women. Twenty-five denominational conferences were held, also one of college professors for the purpose of discussing the question how to increase the missionary interests and assist the Volunteers in their several institutions. Sixty professors came together from forty colleges.
The EDUCATIONAL" EXHIBIT was prepared by J. E. Adams, of the Executive CommIttee, and was a very complete collection of maps, charts, books, periodicals, and tracts from this and other lands, and arranged topically as to fields, religions, phases of the work, and missionary societies.
Space forbids us to touch, in this paper, upon any of the admirable addresses delivered in the eveni~g sessions of the convention.
The final meeting was a fitting conclusion to a great convention. The question was, What would these twelve hundred Volunteers carry back to the two hundred thousand students whom they represented ~ The points emphasized as the substance of the teachings of the convention were to study, work, pray, give, and begin now. Fifty-two Volunteers declared their intention to enter the foreign field this year, going to China, Africa, India, Japan, Mexico, South America, Turkey, Siam, Korea, Alaska, and Jamaica. Some of the reasons for going were: "Because I can't stay away;" "Because God wants me there;" "Because more are ready to take my place here than there;" "Because I have given my life to Christ to be used where there is the greatest need;" "That I may not build on another man's foundation ;" " Because the need is greater than in my own State (Texas)." A cablegram was read from Messrs. Wilder and White, former secretaries of the Student Volunteers and now in India : "India needs to.day one thousand spirit-filled Volunteers."
Thus the Convention eame to a close-a great convention in numbers, speakers, interest, spirituality, impressiveness, and, we believe, in results. There may have been some mistakes; if so they were few and scarcely noticeable. Dr. Knox, of Japan, justly mentions one or two possible criticisms. "Only China of the great mission fields was fully brought to the attention of the hearers in addresses at the general meetings. The presence of J. Hudson Taylor and Miss Guinness no doubt largely accounts for this. Also there was not a clear and full presentation of the difficulties of the work. One fears great disappointment for many a Volunteer when he comes to learn that, after all, the chief obstacles to evangelization of the world in our generation are not numerical, but intellectual, moral, and spiritual." But the results of the convention must be far-reaching, lasting, and beneficial to the progress of missions, the student world, the Volunteer Movement, and the individuals who attended. At the farewell meeting thirty-one stated that they had come to a decision to enter the mission field, during the Convention. Doubtless there are many other resultR not so tangible, but quite as lasting and important. The Convention has had the effect of increasing general confidence in the Movement, and of creating a larger sympathy with it in the hearts of those in charge of missionary interests at home and abroad. There was a definiteness of purpose and a union of
'rtm BABIS OF PERSIA
hearts in loving allegiance to our Lord and Saviour which increased the spirit of prayer and consecration. There was nothing of fanaticism, no overheated excitement or undue, crude zeal, but deep sanctified earnestness considering questions of the greatest importance. The combination of intellect and spirituality, of experience and energy was calculated to insure the best results. All points to the fact that the missionary spirit is not dying out, but is widening and deepening, and is bringing more men and women face to face with their responsibility for serving their" own generation by the war of God."
THE BABIS OF PERSIA.
BY PROFJ:SSOR M. Y. DE GOEZE.
May 16th, 1892, was a day of much sorrow to many thousands of men in Persia. On that day " God, who had become man in the person of Behfw'allah, left his human body and returned to heaven, but not before he had exhorted the true believers to prepare themselves for a better life, by doing everything in their power to ennoble their fellow-men and make them happy." BeM is the Christ of the Babis, the new sect who believe that their religion is to supplant all others, and who, while they do not deny that Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed were great prophets, yet maintain that God has inaugurated a new era with the advent of Ali Mohammed and BeMo'allah. The Babis have their origin in the Persian belief that a new Imam would arise to bring peace to men. In the first half of the present century, a young Persian named Ali Mohammed became impressed with the idea that he was a second John the Baptist. He taught that another, stronger than he, would follow him; and his disciple, Beha, claimed that honor after Ali's death. The new sect has experienced all the horrors of martyrdom in a degree scarcely less violent than the early persecutions against the Christians; and they deserved it just as little. The Bayan, the Babis' Bible, does not interfere with any government; but it attacks beliefs held by all other religions. The Bayan says that there is no hell after death, but that unbelief is hell, and belief, Paradise. The Bayan also says that the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Koran all had a mission to perform; but, now, human intellect is able to receive a better religion. The ritualism of the Mohammedans has been largely changed. The kibla, or direction in which to turn during prayer, is abolished. A fast is, however, ordered in the last month of the year, exempting only travellers, children, and pregnant women.
One of the most notable reforms of the Babis is the higher status they confer on women. Their women may take part in festivities, and appear in public without their veils. Brotherly love, courtesy to inferiors, and charity, are insisted upon. Begging is strongly prohibited. The Babis hope for the inauguration of the millennium. But while the Western Utopians hope to attain this object through the State, the Bab looks to religious means. The Bayan is also very inimical to an ignorant, superstitious, and overbearing priesthood. Auricular confession is an abomination to the Bab, slavery is against God's will. Outward distinction in dress is not admissible. The most radical dogma of the Bayan is: " We know nothing whatever of our state after death, God alone knows it."- ])e Gids, Amsterdam.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II."-:INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED DY BEV. J. T. GBACEY, D.D.
How Pagan Rome Became Ohristian. gan and Christian Rome," * which casts Dr. George Smith, in his lectures at a great deal of light oil. the miSSionary * Rutgers College, just published, says: processes by which ancient Romc be- " The greatest event in the history of came Christian Rome. the world is the conversion to Christ of First of all, this volume casts new the Roman Empire. The revolution light on the order in which the influoccupied three centuries till it was com- ences of missionary effort affected sopleted – externally by the coup d' etat ciety. It has long been the custom to of Constantine; internally by the Nicene content oursel ves in foreign missionary work with beginning with the lower theology." Baumgarten says the history of the classes, and some people have come to world he.s had its foundations for the think that Christianity furnishes forces last eighteen hundred years on the Acts which must always make the" pot boil of the Apostles. The brief essay which from the bottom. .. We do not underbears the record of their " Acts" has rate this uplifting and humanizing been studied as affording models and power of the religion of Jesus on the precedents for missionary work. But lowly. Nor does Lanciani. He says, it is necessary to get all the incidental "That is certainly a noble picture information possible throwing light on which represents the new faith as the development of the Christian his- searching among the haunts of poverty tory and civilization, of which that and slavery, seeking to inspire faith, book furnishes the germ. Nor is it hope and charity in their occupants; always good to stick too closely to prece- to transform them from things into dents, even when they are apostolic. human beings; to make them believe It is sometimes better to strike out for in the happiness of a future life; to ourselves in a way indicated by our alleviate their present sufferings; to own environment. Macaulay said, redeem their children from shame and H The time has come to pay a decent, servitude; to proclaim them equal to honorable, and manly respect to our their masters." forefathers; not by doing as they did ·But it is doubtful if we have not under other circumstances, but by doing eliminated factors in the original exas they would have done under our cir- ample, which would suggest that from cumstances." It is possible, as we the start Christianity, in any land, think, to over·imitate apostolic pattern might expect to affect all orders of the in some things; and all the more cau- people simultaneously. Without negtion should be exercised because of the lecting the illiterate and humble, may difficulty of finding out just what apos- not missionaries expect to strike at the brain of heathendom first as well as tolic example was. This line of reflection is intensified by last? the flood of new commentary that We have all along known, from the comes with every day from all depart. persons named in Paul's epistles, what ments of human investigation. A prom- Lanciani states, that the" Gospel found inent illustration of it is before us in its way to the mansions of the masters' Rudolfo Lanciani's newest work, "Pa- nay, even to the palace of the Cresars. ,: But we come to find that the" discov- * "The Conversion of India from Pantamus eries lately made on this subject are to the Present Time, A.D. 193-1898." By George Smith, C.I.E., LL.D. New York, Chicago, and • "Pagan and Chri8tian Rome." By Rudolfo Toronto: Fleming B. Revell Company. A Lauclani. Boston and New York: Bonghton, notice of this book will appear hereafter, MUllin & Company, 1893. Profusely illustrated. startling, and constitute a new chapter been associated with perverted notions in the history of imperial Rome." We concerning religion, and others which find evidence of prominent persons con- have been associated at least with reo nected with important families of Rome ligious customs not involving error. It concerning which ecclesiastical records is widely known that at least one very have been silent. Relatives of the Fla. learned and devoted missionary in CI~ina vian emperors, not mentioned by any is of opinion that ancestor worship ecclesiastical writers, are among the may be elevated to teach the immortalconverts to Christianity named in the ity of the soul and preserved as deepenrecords of the Roman historians and ing the honor which the Bible says biographers, notably Flavius Clemens, should be paid to parents. and, thus Petronilla, and two Domitillre. The stripped of its idolatrous features. becase of Acilii Glabriones is mentioned come an ally of Christian morals. In by Suetonius and Tacitus, who say he the transformation of pagan into Chriswas a convert to Christ. That he was tian Rome it seeme that the Church acnot an indifferent person would appear cepted existing lites and customs when from the facts of his career. His fam- not offensive to her principles and moralily attained celebrity as early as B.C. ity. It was the custom, for instance. 191, when AcHius Glabrio conquered to keep the standard weights and measthe }Iacedonians at the battle of Ther- ures in the Roman temples. This inmopylre. When Pertinax was elected stitution of the ponderaria migrated emperor, he declared in the Senate that from the temple to the Church when the Acili Glabriones were" the noblest the temples were closed. A.D. 393. race in. the world." Manius Acilius, Thus, too, the custom of having baths who was consul with Trajan A.D. 91, in connection with the temples was was put to death by Domitian in 95 carried over to the churches. Senators for being a Christian. The names of and municipal magistrates administered many others, the flower of the Ro- justice in the classic Roman Curia, and man nobility, were found to have in 1130-85 they did the same in the been Christians. We have known churches. that heathenism, when pressed, seeks compromise with Christianity. Tiberius There were other customs and sym· sent a message to the Senate. asking bolic features which we would certainly that Christ bc included among the class among doubtful expedients for gods; and Lampridins says in his day imitation in foreign fields. Would we it is now come to be believed that the convert Orpheus wat.ching his flock into temples dedicated by Hadrian in every the Good Shepherd; or represent on the city to the ., unknown God" were de- church pavement, as Pius IX. did. voted to Christ; and that he was pre· Galenus and Hippokrates compounding vented from declaring them to be to medicines at Sienna ; or place Hercules Christ lest "the other temples might in ivory, as in St. Peter's; or set up be deserted and the entire population images of the sibyls, as the early Church turn Christian." All this goes to prove did, because of the popular notion that the influence which Christianity at an they had prophesied the coming of early date exercised over ruling and in- Christ? To us these have been trans· fluential classes of the Roman world; formed into mere mythical art or poetry, and it began to exercise this influence owing to the distance of the removal; at the beginning of its career, and main- and we ourselves in a poetic and artistic tained it steadily till its CUlmination way preserve customs and practices under Constantine. which are a survi val of classic idolatry.. There are customs which have outlived Another important question in mis- the suppression of pag!ln institutions. sionary circles is how far to conserve Italians still call Pentectlst Pasqua rosa, local and national customs which have and the Pope blesses the" golden rose" on Quadragesima Sunday; and in the is little doubt that we can turn into sixth century the Slavs celebrated Pen- tecost with the half-pagan and half-bar- new channels much that is national or barous rousalia. All these are easily traceable to the feast called Rosaria, racial; and we will have enough re- which the ancients celebrated at the sepulchres. There were, therefore, cus- form work to do when we confine our- toms and practices of the classical age so deep rooted that even after sixteen selves to essentials. The missionaries centuries they are noticeable in our modern Christian civilization. in India are making much of already- There is the other lesson of warning established usage in popular assemblies and failure. It has been said that ancient Rome had two populations of and holidays, wresting them out of the equal size, one alive and one of marble. The Roman Church did not abandon hands of the opposition and turning this custom of erecting statues; and hence we have them in so many Roman them to Christian ends. A.t any rate, Catholic churches to-day, with all the ex votos to which the ancient heathen whatever view we adopt there is much had grown accustomed. food for thought in the facts set forth Much else that was objectionable and that remains till now of saint wor_ by L'anciani as to the mild, impercep· ship is distinctly a survival of heathendom. We may well take warning lest tible changes wrought in three centuries the heathen shall make a large impression ou the new Church which we are which made Rome Christian instead of developing from their midst. pagan, or-shall we say it ?-has left But the marvel of the transformation remains as au encouragement amid all it half pagan till now. J. T. G. difficulties of our time. The Gospel that could couquer Rome can conquer Symposium.-J apan. any heathendom the world has seeu or will see. "Rome," according t::> an old REV. H. LOOMIS, ¥OKOHAMA.-The saying, .• contained as many churches condition of things in Japan is not as as there are days in the year," which bright as hitherto. The anti foreign Lanciani says was entirely too modest, agitation resulted in the dissolution of as there were certainly not less than a the Diet by the emperor; and it rethousand. A.nd these were transform- mains to be seen whether the country ed temples. "The experience gained will sustain the Government or not. through twenty-five years of active eKploration in ancient Rome, both above But we are not discouraged; and and below ground," says our author. some departments of the work are quite "enables me to state that every pagan hopeful. We are sure that this state of building which was capable of giving affairs will not be permaner:t, and that shelter to a congregation was trans- God will bless the labors of His servants formed, at one time or another, into a here in the future as He has in the past. church or chapel." REv. JAMES I.SEDER, TOKYo.-Chris- It is a practical question how far we tian work is being vigorously pushed shall conserve customs of the heathen forward. The work of the churches in society out of which we bring the new and about Tokyo, while encountering native Christian Church. With which considerable opposition and difficulties, of them can we make friends? There is nevertheless prospering moderately. From many points the Christian papers bring good tidings of renewed zeal and activity in the churches. Prayer-meet. ings are being more generally attended than for some time back. In most churches united and protracted efforts are being put forth by way ot revival meetings. Nor are these labors in vain in the Lord. One pastor writes of 22 probationers just received. Another reports 7 just baptized. Similar reports come from a number of other places. Only yesterday a missionary returned ferously cried out that, "It is against from a tour in Chiba ken, and tells the the Japanese Constitution and law to writer that he had just p1'eached in a preach Christianity." This caused a Buddhiat temple which is now without f~u:(luS uproar, and presently a 11uma priest. The idols were still in their 1(. f men, whose appearance was by accustomed place, but the people said 0). ~eans assuring, were making their the temple had been built for the wor- way through the crowd toward the ship of God; and as the Christian preachers. Being repeatedly urged by preachers said they would preach about the native pastor to follow him to the the true and living God, they should upper rooms of the house for safety, be heard. Afterward the people could they both made good their escape withchoose whom they would thereafter out injury. Threats of killing continued worship, God or Buddha. A goodly for some little time; but finally the disnumber attended and very respectfully turbers left, the meeting having been listened to the glorious Gospel. May completely broken up. Another misthe Spirit lead them to a right choice I sionary had an experience very similar Now and again we read of a new church only a short time ago, the persecutors. or chapel erected and dedicated to the saying they would not leave the place service of God. Sunday-school work as long as the" foreign enemy remained also is looking more and more hopeful, in the house." with increased attendance and interest_ Nor is the opposition confined to mis- A spirit of greater earnestness seems sionaries alone. Japanese are almost to be spreading among the churches. equally subject to them. In another But on the other side there is also a paper my eye just falls on the followspirit of greater opposition arising ing: "The Doshisha College had a among the Buddhists. Most likely they public meeting at the Gionza in Kyoto, would make no outcry nor bestir them- at which over 2000 persons attended. 'selves were not Christianity making de- After the meeting was closed at 9 A.M., cided inroads upon the religious terri- Otsuka Eitaro, a first-year student, was tory once all their own. InChiba ken a attacked by four men as he was going Swedish missionary, we hear, recently out. They inflicted slight wounds on ,uffered personal violence and inj ury his head, and fled when his companions at their hands. At another place the came to his assistance. The police Japanese pastor had given public notice have caught one of them, who is a Budof a Christian meeting for the evening, dhist priest. " and that a foreign missionary would speak. About 700 people gathered. In Tottori ken a native Christian Stirred up by priests, they began to preacher recently stirred up the people throw stones and other dangerous mis- considerably by declaring that "the siles, and would not allow the meeting will of God is above the law of. any to be held. The police appeared pow- earthly monarch." The incensed citi· erless. 'rhey advised the preacher to zens have appealed to the police. They dismiss the meeting; and as there seemed regard the Emperor of Japan as the no other way out, it was reluctantly "son of heaven;" hence to have done. uttered the foregoing sentence was greatly disrespectful if not disloyal to Less than a week ago & missionary the ruler of this land. For this very went out to Tanashi, a small town some reason the photograph of the emperor 25 miles from Tokyo, to fill a series of is nowhere on sale in the capital, as it appointments. An evening service had is regarded as wo sacred for publi<: been announced by the Japanese helper, gaze. Nor is this view held only by and he also spoke firilt. For about half the so·called lower classes; but to this an hour the large assembly' listened day it obtains among wealthy and eduquietly, until some Buddhist priest voci- cated people, being held either in sin. cere faith in the old superstitions or in understood Hotoke to mean Buddhism; insincerity. Missionaries cannot be too 7 boys attached the word to no reality ; careful how they speak even to Japanese 4 thought it meant the soul of man, Christians on the subject of their em- while 7 could make no reply.
peror. Still the truth may and must " .As to the third question, 25 believed be told, but always in love and to save. that man's soul lives after death, 81 be- Japan has made immense progress in lieved that death ends all, and 12 could.
matters of education during the past not answer. In answer to the fourth three decades. And yet the present question, 24 boys and 3 girls declared ignorance and indifference of the people, their belief in the existence of a soul, 5 so far as religious knowledge is con- of them basing their belief upon per- cerned, is a factor which enters very sonal experiences; but 48 boys and 14 largely into the causes retarding Chris- girls denied the existence of any souL tian progress in this land. The follow- Twenty-five others believed in the ex- ing from a recent paper gives some idea istence of a soul, but not in its immor- of the religious ideas of the children tality_ "
here: :M:ost interesting and important prac- "Mr. Togi, once an officer of the tical conclusions can be drawn from the Department of Education, now Super- above answers. It will be seen that intendent of the Higher School in Akita, nearly all these boys and girls still re- Il.ttempted to ascertain the religious gard their" imperial ancestors" as the ideas of the children of his school by a object of their worship and highest practical experiment. He chose 118 reverence. The large majority do not pupils, 19 of whom were girls, and the believe hi immortality, which has only average age of all about 14 years. To been brought to light through the Gos- these he propounded the following pel. Over half even deny the very ex- four questions: 1. What is Kami istence of the soul. The teachings of (God)? 2. What is Hotoke (a name giv- Buddhism are extremely vague. Most en to Buddha)? 3. What becomes of children (and adults may logically be man after death? 4. Is there a soul ? included) have little conception of a If so, what kind of a thing is it? future life or of future rewards and These questions awakened much seri- punishments for moral conduct in the ous thought; and he tabulates their present life. With such conceptions answers as follows: To the first ques- of liCe and its moral obligations in the tion, 82 boys and 15 girls replied, • By minds of the people, we can only won- Kami is meant our imperial ancestors der that the moral condition is no worse and benefactors reverenced by us.' Six than it really is. It will, moreover, be boys and 3 girls replied, • Kami is a seen that the work is still immeasurably spiritual Being outside of mankind; , great and the field "white unto the 1 girl, a Roman Catholic, added that harvest. " Christianity is here to stay 'He is the Creator of the universe.' and to conquer, and is gloriously march- One boy said that Kami meant • gohei ' ing forward ; but there are still " re- (a kind of paper cut in narrow strips gions beyond." May past success and and hung in temples to represent the Spirit and command of Christ arouse Kami). Three boys replied that there the Church to still greater achievements, is no Kami, while 8 gave unsatisfactory greater faith, greater self-sacrifice and answers. To the second question, 55 persevering prayer I boys and 16 girls replied, • All deceased persons are Hotoke.' Eleven boys and REv. DAVID S. SPENCER, NAGOYA.
1 girl said that by Hotoke they under- It is exceedingly interesting to note stood Shaka, Amida, and other virtuous the comments of the Buddhist press of sages who have influenced the spirits Japan since the conclusion of the of men. Seventeen boys and 1 girl World's Congress of Religions at Chicago. and in view of the rise of the reached its culmination. The movemixed residence question. ment toward Europeanization is sure to start again. With tha~, Christianity Buddhism is much divided. Some is again to go forward. We must be sects are at war within themselves, and on the alert. The nineteenth century others are at war with each other. They is going; what awaits us as the twentiare more completely divided and more eth opens ?" hostile to each other than is the Christian Church, in spite of their occasional The same magazine, in another slurs at Christianity because of its article, confesses that mixed residence numerous sects. They are clearly con- is sure to come. Scholars advise it, scious that the Buddhist forces are not business men need it. The only hope prepared to contend successfully with for Buddhism in such an event lies in Christianity, and various efforts at re- keeping aloof from politics and gi ving form appear. As these expressions of special attention to religious growth. Buddhist opinions to Buddhists must be or interest to all who are watching re- 2. The Dento speaks more hopefully ligious movements in Japan, I quote for Buddhism: "Many fear that with from some of these magazines as trans- mixed residence Buddhism will go unlated into the columns of the Japan der. But truth is conqueror at last. If Mail, making occasional comment: Christianity is truth it will conquer. The truth, however, is not in Chris- 1. The Bukkyo, an independent maga- tianity. Science shows that. Experience zine, has a leading article on "The makes that clear. Yet Christian meth- Necessary Work of Buddhists. " "The ods, some say, make Christianity forcountry is now afflicted with crime and midable, and the foreign religion is procalamities. Buddhists therefore should tected by foreign governments. But if be up and doing to help and to cure. our hundreds of thousands of priests are But more than this. Speculative Bud- faithful, what can the foreign preachers dhism, which has for a long time been in do? And the fOrty millions of the Japthe ascendant, must give way to prac- anese people are practically our defendtical forces. Christianity is beset on ers. The treaties must be revised_ all sides; Buddhism has the popular Let mixed residence come." Yes, we heart. Let it avail itself of this advan- reply, let it come. And with it must tage. Growing before all eyes is the come greatly increased advantages for question of mixed residence. [Allow- Christian work. While Buddhism is ing foreigners to reside in the interior well intrenched in some sections and by of the country. whereas up to this time no means dead, it will be found that it they have been compelled to reside only has already lost its power over the in the foreign concessions connected great masses of the forty millions of with the open ports, unless employed the Japanese, especially over the whole by Japanese.-D. S. S.] That is full younger class. Let the reader note also of momentous consequences. Mixed the coloring of nationalism in the above residence must come, sooner or later. quotation. Now, in our strength, is the time to prepare for this event. When foreigners S. The Nonin Shimpo is not so confiare admitted into all parts of the coun- dent of results as other representatives try. the ministers of Christianity will of the popular faith. It speculates enter with them and work freely. We upon the fate of Buddhism after the should be prepared to meet them. A incoming of foreigners after this mood : Christian reaction is sure to come. The "The first elIect will be Christian agformer extreme Europeanization of the gressiveness. The Japanese are povpeople has been checked. Conservatism erty-stricken as regards religious ideas. has been revived. But the endeavor Nine tenths of the people do not know to preserve national peculiarities has what Buddhism is. [And this after Japan has had about thirteen centuries' experience of Buddhism.-D. S. S.] because of personal immorality, etc.
At the beginning, with mixed residence The world moves I foreigners will prevail over WI. Bud- EVANGELUITIO WORK. dhism will decay and disappear. Of course con1lict is not desirable, but it REV. T. P. POATE, JAPAN.-I landed seems to be inevitable. Christian evan- in Japan in the fall of 1870. At that gelization means poison to the nation. time the work was carried on under Remember the ruin of Poland and of great disadvantages. The drag·net of Hawaii through Christian peoples." the Gospel could not be used; it was 4. The Kokkyo finds much fault with , fishing with the rod and line. But the recent Buddhistic methods. "Ancient period of sowing was now well.nigh ,customs have too much weight with done, and God drew near to His Church Buddhist associations. The habitual in blessing. It was, as is already reading of the ritual and Buddhistic known, during the week of prayer in Scriptures at religious gatherings wea- 1870 that this blessing came. The quick- ries the people. Popular addresses ened ear of faith heard the tinklings of should be substituted. Biographies the golden bells of the great High Priest of Buddha and of the founders of the who dwells unseen, yet not unknown, sects should be presented at the meet- within the veil. Over the meetings in ings. If the people will not come to the oHis sevenfold might brooded the won- temples, gather them if possible into drous Paraclete, and from rent hearts private houses and teach them there." came "that unimaginable groan, the It will be seen that this is simply im. birth.pang of souls born into the king- itating Christian methods. And they dom of light, that yearning known to go farther than this in some sections, all the people of God which finds its establishing Sunday·schools, gathering utterance in the cry, 'Lord, save souls, and teaching the young, and the poor or I die I '" Then the Spirit of God in night schools, organizing Young moved upon the hearts of the heathen Men's Christian Associations with Chris· who were present. and one after an- tianity left out. have popular preaching other confessed Christ. Yet more, for services, and take up a collection, as if the first time in the history of the em- they were really Methodists. This im. pire Japanese knelt in prayer to God itating process has been going on for that He would pour out on them and sometime. their race the Holy Ghost. These 5. The Daido Shimpo enters a strong meetings were carried on for several complaint that" the Buddhists always weeks, and out of them grew the First lag behind in social progress, when they Church of Yokohama, now numbering should be the leaders. A national reo about 800 members.
action is coming. Back of the present From this time the work grew apace.
anti·foreign nationalistic mood a great It was founded on and nourished by pro·foreign feeling is developing. Bud· the Word of God. In accordance with dhists should get their power well in the universal rule of Protestant mis- hand, because national secularization is sionaries, the Scriptures were translated near. " into Japanese. Two translations (in The prophecy of a retum of the pro- some respects 8. regrettable thing) were foreign feeling is not without founda· made-the one a Baptist;the other by a tion. committee. Each had its work. The It only remains to note the organiza- Baptist translation reached a class of tion, in one of the prefectures, of a large people unable to read the mixed charac- association for the purification of the ter of the committee's version, while priesthood. One of the recent acts of this was well suited to the wants of the this association was to decide that 220 great middle and upper classes. Out priests were unworthy of their position of the press poured in ever.increasing volume a stream of Christian literature God, and went north on January 10th, which was carried everywhere by col· 1880. A little church was soon gath· porteurs. The branches of the true ered, and as we lookeu on the blank, Vine shot forth and filled the land, and desolate heathenism of the place our the tender grapes gave a good smell. hearts were led out In prayer to God And the Lord of the vineyard sent forth for a hundred souls. That prayer has more laborers. I had been engaged in been answered well-nigh threefold. Our educational work for a number of Methodist brethren came in, and then years, in the employ of the imperial my dear brother Rev. E. Rothesay Mil· Government, when in 1875 I was led ler ; and though this be literally Rock into direct work for the Lord. The Province (Iwate ken), the power of the claims of that work grew more and more Spirit is making it into a fruitful field.
pressing, and at length, in 1879, I sev· In the spring of that same year I bap- ered my connection with the Govern· tized a man named Seino Tomonoshin ment and gave myself wholly to the at a place called Farukawa. He had preaching of the Word in connection been a hard drinker, a great sinner, but with the American Baptist Missionary on him came the Spirit of God, con- Union. vincing him of sin. He dared not sleep Shortly after there came a call from at night, fearing that he might wake up Morioka, a city 325 miles northeast of . in torment. The message of God's love, Tokyo. At that time the provinces of the of sin laid upon Jesus, of the blood that northeast were in almost utter darkness; cIeanseth from sin, came to him, and he no Protestant missionary was to be received it as a little child. His wife found in all that district, yet a certain saw the change in her husband, and she work had been done by members of the too believed. He wrote to me in Yoko· Greek Church. Among those brought hamil., and asked me to stop in Sendai, to Christ by their means was a young on my next trip, and baptize her. 150 man named KUdo. He was not, how· anxious was he that I should not fail ever, satisfied with this form of Chris· that he even telegraphed to me. Now, tianity. Though the Greek Church Sendai is the largest city of the north.
gives the Bible to its members and I had not thought it possible to open recommends them to study it, still work there, but God opened a wide and prayer for the dead, the invocation of effectual door. When I reached Sendai the saints, and a mass of superstitions Brother Seino at once sought me out; too numerous to mention disfigure the and I shall never forget how the tears faith. He came to Yokohama to study, came from his eyes and the joy that and there met with some of ollr believ· shone in his face. His wife was bap- ers, who taught him the way of God tized, and in the fall another church more perfectly. He learned with joy was organized in Sendai. The work that he needed not the intercession of grew rapidly, and I am afraid that I got the saints nor of the Virgin Mary, but proud. I said to myself, I shall have could come to God through the one the first self·supporting Baptist church; :Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus. Fail· and then there came trouble, division ing health compelled him to return and strife; and how sad that is! It home. He was attacked by consump· seemed as if all was going to pieces: tion and did not live many months, but but then I learned what the Puritans he tol:1 his friends of what he had called" the soul.fattening blessing of learned, and the result was, repeated fasting." We fasted and prayed, and letters to Dr. Brown asking for a teach· the Lord lifted upon us the light of His cr. Till my appointment there had countenance.
been no one to send, for the mission I went one day down to the river practically consisted of two ladies and rather sad at heart, and as I passed by Dr. Brown. I hailed the call as from a Shinto temple I noticed that some "matruri" or festival was going on. five ports were opened to foreign trade The priest was praying, and I caught in China, and nearly that time since ac- what sounded like my name. In J ap- tive Protestant missionary wl)rk was anese my name is Pato. I thought begun in the land. But the widespread that I must be mistaken, but on draw- riots throughout the empire during the ing nearer heard it again. Out rang in last year makes it necessary to consider sonorous tones, " Ama terasu no mi kami whether mission methods do not tequire yo, negawaku wa mi tsurugi wo motte fresh adaptation.
kam Eikokujui Poto to ni mono wo ha- " The genius of the Chinese people is rai tamaije;" which, being interpreted, pre-eminently to listen to their rulers, is, " 0 Goddess that dost illuminate the who are expected to take paternal in- heavens, with thine august sword drive terest in everything that pertains to their out that Englishman Poate. " You smile, welfare. If the rulers oppose Chris- and so did I; for my heart was glad. tianity. suspicions abound on every For whenever Satan rages God is side; if they approve, then all classes work.ing, and I knew of a surety that are stimulated to friendship and inquiry.
Emanuel, the Golden Prince, would " One immense hindrance to mission- come, riding in His chariots of salva- ary work in China is the hostile attitude tion, to the aid of His Church. I re- of the mandarins, the gentry and the turned to Yokohama. and one day a educated classes. For millenniums the telegram came from the church: Chinese have been taught to consider "Go Sei Rei. go kouri ni natta" (" On themselves vastly superior to every na- us hath the Holy Spirit descended"). tion under the sun; and as their educa- And when I visited that church next I tional curriculum to this day is still un- fonnd that it was even so. T hey had changed,there is springing up annually a waited on God in prayer, and lie had fresh crop of scholars in absolute igno- heard them. The spirit of envy and rance of the outside world, and with the hate had been cast out, and in its stead same intense pride and prejudice as of reigned the spirit of peace and love and old. For, centuries, too, the Chinese of a sound mind. Government has systematically opposed all intercourse with foreigners to the ut- most of their power, as they regard it Ohristian Work Among the Higher full of peril. OIasses of Ohins. ., Again, for many years, owing to the Twenty-nine missionaries in China, Taiping rebels having taken up a Chris- representing as many societies, sent out, tian name, the authorities of China in the form of a circular, some time since looked on Christian literature as only an Appeal for the Society for the Diffu- fit for wicked rebels, and therefore bc- sion of Christian Knowledge among the came still more hostile. In the course Chinese as an especial agency for reach· of years this feeling showed itself in all ing the higher classes in that country. the Government dispatches of manda- This society sustains two monthly mag- rins, high and low, where the vilest ru- azines in Chinese, one religious and one mors against Christians, however false general. Missionaries from different and malicious, were duly recorded, sel- parts of the empire contribute to the dom inquiring into their origin, their columns of these, and they are, together truth or their falsehood. Lately these an- with other literature, distributed from ti-foreign and anti-Christian references the civil service examination centres were collected from Government dis- and from other centres, to the number of patches and standard works-into which ten in each province. This committee they had also crept-and republished make the following, among other im- in a cheap form; and new publications,'
portant statements: based on these supposed facts, were ,," It is now exactly fifty years since issued to stir up the whole land against Christianity: thinking thereby to benefit "Meanwhile the natural increase of .the popUlation of China is at the rate their country. Such was the main and of about three millions annually. As scarcely any improved methods arc yet immediate cause of the riots, which last- introduced for the support of these Im- mense numbers, and as the Chinese ed, with some intervals. for more than a have not discovered how to produce means of support faster than the natural year. increase of popUlation, as Christian na- tions have done, they must either perish "During all this time it was useless or become every day more wretchedly poor even than they now are, and this for missionaries to approach the higher dire poverty leads to corruption and crime. In fact, the unemployed abound classes, so they have labored patiently throughout the land, to be swept away in periodic famines, while the vast naton among those that would hear them- ural resources of China remain unde- veloped. We must strive for the estabmostly the poor-and we are glad to lishment of righteousness and salvation in the land. Few of the Chinese know record 40,000 communicants among how this can be accomplished; but God has given us that. knowledge. We these. Had the higher classes been as must help them."
accessible, enlightened, and friendly as From the report just at hand we gather information to the effect that they are in Japan and in other mission they have established depots in Peking, Moukden, Tientsin, Shensi, Nanking, fields, we might reasonably expect pro- and Chefoo. They arranged last year to present to all the great mandarins of portionately a far greater number of the empire a copy of Dr. Faber's ~Teat work on" Civilization," in five Chmese Christians in China than there is, and volumes. They sent 60,000 copies of their pUblications to the ten maritime we should not have had the riots, which provinces. Not all of these were sold. The Chinese are poor, though many are have so greatly imperilled the mission rich. The poor have to pay 36 per cent to pawn-shops, and sometimes 100 per cause and excited fresh opposition where cent, to tide them over temporary dUn- culties. Thousands upon thousands colit had almost died away. lect in mat sheds at every great city H One great lesson of the riots is, that in the winter, in order to attend the free soup.kitchens,and this only means prac· the reformation of one class in a nation tically slow starvation. China thus caunot go on peaceably without simul- presents an amount of suffering which taneous enlightenment of the other class- far surpasses that of any other country. es, otherwise it must inevitably end in Most of this might be easily removed. persecution. riots, or revolution. There- It is the object of this ChristIan Knowlfore something must be done to prevent edge Society to try to help the Chinese further collision and disaster besides ap· to such knowledge as will result in the pealing to force. improved condition of the country. For wantof political insight, China has " True, the most prejudiced are more lost within thirty·five years, in northopposed to us than ever because of our east Manchuria, a country as large as increasing numbers, but many of the France; and in the south she has lost highest authorities are compelled to in- Burmah, and in Annam tributary States quire carefully into the matter, and larger than France. For lack of comthere is au increasing number growing mercial knowledge she has £80,000,000 friendly and anxious to know the whole less foreign trade than India, and even truth about our work. The emperor little Japan has trebled her foreign trade, and the highest authorities are begin- while China has only dOUbled hers. ning to learn that these anti·Christian rumors are false, and that Christians are The Secretary, Rev. Timothy Richgood people whose object is to benefit ards, Shanghai, will gladly furnish in· China and not to stir up rebellion aud formation on t.he prospects and plans strife. The edict and proclamations of this admirable organization. If it which have recently made their appear- shall accomplish a tithe as much as the ance are very satisfactory; though is- similar society has in India. it will be a sued under foreign pressure, they are great blessing. all valnable documents and point ill the right direction.
" The empire being at peace. foreigners are engaged to write books for them on all subjects. Its leading men are studying many questions of reform, and among these religion. It seems hardly possible to overestimate the stupendous importance of the present opportunity, when a fourth of the human race is compelled to meditate a change in its religious policy, with all that that involves! The hand of God is in the matter, showing clearly that past labor has not been in vain.
i894.j
IlI.-FIELD OF MONTHLY SURVEY.
Siam and Laos, Malaysia," Unoccupied Fields,t Buddhism.:f: . MISSION WORK AMONG THE LAO!!. not to be intimidated by his bonds. , Most of the obstacles since then have BY REV. DANIElL McGILVARY, D.D. been some petty annoyances to be ex· pected, and such as hav.e acted as a Chieng Mai, Lampoon, Lakawn, Praa, wholesome tonic. Nan, Chieng Hai, and Chieng Saan are the capitals of provinces of the same For long years only two ordained name in the north of the Kingdom of missionaries were in the field. In 1883 Siam, to which they are tributary. Rev. Dr. Peoples and others arrived, They occupy the valleys and plateaus followed ne:l!;t year by Rev. Chalmers of the upper tributaries of the Maa Martin. Since then the growth of the Nam, separated from the lower plain church has been remarkable for its by mountains and rapids. They are steady uniformity. For three years the governed by a line of native rulers who yearly accessions to the communion of receive their appointment and their in· the church was about ninety. For the signia of office from Bangkok. last seven successive years the acces- sions have been 110, 129, 180, 190, 241, Having first obtained consent of the 299, and 303 for 1893. Our present viceroy, permission to establish a mis· adult membership is 1586,. total bap. sion station in Chieng Mai was granted tized 2707. The mother church at by the Siamese Government, and the Chieng Mai has sent out eight colonies, mission was formally opened by the and still has an adult membership of writer and his family April 3d. 1867, 719, and Dr. Dennis in his latest work M.r. Wilson and family following in makes the Presbytery of North Laos 1868. The warm reception that the the banner presbytery in the General missionaries received from all classes, Assembly. Probably a greater promi. the baptism of the first convert, the nence has been given to the evangelistic bright prospects of the mission so soon work than in most missions, and in clouded by the changed attitude of the .this we have largely used the native viceroy and the martyrdom of Noi talent available. From the beginning Sunyah and Nan Chai, the tragic death of the mission the preaching and pas· of the viceroy soon after, the kindness toral work have been magnified. For of his successor, the present viceroy, a long time this was from necessity. counteracted by the hostile acts of his Our small force precluded some depart· brother, the second in command, lead· ments of mission work. What was be· ing to the appeal to Bangkok and the gun from necessity has been continued Royal Proclamation of Religious Toler· from conviction and experience of its ation from the young king in 1878, are success. We have endeavored to reach matters of history and need not be reo the present generation first; and no peated. The death of the brother soon subject has such constraining power after was another of the many Provi· over men who are conscious of their dential interpositions in behalf of the guilt and sin as the Cross of Christ. mission. The only case of persecution The Laos readily admit that there is no since then was the imprisonment for provision for pardon in Buddhism. eight months of a valued assistant un· "I would embrace any religion that der false charges, but really on account offers pardon for sin," said an officer of his religion. From his prison cell from ChiengToong. met on a late tour. he wrote consoling letters to his family From the first, too, it was evident * See pp. 332 and 884 (present. issue). that a large field for medical work was opened. The ordained ministers stood t See p. 877 (present issue). :I: See pp. 326 and 367 (present issue).
FIELD OF MON'l'HI,Y SURVEY
lI,ghast at the demand for foreign medi- Rev: Nan Tah. He is one of the most cine which they had created, but could learned men in Buddhistic literature, not supply. A missionary station is which gives him great influence among not complete without a physician. The hil:l people. In manner and tact he is healing of the body and the remedy for all that could be desired, instant in seathe soul, as in the Saviour's ministry, son and out of season, and is himself a have acted and reacted on each other. bright example of the power of the They are the counterpart and comple- Gospel which he preaches. ment of each other. When there is no physician the miuister has to become a Besides him the annual report for the quack and treat cases for which he is closing year mentions about thirty nanot qualified. When this work is turned tive ruling elders who have devoted over to an accomplished physician he much time to evangelistic work during can devote his energies to his own spe- the year. The report adds, " They go cial work. The consecrated physician before, we follow and reap the harcan easily combine the preaching of the vest." Besides the influence of these, Gospel with. the medical work. The the church is growing by the vitality in reverse is not always possible. Among its native members. Most of the male the IJaos the medical missionary has an members lead in public prayer, and ideal field for influence. The evangel- mauy of the women in their own prayeristic and the medical work combined meetings. Family prayer is generally have laid the broad foundation for all observed, and they do not hesitate to our other work, and given the solid urge the subject of religion on their basis on which it stands. In the pio- people. In all of the sub-stations naneer work in the broad field already tives lead the Sabbath worship. An opened and opening in the east and the officer from Lakawn, sixty-five miles to north, we must look to the consecrated the southeast, became a Christian-a physician to be preacher and healer. church was soon organized, and a call With his medicine and surgical case and made for a mission station, to which his Bible, he is welcome alike to the resi- Dr. and Mrs. Peoples and others since dences of chiefs and governors and to responded. When the station in Lamthe homes of the poor. The extent of poon was opened, one hundred and its inflnence may he seen by a single twenty members were already waiting statement. Dr. McKean, medical mis- to be dismissed to the church then orsionary in Chieng Mai, reports five thou- ganized. The churches in Chieng Saan sand cases treated last year at the sta- aud Chieng IIai and Papow and Chieng tion, and three thousand vaccinations, Dow, all in distant provinces, have thus bringing eight thousand souls un- grown up under native labor, with only der the direct influence of the Gospel. an annual visit from the missionary. In a tour of Iive months last year the They have called in vain for the settlewriter distributed cighty.eight ounces ment of a missionary. of quinine gratuitously, or otherwise, giving us a welcome in some places With the evangelistic and medical where the people would have been in- work as a basis, as soon as we had force different. We would emphasize the to open schools, Christian parents were fact that just now THREE MEDICAL MIS- waiting to put their children in them. SIONARIES are NEEDED for our IMME- The Girls' Boarding School was the DIATE WORK. Shall this appeal be first. It has had a succession of faithmade in vain? ful teachers. Under its present princi- pal, Miss Griffin, assisted by Miss Allie Special mention should be made of McGilvary, it has completed a prORperthe influence of our native Christians ous year. The Boys' Boarding School in advancing the work. First among was commenced later by Mr. Coilins, these is our native ordained minister, who is now assisted by Miss C. H. Mc- GUvary. One hundred and fifteen pupils were enrolled during the year. One of whom, a son-in·law of Nan Intab, of the most encouraging features of the first convert, was ordained. these schools Is that all the girls and nearly all the boys come from Ohris- To all of these schools we look for a tian families-not to learn English, generation of better educated Ohriswhich is not taught, bnt to receive a tians, and, above all, for a strong force Christian education. Most of the pu- of Christian ministers and workers to pils are either communicants or non- evangelize their own and neighboring communing members on entering, and tribes. The first duty of the foreign the communion roll is constantly en- missionary is to lay the foundations, larged from these schools, t~oenty-tl.ree translate t,he Scriptures, and give a having been added during the fall term. Christian litcrature, then to train work- The influence of the pupils reacts on ers and act as bishops in superintending the families and villages from which and directing the work. they come. A prosperous school at Lakawn, under Miss Fleeson and Mr. Our Sahbath-schools have one feature 'l'aylor, was commenced soon after the worthy of universal adoption. They station was established, and now a boys' embrace the old and the young, men school is in operation under Mr. Taylor, and women; in other words, the church who also superintends the Industrial and congregation studying the Scrip- School, leaving Dr. Peoples frec for tures. evangelistic work and the medical work in the absence of Dr. Briggs. Even A font of Laos type prepared by Dr. Utc last station at Lampoon has a good Peoples is a success, and the press in beginning in school work. Chieng l1ai under Mr. Collins is send- ing forth the printed Word of Gi>d. Last "nd not least, before we were The Gospel of Matthew revised, and ready for it, the evangelistic work had Acts translated, by Rev. E. B. McGilfurnished pupils for the Theological vary, have been published, and the Training School. Rev. Nan Tah was Gospel of John is now ready for the prepared for the ministry by the mem- press, while Mr. Wilson has translated bers of the Chieng Mai station in the in- the Psalms. The whole of the Scriptervals of other duties. A strong need tures are accessible to those who read had long been felt for an organized ef- Siamese, as most of Ollr Christians do. fort, and in Mr. Dodd, since joined by Mr. Irwin, the right men were found. Hitherto we have referred to the work Our ruling elders and others, who have in the Siamo-Laos States in the north of proved themselves efficient workers, Siam, which gave it the title of Nortlt have been encouraged to enter the Train- Laos Mission. Rccent explorations in ing School. It ha!! one feature of a the regions north of the Kingdom of model theological school. The teach- Siam have shown tbat the title NORTH ing is practical and biblical as well as Laos Mission is a misnomer. The easttheoretical, the Bible being the princi- ern and northeastern portion of British pal text-book. A portion of each day Burma and a large number of districts is devoted to evangelistic work, and on and towns subject to Yunnan, China, Sabbath the pnpils are sent out two by are inhabited by the Kerns and Lus, two, and the first school hour in the two large and numerous branches of week is devoted to hearing a report of the Laos family, who might be called their work, with criticisms and practical the Burmo and Chino-Laos. This is suggestions from teachers and feIIow- doubtless the original home of the pupils. Ttoenty-five were enrolled last whole Siamese and Laos family. These year, and at the last meeting of pres- tribes have retained more of their origbytery in December jive of the pupils inal characteristics, while the Siamese were licensed to preach the Gospel, one have developed a type of civilization of their own. A tour was taken the first flve months of 1893 by the Rev. Robert Irwin and thc writer, passing through the provinces of British Blll'Dla to the baptism of twenty·two, the first of the Sip Song Panna, a confederation of Lu Moosur race who had embraced the States under the jurisdiction of China. Gospel, was a red·letter dsy in my life. We visited about seventeen districts and Ch Boo Kaw, the first Moosur convert, towns, in all of which the Kern and Lu has since gone to his rest, exhorting his dialects of the Laos are spoken, and the people with his last breath to embrace written character is the same as that the Gospel. Besides the Moosurs, there used in our mission. The extent of the are the Kooies, the Kaws, the Maaos, race to the north, the large area in the Yows, the Ka Hoks, the Ka Lohs, which the Laos language is spoken, and the Lanteens, the Tai Luangs, the Ka the openness of the field were a revela- Moos, and Lemates and other tribes. tion to us. A missionary had never Like the Karens of Burma, but few of been in the region before, and the name these Hill tribes are Buddhists, and we of Christ was unknown. It is stating have reason to believe that many of the fact mildly when we say that we them are waiting for the Gospel. None were well received throughout the of them have written languages, and as whole region. We had a most cordial yet we have had to preach to them welcome from both rulers and people. through an interpreter in the Laos lan- guage, which most of the men under· The length of the tour precluded a stand but imperfectly. Their contiglong stay in each place, but we had uity to China has introduced the opium everywhere eager listeners to the Gos- vice among them, but they are hospitapel mesaage. Chieng Hoong, in north ble and industrious, and those not adlatitude 22°, the chief city of the Sip dicted to the use of opium are, for Song Punna, was the limit of the tour heathen tribes, moral. to the north. This confederation formerly paid tribute to Burma and China, The Presbyterian Mission of Siam and but the present Chow Fa of Chieng Laos together embrace the whole coun- Hoong was placed in authority by Yun- try from the Gulf of Siam to China, nan. The Laos race extended much and the Laos race alone must comprise further north and also east and west of three or four millions of people. How Chieng Hoong. There we crossed the shall that whole region be evangelized? Cambodia River and visited a number We need only the men and the means of towns to the east and south, and re- to occupy the whole field. crossed it at Chieng Lap. In two of the towns which we visited we were At the meeting of the Presbytery of invited to hold worship in the residence North Laos in 1892 a call was made for of the Chow Fa, where we found largv eighteen workers, not including those and attentive audiences. It was sad to needed for Nan and the Laos provinces leave so many places where they were and Hill tribes north of the Siamese disappointed at our short stay, and boundary. The Wood River Church, urged us to come again. Nebraska, has sent usfi'D6 workers, now on their way. Of these Mr. and Mrs. The length of this article, already too Shields will join Dr. and Mrs. Briggs long, allows the mention of only one at Praa, the new station opened by the other important fact. The whole re- famine. The other three, Rev. J. L. gion abounds in numerous Hill tribes Thomas, M.D., and wife, and Miss inhabiting the mountains on both sides Hatch,· and also Miss Wilson, go to of the Cambodia and its tributaries. Lakawn, and Mr. and Mrs. Phraner We have an interesting work already are waiting to establish a station in begun among the Yahoos or Moosurs. Chieng Hai when a physlcian can be Two of the most interesting months of obtained. my thirty.six years of mission life were spent in viaiting on foot the MQOSurs on MO'l'e than eighteen are still needed, of. the hills west of Chlt,ng Hai; and the whom at least three should be physi- cians, to occupy Rahang, a large town on the Southern Laos border and Nan all the men of His time and all other on the east, and the Burmo-Laos and times.
Chino-Laos and the Hill tribes in the Was Buddha His name?
north. For speedy and large returns No. It is the name of a state of for labor and means expended, it is mind.
doubtful whether a more promising Its signification ?
field is anywhere open to the Church. Illuminated ; or He who has perfect, We most earnestly request the prayers wisdom.
of the Church for laborers and success Did Buddha discover the cause of in giving them the Gospel. We would human misery ?
sound the Macedonian cry, " Come over At last He discovered it. As the and help us." Who will hear in it a light of the rising sun scatters the call, "The Lord hath need of thine" ? shades of night and reveals everything " The Lord hath need of THEE" ? to view, so the light of knowledge rose in His mind, and He saw clearly the Siam and Laos. Area 250,000 square causes of human suffering and the miles; population about 6,000,000, con- means of escaping them. sisting of one third Siamese, one third Laosians, and the remainder Chinese Did He have to make great efforts to and Malays. The prevailing religion is attain this knowledge? Buddhism. The Presbyterians (North) •have in the Laos country 10 ordained, 5 Yes; He had to conquer all the de- medical, 6 lady missionaries, and 1 or- fects, the desires, and the appetites dainednative; 8 churches and 1600 com- which deprive us of the sight of the municants ; and in the Siam Mission, 7 truth. ordained, 2 medical, 4 lady missionaries, and 1 native evangelist; 7 churches and What is the light which can disperse 330 communicants. The American Bap- our ignorance and drive away all tist Missionary Union also has a work troubles? in Bangkok chietly for the Chinese. The knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, as Buddha r:aIls them.
What are those truths? (1) That misery always accompanies existence; (2) that all modes of exist- ence result from passion or desire; (3) Unoccupied Pield8 will be the subject that there is no escape from existence of a paper in our June and July issues. except by destruction of desire; (4) the means of obtaining the destruction of desire.
Buddhi8m has been said to be the re- When we are in possession of the Four ligion of one third of the human race. Noble Truths, at what do we arrive?
Probably not over 100,000,000, how- At Nirvana.
ever, are in reality Buddhists. What is Nirvana?
The state of perfect repose, the ab- sence of desire, of illusion, of pain, the The following are some extracts from complete annulment of everything a Buddhist catechism: which constitutes physical man. Before What is a Buddhist? attaining Nirvana, man can be inces-'
He is one who professes to be a fol- santly born again; when he has attained lower of Our Lord Buddha. it he cannot be born again.
Was Buddha a God?
No. Buddhism aims at the destruction of Was He a man? sin as a disea.se and the practical ea;tinc- In form He was a man; but internally tion of the soul; Christianity compasses He was not like other men-that is, in the destruction of the disease and the mental and moral order He surpa~e~ 8alvation of the soul.
EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.
What shall atone for sina of omis8'ion the population; and therefore any stateon the part of editors and compositors! ment of the number is only an CIItimate. In the February issue of this REVIEW, Rev. H. V. Noyes in 1889 published a page 136, second column, third para· paper in the Oltinese Recorder, January graph, the somewhat astounding state- and February numbers, on .. Mohamment is made, that" of the nineteen medans in China." He gives the numprovinces of China proper, only Hunan ber as 20,000,000. Two thirds of these and Kwang·se have permanent mission were stated to be in the Northwest and stations." One little word-" no"-be- Southwest Provinces. The number ing omitted before the words .. mission stated to be in these two provinces is stations" turns the sentence completely greater than the wltole popUlation of the round. It should have read, "Only provinces. After the protracted war Hunan and Kwang-se have no perma- that was there to suppress a Mohammenent mission stations." The next sen- dan rebellion, more than half of the poptence, which gives the needy popula. ulation were found to have perished durtion of these two provinces, shows that ing the twenty years of war. I think the previous sentence must be wrong; 15,000,00() a large estimate for the present but we confess the blunder without Mohammedan population in China. The being able to account for its escaping Chinese are Oonfuciani8t8 as a nation. three proof-readers! Canton, Swatow, When these false religions are vaunted Amoy, Tamsui and Taiwanfol) in For· by anti-Christians, I do not like to see mosa, Foo Chow, Shanghai, Hankow, any undue credit given to them." Ningpo, Cheefoo, Tientsin, Pekin, etc., are well-known permanent mission sta- The MiBBiona7'1J Herald hints that a tions. movement is on foot among Christian Endeavor Societies to hold missionary Dr. Happer, the veteran missionary extension courses, following the lines from China, kindly calls attention to a that IlSve been followed to eKtend the few points in which there is a difference advantages of the universities to the of opinion; also a few typographical public. Study and investigation of the errors in the February REVIEW. As claims of foreign missions, under God's we care for accuracy far more than our blessing, cannot fail to be of vast beneown" consistency," we give Dr. Hap- fit, commensurate to the importance of per's letter: the topic. We have often thought that a plan not unlike that of the" uni- .. On page 136 and second column, versity extension" courses might be second line, the number of missionaries pursued with immense profit. Courses is stated to be 500 instead of 1500. [Dr. of lectures by the prominent authorities Gilbert Reid, in" Peeps into China," on missions might be arranged in varipage 188, gives 490 male missionaries. ous accessible centres. There is no Manifestly an error, as the China Inland reason why such men as Drs. Ellin- Mission alone has 600.-ED.] These I wood, Clark, Baldwin, McCabe, Gorregard as mistakes of the printer. Let don, Mudge, Gracey; Bishops Baldwin me call your attention to two items of and Nicholson; returned missionaries, errors on points that are of special in- such as Drs. Dennis, Happer, Mackay, terest now-viz., as to the number of KnOK, Butler, Boggs, and others tempo- Mohammedans and Buddhists in China. rarily or permanently at home again- You state, on page 136, first column, in a word, every man and woman who the number of the former to be 30,000,- is competent to speak in behalf of mis- 000. This, I think, is too .large an estimate. There is no reliable census of 8ioll&-~hould not be heard, and in cir· dental expenses, the pastors using their cumstances the most favorable. A sin· own discretion in regard to an offering gle address at a distance involves poor Sabbath morning in their own churche9 economy of time; but a series of ad· for their own denominational boards. dresses at contiguous points, and arrang· ed foi at successive times, might bring The Hermit Nation-Thibet. untofd good at a very slight cost of money or energy. Why not have a On Tuesday afternoon, January 7th, bureau of missionary lectures? Not a 1890, during the Week of Prayer, I money·making scheme, but a provision made an address at Mildmay, in Lonfor extending the blessing of informa· don, on "Prayer as a Power in the tion suffused with spiritual power! Opening of Nations to the Gospel." I gave several illustrations, from Turkey. Apropos of this matter, we have be· Siam, Sandwich Islands, etc. I felt fore us a program of the Missionary moved to say to that very devout band Institute in connection with the Illinois of disciples there gathered, that it was Christian Endeavor Union. It may my conviction that there should be help others to give the following items definite, united, believing supplication of information: for the immediate opening of T hibet to the messengers of Christ: whereupon RULES OF THE EXTENSION COURSE. there was a season of prayer for this par· ticular object, and prayer of unusual 1. An application to the Christian power and earnestness. Endeavor State Superintendent of Mis· sions, signed by the presidents of all I have naturally watched with very Christian Endeavor societies in the special interest the subsequent developtown, with the approval of their pas· ments in Thibet. And now not only do tors, and a pledge of the active super- we find that that heroic woman, MIss vision of the course by the Endeavor Annie Taylor, has been penetrating the societies. Thibetan frontier~ from Sikkim, daring poison and assassination, but actually 2. Arrangements for a mass meeting reaching to within three days' journey of the evangelical churches each night of Lassa, the capital, and claiming for selected for the addresses. Sunday God every foot of ground her feet trod evenings are preferred, if possible. on! And now a Thibetan pioneer mis- sion is organized. Miss Taylor appears 3. Missionary sermons to be preached in Britain to secure a dozen men to go by the evangelical pastors each Sunday out to Darjeeling, India, and master the morning prior to the mass meetings. strange speech of the Lama worship· pers, so as to be ready to enter when 4. Arrangements for a Union confer· the two-leaved gates open. ence and prayer service for missionary workers on the afternoons prior to the Just now another link in the chain is mass meetings. supplied. God seems to be using the same means to open Thibet that He 5. Assurance of the active co-opera· used at Philippi's jail to open the door tion. of the missionary societies in the into Europe-the earthquake I We local churches. quote a recent account : 6. Payment of the travelling expenses, "The calamity which has befallen and free entertainment of the speakers. Thibet would seem to afford the oppor- tllnity which Christians have long 7. Ample notice through the local waited for. For years that country press both before and after the meet- haq been most jealously guarded against ings. the intrusion of even transient visit- ors. Only at long intervals, ann after 8. An invitation to all Christian En- great efforts, have travellers succeeded deavor Missionary societies and churches in the district to· send delegates to the meetings.
9. No collection to be made at the mass meetings, except for actual inci· in even passing through the country; Christian truth. FQr despite the pOltie and it has been utterly out of the ques- fancy which invests non·Christian re- ligious systems with an aureole of sanction to establish any missionary enter- tityand beauty, they have been weighed prise in it, though there have been prep- and found wanting in power to meet the deepest wants of mankind. Whatarations made to avail of the least ever their rightful place may have been opening. under Providence in the education of humanity; whatever the virtues they " Now comes the news that a great are calculated to promote among peoples earthquake has destroyed several Bud- in a certain stage of mental'or material dhist monasteries, causing large loss of development; however beautiful the theory, or elevated the ethics, which life, and the Grand Lama himself ap- some of them embody or enjoin-we cannot accept them as a substitute for pears to have perished in the catastro- Christianity or withhold its higher ligh~ from those who sit beneath their phe. This last occurrence can hardly shadow." fail to shake rudely the system of pure There is much curiosity felt to know Buddhism existing in Thibet, and to who the author of this article is.
prepare the way for the preaching of the Gospel.
.. The missiouaries who have long hovered upon the southwestern boun- dary of the country will hardly fail to avail themselves of such a providential opening. For this familiarity with the geography and local peCUliarities of the situation- in Thibet are essenthtl pre- requisites to a successful prosecution of the work, and we expect to hear that it has been entered upon at the earliest moment."
A late number of the London Quar- The monetary crisis imperils all misterly Review pays a remarkably generous sion work. The Presbyterian Board but just tribute to the work of foreign was threatened in March with a debt of missions. The anonymous writer claims $150,000. The Church Missionary Sothat philology, geography and ethnog- ciety was $175,000 behind. Mildmay raphy, comparative religion and cog- and the Y. M. C. A. of London each nate sciences have all been greatly in- $25,000 in debt. debted to those who have gone to bear the Gospel into the depths of continents That was a most notable conversion hitherto untrodden by Europeans, or to the ranks of the Salvation Army in into territories where death threatens the case of Prince Galitzin, of Russia. the intruder. After cordially conced- On a recent tour round the world in ing the material advantages of mission- the interests of the Imperial Geographary work, the writer adds: "It is too ical Society of St. Petersburg, he was late to speak of efforts as futile or fanatic in Washington in October, 1893, and which have literally girdled the globe there he attended a Salvation Army with a chain of missionary stations, and meeting; he was much impressed, and, those who now speak scornfully of mis- returning another evening, became It. sions are simply men behind their age." convert, and has since consecrated him- Then the grand opportunities for world- self and his life to the work of the wide missionary work are emphasized, Army. He prcposes to carryon Salvaand these remarkable words are added: tion Army work in Siberia, and has ., The heathen oracles are dumb, their gone to London to consult with Gentemples are decaying, their philosophies eral Booth with respect to his plans. are undermined, their creeds are honey- He is tall and stately, forty-five years com bed with distrust under the advance old, with refined features and expresof Western civilization, and the one sive eyes. He says, "I have given up supreme question is Whether their place my life to God and the Salvation Army. is to be filled by the adoption of an ag- I am so thankful that I have at last nostic morality or by the acceptance of found a use for myself and my income." Robert Louis Stevenson, writing from On the other hand, the editor has a the South Seas, says that he was preju- letter from a correspondent who in· diced against missions, but that his quires whether the REVIEW is only a prejudices have been annihilated. Pre8byterian organ! And he says that " Those who deblatterate against mis- a Wesleyan friend of his complains sions have only one thing to do, to come that "there is nothing in the REVIEW and see them on the spot." No fair- about the Methodists and their work."
minded man can see for himself the To show how groundless this com- work of the missionaries in foreign plaint is and how ignorantly it is made, lands and not come to the same conclu- we call attention to a letter of our val· sion. uable Methodi8t associate editor, Rev.
J. T. Gracey, D.D., to whom the com- Rev. Dr. F. F. Ellinwood, in a letter plaint was submitted. His reply may to the New York Wo1'ld, nailed to the at least serve to show what a Methodist doorpost the lies of a certain Dr. Ruel thinks of the undenominational charac- B. Karib, concerning the cost and char- ter of the REVIEW. He says: acter of Presbyterian missions in Per- " I have heard no intimation till now sia. He triumphantly exposes these as of any lack in the pan·denominational flagrant falsehoods, and reveals the character of the REVIEW. Methodists whole animus of their author, remind- certainly have no right to complain, ing us of the famous retort: "The nor have I ever had a hint that they allegation8 are fal8e, and the alligator did. I do recall no article ever sent by know8 it." He also says that other in- a Methodist that has not appeared in dependent testimony shows him a fraud. full, while many other contributions A native Persian, licentiate of Pittsburg have not been used on account of length Presbytery, present at the ministerial or for other reasons. Rev. Dr. S. L. gathering where Dr. Karib was "investi- Baldwin and Rev. Dr. Sutherland, gated," testified that for gross immoral- both secretaries of Methodist boards, ity he was driven out of Persia.- And furnished articles last year. Bishop so another assault on missions is traced Thoburn, of India, was a contributor; to an infernal source. so was Dr. C. W. Drees, Superintendent of Methodist Missions in South America. Mr. W. ~ Sherman, of Washington, Dr. O. W. Oushing reviewed Dr. But- Ind., sends to the 'Volunteer fund the ler's book on Mexico, both author and generous sum of $26.10, and accompa- reviewer being Methodists. Rev. O. P. nies it with a letter, in which he says, Hurd and Rev. H. C. Stuntz, both of .. My heart has been greatly gladdened India, are Methodists. My own brother, by the perusal of the January number a Methodist preacher, Consul at Fooof the REVIEW. Your bold and cour_ chow, China, and Mrs. Gracey furnished ageous words against the popular in- articles. The index of authors in the last iquities of these perilous times and in two volumes shows about one eighth behalf of the coming kingdom are es· Methodists. The April number, 1892, pecially exhilarating. I am exceed- International Department, was wholly ingly eager to have this thoroughly by Methodists and about Methodist misevangelical journal in thehands of many sions. Mr. HeU Ohatelain, one of our of the Lord's poor saints. Accordingly most learned contributors, was for a time I send you a draft on New York for connected with Bishop Taylor's West the volunteer fund." Our brother has African work, and Miss L. M. Latimer, our thanks for the donation, but even with Methodist work in Mexico. Rev. more for his helpful words of encour· James Mudge, D.D., served the same agement. This REVIEW aims to be denomination in India for ten years. absolutely faithful to the truth and the Hev. David S. Spencer, of Japan, Rev. kingdom of our Lord. J. E. Robinson, of India, both preRid. ing elders, have contributed to the last two volumes, 8S has Dr. Masters, of San Francisco, and Mr. Meakin, of the famed Budgett Methodist family of Wesleyans in England. Rev. John R. Hykes, Methodist missionary in Central China, now Bible Society's agent at Shanghai, furnished a ten-page article. I have not in this enumeration gone outside of the past two volumes. nor bought a large tract of land of the SuI· exhausted even these, nor referred to tan, near the Jordan, and intends to my own contributions and editorials. found there a large Jewish colony. Life and property in that region have Methodist missions have been kept as been more secure for the last fifteen years owing to the military station eswell to the front as Methodist authors tablished there by the government, elected in their contributions. If these which has also built a bridge over the Jordan to facilitate communication behave not been made strongly denomi·. tween Jerusalem and the valleys beyond the river, Whence the Holy City obtains national, it is doubtless because of t.he most of its cereals.
undenominational character of the mag- A curious relic of British mission azine. But this holds of other authors work exists in Russia, near Patigorsk, as well. Baptists (North, South, Cana- and within sight of the range of the Caucasus – viz., the little colony of dian), Reformed (Dutch), American Karras, an old mission station of the Free Church cf Scotland. At present Board, and other denominations are it is chiefly inhabited by Germans, and freely represented in our pages, not ex- the church services are held in that lanceptionally, but continually. And the guage. There are, however, still left a few children of the mission converts smaller societies have not been neg- who can speak English. Among the lected, nor have "independent" mis- community are persons of Circassian and Tartar blood, whose fathers were sionaries or societies, such as the China the fruit of the old mission. This col- Inland. In whatever else the REVIEW ony is independent of all ecclesiastical superiors, and is ruled in aocordance has succeeded or failed, it certainly has with the ordinances of the Free Church maintained its claim to be ecumenical of Scotland. The mission was origiin its character ; and it has reason to be nally commenced in the reign of Alexgrateful that not only so many denom- ander I., and suppressed in that of his inations have furnished its contributors, successor Nicholas. but also that theso repres~nt so many missionary sooieties in all parts of Amedoa, and several in Europe, while every section of the missionary world has taken part in the authorshIp of its pages. I am not writing a prospectus, but reviewing un fait accompli.
"Meeting, as I do, annually a hundred missionaries a year for a week at the Jnternattonal Missionary Union, f;:om all parts of the world and of all sooieties, and in constant correspondenco with missionaries of all shades of opinion to the ends of the earth, I think I have never heard from anyone of them a tint or suggestion that the REVIEW was not broadly charitable and fair. Whatever critioisms come do not touch the question of denominationalism."
For those who oare for a mathemati- The girls' seminary at Wellington, oal estimate, the following may be in- Capo Colony, has a faculty of twenty teresting : instructors, and numbers on its alumnre more than a thousand descendants of The late Rev. R. Steel, D.D., of Syd- English, Dutch, and French settlers. ney, New South Wales, estimates that, This school was founded some twenty in one hundred years, at a cost of $10,- years ago, is entirely self-supporting, 000,000, some threo hundred and fifty and its pupils have competed successislands have been evangelized, with fully at Cape Town in the university five. hundred thousand now in the and government examinations. Miss churches. This would be at the rate Abby Ferguson is the principal, and it of five thousand convertR a year, and at may be questioned whether a.ny one an expenditure of only $20 for eaoh agency is doing more for Africa's evansoul redeemed. gelization and enlightenment. The graduates of the school are scattered all A report is abroad that Baron Ed- ·over Africa south of the Soudan, as mond de Rothschild, whose presence at wives of missionaries, ministers, or Constantinople has been of material ad- merchants, or themselves teachers of vantage to his colonies in Palestine, has schools. We have always felt the warmest in- ly waited for. This story of faith, prayterest in the great work of the Euphrates er, heroic devotion, suff&ing almost to College at Harpoot, in Turkey in Asia, martyrdom with abounding joy in God, which has exercised so beneficent an in- is just what is needed for this degenerfiuence. ate day. It sounds like the Acts of the Apostles. We propose to make extracts Its field is all of Northeastern Turkey and further references to its contents in Asia to the Persian border and the from time to time. Meanwhile, let southeastern part of Russia; the terri- every man and woman who would. tory in which it is the only higher in- know more of a life hid in God and reetitution of learning, covering 200,000 vealing His power read these pages. square miles, with a population of T.b.ey will be read with tears of joy. 5,000,000, about one fourth of whom are Armenians. Of books which deserve mention, we call especial attention to Murdered Mill· The college seeks to give a compre- iIJ'TUJ, a very condensed and comprehenhensive, practical, Christian education sive plea for medical missions by George to its pupils, and to introduce the Gospel D. Dowkontt, M.D., of New York into the old Armenian Church, which is City. Within sev~nty-six pages here arousing to the importance of an edu- are compressed facts which might be cated and morally upright clergy. spread over volumes. Dr. Cuyler's keen pen furnishes a striking introduc- Rev. J. L. Barton, for eight years a tion. Dr. Dowkontt wastes no time in missionary in Turkey, now succeeds apologies, but enters in. media8 res. He Rev. C. H. Wheeler, D.O., as president. shows that the atrocious and absurd and cruel system of native medical treat- The McAll mission work in America ment in Africa, China, India, Siam, etc., has suffered a very great loss in the is virtual murder, and demands on death of Mrs. Frances Lea Chamber- every humane and Christian principle lain, who for so many years has been our prompt interposition. He shows intimately connected with this work. also the connection of medical work She died on February 16th, in Califor- with missions, and how it is the key to nia, where she had gone with her hus- many a difficult position. E'DfII'1Ibody band in pursuit of health. She was a ought to have this little book, published woman of remarkable character. Her at the office of the Medical Miasionary executive ability, wedded to a feminine Rewrd. 118 East Forty-fifth Street, sympathy and a fervent spirituality, New York. made a rare combination of gifts and graces. Her holy enthusiasm and con- The managing editor acknowledges secration had been the motive power of $5 "from a friend" in Chelsea, Mass.• the machinery of the auxiliary of which which will be devoted as desired, to the she was president; and when she was help of one who is seeking to enter the withdrawn, it seemed as though no one mission field. could take her place. Her husband has furnished a beautiful tribute to her, The Sabbath-school army in the in the shape of an account of her last United States claim 12,000,000 children, hours, and which appears in the McAll and half that number in Great Britain, Rewrd. She died beautifully, as she studying the same Bible lessons. In had lived. India, China, and even in Egypt, are fonnd 2,000,000 more who read the same Part 1. of The Story of the Ohina In- Bible verses weekly. land Missiun, by Miss M. Geraldine Guinness, and an introduction by J. Hudson Taylor, hJ!.S been issued by ~Iorgan & Scott,London ; and Part II. will be eager-
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLJGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
EDITED BY BEV. D. L. LEONAlID.
Extraots and Translations from Foreign and teachings, but a confession of Periodioals. Christ the Saviour. The man confesses concerning himself that he is a sinner, BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, who feels hill need of a Redeemer; con- MASS. cerning Jesus Christ, that He is the only, all·sufficient Saviour, to whom one NETHERLAl!oo1)S INDIA. commits himself and trusts Him, whom one will serve, Him alone, Him en- -We in Christendom have become so tirely, through a life according to His very wise in the laws of nature that we Gospel. Missions do not aim, may not do not seem to have very much more aim, at the propagation of any particuse for the God of nature. Our God is ular church doctrines, but at the imvery apt to be either a helpless essence plantation in the convert's hearts.of an residing in things, with no power of act- active Christianity brought by Jesus ing with personal energy upon them, or and kept alive by Him."-Maededeelinelse a deistic mechanic who has framed Den '/Jan weDe bret NederlandBche Zendelthe world and stares at it from outside, inggenoot8chap (Reports from the Netherletting it go as it may after being once lands Missionary Association). wound up. But outside of our overdone wisdom, the Father is still wont to " The Bible at the Batavia Exhibition. reward the simplicity of faith with the -After a postponement of twelve days, fruits of faith. Herr CHRISTIANSEN, to prove the truth of the peculiar Indoof Sumatra, writes: "The Lord does Dutch proverb, 'Hast u lang eaam' not leave Himself without witness [Make haste slowly], the Exhibition was among our Christians, of which I could opened on August 12th at 11 A.M. by adduce various examples. One Sunday His Excellency, the Governor·General of I had preached upon James 5 : 14–16. Netherlands India, amid the pomp and Without any solicitation of mille the vanities that generally attend such occa· elders, the same evening, proceeded to sions. the home of a Christian child that was sick unto death. in order to bring the "The day was observed as a Bank message heard into practical applica- Holiday in the majority of the business tion. They moved the parents to con- houses, and everyone took the opporfess their sins, and prayed with them tunity to make the day as jovial as posfor the recovery of their child; and be- sible; but neither on this day nor since hold, in half an hour it was well. Nor have I noticed one man the worse for is this the only case among us, though drink, nor in any way behaving himit is the most striking. in which the self unseemly. The native industry prayer of faith has saved the sick after sheds, well filled with interesting modhope had expired."- Berichte der Rhein· els of their many ingenious inventions iachen MiaBionB- GeaelZschaft. -houses, tools, weapons, cooking uten- sils, clothing, etc.-form an attractive -" Missions form churches formed and interesting resort for foreigners; out of hc;iathens and Mohammedans. and the contents of the foreign indus- Whoever abaudons the heathen worship try sheds are inspected with wonder by received from his fathers, or turns away the natives and Chinese. from the false prophet, is received on confession into the Christian fellowship. " An interesting collection of the Holy Where missions are well understood and Scriptures, in more than forty languages intelligently guided this is no confession and dialects, testifies to the extensive of articles of belief or of distinctive ideas and most important work of the Brit-
EXTltACTS AND T:RANSLATIONB
ish and Foreign Bible Society in emanci- endeavors to argue away the truth of pating the souls of the enthralled mill- the divinity of Christ; the Bengalee ions 1ri these regions. It is the most approaches with bows and flattering important exhibit in the foreign indus· unction offered in broken Englis!J., in- try shed for the welfare of India's mill· spects the Bengalee Gospels, and quietly ions, and yet the most despised and sar- laying them aside, passes on with the castically criticised. promise to return another day; the Baba·Chinaman inspects, questions, " Situated in the midst of a sea of in- beats down the price, reads a chapter toxicating drinks, and facing the central or two, and out of 'kasihan' (compas- open space used as a drinking saloon, the sion) for the seller purchases one or two Bible stand is ' a light in a dark place.' copies; the Chinese immigrant (sin- On one side, facing the drink exhibits, keh) smiles and chatters, and if you are two cases filled with open Bibles in happen to mention the name of' Yaso' different languages, and in the centre a (Jesus), tells you that you speak Chinese missionary map of Netherlands India, very well, waves his hands in the air, with the stations or depots of the Brit· and again smiling, moves on clumsily ; ish and Foreign Bible Society marked the Frenchman. with his pseudo polite- with arrows; above this map, in letters ness, defends himself behind the pale six inches long, is the text, < The Word of Rome ; the psalm-loving Dutchman of the Lord endureth forever,' and un- seeks a psalm-book; the member of the derneath the map the text, ' Wine is a new school (Moderns) seeks the Old mocker, strong drink is raging; and Testament only; the unbeliever dis- , whosoever is deceived thereby is not parages the utility of Bible dissemina- wise,' both texts being in the Dutch tion, and obnoxiously cursing and jeer- language. Fronting the drinking saloon ing, orders a 'bittertje' (gin and bit- are two large book-cases, also filled up ters) from one of the waiters in the with open Bibles; and between these is drinking saloon opposite. a board twelve feet by fi ve covered with the Dutch national colors-orange, red, "Many other nationalities visit. the white and blue-and with the name of Bible stand, and it would tire the reader the society printed consecutively upon to relate all that happens from day to these colors in Dutch, English, German, day. About 30,000 tracts and booklets and French. In front of these are three have been given away at the Bible stand; tables cove:red with open Bibles in many and it is sad that no efforts are made languages, from among which ten to by the Dutch Chris~ians to reach the thirty Bibles, New Testaments, and thousands who attend this show. I can- portions are sold to different individuals not find a single person who is willing every day except Sundays. to help me distribute tracts; the gen- eral opinion that dominates the Chris- "It is very interesting to notice the tiana here is that it injures the European different characters that pass by, and pre8tige. This semi-Christianity has a to hear their peculiar remarks. The chilling influence upon the lives of the calm, grave, business-like Armenian unconverted thousands of Batavia, and comes and asks for the New Ararat consequently empty chairs are conspic- Armenian Bible, and handles every uous in the churches, and the Sunday portion of the Holy Scriptures with is the great feast day of the week and is great reverence; the superstitious, fanat- desecrated by 'corso-carnivals,' horse- ical Mohammedan, with his troubled races, horse and other cattle shows at the features, spits upon the ground, and Exhibition. etc. I do not wish to phari- will not touch the Book of the' Kafirs ; , saically judge our Dutch friends, but I the indifferent, joke-loving, superficial wish the readers of these lines to pray native makes the unanswerable defence, for' Java's million8.' "-A. W. HURST when asked to buy, 'Tidak ada duwit ' Bo:a.ur, in the J£alagBia J£688a(J6 (M. E.). (I have no money) ; the sarcastic Arab
&ENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
-What cowards European officials adulterated Christianity; nay, that in in the East Indies, British or Dutch, are the papacy we cannot fail to recognize apt to be when it comes to honoring a sort of anti-Christianity; that the their Christian profession in the face of modern Catholic missionary work espagans or Moslems I They are thus pecially presents itself as an antagonist earning the contempt of their subjects, of the pure Gospel, and that it is a duty who cannot understand how a man can to assume toward it not merely a defenprofess a religion and yet be ashamed sive but an aggressive attitude. The of it. The MaanillJericltt of the Nether- discussion of this question was of such lands Missionary Society, giving ac- a temper as might well have afforded count of Brother Wijngaarden's baptism the Catholics an example. 'l'here was of his first converts at Deli, remarks: nothing apparent like blind hostility or " To' Brother Wijngaarden's regret, the bitter hate, but a zealous endeavor to Controller, who was his guest. left Deli distinguish even in aduZterated Christhe day before the baptism, in order not tianity the Christianity. and in proselyto set an offieial stamp on the proceed- tizing energy the element of missionary ings by his presence. And yet by his zeal. At the same time it was clearly withdrawal he led the Battaks to sup- recognized that a friendship with Rome pose that something was going on which is impossible; that every compliance is he would Hever not see)' (1 use the interpreted as weakness, and every con- Dutch word here identical with our cession is sure to be abused. Accordfamiliar English word.) "Repeatedly ingly this was the conclusion: (1) public officers, higher and lower, have There must be no refusal to Catholic very cheerfully consented to be pres- missionaries. even when making aggresent at Mohammedan ceremonies! How sions upon a Protestant fiold, of the love much more rapid would be the advance due to all lllen; (2) but all intimacy of Christianity in our East Indies if- with them should be avoided; (3) not a while doing all honor to the religious foot of land should voluntarily be reneutrality which the State must of linquished to tbem; (4) but all permitcourse observe-the European officials ted means should be used to check their were at liberty to exhibit their personal advance; (5) and where possible the sympathy and were not ashamed of ground should be preoccupied. On the their Christian profession." whole, it is clear that here so much, not to say everything depends upon the THm CONTINENT. circumstances and the persons, that the truly evangelical missionary will ;not -At the Bremen Missionary Confer- bind himself to certain inflexible rules, ence, among other points, it was also but in each particular case will solicit discussed What attitude is to be as- wisdom and guidance from above_ sumed toward Roman Catholic mission- Would God we might do all this so aries. The excellent Cal~oer MonatBhliit- completely as to give every singleter remarks: .. There, also, there are minded, even if not every zealous two opposing views. The one begins Roman Catholic the impression that with this position: The Catholics, too, fundamentally there is a more genuinely are Christians; their baptism is recog- Christian and apostolic course of connized by us also; we cannot but rejoice duct pursued in the evangelical misover every heathen who becomes a Cath- sions than in his own !" olic; there are among the Catholic missionaries many sincere and self-sacrific- -The &enska Mi8siomfih'bundet (Swcing men. The conclusion is that we dish Missionary Union), the organ of should assume toward them as friendly the Waldenstrilmian free churches, has and respectful an attitude as possible. 43 missionary agents, almost double The other view emphasizes the position that of 1888. The income for 1892 was that the Roman Church presents an $82,000. The three stations on the
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Congo have increased to five, with sev· are carried on. Let the Congo sweep eral out-stations. "The stations are away one life after the other, the ranks equipped with a number of stone build- are ever filled afresh-nay, more workers ings; transportation is arranged for; offer than can be used. Multiplied as the training of the natives, younger and are the exertions and privations involved elder, to work has been taken in hand; in the calling, they do not deter; the schools are provided for both sexes, number of the missionaries keeps growchildren and adults. There are 193 ing. Although the missionaries of the school- children, 78 church – members. China Mission, the Holiness League, About a dozen native helpers are labor- and the Alliance Mission are sent out ing; an evangeliot training school has without any assurance of a fixed supbeen established in Diadia. which also port, receiving only so much as suffices gi ves them more general instruction of for the simplest necessities. yet one misa simple character. God's word is zeal· sionary–Carlson, of the Holiness League ously proclaimed at the principal and -whose heart has been pierced by the out·stations as well as in the neighbor. wretched lot of outcast Chinese, out of ing Villages. Translations are proceed. this saves enough to maintain an asying, and a native paper is issued."- lum, into which he transports them on Pastor BERLIN, in Allgemeim Mi88ions· his back. There is here a wealth of con- Zeitachrift· fidence and joy of faith which may well put many to shame. Obedience to the -The Union has also missions in Lord's will even to death, heedfulness Algiers, the Ural :Mountains, Caucasia. of the Lord's intimations and directions China, and is about establishing one in in great things and small. burning zeal Cashgar. It has abandoned its Persian for the salvation of souls, life in and mission, and has transferred that in from the Word of God, unwearied con- Alaska to American Swedes. The two tinuance in prayer and intercession- Swedish missionaries murdered in China here is the strength of these men and were of this society. women. They direct their eyes even to the ends of the earth; no work is too -The Swedish :Mission in China, great for them; no difficulty holds founded in 1887 by Eric Folke, has ad- them back; no danger intimidates vanced rapidly, favored by the peculiar them. Though a good dem of enthuinterest felt in Sweden for China. Its siastic extravagance may be interminincome in 1888 was $1392 ; in 1892 it gled with all this, there is yet abunwas $5832. It works in close union dance of holy fire glowing here ; and, with the China Inland Mission. therefore, we may well confide that these labors and sacrifices will also bring gain -Herr Berlin, after subjecting the for the kingdom of God. In missions, various Free Church missionary move- too, it is seen that God can overrule t.he ments of Sweden, with their slight errors of men, and turn into bl8ssing measure of organization at home and for the world what has been done for abroad and their comparative neglect of he ho nor of His name." preparation, to a temperate but searching criticism, nevertheless adds: "One English Notes. thing must not be overlooked in these forms of missionary activity. :Much as BY JAMES DOUGLAS, BRIXTON, LONDON. there is in them at variance with the plan of missions as hitherto developed (Jentral London Mission.-It is with among Germanic Christians [a term in- special pleasure we record the advance cluding Germans, Dutch, Scandinavi- of this enterprising mission which has ans, and Anglo-Saxons], yet it must be as its object the occupation of the Cenacknowledged with what personal de- tral Soudan. Three of the missionaries votion and enthusiasm, with what zeal are left at Gabes, where a new training and heroism of self-sacrifice these labors
MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
):lome has been opened, while six others united because equally baptized in the occupy the training home in Tripoli. .. One Spirit." What led to more than Mr. Hermann Harris, the Moses of the one fervent expression of thanksgiving expedition, left Gabes on January 17th was the cheering fact that from ¥ay for Kano, taking with him Mr. Dick. 1st, 1894, the residence of British sub- This journey is immense, and involves jects will be permitted at Yatung, in the passage across the Desert of Sahara Thibet, in accordance with the commer- to the populous negro kingdom of cial treaty newly passed between the Sokoto. Another detachment of this British-Indian Government and that mission contemplates reaching the cen· country, so long closed against the tre of the Soudan by way of the Niger. foreigner. The public meeting on the Mr. Holt has made the proposition, and evening of the same day was of a most two young men have offered to accom- enthusiastic description. Exeter Hall, pany him. The cost of carrying this if not packed, was almost filled. Miss scheme into effect is estimated at £400. Taylor gave a lengthened account of The intention is to start by way of the Lord's dealings with her, and ex- Lagos, and to pass through Ibadan, plained how the land of Thibet had been Oyo, !lorin, and Rabba, and thus to laid as a heavy burden from the Lord reach Sokoto, the largest of the negro on her heart. The meeting, While kingdoms of the Central Soudan. This deeply touched by the narrative of her mission is closely connected with the adventures in Thibet and the degree to Pentecostal League under the leadership which the element of personal danger of Mr. Reader Harris, the headquarters entered into it, were even more affected of which are Speke Hall, Battersea, by the honoring testimony which she London, S. W. I may add that the bore to the Lord's presence with her Pentecostal League is interdenomina- through all. No danger, or suffering, tional in its spirit and aim. or privation could even for the moment damp her joy or break her peace. In Persia.-It is reported that the work- Thibet, amid the absence of every outers among the Moslems in Persia are ward cOllfort, she carried heaven in her being much cheered; that the young own heart. Christians are showing increased zeal for the spread 0 f the Gospel, while the num- Five of the band-two from Scotland, ber of Mohammedan inquirers in regu- two from England, and one from Norlar attendance at the Persian services on way-gave brief, earnest testimonies, Sundays is sufficient to afford the mis- after which the whole band united in sionaries great thankfulness. singing" Anywhere with Jesus." Be- fore the meeting closed Pontso gave an The Thibetan Pioneer MilJJlion.-This address in the Thibetan tongue, which missionary bark may be said to have Miss Taylor interpreted. been formally launched on Friday, February 16th, 1894. In the afternoon North Africa Mi88ion.-This mission a gathering for prayer was held in the has wonderfully developed and sprcad smaller room of Exeter Hall, which was within a brief space, and much precious largely attended. All the members of seed has been sown for which only a the Thibetan band were there, along small return is apparent as yet. " Bewith Miss Annie R. Taylor and her fore the first missionaries landed in Al- Thibetan attendant Pontso. James giers in 1881 there were no Protestant Mathieson, Esq., presided, and Dr. missionaries or Bible agents to the Mo- Maxwell, a missionary veteran, said a hammedans or heathen from Egypt to few words of stimulating address. The the Atlantic, and from the Meditermeeting, however, mainly consisted of ranean to the Senegal, Lower Niger, a continuous stream of intercession, in and Congo, a district more than one .which brethren and sisters equally hundred times larger than England. Now there are nearly eighty missionaries of the North Africa Mission, besides suffice, though he had but a moderate several who have been initiated by it, force at his disposal, to check the horand who are working independently; rible operations of those slave raiders and several more sent out by societies who had desolated the heart of Central stirred up by hearing of North Africa's Africa during past ages. In the second needs and God's blessing on this mis- place, the possession of Uganda meant sion. Altogether, counting the agents the opening out of the Eastern Soudan. and colporteurs of the Bible Society, Bishop Tucker contested the idea that there are over 100 laborers for God, the Soudan could be penetrated from where, in 1881, there was not one among Suakim from the north-the true door the Moslems. ·The Gospel of John has was, in his view, through Uganda, and been translated into Kabyle, and the it was by this passage that the eighty Gospel of :M:atthew into Riffian by the millions of people living there would Bible Society ; other portions are trans- be reached, civilized, and brought unlated into Kabyle and are being print- der the influence of Christianity. ed. " Large tracts of country, however, in North Africa are still unevangelized_ Bulgaria. -While Bulgaria cannot be The vast Salwra, which has a few scat- described as an unoccupied field, its tered millions of Berber and Arab in- spiritual condition, according to Basil habitants, has no missionary. Egypt Keuseff, a native, now in missionary itself has 540 towns, with a population training in England, is deplorable. He of f~om 2000 to 40,000 each, without describes the Greek Church in Bulgaria any regular Gospel agency. "All that as "dead and indifferent ;" the clergy has been done is as nothing to what re- as "ignorant and immoral;" the inmains to be done before the peoples of telligent class as " sceptics and infidels." North Africa are evangelized." Mr. Keuseff recognizes the work done by American brethren in spreading Mr. Edward H. Glenny, the honor- Gospel truth among the people, and the able secretary of the above mission, has service rendered by the British and recently returned from a tour in Moroc- Foreign Bible Society's translation of co. He says, "The impression formed the Scriptures and by that society's colon my mind by visiting the cities and porteurs. But he feels that the great towns of El Koar, Fez, Mequinez, need demands an accession of help, and Larache, and Arzilla, and by travers- would be glad to hear from anyone ing 300 or 400 miles of country in North who would be willing to join him in Morocco, was to deepen my feeling of evangelizing that land. "The language the utter hopelessness in which the fol- of Bulgaria is phonetic and easy to lowers of the false prophet are sunk; a learn. The climate is one of the healthihopelessness which enters into every de- est in Europe." Besides, there is ., ampartment of life-religious, political, ple scope for all kinds of evangelistic and social; and yet when we compare work." Mr. Keuseff's address is Cliff our experiences with a few years ago, College, Curbar, Sheffield, England. how thankful we ought to be that the country is as open to the Gospel as it Priestly defectionfrom Rome in France. now is I" -We are somewhat startled to learn that at the present time there are, in all Bi8hop Tucker on Uganda.-In the parts of France, priests who have lost course of a recent address on Uganda, all confidence in the papacy, and desire delivered in Durham, Bishop Tucker, to step out into Gospel light and liberin regretting the death of Sir Gerald ty. Professor L. J. Bertrand, who is Portal, spoke of some of the resultant now staying at 21 Upper Woburn Place, advantages of Great Britain's possession London, W. C., is the director of a of Uganda. First of all, it meant free- work the object of which is to extend dom for the slave. The presence of a to all French priests wishing to leave British representative in Uganda would Rome a helping hand. Mr. Bertrand will never ask the Emperor of all the says, " There is at the present time a Russias where it may set its foot." great movement among the priests of France; and I have lettcrs from all -The latest and best estimates put parts, and even from Rome. jesuitically down the population of the world as defying me to gi ve names and addresses. 1,479,700,000. Of this horde 826,000,000 All the same, well-known priests, first live in Asia, 357,000,000 in Europe, canons, abbots, proCessors, and semina- 164,000,000 in Africa, and 122,000.000 in rists write to me, ,. Go on with your North and South America. In the face work. You have chosen the best way of these large figures, the population of for a religious reform, which we all the United States does not seem so imwant iu France. Put fire to the very mense after all. nest. As soon as you succeed you will seA that if we love and adore Christ we -Of the 1,480,000,000 of the earth's hate the Gltu1·c!t. But what can we do? inhabitants, the Emperor of China holds We know nothing of the world; we sway over 400,000,000; the Queen of are fit for nothing in the world; and England rules or protects 380,000,000 ; the Concordat says explicitly that a the Czar of Russia is dictator to 115,- Reman priest cannot be a Protestant 000.000; Francc, in the republic, dc· pastor without his B.A. degree and pendencies and sphercs of influence, four years at the Protestant theological has 70,000,000 subjects; the Emperor seminary! • .. Thousands of French of Germany, 55,000,000; the Sultan Roman priests would leave their Church of Turkey, 40,000,000; the Emperor to-morrow if they were not to be obliged of Japan, 40,000,000; and the King of to beg for their daily bread." With Spain, 27,000,000-two' thirds of the respect to Mr. Bertrand's work, known population of the globe under the govas the (]J}uvre des Pr6t1'es Gonvertis, it ernment of 5 rulers. should be noted that it does not exist for the benefit of unfrocked or disgraced -A Kentuckian who visited Korea priests, but for the guidance and help presented to the king a bottle of whiskey of such as, through compulsion of en- as a sample of the chief product of his lightened conviction, wish to leave the native State. Christian people in Ken- Church of Rome. tucky have since sent to the king a beautiful copy of the Bible to show that THE KINGDOM. the State has something better.
-" The universe is not quite com- -A miserly man, who insi~ted that plete without my work well done." he was a proportionate giver, explained later that he gave in proportion to the – The times are hard, but heathenism amount of religion he possessed. is harder. -General Sickels, speaking of the -Baptist tobacco costs more than disposition to denounce rich men as if Baptist missions.-The Kingdom. they were public enemies, says, "No- where in all the world have men of -Once upon a time, when at Con_ wealth done so much for religion, edustantinople, the Russian Minister Bou- cation, philanthropy, and patriotism tineff remarked with majesty, "Imight as in the United States." as well tell you now, Mr. Schauffier, that the Emperor, my master, will never -Upon the fly-leaf of a Bible was allow Protestantism to set its foot in written the following words: "Lay Turkey," he received this fully ade- any burden upon me, only sustain me ; quate reply, "Your excellency, the send me anywhere, only go with me ; kingdom of Christ, who is ~y Master, sever any tie but that one which binds me to Thy service and to Thy heart. "
– William Dulles, Jr., treasurer of the Presbyterian Board, printed this apt sentiment from Dr. Livingstone on manner, and general appearance were a financial statement recently sent out: true gentlemen." •• I will place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in rela- -The native account of the last martion to the kingdom of Christ. If any- tyrdom in Madagascar concludes with thing I have will advance the interests these touching words: "Then they of that kingdom, it shall be gi ven, or prayed, '0 Lord, receive our spirits, kept, as by giving or keeping it I shall for Thy love to us hath caused this to most promote the glory of Him to whom come to us ; and lay not this sin to their lowe all my hopes, both for time and charge.' Thus prayed they as long as eternity. May grace be given me to they had any life, and then they diedadhere to this." softly, gently; and there was at the time a rainbow in the heavens, which -In 1881 Dr. Southon, of Scotland, seemed to touch the place of the burnwas sent to Ujiji, Africa. On his way ing." there he passed through Urambo. The king sent for him, and showing a large -Dr, Hamlin, the veteran miBBionary, tumor on his arm, which, by pressing said recently, .. You take a poor, mil>- upon an important nerve, had caused erable beggar, as I have known some him much pain, asked, " Can you do instances-a beggar who has become anything for this?" The doctor re- converted, and apply to him that iron plied, "Yes, I can take it all away." system of tithing which the OrientsI "But will it not hurt a great deal 1" wol'ld loves and always has loved, perasked the king. "No," replied the haps always will love, and make that doctor, "I shall put you to sleep, and beggar, as the one condition of enjoywhen you awake all will be done." ing the privileges of the Gospel, give " Do it at once, then; I have not slept one tenth of what he begs, and as much for a long while." Afterward the king more as you can make him give, and in said, .. You must not leave us ever. a short time he will not be a beggar; Here is land, here is wood, here is every- in a short time he will support himself, thing, only do not leave us." and be in circumstances comparatively comfortable." -Rev. A. J. Wookey, of the London Missionary Society, in making the jour- -The Egyptian washes before he ney to his field at Lake Ngami, Central prays-he washes his feet, even; and Africa, tells how at one camping place every holy place has a provision of " a poor little old fellow turned up at water for the purpose. He washes his the wagon from the forest, from whence hands and his teeth before and after he he had heard the whips. One of his eats. So particular is he in this matter, ears had been cut off close to his head that when he cannot get waler for his by the Batauana. I gave him a bit of ablutions the sand of the desert is held meat of a koodoo which had been killed to be sanctified for the pmpose. The yesterday. He did not roast it as usual ordinary Egyptian child is not allowed at the fire, and when asked why, he said to pray or eat without first dabbling its that his wife was in the forest, and he hands in water. Yet it is allowed to would eat it with her in the evening. live for months without having its head His little woman, he called her. It and face, or its body generally, once did one good to find such thoughtful well washed with soap and water. love even in a poor waif of humanity such as he. " WOMAN'S WORK.
-" The intelligence and refinement of -Helping Hand gives this as an exthe Fijians surprised me," said a recent ample of the inhumanity of heathenism: traveller. "I saw men who in spirit, "Better raise her or not? What do you think?" The questioner was a Chinese farmer: we had been preach- own suffering and healing they got in· ing in his village, and he followed us struction, intnition, insight, inspira- away from the crowd to make this 1m- tion. It made them ministers. "
portant query. Farmers at home are -At least in some respects Africa sometimes in doubt in regard to animals would appear to be the paradise for a trifle deformed whether or not to raise women missionaries. For" nothing is them; but did you ever know a farmer feared from them, and they are allowed in America to go about asking advice to go in and out at their pleasure. Their on a point like this? "I have a female presence more than once has spared child and she has six toes on a foot; valuable lives to the Congo work. The many of the neighbors tell me I better missionaries in Africa count the work not raise her; her feet can never be of one woman worth that of twelve made to ·look well. What do you men, since they can go anywhere, even say?" The" neighbors" were many among the fiercest tribes. Their moof them Buddhists, who were earning tives are never questioned, and they are merit by vegetarianism, thus not caus· listened to with the greatest respect." ing the death of any animal; but their merciful creed had not included girl -Woman has a large sphere In China babies in the list of animals to be as well, for" It may be truthfully said, spared. I noticed a simIlar contrast a in general terms, that the salvation of few days ago. The body of an infant the women in all Oriental countries de·· floated by the boat, and some of the pends on the women of Christian lands. men thought it a huge joke, poked it This arises from the peculiar ideas of with a bamboo pole, and indulged in propriety and modesty prevalent, which heart-sickening merriment. forbid women holding any social inter- course with men who are not members -Mrs. Ballington Booth makes this of their own immediate families. Our declaration concerning the" slum bri- people, accustomed to free American gade" of the Salvation Army: ., These usages, do not realize how strict these girls do not go down among the poor ideas are. On one occasion Dr. Woods, for a few weeks or simply to study of Tsing Kiangpu, was called in a case them. They go for life. They ostra- of extreme need to see a woman with cize themselves from society. They disease of the feet. The first visit he scrub floors, they mind the children, paid, in order that he might make an they wash the dead, they go where the intelligent diagnosis, he was allowed police dare not go except in squads. to see his patient, feel her pulse, and The power of a great supernatural love, ask questions in the presence of the which God has planted in their hearts, family; but on his second visit what sustains them." was his surprise and amusement to see -" With Him the twelve and certain a foot thrust through a doorway, with women which had been healed of evil a curtain hanging down in front."
spirits and infirmities, . • • which min- -Mrs. Elizabeth W. Andrew and Dr.
istered to Him of their substance." Kate Bushnell have again sailed for "Healed to minister I These women India, Burmsh, China, and Japan, being had known they were sick, and came sent out by the Women's Christian with their record of suffering to Him. Temperance Union "to form local They knew they were sinners, and that unions, to strengthen and develop those no sanitary report on the state of their already existing, to set forth the plans hearts could fully describe the deep and purposes of the work by schools of and long-seated evil. They went to methods wherever opportunity offers, Him and were healed of evil spirits and and to preach the unsearchable riches infirmities. A wide area is covered by of Christ to the untaught and the un- that word • infirmities.' Through their saved." This statement appears in a recent drance, for the Moslems fail to dis- paper by Mrs. Kennedy, of the Presby- tinguish between our Christianity and terian Woman's Board, upon woman's theirs."
mission-" Go Tell": .. More than one -Twenty-five years ago the 'women half of the active laborers in the field of the Methodist Church organized for' are women; the exact figures being 214 world-wide work, raising only $4547 ministers; male lay missionaries, 42; during the first twelve months. Ten total, 256; women, 367. These last years later the income had climbed to are found on every field, dismayed by . $66,844; ten years later still to $225,- no danger, deterred by no hardship, 000, and last year to $277,304. The braving the rigors of northern winters totalfortwenty-five years is $3,139,757. or the baleful heat of torrid summers. So, why should not they celebrate, re- They have gone into homes and been joice, thank God, take courage, and welcomed where the feet of Christians push on with tenfold greater zeal? had never before been allowed to enter.
They are crowding to the front in rapidly increasing numbers. What, OUR YOUNG PEOPLE.
think you, is the significance of the fact that of the 56 new missionaries sent to -It would be difficult to find so much the field last year, 16 were wives of Christian common sense packed into so missionaries, and 21 single women? brief a space as is contained in an ad- Surely the' Go tell' of the risen Saviour dress upon ., Necessary Practical Trainis bearing rich fruit in this our day and ing," given at the Detroit Student Vol- unteers Convention by Rev. H. P. generation. " Beach, of the Springfield, Mass., School -The Ladies' Kaffrarian Society is for Christian Workers. Would that an independent ally of the Scottish Free every young man and woman propos- Church foreign mission enterprise in ing to enter the foreign field might read South Africa. It has made the girls andheed I and young women of Kaffraria its special care, and has now 170 receiving -One department of the Epworth Christian training in its school at Em- League has a beautiful name, that of gwali. The society has also provided . " Mercy and help." What it stands for an assistant for Mrs. Forsyth at Upper is set forth by one chapter which " dur- ing the last year made 258 calls upon Xolobe. the sick, aged, and needy. A sewing -Miss Ella O. Kyle, missionary in society was formed, and garments were Egypt, recently received $500 from a made for a family of motherless chil- wealthy lady friend whom she met in dren, and also clothing for a child wishthis country last year, and will use the ing to attend Sunday-school. Watchers money in the mission school, where it were furnished for the sIck. An old will greatly assist the work.-Xenia lady who had no means of support was Gazette. aided by having her house rent paid, -The English Church Society has in eatables carried' to her, and her chores Palestine alone, and not including mis- done. A. pound social, in connection sionaries' wives, 21 women engaged in with Christian Endeavor, was given, its work. All these" encounter special the proceeds for the benefit of the poor."
difficulties, owing to the watchfulness -Hon. Chauncey M. Depew thus and suspicion of the Turkish officials ; tersely defines the functions of two) and the deeply interesting letters which Christian associations: "The Young reach us from time to time are mani- Men's Christian Association is the re- festly safer in manuscript than in type. cruiting station of the churches. The The condition of the women in the Society of Christian Endeavor-doing Eastern churches is also a terrible hin- the work in the interior 'of the church -is the citadel of the Christian camp and for that of 3 orphans in a Chrilltian inside the lines." school in China.
-Flower committees are good al- ways; but during these hard times jIotl'r UNITED STATES. committees are even better_ -The gifts of Endeavor societies to -Captain R. H. Pratt ranks with the the American Board and the Woman's late General Armstrong among the Board during 1893 amounted to $13,535. foremost friends and benefactors of the American Indian, and his Carlisle -The society of the church at Ocon- school, with its more than 600 Indian to, Wis_, has agreed to give at least $100 boys and girls, gathered from 56 tribes, for missions during the present year_ is no mean rival of Hampton. The in- Miss Reinhardt went out from this society to Mosul, Turkey, a few months dustrial feature holds a prominent place ago_ in the course of training ; the discipline -The Presbyterian Young People's partakes of a military character, and Society of Grand Island, Neb_, has the boys are dressed in cadet uniform. pledged $25 for the support of Miss Besides, good homes are found for them Julia Hatch, who went from this church in the region, chiefly upon the farms, to Siam_ The Juniors have also pledged where both sexes can learn English and $10. be taught to work. Last year 376 boys and 245 girls were out, and requests -The Young Ladies'Mission Band came in for twice the number. of Portland, Me., celebrated its decennial February 14th. Its membership is -Say not the negro is lacking in over 300, making it the largest junior intelligence, whcn, at the recent conferauxiliary in connection with th'l Wom- ence at Tuskegee, this declaration was an's Board. The band raised last year adopted: ., We believe education, prop- $601. a gain of nearly $100 over any erty, and practical religion will eventprevious year. During its brief hIs- ually give us every right and privilege tory 3 members have entered the ser- enjoyed by other citizens, and therefore vice of the Woman's Board, 2 (Mary that our interests can best be served by Morrill and Anna Gould) as missionaries bending all our energies to securing to North China, and Alice Kyle as a them rather than by dwelling on the member of the staff of workers at the past or' by fault-finding and complainrooms in Boston. ing. We desire to make the Tuskegee Negro Conference a gauge of our prog- -At Birmingham, England, a num- ress from year to year in these things ber of factory girls (members of the in the Black. Belt." Girls' Letter Guild) recently gave .a tea to 250 poor children, many of whom -The Germans in New York City were shoeless and stockingless. number 583,000; in Chicago, 406,000; in Philadelphia, 188,000 ; in St. Louis, -The Belfast, Ireland, Young Wom- 167,000; in Milwaukee, 135,000; in en's Christian Association Institute re- Cincinnati, 120,000 ; and in Cleveland, cently held its annual meeting, and a 103,000_ The total number of foreignmissionary statement was made; the born Germans in the United States is present position of affairs being 4 mem- 9,250,000.
bers in the foreign field-in China, India -Does Rome really want the whole and Africa-4 engaged in home mission earth and all that is therein? It looks work, 5 in training, and 1 in treaty_ that way; and this is a specimen of Over £215 was raised last year by the her greed: Forty-five of the 61 alder- members (58 of whom hold self-denial men in the Chicago City Council are boxes) which was sent direct for the Roman Catholics, as are also 90 per cent support of missionaries and candidates, of the police force; 80 per cent of the fire department; 67 per cent of the Ing Society within the last forty-two teachers in the public schools, while 80 years has ~ded in 49 States and Terriper cent of the pupils are Protestants. tories 2445 churches, and the amount expended is $1,892,918. For 429 par- -In Mr. Moody's Bible Institute, sonages the amount is $151,563. Chicago, the students enrolled in 1893 were: Women, 195; men, 381; tran- -St. Bartholomew's Church, New sients, 85. Denominations represented: York City, of which Dr. D. H. Greer is Women, 10; men, 35. Thirty-one rector, started a mission that proved to States of the United States, Canada, be successful, and Mr. Cornelius Van- Turkey, India. Japan, Scotland, Ire- derbilt bought thrce lots for $75,000 at land. England, Germany, Sweden, 205-209 East Forty-second Street, on Switzerland, Denmark, Russia, Persia, which a building was erected by his Norway, Bohemia, West Indies, South mother, Mrs. William H. Vanderbilt, Africa, Hawaii, and New Zealand were at a cost of $225,000. Then Mr. Vanrepresented. 'fhe previous work of the derbilt presented a $10,000 pipe organ, attendants was: Pastorate, 24; evan- and the past year built on a lot directly gelistic, 13; licensed local preachers, east, that has been purchased and will exhorters, etc., 13; singers, 4; Young be added. In the basement are a res- Men's Christian Association secretaries, taurant, eight bath-tubs, andalaundry. 20 ; home and city missions, 11 ; foreign On the first floor a rescue mission hall missionary, 1 ; secular occupations, 111. holds over 1000 people under the direc- tion of Colonel H. H. Hadley. There -The New York Society for the Pre- is a medical clinic in connection with vention of Cruelty to Children cele- the parish house, a savings bank, boys' brated recently its anniversary. In his club, girls' club, carpenter shop in the annual report, President Gerry says: basement, cooking school, kindergarten, " Nineteen years have elapsed since the gymnasium, type-writing school, dressrescue of Mary Ellen from her cruel making school, and 3 Bible schools, stepmother caused the interference of 1 Bible club, and a summer garden on that great friend of humanity, Henry the roof of the building for amusement. Bergh, in behalf of an ill-treated little So here is a literal bee-hive containing girl. At his instance sprang up this about 5000 persons. institution. Not only was its influence felt in the Empire State, but east, south -The lIethodist Episcopal Church and west similar societies were formed, reports 221 male missionaries in the until to-day there is an unbroken chain foreign field, 205 assistant missionaries extending across this continent in every (of these 196 being wives of missiondirection, from ocean to ocean." Dur- aries), and 153 women sent and susing the years of its existence the society tained by the Woman's Board. The has investigated complaints involving distinct missions number 24, and 7 of the care and custody of 233,000 chil- them in Protestant Europe. The churchdren, over 27,000 convictions have been members are 69,887, and the probationers secured, and 40,660 children have been 49,400. Of these thousands India suprescued and relieved. plies 17,135 full members and 33,343 probationers; China, 6021 and 4684 ; -The Southern Baptist Convention South America. 1464 and 1158; and is embarrassed by an overabundance of Mexico, 1721 and 1364. Nearly 35,000 applicants for missionary work, and church-members are in Germany and says: "Our committee on new mis- Scandinavjan countries. sionaries has recommended 10 as suitable and worthy to be sent. The num- EUROPE. ber of those who apply is great. We ha'DIJ ceased to count them. " Great Britain.-The London Tele- graph. gives the amounts which have -The Congregational Church Buildbeen left by will to religious and Chltr. Huahine, Raiatea. and the neighboring itable purposes for six years. In 1888, islands, to the Paris Missions Evange- 1889 and 1890 these amounts aggregated liques. The latter now announce that about $5,000,000. In 1891, $6,000" the L. M. S. has made them a free gift 000; 1892 fell below the other years, of all the mission property on those reporting only $4,000,000 ; but in 1893 islands, charging only a small sum for the amount rose to $7,000,000. some furniture, which was the private property of their missionaries. – The National Bible Society employs 110 colporteurs in Japan in the sale of -Dr. McAll, who died in May last, the Scriptures. was the founder, and for many years pastor of London Road Chapel; and -The Shipwrecked Mariners' Society the members felt that a memorial of maintains 1000 stations, relieves annu- some description ought to be placed in ally about 10,000 sailors, fishermen and the chapel. Accordingly a committee their dependants, and since its organiza- was appointed, subscriptions were intion fifty-five years ago has given aid vited, and the sum of about £40 was to nearly 460,000 persons. During the soon collected. It was decided that the terrible gales of a few months since 143 memorial should take the form of a tabvessels, 911 men, and 993 widows and let. This is now in place, and on the orphans were helped at a cost of about centre panel is cut and gilded the in- £4000. scription: "To the honored memory of Robert Whitaker McAll, D.D., -During the year 1893 the S. P. G. F.L.S., first pastor of this church, board of examiners accepted the offers founder, and for twenty-one years diof 5 clergymen and 23 laymen for mis- rector of the Evangelical Mission in sion service. Of these, 13 were from Frauce, created by the French Govern- St. Augustine's College, Canterbury, ment Chevalier of tp-e Legion of Honor. 6 from Cambridge, 4 from Oxford, and Born 1821, died 1893. Co-worker 1 each from Trinity College, Dublin, and with God." the theological colleges at Dorchester, Salisbury, Warminster, and Lincoln. The Continent.-According to re- In addition to clergy accepted at home, cent statistics, the Roman Catholic 70 clergy, including 16 natives, were Church in Belgium has 229 cloisters placed on the list of the S. P. G. abroad; with 4775 monks, and 1546 nunneries 31 were added in Africa, 10 of whom with more than 25,000 sisters. In 1866. were natives. there were 178 cloisters with 2991 monks, and in 1880, 213 cloisters with 4120 -During the year 1893,63 new mis- monks. The number of nunneries in sionaries reached Shanghai, in connec- 1880 was 134:6 with 21,600 inmates; in tion with the China Inland Mission. 1866 it was 1144 with 15,000 nuns. The There arc others on the way, bringing rapid increase down to 1880 is largely the number up to 86, and at least 100 owing to the fact that the members of young men evangelists are still needed. the orders expelled from Germany went to Belgium, whence many returned to -The London City :Mission employs Germany since 1878. With these 30,000 482 missionaries, who visit systemati- monks and nuns, and a host of priests, cally all the year round among the poor etc., besides, this tiny corner of Europe and outcast. Last year 3,667,680 visits ought to blossom with piety and all man· were paid. The work is undenomina- ner of good works. tional. More than 500,000 men are regularly visited by the agents of this mis- -The Evangelical Society of Berne, sion. Switzerland, has just held its annual meeting. From the reports it appears -Some years ago the London Soci- that a good work is being done by a ety, on account of the vicious med- band of 27 ministers and evangelists, dling of the French Government, was obliged to make over its missions in who go about through the hills and with it is found nowadays the centre of mountains carrying the Gospel to those disturbance and peril as touching British who cannot go to church to hear. tule. For ten years a National Congress Eighty-five Young Men's Christian has met annually to discuss (for speech Associations and 80 Young Women's is free in the great peninsula) and to Christian Associations have been started formulate demands. The ·cost of the by the society, and a large number of standing army is much too great, the young men are being trained as evan· number of Indians in high civil offices gelists. is much too small, and proVincial coun- cils ought to be in which natives shall -The feeble Presbyterian churches have greater prominence, etc. And all in Spain were largely supported by a this desire and determination come as Mrs. Peddie, a Scotchwoman who has the fruit of the education in Western recently died. Speaking of what Prot- ideas bestowed by the British rulers. estantism owes to the discovery of the New World, somebody pertinently sug- -In Madras Presidency about 1000 gests: "Spain has been neglected by separate works came forth from the tourists and missionary societies. It press last year, in more than 20 lanwill not do to forget the debt we owe to guages. For the whole of India the Columbus and the land which sent him number was 7125. Of thesc 1580 were forth. The daughter-land and Church upon religious themes, 989 related to should not decline to share her purer language, 928 to poetry, 336 to science, faith and higher prosperity with the 252 to medicine, 225 to law, 203 to phifoster-mother. losophy, and 172 to history and biog. raphy. It should, however, be added -Hall Caine, in the Pall Man Maga- that a vast majority of these publications zine, says Russia's reasons for expelling consist of but a few pages, and are of the Jews are, first, religious; second, trifling value, if not really worse than national; and thirdly, and almostexc1u- worthless. sively, economic; for: 1. He is a voluntary alien-a Jew, not a Russian- -By the death of John Elphinston, separating himself by dress and custom of the Bombay Civil Service, for years from the people among whom he lives. Collector and magistrate of the Ahmad· 2. His personal character is revolting. nagar district, and of Sir Henry Ram- He is dirty, heartless and impure. 3. say, during forty-four years Commis- His religious character is hypocritical. sioner of Kumaon, in North India. we He uses his religion to hoodwink his are reminded of how much Christianity God and to deceive his sovereign. 4. owes to the lives and deeds of hundreds He is grossly ignorant and fanatical, and thousands of the representatives of and has resisted and misused all efforts the paramount government. Both were to educate him. 5. He is a bad soldier. devoted friends and most liberal sup- He fiees from military service. He joins porters of missions, the latter in partichimself to the Nihilists and other ene- ular being the real founder of work in mies of the government. 6. Above all, Almora, as well as for years by far the he is an immoral trader, a cheat, a base largest giver. usurer, a friend of the drink traffic, and he has one morale for his dealings with -Rev. D. S. Rivington tells how in, his Jewish brethren and another for his a remote village of Bombay he found in. dealings with Christians. a temple of Vishnu the tomb of a man who had died ten years previously, and ASIA. on the tomb, as an object oj worship, a large copy of the Bible in Canarese. A India.-Among both Hindus and Mo- stranger theological medley could not hammedans agitation for" home rule" well be conceived-a Christian tomb and is steadily increasing, and in connection a Bible enshrined in a Hindu temple, guarded by an image of Vishnu, and reopening and anniversary of the Tamil slong with the idol receiving the wor- church."
ship of Hindus I The Hindu has gen- -The Church Missionary Society erally so much religious sentiment that has 4 mission circles in South Indiahe is able to dispense with logic and viz., Madras, Ootacamund, Tinnevelly, consistency of faith as well.-Indian allU Telugu country; and these are Witnes8. looked after by 105 European and na- -An Indian magazine states that at tive clergymen. The number of Chris- Dewali, in the Punjab, gambling is re- tians who have been brought into the garded by the Hindus as a" religious fold is 58,000; and there are besides duty," and has been enjoined upon these over 8000 under instruction pre· them by the priests from time imme- paratory to baptism. The society has morial as a theological dogma, the idea in its schools over 22,000 children. The being that the souls of those who do not financial return shows that the native indulge in " jooa" will enter the bodies congregations gave during the year of donkeys. In the Occident the idea Rs. 38,000 to meet their congregational is mostly reversed; but to avoid calam- expenses, and for different religious and ity in the East "the simple-minded charitable objects.
Hindu, the few educated ones excluded, -Eighteen years ago there were but tries to play the destructive game as 2 Bible-women in the Neyoor District, much as possible, so that by accumulat- South Travancore. Later on a few ing the whole benefit derived from such Christian women would go out on Sun- playing he may be able to get rid of the days in couples to the nearer villages, donkey life in the world to come." fearing the scoffs and ridicule they knew -The Independent observes: "The they would meet with. Now there are banner Conference of the Methodist 25 who go forth Bingly day by day, and Episcopal Church in the number of are not only welcomed in the villages, SUll(tay-schools is not in the East. the but regret is expressed if for any reason West, or the South-not in this country they are kept away. Fourteen addiat all. It is the North India Confer- tional villages have been visited during ence. Those who think the Gospel has the past year, making a total of 61, and made little progress in India need to still the cry is, .. Come and teach us." rub their eyes and wake up to the In one house a mother and two daughfacts." The number of Sunday-schools ters said they had quite given up the in this Conference iii 518 ; of Christian worship of idols. In another, an old scholars, 9408; of non-Christian schol- woman, kissing the hand of the visitor ars, 11,921 ; or a total of 21,329. and looking earnestly into her face, re- peated with great fervor, "Jesns God, -The London Society has a woman my life, save me a poor sinner !"
.. who almost rivals the late Mrs. Doro- -This is the showing of the London thea Baker in the length of her service. Rociety for Travancore, from a com- Mrs. Addis and her husband founded parison of 1892 with 1893: Agency: the Coimbatore Mission in 1830. They Increase of 55 native agents, from 750 labored together till 1861, and then re- to 805. Evangelistic and pastoral de- tired to the hills, where he died in 1871. partment : Increase of 642 baptized, Since then she has sold over £10,000 from 23,654 to 24,296 ; increase of 2510 worth of goods sent from England to in entire Christian community, from aid various missions, and has collected 50,637 to 53,147 ; increase of 264 church- more than £1000 for the Bible Society. members, from 6466 to 6730. Educa- Last year, although she had reached the tional department: Increase of 49 great age of eighty-five years, she trav· schools, from 363 to 412; increase of elled down to Coimbatore to attend the 790 boys, from 12,209 to 12,999 i increase of 368 girls, from 4184 to 4552. memory of her father and of his father. Contributions of native Christians: It is a valuable lesson to the Chinese to Increase of Ra. 597, contributions, from tell them that all those buildings are Rs. 18,832 to Rs. 19,429. Medical mis- erected in memory of parents. They sion: Increase of 7031 cases, from 26,- seem to think that foreigners are de void 194 to 33,225. Press: Increase of 1075 of all tilial feelings because they do not pages printed, from 3,307,236 to 3,308,- worship at the graves. 311.
China.-Dr. Ashmore believes that AFRICA . .. the evangelization of the Chinese is more important than that of any other -A Baptist toiler on the Congo race; for as far as all human standards writes thus of trials endured: .. The are concerned they are so far beyond missionaries' houses at this place are any other heathen nation that there is poor, but better ones are in process of no comparison to be made… erection. My own little abode was 20 X 14, with mud walls and a thatched roof -The following proclamation was of grass. Even tlJis was not excluissued aWhile ago in the province of sively my own, for besides my two girls, Honan, China: .. Should anyone be- who lived with me, there were lizards. come bewitched by the foreign doc- centipedes, and other small creatures. trine8, and not be willing to sacrifice One Sunday morning, as I was dresseither to Confucius or to the spirits of ing, a snake fell from the roof down his ancestors, he must be severely dealt beside me, but no -harm was done." with by his clan. His name must be But she heeds not such trifles, for erased from the family regis.ter, and his " this is the scene where the Gospel of whole family driven from the province… our Lord Jesus Christ has triumphed, and in hundreds of huts, which are not -Rev. Arnold Foster recently found worthy of the name of homes, women, the following prayer po~ted on a house strong men, and children are rejoicing in Wuchang: "A young man named in Christ. The 24 schools and 5 churches Cheng Yu, living inside the Gate of Mil- are centres of light to the heathen, 10, itary Conquest, reverently implores the 15, 20, and 30 miles around in different God of Thunder to display his awful directions. Native evangelists and teachmajesty and to forgive the writer's sins ers are constantly winning souls, and of ignorance and to enlighten him as to often we have marvelled at their zeal, what they are ; he will then gladly obey courage, and fearlessness in the midst his parents and elders, and will be very of God's enemies, who persecute them careful of all kinds of grain. He now and plot against their lives." puts out this promise to reform. Will benevolent and right-minded people, -Out of 40 men and women sent to as they pass by, read this confession as Africa by the International Missionary a means to restoring the writer to health ? Alliance during the last flve years, 11 He offers his grateful thanks to all who have died. The tirst year of residence do so. .. It seems that this young man is most fatal. had some affection of the eyes which he believed was caused by some sin on his -Bishop Taylor has 43 white missionpart. He confesses he does not know aries at his .. self-supporting" stations what is the god of thunder whom he in Angola and the Congo Free State, toblindly adores. gether with quite a force of native evan- gelists and teachers. Twelve died at -When Mr. Whiteweight, of the their posts last year. English Baptist Mission, was home last year, he received about $16,000 from a -Lovedale Institution has an attend- Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, for school ance of '782 pupils of all grades. These building, chapel, etc. It was given in represent almost a score of tribes, and not a few come from regions hundreds .. large population roundabout makes it of miles away. This seat of learning a very favorable centre for missionary has a KafIir church, with 800 members, work.
whose pastor, Rev. Pambani J. Mzim- ba, " is a splendid specimen of what the THE ISLaNDS OF THE SEA. grace of God can achieve in the Afri- can race. " The congregation is almost -The Hon. C. R. Bishop has deeded entirely self-supporting, and out of its to the Kamehameha school in Honolulu poverty has undertaken to build a $10,- all his property on the island of Molokai. 000 house of worship, has raised $3000 The property includes 90,000 acres of from the field, and seeks the rest in land, stocked with cattle, horses and Scotland from friends of the Free sheep.. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop had pre- Church. viously given munificently to this insti- -The Rev. J. D. Hepburn, of the tution.
London Society, who died on the last -Not all of the heroes and heroines day of last year of malarial fever, was are of European stock. Mrs. L. Kaaiathe apostle of Khama's people, the wahia, the wife of Rev. S. Kauwealoha, Bamangwato. From 1870 till 1890 he both of them native Hawaiians, went labored uninterruptedly at Shoshong, with her husband in 1843 to the Marand when Khama moved his capital to quesas Islands as missionary under the Palapye, he went also, but retired, bro- Hawaiian Board to those cannibal ken down in health, in 1892. Not only islands, where she remained for forty was the conversion of the tribe largely years without ever returning to her nadue, under God, to him, but the new tive land. Part of the time she lived mission to Lake Ngami.owed its origin almost alone, separated from other misto his enterprise. sionary families. Her hands and her -The waters of Lake Nyassa are heart were occupied with labors for the ploughed by no less than 7 steamers, natives, by whom she was greatly honsome engaged in traffic, but mainly en- ored and loved.
gaged in the service of the King, carry- -In Fiji there is a circuit which has ing glad tidings to the benighted. 16 ministers, 310 local preachers, and -From OentraZ Africa we learn that upward of 7000 members, with 27,000 Baron Von Soden, the new Governor· adherents. Of the ministers, all but General of German East Africa, has one are natives, and the single European decreed •• that all missionary societies is quasi bishop of the populous diocese.
settled within the territories under Ger- New Hebrides.-Rev. J. W. Macken- man protection, without distinction of zie writes from Efate : •• Sabbath before nationality, shall enjoy exemption from last was a grand day here. 'l'he sacra- import duty and from the excise of con- ment of the Lord's Supper was dis- sumption for an amount not exceeding pensed, and 18 church-members sat £120 per annum. " down for the first time. The whole -The Universities Mission has opened number of communicants present was a new station in the Yao country, in 150.
P~rtuguese territory, at II place called -The West Indies include many Unangu, some 50 miles east of Lake islands under British, Dutch,and French Nyassa, and about 200 north of Blan- rule, and the republic of Hayti. The tyre. It is quite a large town, set on a total area is about 100,000 square miles, hill, with thousands of houses, many and the population 5,500,000, while 16 of them large and well built. The sta- societies are at- work with over 120 or- tion is expected, from its situation, to dained missionaries and 500 native help- prove exceptionally healthy, while the ers. The communicants number 75,000.
The Missionary Review of the World — January 1893
OUR WORLD. I
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
VOL. XVI. No.1.-0ld 8eries.–JANUARY.–VOL. VI. No. 1.-New &riu.
OUR WORLD.
BY THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF.
A GENERAL GLANCE AT SOME GREAT FACTS.
Facts are first forms of truth. In all solid and substantial structures they are the base-blocks. To ascertain them, classify and arrange them, and then utilize them are the triumphs of the scientist, the sage, and the seer.
There are certain great facts pertaining to our world and its inhabitants which we need to master. They so seriously affect our work and our success that to know them and to have them at command are of the first importance. Some of these we seek hero to collate and compare, aiming at comprehensiveness and accuracy, and hinting the lines along which investigation should be <,arried on, and additions constantly made.
I. OUR EARTH. -The dimensions of our globe are familiar-its circumference of about 25,000 miles, its diameter of about 8000, its surface of 200,000,000 square miles, of which three fourths represent water. Europe, inclusive of the British Isles, has an area of 3,600,000 square miles, with a coast-line of 20,000 miles; Asia, an area of 17,000,000 square miles, with a coast-line of 40,000 miles; Africa, an area of 11,500,000 square miles, with a coast-hne of 16,000 miles. To North America belongs an area of 8,000,000, and to South America an area of 6,800,000 square miles, while the united coast-line of these twin continents cannot fall much short of 30,000 miles on the Atlantic frontier alone. Australia, the island continent, has an area of 3,000,000 square miles; and the estimated area of the ;polar regions is over 3,000,000 square miles. The islands of the sea embrace about one hundredth part of the land area, or 550,000 square miles. If, then, Australia represents the unit of measurement, Europe has a fraction more area, South America twice as much, North America more than two and a half times as much, Africa nearly four times, and Asia nearly six times as great area.
The river systems are immense. They represent a total length of over 125,000 miles, or five times the circumference of the earth. The navigable waters of the Mississippi and tributaries reach 40,000 miles; the Nile, over 5000; the Amazon, 3750; the Yenisei, 3400; the Volga, 2400. The Americas claim over 65,000 miles of river system; Asia, 33,000 ; and Africa and Europe each 15,000, but Africa has probably much more.
II. OUR RAcE.-'l'he earth's population can be stated only approxi- mately, as the data are incomplete. The most carefuUy compiled statistics are probably those of E. G. Ravenstein, and those given in ., Die Bevolke- . rung der Erde," according to which the total population runs from 1,467,920,000 to 1,479,729,000. These figures approach so close to 1,500,000,000 that for all practical purposes this round number may be safely and conveniently used for the totality of the human race at this date. Of this number, Asia has about 840,000,000; Europe, 360,000,000 j Africa, 170,000,000; North America, 90,000,000; South America, 35,000,000 j and Australasia and other islalli~ systems, 5,000,000 j or, if we divide the population into 150 parts, Asia has 84 ; Europe, 36 ; Africa, 17 j North America, 9 ; South America, three and one half parts, and the islands of the sea, one half part.
Ravenstein reckons the increase from 1880-90 at 6 per cent in Asia j 8.7 per cen~ in Europe; 10 per cent in Africa; ] 5 per cent in South America; 20 per cent in North America, and 30 per cent in Australasia. These figures are startling in significance. While Asia has the bulk of the race, the lowest rate of increase is there; and in America and Australia, where the least numbers have been found, the rate of increase is so much more rapid that an actual transfer is taking place from Europe and Asia to the New World.
At least 3065 languages and dialects are already known to prevail. The Bible has been translated into about 260 of them. The sexes are almost equally divided, with a slight preponderance i~ favor of the males. As to color, the extremes of white and black are as 5 to 3 ; the other seven fifteenths are intermediate brown and tawny.
As to density of population, China leads, with from 200 to 400 to the square mile j next come Great Britain, India, Western and Southern Europe, and the Eastern States of North America with from 50 to 200 ; Africa, Russia, and the bulk of the United States bring up the rear with from 10 to 100 to the square mile. Asia will probably average 60, and Europe 100 to the square mile.
As to clothing and housing, about otle third of the race are well clad, about half partly clad, and one sixth practically naked. Curiously enough, about the same proportion holds as to dwellings ; the best clad being the best housed, and the practically nude being practically houseless.
III. OUR THRoNEs.-The governments of the world fall into four convenient classes: despotisms, or unlimited monarchies; kingdoms, or constitutional monarchies; republics, and petty soveff~ignties ruled over by chiefs. Russia is an example of despotic rule,. the whole legislative, executive, Ilnd judicial power being practically united in the Czar, whose will is law. The sultanate, the Empire of Morocco and of Turkey are absolute sovereignties, unrestricted by laws, civil or religious, and with authority unlimited. Of constitutional monarchies, Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Belgium, Denmark, and of late Japan, furnish examples. Of republics, the ITnited States, France, Argentine Republic, Brazil, etc. ; of petty sovereignties, irregular and tribal governments, Africa is a most conspicuous example, divided among almost countless chiefs; and where a traveller may meet a new language with every sixty miles of advance, and about as many new rulers.
It is a most noteworthy fact that precisely according to the progress of the race in civilization do despotic power and arbitrary force yield to government by the people and for the people. .
IV. OUR FAITHs.-The best presentation of the religious systems of the world is probably that of the Church Missionary Society, which givps to the heathen faith 874,000,000 adherents; to Mohammedans, 173,- 000,000; to the Roman Catholics, 195,000,000; to the Greek Church, 85,000,000; to the Jews, 8,000,000; and to Protestant communities, 135,000,000. This would make over one half the race heathen; one in about 180 a Jew; one in 18 a Greek; one in 9 a Mohammedan; one in 8 a Romanist, and one in 10 or 11 a Protestant. Protestant church-members, however, do not number over 40,000,000 ; all who fall into no other class being reckoned as in Protestant communities-a very unsafe and unsatisfactory mode of classification when we are estimating the available force of the Church. More than 1,000,00(1,000 human 1.Jeings are without even a nominal Christianity; and though about 450,000,000 are reckoned as nominally Christian-or nearly one third of the race-less than one tenth of these actually belong to the evangelical churches.
It ought to be noted, also, that Mohammedanism has more in common with Christianity than any other false faith. It accepts the bulk of the Old Testament, admits many of the patriarchs and prophets, and even Jesus among saints and seers, while affirming the supremacy of Mohammed; is the foe of idolatry, and maintains the unity of the Godhead as against polytheism. Its very approaches to Christianity have, ho~ever, been its secret of resistance. The Mussulman claims that his faith embraces all that is worth retaining in the religion of Christ, and, in all else, is an advance upon it. And thus far the territory of Islam is almost untouched by Christian missions. The Greek Church stands midway between Protestantism and Romanism, with decided leanings toward the doctrine and practice of the Vatican. Romanism, especially in South America, is but one remove from paganism; though in some parts of the world, especially in the United States, it approaches very closely to Protestantism in intelligence and pure morality.
There is a vast gulf between heathenism and paganism, so called, both names being very inadequate. The faiths of Confucianists, Brahmanists, and Buddhists are immeasurably above the fetich worship of Africa, among some (If whose tribes the very conception of God seems to have almost died out. But nowhere among men have any yet been found who have absolutely no form of religion or worship, or conception of Ii deity.
V. OUR AGE.-There has been no such an epoch of general progress since the world began. Such books as McKenzie's" Nineteenth Century," Routledge's" Inventions and Discoveries of the Century," etc., give some conception of the immense strides of modern civilization. to which the advance of all past ages seems like snail's pace. We seem to stand at the culmen or apex of material and social progress. During the past ninetytwo years, since the century began, the movement onward and forward has been incredible. Mr. Gladstone is credited with saying that during the first fifty years of this century the race made more progress than during all the preceding centuries j that in the next quarter century the advance was greater than during the previous half century j and that during the next decade it was even more rapid than during the twenty-five years before. If this be true, then the ten years between 1875-85 were marked by a material advance so marvellous that it puts at a distance the progress of the five thousand years preceding-or, in other words, the rate of onward march was five hundred times as rapid !
A glance at the inventions and discoveries of the nineteenth century, or even the latter half of it, will astound any student of history. At n) period has the race touched such a golden age of intelligence and social improvement. These ninety golden years are each of them centuries measured by achievement. They are the age of the railway and steamship j of electricity as a motor, messenger, illuminator j of the telegraph and telephone and photograph and phonograph j of the ocean cable, the signal service j of the perfected microscope and telescope, and the more marvellous spectroscope and spectral analysis j of aniline dyes, of petroleum and all its compounds j of the steam printing-press, the typewriter, the sewing-machine j of the discovery of forty new metals, and the revolution of chemical science j of the tirth of geology, of anIBsthetics, and a score of new' sciences and arts. The world is now one neighborhood, and no nations are any longer distant or inaccessible. This is the age of world-wide exploration, occupation, communication, association, civilization, organization j the age of the postal union and cheap postage, of newspapers and magazines and cheap books j of free schools and universities; of machine work displacing hand work j of universal opportunity and consequent responsibility. It is the age of giant enterprises and giant explosives, when nothing seems impossible to men, and when we seem to be on the verge of a new era, when the air will be traversed, as the sea is now navigated, by vessels built for mastery not of waves, but of winds!
Could moral and spiritual progress but keep pace with material and ,;ocial advance, it is impossible to foresee or foretell to what millennial mountain heights of glory and of bliss, of purity and power the 'race might come hefore the now opening year should close j and as to the dawn of the new century, not even the most enthusiastic seer could give us the faintest foreshadowing of the possible grandeur of the future of mankind!
In studying our age, it is of the highest importance to appreciate the time factor in human history-the fitness and the fulness of the times. But one fit time and but one full time ever comes to any man or to the race. Then, if ever, the door must be entered j then, if ever, the work must be done. Delay means disaster, and sometimes destruction. If the work for which God gives us the season-the seasonable hour-is not then wrought, it can in most cases never be done j or, if at all, only out of season and at disadvantage, amid unfavorable conditions.
VI. OUR FOEs.-No careful, 'calculating man will stop with the more hopeful vision of progress. Humanity never had to face foes more numerous nor more deadly. If this is the promised lanEl. and age, the giant sons of Anak are in the midst of us with their walled cities and chariots of iron. In presence of some of them we feel ourselves to be as grasshoppers, so insignificant and impotent have even Christian nations proven in coping with these colossal, destructive forces of society.
Dr. G. W. Samson has mentioned four forms of intoxication and idolatry: those of the imaginative, nervous, generative, and acquisitive centres and powers of man's being; and the" strong drink" on which these respectively debauch themselves are the theatre and the novel for the imagination j alcohol and opium and tobacco for the nerves j lust and sensuality for the generative system, and greed and Mammon for the faculty of acquisition.
Perhaps the most formidable foe of human health and happiness is the d1'ink habit. Whatever may be said to vindicate or extenuate the use of intoxicants, the awful fact remains that the main cause of disease and death, of vice and crime, of poverty and misery, of vagrancy and lunacy, is RUM! The natural tendency of the use of all forms of spirituous liquors is toward abuse. "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess. " In the United States alone the total consumption of distilled spirits, wines, and malt liquors is 900,000,000 gallons annually, or nearly fifteen gallons per capita. In Great Britain and Ireland the annual expenditure is still worse. In the United States it is about $900,000,000 (£180,000,000) a year, and growing, for a population of 66,000,.000. But in Great Britain, for less than 40,000,000 PQople, it was, in 1891, over $706,000,000 (£140,000,000), and for beer alone over $390,000,000 (£78,000,000). "Enough spent for beer to provide the country with two navies and armies, and with the civil service thrown in," says the London Times " "enough to pay the interest on the national debt for three years j or, if funded for nine years, to pay the whole debt and leave no more annuities or interest to pay."
Judges and magistrates affirm that at least seven tenths of all crime and acts of violence are traceable to the use of strong drink. One philanthropist quaintly says that in nine cases out of ten murder finds its secret in two words-formed by spelling murder backward. The total abstinence pledge adopted by every intelligent human being to-da~ would give us, a generation hence, a world free from its principal curse.
Next to drink, and strangely allied to it as a destructive foe of man, comes lust. Gross or refined sensuality in Protean forms stalks everywhere, the moral pestilence of the darkness, and in some parts boldly walks at noonday. Legalized prostitution in Roman Catholic countries, and to some f'xtent in Protestant communities, puts the sanction of law and license abou~ sexual sins, and undertakes to secure immunity, if not impunity, to that vice which God has signalled out for condign judgments in the bodies of the transgressors. Secret and systematic indulgence in sexual sins hides under the veil of domestic privacy and even of marriage, and corrupts the very springs of personal virtue and family purity. Children come into the world with the awful marks of physical and moral leprosy, or are criminally disposed of before birth by nameless and shameless practices which the pen refuses to record on these pages. A few years ago even in Christian England facts were coming to the front involving those in high life-facts so awful and alarming that their full exposure was never permitted. And in America a system of wholesale procuring of victims for illicit practices was, five years ago, unearthed, that would have disgraced the annals of Pompeii or Sodom. When a distinguished social philosopher of Oxford made a catalogue of dominant social sins threatening the destruction of the race, he placed first in the list a form of vice to which Paul refers in Romans (1 : 27), and which, though too shocking to allow description, is openly practised in the baths of Constantinople and throughout the Orient, and is not unknown in the heart of New York City.
These may suffice as two examples of our foes, whose name is legion. To mention greed is enough-that practical and insatiate lust of gain which makes the worshipper like unto his idol (Ps. 115 : 8). The man who is the victim of avarice comes to have a metallic ring, is changed into a coin, and drops into his grave with a chink. If the lust of sensual pleasure begets putrefaction, the lust of gain brings petrifaction j the miser is a hard man, of a. stony nature, and comes to love nothing but the golden calf. The opposite vice to this is extravagance-a lavish, careless, godless expenditure, scarce less hurtful than hoarding miserliness. And these are days of extravagance scarce equalled in the- days when suppers in Rome cost a fortune, when Nero tickled his throat with a foather to make way f(r a new gluttony, or Cleopatra dissolved costly pearls for her drink.
Our ri.sks are even more inclusive than our viceB and open sins. Our pride of numbers, our dependence on the patronage of the wealthy and socially great j our dependence on occasional appeals and impulsive responses for benevolent work and funds j the prevalent disposition to work by proxy. and shift individual responsibility j organizations, with the perils they involve; autocracy and virtual despotism, resulting from lodging undue responsibility with a few j the growth of frivolity and the habit of
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ONE OF PREPARATION
pleasure-seeking, with the consequent decay of earnestness of character; avarice, appetite, and ambition as controlling influences in the lives even of many of the better class; fashion and fashionable slavery; perilous social amusements, such as the dance, the card-table, the theatre, the horse-race, the gambling-table-these are a few of our foes and risks. And we have said nothing of ecclesiasticism and sacerdotalism and a worldly or secular type of church-membership, on the one hand, and infidelity and irreligion, on the other j a nominal Christianity and a defiant atheism; of the aristocracy of culture and the plutocracy of wealth; of the caste lines in society; of the monopolies in trade, and the perpetual war between labor and capital. And who shall measure the gulf which yawns beneath our feet in the desperate designs of the socialist, communist, and nihilist!
Here, for lack of space, we arrest this paper, leaving to a future issue to discuss further and no less important matters which affect our world and race and age-our history, responsibility, destiny. But surely this is the golden age of opportunity. The ends of the world stand looking with august interest to see what the true followers of God will do to uplift humanity, to repel and defeat its foes, purify its faiths, displace its false thrones, and usher in a greater age of peace and purity and power!
(To be continued.) THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ONE OF PREPARATION.* BY REV. JOSIAH STRONG, D.D.
We are entering on a new era of which the twentieth century will be the beginning, and for which the nineteenth century has been a preparation.
Though many of the achievements of the past century have been unequalled in the world's history, they generally suggest not finality or completeness, but rather beginnings. Many and great as have been the changes of this century, there is reason to expect that those of the next will be even more and greater. It is not proposed to call on the imagination to anticipate them. This ·work is not speculative. It does, however, attempt to trace some of the general lines of development in the past, to note their present trend, and, within certain limits, to project them into the future. It is quite true, as Lowell remarks, that "the course of events is apt to show itself humorously careless of the reputation of prophets." But surely one may study discerningly the signs of the times, which are only I the shadows of coming events cast before, without attempting the prophetic role.
If eventt"l were simply strung tOi!ether in orderly fashion on the thread of time, like beads on a string, without any relation of cause and effect, * See Editorial Notes. there could be no signs of the times; but because to-morrow is folded within to-day, because human nature and its developmt:nt are under laws which remain constant from age to age, because, as Carlyle says, "The centuries are all lineal children of one another," and bound by the law of heredity like other offspring, it becomes possible, in measure, to forecast coming events, to draw from the study of past experiences and present conditions reasonable inferences concerning the future.
Let us glance hastily at some of the more significant ehanges which have taken place during the past century and note their meaning.
1. Changes which may be called physical. There is nothing more fundamental touching the circumstances which affect all human beings than time and space. They condition all human activities and relationships, and hence to change them is to affect all human activities and relationships. This is the reason that steam and electricity have had fIlO profound an influence on modern civilization. They have materially changed t.hese two great factors that enter into all lives. It is as if the earth had been, in two or three generations, reduced to a much smaller scale and set spinning on its axis at a far greater speed. As a result, men have been brought into much closer relations and the world's rate of progress has been wonderfully quickened. Time-saving methods and appliances now crowd into a day business which a generation ago would have occupied a week or more. The passage of the Atlantic, which once required weeks, is now a matter of days. It is possible to be in the United States one week, and before the close of the next in Asia. A little time suffices to compass great events as well as great distances. We read of the" Thirty Years' War" in the seventeenth century; the Franco-Prussian War, which destroyed one empire and created another, was begun and practically ended in thirty days. By reason of the increased ease of communication Rew ideas are more speedily popularized, public opinion more quickly formed and more readily expressed; both thought and action are stimulated; reforms are sooner accomplished, and great changes of every sort are crowded into as many years as once they would have required generations or even centuries.
And it must be remembered that these quickening processes are not yet completed or their results fully apparent. Science is daily making easier the conquest of space; and there is reason to believe that the victories of electricity are only well begun.
Thus these changing physical conditions will continue to render the isolation of any people increasingly difficult – a fact of the utmost importance to the world's progress, for isolation results in stagnation, and we accordingly find that the civilization of all peoples is inversely as their isolation. The conformation of Europe and the exceeding irregularity of her coast line are favorable to the intercourse of her various nations with each other and the world, and Europe has developed the highest civilization. Moreover, ~hose of her peoples who are most favorably located for intercourse with their neighbors have made the most progress. The great mountain ranges of Asia, her vast plains, the absence of water communica- tion, or oceans so broad as to discourage the timid navigators of earlier centuries are much less favorable to intercourse, and the civilization of Asia is much lower t,han that of Europe. That part of Africa which lies on t1.e MeditTJrranean has been in contact with the world, and has had at times a high civilization; but the remainder of the continent has been for the most part a terra incognita. Her people have looked out, not upon the highway of narrow seas or straits, but upon the barriers of boundless oceans. The location of Africa and her coast line are much less favorable to intercourse than those of Asia, her people have been much more isolated, and there we find a lower barbarism than any in Asia.
The world is entering on an era in which the isolation of any people will become impossible, and then will the world's barbarism disappear.
2. Notice, briefly, the political changes of the past century. The explanation of most of them is found in the growth of democracy.
During the eighteenth century the spirit of free inquiry became uni- versal in Europe, but it was purely speculative. 'l'hough England enjoyed a measure of liberty. absolutism still reigned on the continent. For sixty years of that century Louis XV. disgraced the throne of France. He regarded the people of his domain as his personal property. Their lives and substance were at his disposal. But wretched and enslaved as was the condition of the French, that of other continental nations is shown by De Tocqueville to have been even worse.
The French Revolution made the people conscious of their power, and hence prepared the way for liberty as soon as the people should become capable of it. Napoleon, in accomplishing his own selfish and despotic purposes, did inestimable service to popular rights, and though, upon his fall, the old order of things was re-established for :l season, at least in form, absolutism from that time on must needs reckon with the growing spirit of democracy.
Says Robert Mackenzie :* "Sixty years ago Europe was an aggregate of despotic powers, disposing at their own pleasure of the lives and prop- erty of their subjects j to-day the men of Western Europe govern themselves. Popular suffrage, more or less closely approaching universal, chooses the governing power, and by methods more or less effective dictates its policy. One hundred and eighty million Europeans have risen from a degraded and ever-dissatisfied vassalage to the rank of free and self-governing men." When we remember that freedom is the most favorable condition for' a natural, healthful development, we see the significance of the growth of modern democracy. This great political change is prophetic of progress because it has removed the barriers which most seriously obstruct progress.
* The Nineteenth Century, p. 459. 3. Consider, now, certain social changes. Since the middle of the century there has sprung up and spread well-nigh throughout Christendom a deep discontent on the part of workingmen. Its causes and its signifi- cance will furnish the subject of a later chapter (VII.), in which it will be shown that this popular discontent foreshadows important changes in our civilization. Suffice it now to remark that a condition of political eq'bality having been achieved, it is short-sighted to suppose that society has, there- fore, arrived at a state of stable equilibrium. Democracy necessitates popular education, and popular education multiplies popular wants. If the many have the same wants as the few, they will demand the same means of gratifying those wants. To give to the poor like tastes with the rich is to create an inevitable demand for substantial equality of condition, and to stimulate dis<:;ontent until such equality is secured.
The discontent of labor has gained such a hearing, that there has been awakened within a few years an unprecedented interest in industrial and all sociological questions. Books treating these subjects have had an , astonishing circulation. A large number of periodicals devoted to social economy, and advocating industrial, economic, or social reforms, have sprung into existence. Labor organizations. whose avowed object it is to effect important change in the laws and in the whole status of labor, have appeared and grown powerful. Advocates of the reorganization of industry on a co-operative instead of a competitive basis have made many disciples. The word socialism is growing less obnoxious to Americans. It is, as Dr. Gladden says, being "fumigated j" and it has needed it, for some foul meanings have infested it. Socialism, separated from all adventitious doc- trines, has been accepted by many Christian men and women of the Ameri- can stock, and among them are many of the YOIlnger clergy.
The growth of socialism in Germany during the past twenty years has been surprising. The Socialist vote for members of the Reichstag in 1871 waf! 124,655 ; in 1890 it was 1,341,587. Schmoller well remarks: "A social movement of thousands is possible only when thousands of thousands have become doubters. "
The German Government has taken an important step toward State socialism, by insuring German workingmen against illness, accident, and bId age, making such insurance compulf!ory. Like measures have been proposed in France, Hungary, and Denmark. "The question at issue among most continental statesmen and students to-day concerns the details rather than the principle of such State help. The era of full reaction against laissez faire theory and practice 'has come, and Emperor William II. is its prophet." * Taken in connection with the discontent of workingmen, and an in- creasing readiness on the part of society to listen to their demands for change, there is great significance in the tendency toward organization and centralization which is seen everywhere.
* u. W. Hinman, in the Social Economist, April, 1891. The progress of the race has been along two lines-viz., the develop- ment of the individual and the organization of society, the. kind of organi- zation of which society is capable being dependent on the measure or type of development attained by'the individual. In the history of Europe, for centuries together, progress seems to have been along only one of these lines at a time-a development of the individual at the expense of social organization, followed by a closer organization of society, a centralization of power at the expense of personal liberty. Thus when society began to emerge from the lawless individualism of the barbarians, it was organized under the aristocratic form and then passed into the more centralized form of absolutism, which culminated in the seventeenth century, and under which individual rights were ruthlessly sacrificed. In the next century the reaction toward individualism came with the French Revolution. The remarkable growth of democracy during the past one hundred years, which, of course, meant the development of individualism, has already been noticed; aud now we see unmistakable evidence that the pendulum of the ages has again begun to swing in the direction of a closer organiza- tion of society, which movement is greatly facilitated by the increased ease of communication afforded by steam and electricity.
Look at some of the evidence of this reaction. In the commercial world the tendency toward consolidation is most striking. First, many independent railway corporations were united into a system, and now great systems are being consolidated under one management. The same is true of telegraph lines. A like tendency is seen in all kinds of production.
In various lines of manufactures there appears an increasing output and a decreasing number of factories, showing, of course, consolidation. This tendency must continue 80 long as production on a large scale is cheaper than production on a small scale. "The following statements have re- cently been made in California, on what is claimed to be good authority [Overland Monthly], of the comparative cost of growing wheat in that State on ranches, or farms of different sizes. On ranches of 1000 acres, the average cost is reported at 92t cents per 100 pounds; on 2000 acres, 85 cents; on 6000 acres, 75 cents j' on 15,000 acres, ao cents; on 30,000 acres, 50 ; and on 50,000 acres, 40 cents."* One of the most striking features of the modern business world is the growth of powerful corporations and more powerful combinations in the form of " pools" and" trusts." The conditions of production and trans- portation have largely ceased to be democratic j and the question may be reasonably asked, Can our Government remaiQ democratic and our indus- tries continue aristocratic or monarchic ?-that is, controlled by the cor- poration or the industrial" king." The Encycloprodiri Britannica t says: " The great American Republic seems to be entering upon a new era, in which it must meet and solve a new problem-the reconciliation of democ- racy with the modern conditions of production. "
* D. A. Wells' "Recent Economic Changes,"_l';.~; t Vol. xxiii., p. 787· Ever since our late civil war there has been a marked tendency tow- ard the centralization of the Government of the United States. Justice Miller, in an address at Philadelphia on the occasion of the centennial celebration of the adoption of the Constitution, said: "While the pendu- lum of public opinion has swung with much force away from the extreme point of States-rights doctrine, there may be danger of its reaching an extreme point on the other side."
This centripetal tendency of the times is further illustrated by the creation of the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Germany out of politi- cal fragments. In the latter part of the eighteenth century there were in Germany nearly 300 independent powers.
Another manifestation of the same tendency is seen in the wonderful drift of population to the cities, which see~s to be a world phenomenon.
So general a tendency toward the centralization of population, of politi- cal power, of capital and of production, manifested in ways so various, can indicate nothing less than a great movement toward a closer organization of society, a new development of civilization.
Thoughtful men everywhere have become expectant of great social changes. Says President Andrews, of Brown University :* "If anything has been made certain by the economic revolution of the last twenty-five years, it is that society cannot much longer get on upon the old libertarian, competitive, go-as-you-please system, to which so many sensible persons seem addicted. The population of the great nations is becoming too con- densed for that. " '
Canon Westcott, professor at Cambridge, writes:t "On every side imperious voices trouble the repose which our indolence would wish to keep undisturbed. We can no longer dwell apart in secure isolation. The main interests of men are once again passing through a great change.
They are most surely turning from the individual to the society." The author of "God in His World" remarks: t "We are now approaching such a crisis. No human wisdom can predict its shaping any more than it can prevent the issne. The air is full of auguries, and even our fiction has become very precisely apocalyptic. It is theoretic prophecy, anticipating the realization of perfect scientific and social economics-the paradise of outward comfortableness. " The Westminster Review says: § "It is felt by every student and every statesman that some movement, vast and momentons, though indefinite, is passing like a great wave over the civil- ized world." And the Ohurchman says:/1 "It is idle to refuse to admit the fact that modern civilization is in a transition state. There are a thousand evidences that the present state of things is drawi;-:; to a close, and that some new development of social organization is at hand. "
Says Mr. William T. Stead : ~ " Everywhere the old order is changing and ** The Oongregationalist, Jannary 22d, 1891. t "Social Aspects of Christianity," p. 4. P. xxv_ § London, May, 1890. i New York, January 17th, 1891.
'J .. The Pope' and the New Era," p. 20. giving place untO the new. The human race is now at one of the crucial periods in its history, when the fountains of the great deep are broken up, and the flood of change submerges all the ~ld-established institutions and conventions in the midst of which preceding generations have lived and died." Srich citations might be indefinitely multiplied.
Many expect violent revolution. Whether such expectations are realized will depend probably on the Christian Church, whether she is sufficiently awake to see and to seize her opportunity. The Church is not yet adequately aroused, hut I believe that she can be, and therefore do not deem revolution probable. We may have social revolution, we must have social evolution. Social systems are never invented, they are evolved, they grow out of what has preceded. A revolution may suddenly sweep away existing institutions as a fire destroys a forest, but the new forest which rises out of the ashes is a growth. Surely it is too late for the world -or at least the Anglo-Sa~on part of it-to fall into the" French fallacy, that a new system of government" or a new social organization" can be ordered like a new suit of clothes."* The social changes which are sure to come will doubtless be great, but they will be natural-the effects of causes long antecedent-hence the importance of comprehending, as far as possible, existing conditions and tendencies.
4. Consider, now, briefly a few suggestions touching the changes of which the progress of science is prophetic.
Most of our scientific knowledge is the growth of the past century. It would be idle to attempt even to enumerate its numberless practical applications to life. By making communication easy and swift, science has effected all human relations and conditions, by perfecting the press ·it has popularized knowledge and powerfully stimulated the mind, by means of labor-saving appliances it has revolutionized the industrial world and added enormously to the world's wealth, awakened new aspirations on the part of the multitude, and created new problems and possibilities of life. If all that science has done for the world during this century were suddenly struck out, it would leave our civilization in ruins; so universal and profound would be the changes wrought, that we should hardly know whether we were living on this planet or had been mysteriously transferred to some other. And we must remember that much of the progress of seience'is so 0: recent that as yet we have seen scarcely a beginning its endless applica- tions to life. Moreover, some of the most practical sciences are still in their infancy; the field of knowledge is boundless, and each new acquisition makes others more easy. Science is certainly destined to make great progress during the next century, and therefore to work great additional changes in civilization.
What if it could be certainly known that during the twentiet.h crntury there would be a new revelation of God's will, another table of the Divine * James Russell Lowell's Democracy, p. 23. law given to men to meet new needs of civilization, and to hasten the coming of the kingdom of heaven upon earth; and so given as to authenticate itself and carry conviction of its truth to all the world? With what profound and eager expectation would it be awaited! What supreme blessings should we expect it to bestow on mankind, and what a mighty upward impetus would it give the race!
Just such a revelation has been made during the past century, and is to be continued in the next. Its truth is evident, but all do not yet perceive that the truths of science are God's truths, that its laws are God's laws. The Church has even looked askance at it. It has been regarded not only as secular, but as actually hostile to religion. Books have been written and professorships established to "reconcile," if possible, these two " foes;" but science is as truly a revelation from God' and of God as are the Scriptures, as really a revelation of His will as was the Decalogue, and one which is to have as real a part in the coming of His kingdom among men ~s the New Testament. God's will expressed in what we call natural law is as benevolent and as sacred as His will expressed in what we call moral law. The more perfectly His law, whether natural or moral, is known and obeyed, the better is it for the race. This new evangel of science means new blessings to mankind, a new extension of the kingdom. The Church ought to leap for joy that in modern times God has raised up these new prophets of His truth. It will be shown later that this modern revelation of His will means a mighty hastening of the day when His will is to 1:-e done on earth as it is in heaven.
One of the great services which science has rendered has been to clear the world of an immense amount of rubbish which lay in the path of progress. The scientific hahit of mind is fatal to credulity and superstition, it rests not on opinions, but facts j it is loyal not to authority, but truth. This means that as the scientific habit of mind obtains, men will break away from t1e superstitions of h€athenism and from the superstitious forms of Christianity. Scientific knowledge is rapidly becoming a necessity to all civilized peoples. Commerce is bringing the nations into an ever closer contact, which means increasing competition, and however cheap flesh and blood may be, they cannot compete with steam and steel. The Bureau of Statistics at Berlin estimated, in 1887, that the steam-engines then at work in the world represented approximately 1,000,000,000 men, or three times the working population of the earth. This mighty force is at work for the Christian nations. What are all the millions of China and India compared with it? Cheap labor cannot compete .with machinery which enables one man to do the work of ten or twenty or a hundred men. Labor·saving machinery is destined to go wherever men toil, and with it will go an increasing knowledge of science.
Moreover, China, IJating foreigners, wishes to become independent of them. She has been compelled to employ them to build her navy, to arm her soldiers, and make her munitions of war. In order to become independent of them she must needs introduce the study of the sciences into her schools. Thus science is destined to become the great iconoclast of the heathen world. What then! Men react from superstition into in- fidelity, which has already become the great peril of Japan and is becoming the peril of India. The ·greatest of modern Hindoos, Keshub Chunder Sen, once said: "I fear for my countrymen that they will sink from the hell of heathenism into the deeper hell of infidelity." The prospect is that in the course of a few generations the heathen world will become either Christian or agnostic. Which it will become will depend on the Church.
In this connection we may not inappropriately remind ourselves of the familiar and significant changes which have already taken place during the past century among heathen and Mohammedan peoples. * A hundred years ago the Japanese were so separated from the remainder of mankind that, so far as any intercourse is concerned, they might almost as well have inhabited the moon. There was then in force a law providing that" no ship or native of Japan should quit the country under pain of forfeiture and death, that any Japanese returning from a foreign country should be put to death, that no nobleman or soldier should be suffered to purchase anything from a foreigner, that any person bringing a letter from abroad should die, together with all his family, and any who might presume to intercede for him. "
Until within a few years the following royal rescript, issued on the extirpation of the Jesuits, remained posted up through all the kingdom : " So long as the sun shall warm the earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan j and let all know that the King of Spain himself, or the Christian's God, or the great God of all, if he violate this command, shall pay for it with his head." To-day there is a new civilization in Japan.
As a Japanese lecturer said, there is nothing left as it was thirty years ago, " except the natural scenery. "t The nati.on is now eager to place itself in the forefront of progress.
China has for centuries been separated from the world by a barrier far more effectual than her famous " ~yriad Mile Wall"-a wall of pride and prejudice, more immovable, more impenetrable, more insurmountable than any possible wall of stone and mortar.
But a trial of Ilrms with Great Britain and France taught China a whole- soine respect for Western Powers j and her pride was sufficiently humbled to employ foreigners to teach her sons ship-building and navigation, together with the military science by which her armies had been beaten.
The War of 1856 resulted in the Treaty of Tientsin, which guarantees the protection of the Chinese authorities to all persons teaching or profess- ing the Christian religion, thus opening the door to Christian civilization.
* For a full and able discussion of these changes see the missionary classic, "The Crisis of Missions," by Rev. A. T. Pierson, D.D.
. t" The Crisis of Missions," p. 1()(). At the beginning of this century the gates of India were locked to Christian missions, and the East India Company held the key. That com- pany was hostile to missions because it received large revenues from native idolatries, and" as late as 1852 $3,750,000 were paid from public funds to repair temples, provide new idols and idol-cars, and support a pagan priest- hood."'"
The East India Company was abolished in 1858, and the British Gov- ernment is in hearty sympathy with Christian' missions in India. Its officials there annually contribute many thousands of pounds for their maintenance. Moreover, social caste, which in India separates classes as oceans separate continents, and which has served to maintain isolation and stagnation, is giving way before modern civilization, which is every- where bringing men into closer relations.
At the opening of the nineteenth century the Ottoman Empire was characterized by the same spirit which had once rendered it a terror to Christian nations. To.day the Protestants of Turkey, like the other re- ligionists of the empire, have their recognized rights and a representative at the imperial city, religious liberty having been assured by the Treaty of Berlin.
Only a few years ago the vast interior of the Dark Continent was a mystery. Now the great •• open sore of the world" has been thoroughly probed-a long step toward its healing.
The changes which have been very briefly recited have a significance which is simply boundless. During this century the barriers which sepa- rated more than 800,000,000 heathen from the transforming influences of modern and Christian civilizatiou have been broken down. The prison- pens which condemned more than one half of the hnman family to isolation, and, therefore, stagnation, have been thrown open. The contact of the Occident and the Orient has already produced in the latter unwonted signs of life. The dead crust of fossil faiths is beginning to be shattered by the movements of new life underneath. "In every corner of the world," says Mr. Froude, t " there is the same phenomenon of the decay of established religions. Among the Mohaqnnedans, Jews, Buddhists, Brah- mins, traditionary creeds are loosing their hold. An intellectual revolution is sweeping over the world, breaking down established opinions, dissolving foundations on which historical faiths have been built up. " And it should not be forgotten that religious beliefs underlie and determine social and political institutions.
The door" great and effectual" which is thus opened to the Christian Church has been only partially entered. Noble as has been the work of modern miRsions, it must be regarded chiefly as one of preparation. The languages of savage peoples have been reduced to writing, the Bible and a Christian literature have been translated into tongues spoken by hundr~ds * "The Cri8is of Missions," p. 48. t N{fftlt American RtvielO, December, 1879.
1893.J A CENTURY OF MISSIONS
of millions, schools and seminaries for training up a native ministry have' been established, missionaries have learned much of native character and of the necessary conditions of success. A foothold has been secured, a fulerum found, the Gospel lever put in place, and the near future will see the mighty uplift.
We have cast a hasty glance over Christendom and heathendom, and have sought to interpret briefly, though not superficially, the great changes of the century. They seem to me to point unmistakably to One conclusion : the drawing of the peoples of the earth into ever closer relations, wh'ich will render isolation, and therefore barbarism, impossible, and will operate as a constant stimulus j the growth of freedom which removes the greatest !:-arriers to progress; the social ferment and the evident tendency toward a new social organization; the progress of science, destroying superstition, thus clearing the way for truth; the opening of the heathen world to the power of the Gospel and the quickening forces of modern life; the evident crumbling of heathen religions, which means the loosening of the foundations of heathen society-surely all these indicate that the world is about to enter on a new era, for which the nineteenth century has been the John the Baptist• .. Out of the shadow of night The world moves into light; It is daybreak everywhere I"
-Longfellow.
A CENTURY OF MISSIONS. * BY THE REV. F. EDWARDS, B.A., OF HARLOW, ENGLAND.
The end of the first century of modern Christian missions is upon us. Weare entering on a new century of work and service, and we are entering it with enlarged privileges and with widened responsibilities. As we cross the threshold from the one century of completed lahor to the other century of anticipated blessedness, it will be well for us to lay to heart the teachings of the past, that we may be strengthened by its results and inspired by its experiences. Our preparation for our work and our consecration for its duties cannot fail to be increased.
It would 2eem as if the most prominent feature of our centenary celebration is to be the raising of £100,000. Other elements enter into the' official celebration, but they are all subservient to this great pecuniary purpose. I cannot help the conviction that if this is all, or that if this is mainly its result, we shall have prostituted to unworthy ends our opportunities; at any rate, that we shall have failed to secure for them the .. This address was read at the annual meeting of the Essex Union; and at the request of the Secretary of the China Inland Mission we cordially insert it in the pages of THE MISSIONARY RE- VIEW. It i8 one of the most thoughtful papers we have read,-En. highest possible good. If we succeed in raising the money-and about that I do not think there is much doubt-in a few years every trace of it will be gone. The new expenditure which is essential, and which must be met by it; the removal of the debt now existing, to which in part it is to be devoted; the meeting of what seems to promise to be a chronic annual deficiency, will exhaust the resources even before the last instalment of them becomes due.
We misunderstand our opportunity if this is the only end we can make our centenary serve. It may and it ought to minister to an enlarged liberality on the part of us all. If this is all that it does, it will just serve ·as our annual debts have done in the past-furnish the occasion for a spasmodic and unsatisfactory generosity. To my mind the announcement of our debts has often been most humiliating and saddening. It has come out that we have been behindhand, say, some £5000. The fact that there is a debt has led to the discovery on the part of many of our friends that they are wealthier than they had supposed, and that the contributions they had given had by no means exhausted or even crippled their resources. It has been no unusual thing for one to find that he could spare another £500, and for many to find that they could part with another £100 each. Collectively and individually the debt has been a curio~s revelation. We have found out that we have not done all that we could have done. We have done for the removal of a debt what the needs of the world and the claims of our Lord never moved us to do. We are high-souled as to the dishonor of not meeting the liabilities that have been incurred, but we should have kept our contributions if the work had not been done at all, or if the work could have been done at a cheaper rate. Our donations must be raised to a higher level, in which our obligations to our Lord and to the world He has redeemed will be met according to our ability. We ought not to need the stimulus of a debt to prompt us to liberality. It is not fitful and occasional liberality that will secure the evangelization of the world. We could well dispense with this £100,000, if all our churches, and all their members, recognizing the need, and thankful for the privilege of meeting it, would imitate one whose memorial is to be an abiding one, but whose greatness arose from the fact that her work and her ability ran together.
There is no doubt that the pecuniary aspect of our work is Of the utmost, the deepest importance. If we were more spiritual we should not feel that there was anything derogatory in this. There was one of whom we read that his alms as well as his prayers had come up before God. Ollf psalmody and our prayers form part of our worship, but the collecting boxes and the subscription lists need not be secular and unspiritual. The love which is shed abroad in the heart finds its response as much in our gifts as in our prayers. It feeds on liberality as well as on de1l:0tion.
And, as to this giving, it seems to me that our conception of our duty and our methods of giving all need to be revised. We are being constantly reminded that we have so many churches in our denomination, and that we have so many members in connection with thosEf churches. Weare told what the income of our Society is, and what it would be if every member of our churches, and every teacher and scholar in our schools, gave some small sum every week in every year. These calculations are made with the utmost nicety, and are, from time to time, printed in our Heralds and reported at our meetings. The one great aim of all these calculations seems to be, not the declaration of the fact that there is a work to be done, and that be its cost littJe or much it must be done, but to show that it can be done without much trouble and without any great loss to anybody in particular, as if the great recommendation of the great missionary enterprise were its cheapness. And, to encourage this idea of cheapness, we examine every item of expenditure abroad and cut down every possible expense to the lowest point-as if we were resolved that, while its cost to us is unfelt, we will give our agents the opportunity of showing their zeal and exercising their self-denial and winning their crown by bearing their cross. It would almost appear as if we did not mind who met the e~pense provided it did not fall too heavily upon ourselves. It costs thoae who do our work more sacrifice to live upon what we give them than it costs us to provide those means. I know we need to encourage the poorest among us to give, and it is a grand thing to believe, and know, that if we had only poor people in our communion the largest work on earth could still be done. The man is strongest among us who is supported by the contributions of the many by whom he is beloved, and not the man who is indebted for his living to the one or two rich people he happens to have in his congregation. In these days of democracy, it is not the power to have their own way, and to do as they like, that people want to be taught, but the power to work. The privilege of carrying on the work of Christ in the world is not the heritage of the rich among us, it is the heritage of us all alike, and we may all claim our fair share in its execution.
I know all this, and yet I am cODvinced that these calculations and this penny-a-week sYiltem are open to misapprehension. Somebody, whose resources are almost unbounded, hears that 28. 6d. a year from everybody will produce a certain sum, gives us the utterly inadequate sum as if that were his proportion, and forgets it was not for his sake, but for the sake of the widow and orphan that the calculation was made, that they might be encouraged to believe that they were not shut out from the privilege of partaking in the work of the extension of the kingdom of God. The lad was right in his tlfeology, though, perhaps, a little wrong in his history, who, in answer to the question, Who were the Pharisees ~ replied that they were a sect of the Jews noted for their stinginess, and that one of them one day brought a penny to the Lord Jesus, who took the penny into His hand and turned it round, and looked at it and said, Whose subscription is this? The widow who casts in her all to the Lord's treasury, though it only comes to two mites, need not wrap up the mites in paper, as if she would fain cover their littleness; those mites shine with the light of God's love, and are glorified thereby in the eyes of Him who gave His best and His all when he gave Himself for us. The penny a week of many of us who pride ourselves that we are doing our fair proportion, and that we have no right to deprive others of their privilege in giving by doing all ourselves, will be met by the withering rebuke implied in the question, Whose subscription is this? Its fault is not in itself, but in its giver.
When we have reached the highest ground and found the right principle that ought to secure this result–that the money in the Church's hands shall be adequate to meet all the legitimate expense connected with the Church's work-we shall not need 58. centenary cards or ingeniously devised £13 2s. 6d. collecting books, or clever calculations as to how far we shall be able t6 go if all the members of our churches will contribute a penny a week. I maintain that appeals for missionary purposeli ought not to be needed, and that when our funds are only forthcoming as the result of debt, there is something radically wrong. Our institutions ought no more to need to ask for ftmds for their working than our children ought to need to ask us for their food and clothing. All we can legitimately demand or look for is the opportunity of giving, and if that opportunity be but wisely afforded, all that is needed to induce us to embrace it is knowledge-knowledge of the work that is being done, and of the work that yet has to be done before we shall have overtaken the trust committed to us by our Lord. It is ignorance that paralyses our effort, and knowledge is the only power by which our liberality will be brought into active operation. If our churches did but know what has been done, what is being done, what has still to be accomplished, they would rise to the occasion, and there would be no need to plead with those who were already anxious to give. I suppose we shall all be agreed upon this point, and the only possible divergence of feeling and opinion will be as to the means by which this needed knowledge is to be disseminated. I take it t.hat we are preventing the development of missions when all we know about them is derived from our annual meetings, and I take it that we are not much improving matters when we seek to supplement their inspiration by readings from the llfis8ionary Herald at the monthly prayer-meetings, especially if the reader makes it clear that he is gaining his own information at the same time that he is communicating it to his hearers. There is a more excellent way than this, and, after testing it for nearly a quarter of a century, I venture to speak of it. God knows that we get enough sermons, and I dare say that, whether we preach or listen to them, we should all be glad to have fewer of them. So weary are we who listen that thirty minutes is as much as we can endure, and so exhausted are some of us who preach, that we find it hard work to find fresh and interesting materials for our sermons. It surely would be well if we could find something more interesting and stimulating without resorting, as some, unfortunately, do, to sensational methods of making the Gospel palatable. Something fresh to us who speak, and something fresh to us who listen, might bring about marvellous results. And we have not far to go to find out what that something should be. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles is the one unfinished book in the Bible. Apostles have been at work in the midst of us, and God has been working with them, and shame on us if we do not rehearse unto the people all that Jesus is continuing to do. If we would but tell out the story of this past century of modern missions, we should kindle enthusiasm where it does not now exist, and revive it where it is decaying. The triumphs of the Cross in this nineteenth century have even surpassed those of the first. On the part of the workmen, we can tell of heroism that has rarely been equalled: their labors in every sphere of service have been abundant; they have not counted their lives dear unto them, but have made them living ~acrifices unto the Lord. And as to the converts, why, even apart from Madagascar, we can tell of sacrifices that have been made, and of martyrdoms that have been endured, and of professions that have been witnessed, which make us sometimes think that if where there is no cross there can be no crown, our chance of coronation is but slight. It is these last chapters of the ever-growing Book of the Acts of the Apostles that we have' to make ourselves acquainted with, and we must preach them and expound them if missions are to be carried on successfully and triumphantly.
It will not hurt our churches or our minIsters to dispense with one sermon a month, and to have in its place a missionary lecture which shall tell the people about the work of God, and make them familiar with the signs and wonders which the ascended Lord is still doing in the world. The man who tries this will find that his theme is practically as exhaustless as the Bible itself. When I began this work, there were not wanting those who said I should soon come to the end of my materials. I remember saying, I will always have three months' stock in hand, and, when you hear me announce as my subject Carey and Ward and Marshman, you may conclude I have come to the end of my tether. Their work I have often spoken of, but, as yet, I have not told the story of their lives. The missionary literature and biography of the last hundred years are extremely rich. Contributions have come from every quarter. From the Moravians downward to the last of the Combers, God has given us men of whom we may well be proud; and I am sure the Apostle Paul will forgive us if we sometimes let our people know that there are other missionary travels and labors beside his. Every year adds to the already large list from which we can draw, and surely one night in the year might well be spared for our own annual report of the work of the Lord during the year. For years I have given one night to the review of the work of the year of our own Society. It will not do to read it or to make extracts. Read sermons are bad, enough, but read report~ are infinitely worse. We must master these reports ourselves, and we may nlry our lectures as much as we like. He is a poor preacher who can preach only one sermon on a good text. We can begin with the money, and tell how it was raised and how we Bpent it. Or we may describe the work and the workers-the spheres of their labor and what they do in them, and astonish our hearers by telling them the small cost at which it has all been done. Or we may begin with our European missions, and go on till we reach those farther off. There are a hundred ways of giving the same report. It took four evangelists to give us a picture of Jesus Christ, and when we have done our part in telling the story of modern missions, we shall have left more unsaid than we have told.
I am not unmindful of the fact that all this means work, and that the work must fall mainly upon the ministers of our churches. It is, however, for work that we ministers exist, and if we do not do it the reason for our existence is ended. I know it is easier to preach a sermon than it is to give a lecture. It is astonishing how easy we can make sermons and how often. Such lectures, however, as those I have been speaking of are different matters. They will involve an amount of reading and preparation from which we ought not to shrink. I may, however, remind you that during the last year or two the necessary labor has been much lessened. Cassell's" Conquests of the Cross," Snow's" Missionary Outlines," Partridge's "Missionary Biographies," the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge's books on the non-Christian religions of the world, and other books I need not specify, have brought within reasonable compass materials which those of us who in the past have gone over the same ground have had to collect for ourselves. I know that epitomes of history are not the safest help to the study of history, and mention these books simply to indicate the fact that no one need be deterred by the reading he will have to go through. A more serious objection arises from the expense involved in book-buying. It is hard that the men who most value books should find it hardest to get them. If our rich members did but know how they themselves would be benefited by their ministers having good libraries they would see to it that they should be provided with them. I may mention, however, that the books I have referred to are cheap, and many of the larger biographies which could be turned to good account are procurable at low rates from second-hand booksellers. I think, however, that if our Missionary Society were approached, the committee might do something to remove this difficulty~ The cost of a book il!! as legitimate an expenditure as that of a deputation. I once asked our late treasurer to give his book on the Congo to everyone of our ministers on the condition that he would read it and lecture on it to his people, and give them an opportunity of contributing to our funds. I am certain that £1000 would have been I raised without difficulty. I once offered, if the committee would find the hooks, to send them out to the brethren, who would use them, and to give the benefit of my experience as to subjects to all who would not be offended at my offering it. A small floating library of this sort would bring untold wealth to our Society. The books would be a treasure to those who read them and to those who had the substance of them given to them. My offer was not accepted. I suppose one must be inside the committee before one is considered wise enough to make suggestions, or one must forget his modesty and press his views forward at annual meetings to get heard. My time for work of this sort is over, and I therefore feel free to speak upon this subject. We make provision in our colleges for the study of Church history, but we do nothing for the history of modern missions. I well remember one who had gone nearly through his college course, and had been stirred by one of Livingstone's books, who has since done work in Africa which will live, who had never heard of Saker, and knew nothing of his stupendous work at the Cameroons. Give, I would Ray, at any cost, to our ministers the means of instructing the people, and, as !!loon as they are familiar with the work that is going on they will be ambitious of the privilege of partaking in it, and the only appeal that will be needed for the raising of the funds requisite for the carrying on of the work of Christ in the world will be the collecting-box at the doors. We shall not need the excitement of annual meetings, but our contributions will be stimulated by our knowledge, and our subscriptions and donations to missions will come to be regarded as parts of our necessary expenditure which must be met and cannot be curtailed.
And it is in this direction that our true centenary celebration is leading us. It seems to me that the grand characteristic of our mission work has been this, that we were the first to show that we were in touch with the great evangelical movement which came as a second Reformation into England. The other societies followed in our train, but it would, I think, be untrue to say that our work led to theirs. The true explanation is that their formation resulted from the same causes as our8, only it came later. We felt the inspiration first, and responded to it to the measure of our strength. If we are wise enough to see it, the outpoured blessing from on high which brought us into existence has tinged and baptized our development ever since. It was God's providence and not our wisdom that led to the choice of our first missionary sphere. Carey's longings and feelings would not have taken him to India. It was John Thomas who led to the establishment of our Indian Mission. The providence that took us there has never forsaken us. In addition to the earnest evangelists who in true apostolical succession have labored in India, we have had a succession of competent linguists who have laid the foundations which are essential to permanent success in the translations they have made of the Word of God into the vernacular. The scholarship that has marked some of our foremost men in India has never been surpassed even in our home churches. God has given us men who, as to the gift of tongues, have made us feel that' the wonders of Pentecost have not ceased. In our African Mission, the same Divine blessing has been realized. Itself the expression of the gratitude of redeemed and emancipated slaves, the first mission driven by persecution into new quarters, and the second given up as the result of the restlessness of German colonization, the forsaken stations and the renounced work have led step by step to the establishment or the Congo Mission, around which there is a halo of consecration and heroism which is as bright as any the Church has ever been privileged to rejoice in. The silent graves, as well as the still living voices, alike are eloquent in telling what the love of Christ can inspire men to attempt and to do. We may and we do weep over our losses, and in our unbelieving and calculating moods may ask the purpose of this waste j but those who have made the sacrifices would call back nothing that they have given, and presently in a regenerated Africa we shall have the convincing proof that the way of the Cross is still the way of light. And the Lord that has led us where we have gone' has blessed us in all that we have done. The direct results of our work are such as fill us with adoring gratitude. One has planted and another has watered, and everywhere God has given the increase. The very character of our progress is the highest proof that it will be maintained and augmented. In all lands it has been a growth, and the growth has been maintaineu," and it has increased. As we have pursued our course we have sometimes wondered whether we have been doing anything at all j but the review of every ten years of work has furnished us with accumulating evidence that if the ratio of our increase be but maintained, we are within measurable distance of the end. The mountain is becoming a plain before the Lord of hosts.
And as to the indirect results of our missions we can rejoice in them all. In Jamaica evangelization has been followed by emancipation. In India, some of the excrescences of Hinduism, if they were not its true growth, have disappeared. Our religion, even· where it has not been accepted, has touched and advanced civilization. Education has sprung up and has become general, and will soon be the birthright of every Hindu as it is already of every Englishman. The very women of India have been reached in their seclusion. "'Te have by science and philosophy undermined the foundations of the old faiths, and are preparing a highway over which the Lord Himself will pass in triumph over India.
And in another way we ha'"e reaped unexpected results. Affinities between the Indian races and ourselves have been discovered, the science of languages has been stimulated, the history of religions has been studied, the materials for the study of comparative religions have been gathered. It is missions that have made possible the researches and labors of sllch scholars as Max Muller and Dr. Legg. And by the increase of our knowledge of all the religions of the world we are enabled to approach men, not so much on the side that is sure to awaken their antagonism-for we have found that there are beliefs that are common to us all, and longings to which no human heart is a stranger-and we are able now to declare unto the heathen Him whom they have ignorantly worshipped.
The hand that has guided and blessed us is beckoning us forward, and if we have learned aright the lesson God has taught us, we shall be sure of this-that no work for God can be done in vain, and that in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
And if, forgetting for the moment all that has been done among the heathen through our instrumentality, we think of the effect of our missions among our home churches, again we shall have another illustration of one of the great laws of God's kingdom, that in blessing others we get blessed ourselves. If not to others, yet doubtless to ourselves, our missions have brought incalculable advantages and blessings. It is a memorable fact that the very men who were the originators of the foreign missions established, and for years themselves conducted, a mission in Cornwall. The cry that home has the first claim upon us originates with those who have no care either for home or foreign work. Our home missions are the offspring of our foreign missions. The last century has witnessed a growth of religion at home that would have been deemed impossible when it began. We have shown that we care for men's bodies as well as their souls, for their minds as well as for their spirits, for their earthly homes as well as for their heavenly dwelling-places. Life is more worth living to-day than it was a hundred yearl'! ago. Everything is not yet perfect, bllt we are better housed to-day than our fathers were. Nursing, medicine, surgery, have brought relief and alleviation to us that our fathers never dreamed, and there is a Christian element in it that once was absent. Much yet has to be done for middle-class education, but we are a better educated people than our fathers were, and the growth of education is showing no signs of decay. There has been an awakening on the part of the Church that it has a duty to perform which extends into every department of life. And with all our efforts for social and educational reform, direct evangelical work is more common than ever. And I cannot help noticing that we may find in our mission fields the true answer to many of the pressing questions that from time to time spring up among us. We are discussing at home what the Gospel is that is to be preached-and some, perhaps, are wondering whether, after all, there is any Gospel that can be preached-and the answer that comes home from every mission field is that the story of God's Jove and of Christ's redemption is still working wonders, changing men's hearts, and altering men's lives. Perhaps if we told the story oftener and plainer, we should have less need to doubt, and less time to discuss, for here, as everywhere, the Gospel will prove God's power unto salvation to everyone that believes.
I am sure of this-that this work has brought us into closest communion with our Divine Lord. As our work has grown upon us, and we have taken wider views of our responsibilities and our prifileges, we have seen the grandeur and the magnitude of the work He came to accomplish in redeeming the world to God as we never saw them before. Our hearts have beaten in harmony with the heart of the Lord Jesus. We have been in tOl1ch, in sympathy with Him. The enthusiasm of humanity that
DR. PENTECOST AT NORTHFIELD
moved Him has been realized by us. In forgetting ourselves and living for others, we have come nearest to Him. Our own spiritual life has been quickened by our work. We have never felt so sure of our oneness with our Lord as we have done when, in imitation of His sublime example, we have gone forth to seek and to save that which was lost.
Our retrospect of the past leaves but one feeling uppermost in our minds, and that feeling is one of thankfulness. It hal been a century of blessing, and the memory of it leads us forward to the work which claims our attention and tasks our energy, strong in faith and strong in hope. We cannot lag behind, we cannot falter. The Lord is with us, and we follow where He leads. He is leading us to vietory, and presently we shall reign with Him.
I close with words that have a deeper meaning now than they had when they formed the conclusion of the fiftieth report of our Society : "When God by His providence has effected such preparation, may it not be taken in connection with the promises of His Word, and the all-prevalent intercession of His Son, as an indication of His purpose? We think it may, we believe it must. Temporary and local reverses there are and will be, to awaken to fresh diligence and trust in God, but we believe that the general movement of His cause will still be onward; that, if not at every point, yet at most points of the line, the outposts of this year will be made the trenches of the next, till at length every encampment of hostile spiritual domination shall be broken up, and' the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.' "
DR. PENTECOST AT NORTHFIELD.
OBSERVATIONS AND EXPERIENCES IN INDIA.
BY REV. H. B. HARTZLER.
Dr. George F. Pentecost is always a welcome presence at Northfield. Years ago he was drawn into the town, as were also the Gospel singers, Mr. Sankey and Mr. Towner, by the charms and associations of the place, to seek a home under its stately elms and maples; but Providence has not permitted him long to remain in his chosen home. The great cities of America, Englaud, Scotland, and India have claimed him for special service in the interests of the kingdom of God. After an absence of nearly two years in India, Dr. Pentecost once more appeared before a Northfield audience on Sunday, August 28th. It was the closing day of the Northfield "season," which had begun wit.h the World's Student Conference in July. The Congregational church was crowded to hear the words of their favorite speaker. In the morning and afternoon he preached with all his wonted energy and power, and in th~ evemng he g,'lve a remarkable account of his experiences and observations in India. The report which follows, lengthy as it is, falls far short of reproducing the magnificent, kaleidoscopic picture flashed upon the view of the audience by the eloquent orator. Dr. Pentecost spoke in substance as follows: " We have no time for the expression of personal feeling. I can only say that this day has been a very happy one to me. After coming from the high and low places of the earth, the great mountains and the great and boundless plains. from looking on the grandest scenery of the world, I come back to Northfield, and it seems to my eyes that thil!l is the brightest spot on the earth. Even the vale of Cashmere, celebrated by poet and sage, to my eyes is not more peaceful and restful than this dear old Connecticut valley. I regret that after all these years of absence I can spend so short a time among you, my friends and neighbors j but I must again say that this has been a sweet, restful, delightful day to me. And now I will try to tell something of the wonderful work of God in India as I have seen it during the last two years.
" Well, friends, I do not think if you should take a journey to another planet, that you would find yourself in the midst of more surprises than if you were to he suddenly transported from Northfield to India. I have the feeling, after having been in India only a little over seventeen months, that I have been in another planet. If I should speak to you of the geographical wonders of India, its billowy mountains, its magnificent forests and jungles, its wide, cultivated plains, it would require the whole evening to do so. Think of th~ vast snow ranges with mountains thirty thousand feet high, as if the Matterhorn were piled on top of Mt. B-lanc and then the two capped with the Rigi, and you still fail of the conception. Think of travelling through forests of oak an hundred miles, through which you could scarcely creep because of the dense undergrowth, and millions of orchids peeping and twinkling at you likfl myriads of fairy spirits, of forests of rhododendrons, towering from an hundred to an hundred and fifty feet in height and covered with one mass of brilliant flowers. Another evening might be spent on the architecture of IndIa. Take the one outstanding, illustrious example from the ten thousand of beautiful buildings in India: the celebrated Taj Mahal, the most symmetrical, the most restful and beautiful building the world has ever seen. I have looked at it in all lights j quivering in the first throbbing light of the day, and under the soft light of the setting sun j under the peaceful light of the full moon, and thrilling under the light of a million stars, when the whole structure had such a fairy look, that it seemed as though it might take wings and fiy up into the heaven, from whence it seems it must have come. The architecture of India, as wonderful and more spiritual than that of ancient Egypt, goes to prove that when we speak of the people of India as heathen, we are not to think of them as barbarians or savages or as untutored black men. Perhaps India holds a people the most cultured of any in the world. They have a religious literature the most massive, and written in a language more musical than the Greek, more prolific than the Latin, and more exact than either of them-a people who have a religious cult that antedates every religion of the earth, with a philosophical system from which both the ancient and modern western world have borrowed their most subtle thoughts.
"In India, as I said here a few years ago. in my judgment, we find the chief centre of the missionary problem. Africa has its teeming millions, China has its teeming millions, and India its teeming millions, but in these three great centres of the world's population it seems to me that India holds the key of all the foreign missionary problem of to-day. In India there are three great religions: Mohammedanism, Hinduism, and Christianity. We often think of Turkey as being the seat of the Moham- medan power; but the real head is in India. We might convert Turkey from Mohammedanism and still its chief strength would be left in India. Here is the home of Hiuduism in its double form, the philosophical Hinduism of the monasteries, the monopoly of the priests and scholars of India; and the gross and bestial idolatry with its millions of votaries among the common people, centred about its tens of thousands of temples. Christianity is the David in the midst of these twin Goliaths. Mohammedanism has 70,000,000 followers; Hinduism, 200,000,000 ; Buddhism, which once dominated all India, does not exist in all the length and breadth of the Jand to-day. Centuries ago the astute Brahmins seeing that Hinduism was doomed in the prevalence of Buddhism, finally embraced Buddha and made him the ninth incarnation in their pantheon. This was the doom of Buddhism, for, having embraced Buddha, they proceeded to squeeze him to death in their loving embrace.
" A few years ago there was a large gathering of Brahmin Pundits and priests, who came together from all parts of India to discuss the duty of Hinduism with reference to Christianity. They recognized the fact that Christianity was making rapid strides in India, and they decided that they would adopt Jesus Christ as they had centuries before adopted Buddha, and thus dispose of Christianity, but their scheme would not work, because they forgot that Jesus Christ would not be adopted by them. So we have these three religions struggling in that land for the supremacy. India is the land par excellence of romance and destiny. Weare prone to forget what an influence India has had upon the countries of the world. All history shows us that India has had a predominating influence upon the West. It is a settled· fact that the European country which has held in the past the keys of India's commerce has risen to the highest rank among European/powers; and the country or city that has had that key and then lost it has fallen from the high place which it occupied to the lowest, histori.:ally and politically-as witness Alexandria, Venice, Portugal, and Holland. In dealing with this country we are dealing with the mightiest people and country in the world. Ethnologically we are brothers. The Hindus who possess the country to-day are Aryans, who emigrated into that land before the time of Moses. "Weare the same race as the Indians. They are black, we are white; but we have the same features, and our "European languages are sprung from the same Sanscrit roots. The differ- ence is that in that great migration part went in one direction and part in another. The part of that great Aryan family which travelled toward the West and thence toward the North, and strained itself through the western barbarian people, emerged at last in the great and now all-predominating Anglo-Saxon race. The Hindus are those who went South and East through the Bolen and Khibar pas3es of the Himalayan Mountains into the Punjab, and thence spread over all India, overlaying the Dravidian people. I remember talking with a very distinguished Brahmin on this subject. I said, 'But, my brother, you know that I am also a Brahmin.' He wanted to know what I meant. Then I spoke a parable. I said, ' Some three or four thousand years ago two brothers started from a certain part of Asia. The older one moved west and north ; the younger south and east. The elder brother settled in Europe, while the younger brother settled in India. The only difference is that you are a descendant of the younger brother and I of the older.' He was inclined to question the statement, but I told him that at least he could not disprove it.
" After two years of intimate intercourse with the educated men of India, my love for them has increased. The better I came to know this people, the more I talked with them, and the oftener I got on my knees with them, the more tenderly and sympathetically I carne to love them; and when I turned away from the last meeting held with them, I turned away with my heart filled with emotions of tenderest love for those splendid men who for nights and weeks together came to hear the story of Christ.
" It has been said of the Hindu religion that it is eternal and unchangeable. They claim that their religion is based upon an eternal revelation and that it is unchangeable. The critics of Christianity. who have discussed the question whethe.r it is possible for Christianity to pervade India, have said that in India we have to contend with an unchangeable religious system, bound and linked together by an indissoluble caste system which renders it an impregnable religious fortress. If I had time I might show you, through well-certified facts, that, while it is the boast of the Hindu that his religion is unchanging and unchangeable, no religion in the world has given so many evidences of erosure and decay as theirs has under the influence and impact of Christianity for the last hundred years. Of course when we think of the 300,000,000 Hindus and Mohammedans, and our little force of Christians in India, it looks to the superficial observer like a hopeless undertaking to Christianize these millions. It seems as though the means were entirely inadequate to reach the desired end, and that the task could never be accomplished. So the passing stranger, the coldhearted friend, and the hot-hearted enemy are constantly saying that the conqueBt of India by forces that are there is an impossibility. There are those who take delight in counting up the number of Christian converts and then counting up all the money that has been appropriated and ~pent for carrying on the work; comparing the number won over for Christ with the number of dollars spent for that purpose, and by this commercial test declaring that modern missions are a wasteful extravagance and that practically the work is a failure; but just here, in passing, I would like to say that in my judgment the result of Christian work in India is any way from fifty to five hundred times greater than the result of Christian labor in Christian America, when you compare the number and cost of instrumentalities in that country with those in this. The most hopeful field of missionary labor to-day is India. If I had money to invest in religions work and were seeking the most profitable investment for it to-day, I would invest in India rather than in the Connecticut valley.
" Let me illustrate: I had the pleasure of several interviews with the distinguished and honorable and most able Viceroy of India, Lord Lansdowne. On one occasion we retired into the private office of the VICeroy, and were talking about the possible conquest of India for Christ. He was of the opinion that we could never win India for Christianity ; that our force was too small to cope with the vast and increasing millions of India. I told him I not only felt hopeful, but was filled with a trinmphant gladness when I saw what had been and what is now being accomplished there. I also reminded him of the small number of British soldiers now occupying India compared with the hordes of natiyes. It is not a question of conquest now with them, it is only a question of holding what they have conqu~red. India was taken for Christ a hundred years ago, when William Carey landed at Calcutta and began his missionary labors among them. Since the baptism of Krishna Pal, Carey's first Brahmin convert, the question is not one of the conquest of the land, but of the subduing of it to Christ. For eight or ten years Carey labored without a convert ; then one man was converted, and that gave India into the hands of the Christian Church, just as the falling of the walls of Jericho gave Canaan into the hands of the Israelites. The first convert was not a low-caste man, but a high-caste man. This is significant. When William of Normandy crossed the English Channel and fought and won the battle of Hastings, his first battle on English soil, he had practically won England. There he built a castle, and wherever he won a battle after that he built a castle. So the conversion in Calcutta of Krishna Pal was the battle of Hastings for us. There Carey took possession of India for Christ. Many victories have been won and the missionaries have built Christian missionary bungalows to signalize these victories, and these Christian bungalows are the fortifications by which that great country of India will be held until the entire subjugation of the people is accomplished for Christ.
" To-day there are in India three million native Christians. I suppose the number of real Christians among the gross number of nominal adherents to Christ is much less than this i but suppose we should say that we have no more than one million, we have demonstrated the power of the religion of Christ over their religion. The great mass of native Christians are from the low castes, but there are enough high-caste men among them to demonstrate the power of Christ j that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is adapted to reach the heart and the conscience and the will of all the inhabitants of that land, the high as well as the low.
" Let me give you a bird's-eye view of the results of the work of mis. sions for the last hundred years. The missionaries in India during the last hundred years have accomplished more for Christ than the first Christians under the leadership of the apostles accomplished in all Western Asia and Europe during the first century of Christianity. This demonstrates that the Gry for apostolic days and apostolic power is based upon a misconception of facts. If you should go to India for a year, you would see that it is a time of apostolic men and apostolic power now. The power of the Holy Ghost is being felt in that land to-day as mightily as in the days of the apostles in Western Asia and Europe.
" It has been said that the great mass of convcrts in India are low· caste men. This is certainly true, and it is well that it is so. There are the three great castes, the Brabmin, or priest caste, the soldier and the farmer castes, supposed to bave sprung respectively from the head, the arms and the legs of Brabma; but there are innumerable other castes that have grown out of these. The Brahmins are the first caste. A Brahmin considers himself a god aud exacts worship from the low-caste men. It is among the low-caste mAn that the greatest number of converts have been made to Jesus Christ, and this is sometimes spoken of as an illustration of the lack of power of the Gospel to subdue India. But can you call to mind anY,country where the great bulk of its converts have not been among the low-caste people ~ In America, for instance, how many of the noble, how many of the rich, are included in the living body of Jesus Christ ~ Let us admit that the great bulk of Christians are from the common people. Would we have it otherwise ~ We lay foundations not in the top soil, but in tbe sub-soil. When they laid the piers of Brooklyn Bridge, they did not plant them in the top soil, but dug deep down. Christianity has always rooted itself in the low-castes. Read the story of the Corinthian and the Roman churches, and you will see that the great mass of these churches were made up of low ·caste men; the driftwood of the nations, in Corinth, and slaves and freedmen in Rome. Why, friends, if I wanted to take a city by pulling down its walls, do you suppose that I would rig a derrick to take hold of the cope stones and pull them off ~ No, I would set my sappers and miners to dig out the stones at the bottom of the wall and then thc whole would fall. Practically that is what is going on in India. Indian society and Hinduism rests on its castes. The top caste flourishes on the support which it gets from the lower and the lowest castes. If we pull out the lower castes, the top caste must come down in fragments. The bitter cry of the Brahmins to-day is that Christianity is alienating the low castes. Some time ago a high-caste man, the head master of the Maharaja of Daypoor's College, complained to me because, as he said, we are lifting up the low-caste men and withdrawing their respect forever from the Brahmins and making them equals, and this is so. Whereas a few years ago, if a low-caste man met a Brahmin on the street, he would prostrate himself and allow the proud Brahmin to walk over him ; now he merely makes a salaam to him, and coutends with him for the best places in the gift of the government, and, withdrawing his offeriug, he compels the Brahmin to labor for his bread as though he were a mau and not a god.
"Is it possible to elevate the low-caste man? The Hindus worship caste." Here Dr. Pentecost gave an illustration of the daughter of a sweeper who has graduated from the University of Calcutta aud taken the degree of B.A., also of a now lady, the daughter of a low-caste man, who is teaching the children of the elite in a private school in Poona ; and several other illustrations of the same order. He said, " What may we not expect in a f,ew generations from this low caste, if in one generation such great upward strides are made. God is giving to the American Methodist missionaries alone from a thousand to fifteen hundred converts a month in India. The rapidity with which the conversions are going on among the low-caste people in India is wonderful.
" In the Punjab forty years ago there was not a known Christian; then Messrs. Newton and Forman, of the American Presbyterian Church, went into the country and built their missionary bungalow there. To-day the baptized communicants are numbered by tens of thousands. We sometimes pray that God would open doors for us, that He would pour out His Spirit upon the land. It is not a question of that, it is only a question of our going through the doors that are opened and gathering up the ripe fruit that is lying there. Dr. Forman said to me some time ago that he could not baptize a tenth of the converts who are waiting to be baptized, because they had not the teachers to take care of them. Only recently returning from a missionary tour of the villages, out of two hundred converts he had selected twenty for baptism. The rest he had to leave until his working force should be enlarged. That practically is the problem of India to-day, not to get converts, but to take care of those they have, and the thousands who are knocking for entrance into the Christian Church. The rate of progress among the Christians during the last ten years has been 23 per cent, while that of the population is only about 17 per cent. So great and rapid is the increase that some of the English secular papers have been compelled to confess that in the last ten years they have been utterly blind to the great strides of the Gospel.
" Weare told that the high-caste men are not being converted. I have been in about a hundred cities and villages, and in none where there are Christian missionaries do you find less than five or ten high-caste Christian men. There are enough of these high-caste Christians 1:0 stand as monuments of the power of God. "In every government office in the land, among the men who are holding high and honorable positions are high-caste Christians. In the colleges the men who are taking high stand as scholars are. the native Christians. There is something in the power of the Gospel that sets the minds of these men at liberty, and sends them over the dead point of intellectual power.
" These are some of the encouraging features. But is this all? Why, my friends, we count our Christians at three millions. There is not a city or a town or a village where a Christian missionary lives and has preached the Gospel, but there are beside the open converts great numbers of secret Christians. I speak from experience that among the high-caste men there are more secret Christians than among the low-caste men. In Calcutta I found a great many Christians among the high·caste men. They did not come out from their cas~e, but they openly confessed Jesus Christ.
"The Brahmin gurus or pastors have finally consented that they may confess Jesus Christ and retain their caste, if they will not be baptized. Thus they acknowledge that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has taken a great hold upon the people, and they are afraid of losing their hold upon them.
" We do not need to hurry. The fabric of their religion is being undermined and will eventually fall of itself. All over India great cleavages are taking place-mighty cleavages from the Hindu rock, under the impact of Christianity. The Brahmos, the Aryas, the Devas, and the Sadharans, and theistic sects acknowledge the Bible, especially the Gospel, to contain the best ethical system and Jesus Christ to be the most perfect human example. These various Somajes or churches have thousands of adherents in the Northwest, in the Punjab, in the Bombay and Madras Presidencies. I was recently shown the confession of faith of one of these societies or Somajes, drawn up by its living founder. In it there was not a single sentence the substance of which was not plagiarized from the Gospel, and they acknowledge it. Here are thousands and thousands of men who have been brought out of Hinduism under the influence of Christianity. True, they are not Christians, but they are on the way to Christ. There must be destruction before we can have reconstruction. These things are not given in the translated reports of the missionaries. A man said to me, , Yon will not make many more converts from among the Brahmins, but you are Chritltianizing all Hinduism.'
" There is one other thing in regard to results. There is a Christian atmosphere. There is a passage in the Bible which says that the devil is the Prince of the Power of the Air, and I never knew what that meant until I went to India. There is a strangely hell-impregnated atmosphere in that land. It is almost impossible to resist it. I have seen Americans and Englishmen, not Christians themselves, living there, who have become Brahminized by the very atmosphere; but wherever there is a Christian bungalow, wherever there is a Christian song sung, or a Gospel testimony given, the air becomes purer j the devil is exorcised. The Spirit of God is pervading the very atmosphere where before the devil reigned without a rival, and this is doing more to destroy Hinduism than the direct preaching of the Gospel. Hinduism cannot live in this new heavenly air. You cannot tabulate this. The results of the Christian missions that cannot be tabulated are ten times as great as those which can be.
"I have not told you anything of what God has done among the women. I can only give you the most meagre outline of the most visible results. The Christian women of the missionary force in India are begin- ning to work a revolution in the Indian homes, where Hinduism is anchored more firmly than in its temples." Several striking illustrations were here given. Of his own work Dr. Pentecost had time only to speak a little. He was seventeen months in India, and had the joy of seeing nearly two thousand Englishmen and Eurasians converted to Christ. In Calcutta for eight weeks, every night, he addressed audiences of educated native men. They listened with attention and courtesy, and oftentimes with tears in their eyes. He has now nearly a hundred covenant cards, which are signed by as many native gentlemen in that city alone, in which they declared their acceptance of Christ as Saviour and Lord. Similar meetings for educated native gentlemen were held in Lucknow, Cawnpore, Delhi, Lahore, Poona, and other places, in all of which most gratifying results followed.
" Some of these young men before I left India were baptized. Others said as soon as they could manage it they would be baptized. These men are not yet seen upon the missionary reports, but the power of the Gospel is being felt and is working in their lives. The Hindus are a very peculiar people. In the great college halls of Calcutta I preached to thousands of these Hindus. They are very excitable, and when excited have a habit of grasping one foot and swaying back and forth. I told one night there the story of the Saviour's nativity. After I had finished, I said, , Perhaps some of you have not had the opportunity of reading this story. I have a New Testament here, and if anyone cares for it, he may have it.' Now the Hindus have never learned to act independently. They are entirely bound by caste. When I offered that Testament, a wave of feeling rolled over the audience. The excitable men began to sway back and forth and shake their feet with great rapidity. Finally one man raised his hand. Instantly every foot was still. He rose and came forward for the Testament, but the cold perspiration stood out on his face, and he was trembling in every joint of his body. The cause of the excitement was that he had dared to act independently, without the precedent or consent of his caste followers. Once a vast audience was thrown into a state of volcanic excitement by a Brahmin rising to his feet and openly confessing Christ, and on other occasions when one and another rose to ask the prayers of God's people for his soul and that his sins might be forgiven. After he had taken the Testament I offered a number of others; but when I held up my last Testament and offered it to whoever wished it, the ice was broken and the audience rushed forward as one man for that Testament. There was a perfect mob.
"The Hindus are very anxious to learn English, and many of them come to the service for that purpose alone. At one of my services I spoke to a man who listened with great attention, and told him how glad I was to see him so interested, and asked him why he came. He said, ' I wish to improve my English.' One night during a meeting a lot of fellows got up to go out. I said, ' I see there are a number of yOlmg men here who do not understand English, and so, of course, cannot be expected to remain. I will therefore give time to those who do not understand English to leave the hall.' Everyone of them sat down as if he had been shot. They consider it very infra dig not to be able to understand and speak English. Whenever anyone tried to go out during a meeting, I just intimated that he did not understand English, and he immediately sat down again. These meetings were, of course, for the native gentlemen alone, as the women of the higher castes are never seen in public.
" In Lahore we had a hall that held nine hundred people. I announced meetings for educated, English-speaking Indian gentlemen. I announced that the entire body of the hall would be reserved for these gentlemen j and the two side aisles reservcd for the English and Eurasians. At the first meeting there were about one hundred natives. Before the meetings closed, at the end of three weeks, the entire, body of the house reserved for them, accommodating about six hundred, was packed to the doors. On either side we had three hundred Christians, English or Eurasians. At the end of the meetings I ventured to pronounce the benediction. When I did this the English rose, but the natives always remained seated, as it would have been acknowledging Christianity for them to have risen. At the last meeting I preached on the love of Christ and there were many wet eyes. At the end I sung the doxology and pronoullced the benediction. I turned to go, but before I got away some impulse made me turn around, and I came again to the front of the platform, and lifted my hands and said, 'You have been listening to me for three weeks, with a patience and courtesy that I hal'e never met with before. I have pronounced the benediction and I was grieved that you were not on your feet to receive God's benediction. God has sent me back to pronounce that benediction again, and if there is one here who desires to receive the blessing of God, and will indicate it by rising, I will lift my hands and ask the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to abide with you.' I lifted my hands and waited. It seemed as if there was a movement like the rushing of a mighty wind over that audience, and those six hundred native gentlemen sprang to their feet as one man and waited in reverent attitude while I pronounced the benediction. They would not have done this if the Ho9' Spirit had not moved them.
" After preaching three weeks in Poona I was asked to come back again, and they even offered to pay all my expenses if I would return.
MISSIONARY PROGRESS IN CHINA
I have given you only a bird's-eye view of what God is doing in India; what He is doing through these men and women who have taken their lives in their hands and gone there to work for Him.
" I come back from India with a profound respect, almost veneration, for the noble men and women who have gone out to that land to spend their lives in missionary work. We should give them every support of sympathy, of love, and of money to carryon their work."
The Rev. Dr. Waugh, of Lucknow, for thirty-four years a mIsSIOnary in India, who chanced to be at Northfield, and heard Dr. Pentecost's address, was moved to follow the speaker with words of emphatic endorsement and confirmation. "Weare thankful," said he, "that America gave us tte loan of this glorious preacher for seventeen months. He has aroused an interest in Christianity in India, of which he has told you something here, but there are a thousand things which he has not told you. His statements concerning the rapid progress of Christianity and the condition of things in India is confirmed by solid facts. I can testify that his witness is true. I wish that every church in Amadca could hear the speech that we have heard to-night. I do not think Dr. Pentecost could do India and the world any better service than to go all over this country and Europe telling his wonderful story as he has told it to this congregation to-night."
MISSIONARY PROGRESS IN CHINA.* BY REV. JOHN CHALMERS, M.A., LL.D., HONG KONG, CHINA.
Christianity has not shown much vitality in Canton, although in ita Roman form it has been planted there for centuries; and since Morrison arrived in 1807, Protestant missionaries have been at work in the city of Rams with little interruption. It is not, however, safe al ways to judge by appearances, 'even about things material, and still greater is the danger of mistake when we come to judge of spiritual changes. Within the last three years a scheme has originated and taken shape among the native Christians of Canton for the ultimate evangelization of the whole province. I had heard of this in conversation or by letter from time to time, and of course rejoiced in it as a sign of life and progress; though not by any means convinced that it was more than a well-meant attempt on the part of a few to help the missionaries. But I have to-day received two printed pamphlets purporting to be the Regulations and the Report up to date, of * "The accompanying article seems to me of such interest aud importance to Christians the world over. that I have asked Dr. Chalmers, of the London Mission. to permit me to send it to the REVIEW. It speaks of the Chinese Church waking up from the lethargy that has characterized it and beginning to realize that it too has the commission, • Go,' 'make di~ciples.' That it should adopt new methods tells of life with movement.
"Yours very truly, JOHN C. 'fHOllPSON, M.A., M.D." the Canton "Book-lending and Evangelizing Society," the perusal of which has left a strong impression upon my mind that the conquering of the province is no mere dream, but they mean to do it. It is no exaggeration to say that for earnestness of purpose and breadth of view these tracts resemble far more chapters of General Booth edited by Mr. Stead than any utterance of natives of Canton. If these publications were translated into English as good as the Chinese is, which I hope they may be, they wou~d astonish English readers, whether friends of missions or not, by their completeness of detail, by their eloquence of appeal, and perhaps, most of all, by their thoroughly business-like character. In this last feature they present a striking contrast to General Booth's scheme, for no conceivable point seems to have been overlooked in the way of safeguarding the application of the funds.
As is fit and needful, this scheme originated in a prayer.meeting. It appears that the native members of six missions-Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Congregational, Baptist, and Lutheran-have been wont to hold a joint prayer-meeting once every two months, and at such a meeting about three years ago the scheme of a book-lending society was devised. The name is a modest one. Book-lending, provided the books are on hand, most of us find easy. Only about the returning, which is part of the programme, there is sometimes a difficulty. There are about a hundred districts in Canton Province, and it is proposed to send a book-lender into each district. The books are to be the Holy Scriptures, commentaries, other Christian books and tracts, and works on European science. There is a great variety of such books procurable; but a judicious selection is to be made by the managing committee, which consists entirely of Chinese. Nothing is asked from foreign sources except the books, which are cheerfully supplied by the Bible and Tract Societies .in Great Britain and America. A fund for the purchase of books amounting to $1379 has been placed in charge of foreign missionaries to be paid out as required. Beyond this it does not appear that the missionaries have any share in the concern, or any direct control of it. The constituents are the native Christians in town and country, in Hong Kong, in America, in Australia, and wherever else they may be, who are all invited to subscribe, and assured that, whether it be a mite or ten thousand dollars, each subscription will be duly acknowledged for the encouragement of others, and carefully devoted to book-lending purposes. The centre of administration is at Kukfau, in the vicinity of Dr. Kerr's Hospital, Canton. There, at bi-monthlyand annual meetings, all subscribers may' attend personally or by their deputies, and vote on or discuss any matter of the Society, as is done in Exeter Hall by similar bodies of supporters. A full staff of officebearers, a managing committee, and an advisory committee, have been appointed by impartial selection from the six missions. It is stated in the programme, that when the scheme of the Society is matured the foreign missionaries will bl) asked to endorse. And it is declared that the object of the Society is not to baptize or form churches, not to settle questions of terms or dogmas, not even to preach (lest they should thereby gefinto difficulties with one another, or with the heathen), but, in the first instance, quietly to circulate Christian literature in every city, market town, and hamlet in the province of Canton. The book-lending is, howevet, to be followed, after two or three years, by a general offering of prizes for the best essays by non-Christians on Christianity and kindred subjects; and then again, in due time, by the establishment of permanent centres of Christian work, when each of the missions will be invited to come in and take a share in the wide field thus opened, in order to form and build up churches. There are eighteen very practical rules laid down for the conduct of book-lenders. They are to be plain, honest, peace-loving men chosen from the Canton churches, who are willing to serve in this capacity for a consideration of $6 a month. They take with them, besides the books, a small supply of stationery for sale, by way of introduction to schoolmasters in the villages. Books are, of course, to be lent only to schoolmasters and such other respectable residents as can read; and they are lent on trial with the prices marked, a register being kept of the place, the person borrowing, the date, and the book lent, and an intimation given that the lender will return, say, a month after to inquire, and effect a sale or an exchange as may be desired. The lenders are to avoid disputes with the natives, not to resent rudeness, but take it as a thing to be expected, and even if harm is done to the books, they are to be content with the smallest compensation or apology. The only literary qualification necessary in a lender is ability to keep his register and make his report, which is to be transmitted every two months through the nearest mission station.
About $400 have been subscribed, and four book-lenders are at work for the present year in the Prefecture of Shiu-chow on the North River. A letter from one of them giving his report for the first two months is published, and is highly satisfactory.
It is an article of the Society's constitution never to spend the whole of the income in any year, but to accumulate a reserve fund, to be invested for the permanent carrying on of the ever-increasing operations of the Society.
It seems but fair to all concerned, and to the cause of Christian missions, to give publicity to the above statement; and I do not think that I have laid myself open to any charge of trumpet-blowing by giving to the public an abstract of these pamphlets, showing the beginnings of what may turn out to be a very important movement in favor of the Christian leligion in the south of China. At all events this is something to set off against the brutal and Satanic attacks of the Hunanese.-Cltina Mail.
INDUS'l'RIAL EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN FOREIGN FIELDS
INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN FOREIGN FIELDS.
BY MRS. J. T. GRACEY.
Industrial schoolI have come to be of great importance in foreign mission work. The Rev. D. A. Day, of the Muhlenberg Mission, Africa, says: "The mission of the Gospel is to develop nan, not in one direction only, but in his entire being. Give the heathen simply brain culture without teaching him industrial habits, and you have a fool. Take a naked heathen boy, put him in a mission, feed and clothe him without teaching him to work, and you have a man vain in his imaginations. To train the young people of Africa into habits of productive industry is essential to the redemption of the Dark Continent.", The Bishop of Sierra Leone says: "The great need of Africa is not the importation of an army of clerics, but of Christian men and women able to teach the natives useful callings," and on a recent visit to England made arrangements to take out a numbel' of carpenters and agricultural implements, so that all the children in his diocese should be taught some trade. What is true of Africa is true of all mission lands. Some one has said that " honest toil is not an article of complexion," and this lesson needs to be taught to many connected with our missions. In the Methodist Mission in India the Christian boys are taught to make wire mattresses, foldingchairs, boots and shoes of all kinds, and in the Presbyterian Mission Persian rugs of all sizes are made in its carpet shop, in which only Christian labor is employed. So we could mention various lines in which boys are trained; but another problem confronts the missionary force. Bow to take care of the girls and give them proper trades and employment-that is the problem troubling many of our missionaries. Educate the women, and it is surprising what avenues are open to them. Miss Hedrick, the principal for years of the Calcutia boarding-school connected with the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, wrote a very excellent article in a recent number of the Indian Evangelical Review on the " Future of Educated Girls in India," in which sbe says, " When one seeks for something tangible to lay bold of, this subject becomes the veriest will-o'-the-wisp, dazzling for a moment, but persistently eluding the grasp. When I came to India I was often called upon to settIe disputes between my pupils about the respectability of labor. All agreed that certain work was respectable; other class of work was for low-caste people only." She luggests a revolution in old-time practices in India, and says, "Turn the men out into the fields, the foundry, the factory, and let the girl take her place in the hospital, at the desk, in the shop. Let men stop their dressmaking and sewing, and give such work to the women, to whom it properly belongs; let them stop sweeping and making beds, and then this work will drift into the hands of women." She then pleads for the industrial school, and the training of girls in specialties. " Teach them," she says, " to do one thing, and to do it well. Our educated girl must be Christian first; and when willing, yea, anxious to do and be all that God intended her to do and be, just as surely as God made her will she find her place and work."
The native Christian girls of India are many of them taking respoqsible positions. One graduate of a miesion school has charge of one of the Lady Dufferin hospitals, some are clerks in dispensaries, another has been appointed to the charge of a post-office-a thing unknown before in India– and some are in charge of waiting rooms at railway stations.
An industrial school for Mohammedan women was established recently at Guntur by the American Lutheran Mission, the only school of its kind in Southern India. The wives of poor Mohammedans are often obliged to support themselves and their children. To keep a respectable character and earn a livelihood is a difficult question often to settle. These women are paid according to ability in work, the highest receiving about six cents a day, and this is a larger sum than they could get elsewhere. In connection with their work they have one hour devoted to Bible instruction. They have also secular iustruction. The industry taught is Mohammedan embroidery. The patterns are Oriental, worked in gold and silver, brass and silk thread. Their work I ".s been sent to America, England, and Australia, and found a ready sale. A writer says: "A marvellous change has taken place in the workwomen since they first entered the school. When they began to go to the school they were lazy, dirty, and ignorant; now they are growing into careful, energetic, quick women. The pretty patterns, the bright colors, the order around them, have an elevating effect upon them. Every opportunity is used to introduce lady visitors to the school, and these visits bring a bit of the bright outside world into the cramped lives of the poor women. For months after the visit of the collector's wife the women talked of the wonderful English visitors. The lady assistant in charge of the school talks to the women during working hours of the duties of wives and mothers, the care of children, simple remedies for the sick, and gives practical hints concerning general housekeeping. "
In Pithoragarh, a station in the Himalayas, some forty women support themselves by working on the farm in connection with the Home for the Homeless. During the harvest season the missionary spends hours in the field directing the work, and these women are paid the usual ~ages for such work.
In the city of Lucknow a home for women is maintained by the work of the women. They are trained in the use of the sewing-machine, and do plain and fancy sewing and embroidery.
A woman's workshop has been opened in Rangoon, Burma. A large building is rented on one of the principal streets, a forewoman is employed, who lives on the premises, who devotes her time to overseeing the work and receiving orders, and' some sixty women are here making their own living.
18113.] PASTOR-TEACHERS' TRAINING
Some curious information has recently been brought out in regard to the occupations of native Indian women_ In some statistics furnished by the government, we find women reported as officers of local and village government, some as officers of national government, and others as officers of independent States and Governments. We find some as authors, a few as artists, some in mercantile occupations, quite a large number employed in construction of houses, and some as shipbuilder!! and workers in precious metals.
PASTOR-TEACHERS' TRAINING.
BY C. P. HARD, NARSINGHPUR, CENTRAL PROVINCES, INDIA. • This problem has been confronting us for two years. Special success among sweepers, and some advantage gained among mat-makers and a few workers in leather, with a sprinkling from other classes, began in this place on September 29th, 1890.
In four sub-circuits, for a hundred miles along the Grand Indian Penin- , sular Railway, in the eastern part of the Nerbadda Valley, we directed that the new workeI'l!, forty chosen gradually from these classes, should gather at central points for weckly instruction by the older catechist in charge. We called at these points as often as possible. The Rev. Paul Singh went the rounds during the hot months, too; but we were on the lookout for a trained instructor for these pastor-teachers. With the transfer of this station by Bishop Thoburn from our brethren, the Swedes, we also received a letter from sixteen hundred miles away from Mr. H. W. Butterfield, for a long time head clerk and head master for the Government. He proposed to go on pension and give the rest of his life to educating Christians at Narsinghpllr, where he had once been in Government duties. He is assisted by a man from the Bareilly Theological Seminary. Vole have fifty men and boys in the morning school for reading, writing, spelling, and geography, but the Scriptures are the special subject of study.
The first class, a dozen, is to be scattered among the villages at the close of the year, after the District Conference shall have again been held here, and they shall all have had the adv"'-ntages of the Christmas-tree, their first celebration.
Miss Nash has a day school for the wives of students. The married families live in the numerous out-offices of these two mission compounds. The single men, beyond those who have homes in the town or live with relatives, are housed in the ample old rest near the town. Epworth evening debates are lively on themes which are vital to the thought of these men, whose friends are yet so largely in heathenism, or who on the border-land see men as trees walking. We have had compulsory side taking, half the alphabet for and half against propositions regarding callte, idolatrous customs, early marriage, and such questions as, " Shall we employ the young or those over twenty years in the mission~" "Shall we go at once to our fields or stay here for preparation F' "Is it well to buy and sell wives Y" and for to-night it is to be, " Is it right under any circumstances to have more than one wife!" Though they admire Abraham, we shall have a later authority to offset any inference that Sarah's advice would be tolerated in this dispensation.
All the means of grace find prompt participation, all pray, all testify, all are hearty in learning new hymns, all preach in the streets, all do some work in the villages, as Saturdays and Sundays they are free to visit their homes or are appointed to duty, and some are detailed for tours to help the evangelists who are in the districts j but JURt now it is chiefly the obedience to the command to " tarry" for the preparation.
SOUTH AMER!CA AND 'l'HE PAPACY
SOUTH AMERICA AND THE PAPACY.
BY REV. GEORGE W. CHAMBERLAIN, D.D., BRAZIL, SOUTH AMERICA.
Crowning the "Hay-stack" Monument at Williamstown is a marble globe. The lands in view as you approach that memorial of the" pray- ing club" from the front are Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. Only as you retreat from it, facing it, on the rear, does South America ap- pear. It lies on the western slope of the globe and bathes in the warm sunshine of the afternoon.
Even so in the history of the ever-unfolding drama of Redemption, in the growth of the" Oity of God," whose limits extend to the" uttermost parts" of the earth, South America is coming in our day into full view, in that all including providence of the wheel within a wheel. By force of the Divine plan it will come yet more into the prominence for which it was of old prepared, and unto which it has been reserved until the fulness of times.
PREPARED OF OLD.
The idea which held the prow of the ship which Columbus commanded steadily to the West when an unbelieving crew clamored to put about the helm was no new idea, however much so it appeared to the men of that day. It was God's idea, communicated with such force to the mind of a rough sailor that he had to follow it, even as the Magi the star which they in the East had seen. It led to a land prepared of old to be the theatre for the " gathering of the nations." The continent from which he sailed away had been a divider of the nations, for the which also it was of old ordained. But the time was full for the" discovery" of that continent which should gather into its ample hosoms dispersed humanity, and there suckle and nourish it " until we all come to the stature of the perfect man in Christ Jesus." For Humanity is One. And He hath made of one blood all nations. He will prove it against all the vaporings of " philosophy falsely so called," or the crudities of "science," which has yet many things to learn, when it shall clothe itself with humility and sit at the feet of Wisdom (Proverbs viii.). Humanity, harassed and hamlJered on the old continent, has been for more than a hundred years seeking rest on the northern bosom of the Western Continent. It seemed as if the milk of human kindness would flow forever toward the oppressed of all nations from that breast of Mother Earth called the United States of America. No doubt it will ; but just now, in the year of our Lord 1892, and of Columbus 400, the supply is running short, and the Asiatic, including China's millions, " must go." Go where ~ To Ireland-to the only land which the Irish don't govern ~ No! for Ireland, like China, is casting out her children. Where shall they go ~ They will go precisely where they were foreordained to go by that wisdom which the Lord possessed in the beginning of His way, before'His works of old . . • while as yet He had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust (Dust thou art, 0 man I). Where is that ~ Let physical geography-God's handwriting in " depths" and" fountains abounding with water," in " mountains settled" and" hills"- answer. The course of human progress has beoo predeter- mined by the contour and relief of the earth's surface. If the old hemi- sphere said, " Scatter," the new says, "Gather." And they will gather despite all laws of men in Congress assembled; in virtue of the law of God, who not only" hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," but also " hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." The" wrath of man" against his fellow shall help to carry out this plan. South America's time has come. She is now unbaring her bosom to all nations of men. Notable coincidence! At the crisis when the United States of America is saying, " Go" to the Chinese, the United States of Brazil is forced by economic reasons to say, " The Chinese must come." Africa contributed her quota, but African slave labor has had its day. European free labor comes slowly to the rescue and is sparse. South America stretches out her arms to Asia in the year of our Lord 1892. No longer can the Pope divide this southern continent and give it to whom he will. He, too, has had his day. Papacy in South America has been " found out."
Members of the congress of all American nations visiting in the" City of Brotherly Love" said to the gentleman who led them in worship at Girard College: "There is not a man of us who does not know that the greatest foe of liberty of our nations is Rome;" not Rome of Victor Immanuel, but Rome of " His Holiness." "The Pope and the Council" has been allowed to run out of print in its English edition, which is only one of the many symptoms of the blindness which has happened to English-speaking peoples. A Portuguese edition lies before me, translated and edited, with a notable introduction, by a foremost statesman of SOl).th America. "Of all emergent questions," he says, " none equals in reach, none exceeds in urgency, the religious. . " No one ignores that the pontifical Church is an organization universal, an ambition nniversal, a plan universal. . . . The evolutions of her tactics. are reproducing themselves in America with the same strategy as in Europe. The features of the papacy will be always identical with those of to-day, and each time more accented, because on the one hand its spl:rit, child of a gestation multisecular, incarnated in the most marvellously wise of all centralizations, and chained to the interests of an innumerable caste, can by no man be transformed; and on the other, the galvanic life of this institution, inwardly decomposed by the vices on which it feeds, has its secret in the reactionary audacity which constitutes its type. The papacy goes its way . • . it can perish more easily than go back."
Availing himself of the book of " Janus," "the most notable product and the most expressive symptom of Christian re-birth of the nineteenth century," " one of those rock-books of perennial tempestivity which abide, transmitted from generation to generation," this writer contributes some solid material to the instauration of religious liberty in the South American States. He speaks not from the religious, but from the political standpoint when he says: "It may be seen there (in' Janus ') with noonday clearness how from that millennial superposition of vices, abuses, and crimes; • . • from a system of falsification, employed indefatigably upon the Holy Scriptures, upon canonical and patristic collections, upon acts of synods, the liturgy and the imperial history, arose and was forn:ed that idolatry of pontifical infallibility which places the whole invincible abysm of the Gospel between the Church of Rome and the Christ. . •. The substantial character of the book (' The Pope and the Council ') is a rigorously historic demonstration of the intimate and exclusively political natu1'e of the papacy. • • ." It is demonstrated that Romanism is not religion but politics, and the most vicious, the most unscrupulous, and the most pestilent of all politics. Sketching rapidly the" incursions of the pontifical primacy in national churches, its usurpations in the bosom of States, and the repeated and peremptory denials of catholicity to the infallibilist presumptions of the tiara i" evidencing" the absolute identity between the idea of infallibility and that of omnipotence in the jurisdiction of heaven and in that of earth;" proving" the incompatibility, philosophically and practically irreconcilable, between the syllabus-that abominable symbol of papolatry-and any modern constitution," he ventilates the religious question in all its relations, and indicates the natural and definite solution of the problem.
.A FREE CHURCH IN A FREE STATE• .A State free from the dominion of the Church and the Church free from the papacy is an aspiration of young South America. For three centuries she held her breath at the bidding of the Pope; but her breast is heaving with the breath of the .Almighty. It bccomes articulate in the language of South .American statesmen. "A curia Romana has been at all times a potency only nominally religious, and always intimately, essentially, and indefatigably political. Religion, moral authority, for long centuries has not been for the papacy anything else than the occasion, the means, or the pretext for interference in the temporal administration of the State. "
" The heresy of domination is the greatest of heresies against the cross, because it transforms into a word of discord for human societies the word of Him who, to bring them peace, instituted the universal city in the higher world, vos de mundo hoc estis, ego non sum de hoc mundo."
., Rome has not renounced the principle that the Pope is the Lord over cru.wned heads, and has power to release subjects from their oaths of fidelity." "Gregory VII. left in his doctrines to papal Rome a tradition which has not ceased until now to be the soul of the Roman Church. . • ." " If the Holy See received from God the power to pronounce sentence in spiritual things, why not in temporal things also? The episcopate is as much superior to royalty as gold is superior to lead ; well did Constantine know it when, among bishops, he took the last place." "The prince (or in modern States the gov~rnment, parliaments, and cabinets) who incurs in heresy loses all authority. Subjects can, and ought when they can, rebel against him. This theory is a point of faith admitted by all theologians worthy of note in Rome. . . . It is to be noted that Rome has not repudiated. these principles. She has left them in reserve because she lacks coercitive resources."
"Papal centralization • . • the continual invasion of the temporal authority by the Church, gave us Protestantism. The' heresy' dominant in the sixteenth century was resistance to the abusive Roman unity•••• A counter-blast was needed. The Jesuits appeared. Instituted in a century full of vital energy, in a century of intellectual, political, and religious resurrection, they consubstantiated in themselves in an unheard-of degree all the principles hostile to these three vivifying forces of the world. Rome breathed her soul into the company. The order is not the evil genius of the papacy, but its delectable offspring. A rule of evangelical wisdom, proverbial everywhere, teaches us to know the tree by its fruit. Wherever Jesuitism has taken root no one can find any difference between its fruits and those of the soil where the papacy reigns directly, absolutely, visibly.
"Cast your eyes on the States of the Church before the fall of the temporal power-sad evidence of the sterilized virtues of the theocracy. There the observer encounters the most authentic and instructive example of the absorption of the individual conscience by absolutism exercised in the nallie of heaven. The social state wherever their principles have been filtered in during generations was never anything but the lowest.
" There is Paraguay-Paraguay, the prime work of the Jesuits, their boast, the miracle of their beneficent propaganda, the mysterious land of blessing with which they deluded, in Europe, even sincere and illustrious wen like Chateaubriand! Even to this day they describe that as a para- * dise. ' Paraguay,' says Padre Sambin, 'presented marvels similar to those of the first Christian centuries.' , In a few -years,' says another Jesuit, praising his own order, t 'the most savage tribes formed, under their influence, model societies, such as philosophy could never create in the bosom of civilized peoples; THE MOST PERFECT REPRODUCTION OF EDEN which it has been possible to obtain from our fallen nature.' 'These marvels,' he adds, ' the Catholic apostolate created in the past century in Paraguay, and can yet renew them.' Says the Brazilian author: 'Yet five years of war, in which our armies (the allied forces of Brazil, Argentine, and Urugnay) penetrated the interior of that country enabled us to judge of Edenic state idealized and desired by Jesuitism.'
" Everyone knows what we found there-a nation of creatures debased below slavery, without law, without rights, without tribunals, without government, without morality, social or domestic, without family, without * Da Cornpautria, Histoire du Concile, Lyon, 1872, t Ramiere, Lea doctrine romaines, Paris, 1870, instruction, without industry, without commerce-a tribe of fanatics poor to penury, savage even to ferocity. This is Jesuistic Catholicism which Roman Catholicism boasts of as the most perfect image of heaven on earth, as an ideal superior to all civilized peoples. • •• Behold the prosperity which our Catholic party (political) reserves for their fellow-countrymen."
I have quoted largely from the book" 0 Papa e 0 Concilio," by the eminent writer and patriotic Brazilian senator, Ruy Barboza, that the readers of the MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD may see not through the ('yes of a missionary, but of an enlightened South American statesman what papacy has done and is expected to do in this region of the world.
Iii there no brighter side ~ Thank God, answering to this cry of distress and dire need, the heart of the Church beats responsively, and already the blessing of the Lord on the efforts of the past thirty-three years (one generation) has created self-sustaining churches in Brazil and other South American republics, so that if a relative progress is observed it will not be many generations until this will cease to be a missionary field except in the sense of home missions. These are already begun. MisswB Nacionws at least, in Brazil, is an established arm of service. By the fund thus called, to which all churches and all individual believers are urged to contribute as the Lord prospers them, weak churches are yearly rising to self-support and becoming in turu nursing mothers. A Revista de Missws Nacionws, edited by one of our ablest nati va ministers, is contributing to create and foster the spirit of self-help throughout the bounds of the Brazilian Church. Many affecting examples might be given of those who give to the extent of their power and beyond it.
Into this field the Y. M. C. A. entered a year ago in the person of their first secretary, Myron A. Clark. He has justly merited the sympathy of Brazilian Christians, and now that he has begun to use fluently the Portuguese will soon be able to communicate with the youth of the land. I append some notes of Mr. Clark.
Things accomplished: (1) Organization in Sao Pr.ulo of a young men's Bible class, to study special association course; lessons being published weekly in the Exposi,- tor. Average attendance, 13. (2) Adoption of resolution, assuring support, sympathy, and co-operation by the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Brazil. (3) Adoption of similar resolution by the Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Brazil. Difficulties : (1) Lack of preparation among young men. (2) Lack of realization of duty, value and privilege of Bible study. (3) Lack of desire for personal aggressive work among their fellows. Hopes for future : (1) To stimulate a desire for and appreciation of Bible study. (2) To arOURe on the part of Christian young men an earnest effort to evangelize their fellows. (3) Regular organizations later in such cities as Rio and Sao Paulo.
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
n.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GBACEY, D.D.
THE OVERLOOK AND OUTLOOK. pire. A clear view of its history and effects gives one strength and inspira- A. NEW YEAR'S SYMPOSIUM. tion. What has it done in Turkey in a little over fifty years? It has introduced 1893. femrue education and compelled its ac- ceptance. It has done much toward re- The Outlook. storing the home as God intended it to exist. It has brought forth or spurrea BY BISI£OP J. M. THOBURN, D.D., CALCUTTA, on to efficiency whole systems of educa- tion. It has done more than anything INDIA. else in the vast interior of the country, not to say in the chief cities, to bring in The present outlook is the best since enlightened medical practice, and drive Carey's trumpet was first sounded. The old systems to the wall and make them era of experiment is over now, and the a laughing-stock. It has given the Bible time for action has fully come. All do and a considerable body of excellent not realize it, and some do not believe literature to the people in several lan- U; but every year adds to the number guages. It has brought into being hunof those who dismiss their scruples and dreds of evangelical congregations, with their fears and hasten to thrust their schools and meeting-places, these being well on the road to self-support. It has sickles int~ the first ripe field of golden introduced colleges and seminaries for both sexes. It has founded hospitals grain which they find within reach. I and orphanages. It has brought forth am confident that before the year 1900 missionary societies. It has diffused every missionary body in India will be general intelligence. It has, in some found fully committed to the great work ways, made as great a difference between of gathering in converts by the score the first half and the last half of this and the hundred and nurturing them .century, in that country, as there is befor God and heaven. I shall be sur- tween the sixteenth and the nineteenth prised and disappointed indeed if the in Europe. ingathering of the next eight years does not exceed that of the previous ninety- What, then, is the prospect? If the two. The converts may be from the Gospel of Christ exert its benign and ranks of the lowly, but the lowly of this peaceful influence for half a century century will be the leaders of the next. more, as it has for half a century past, it The Brahman must accept Christ, or see will increase light and knowledge, prothe pariah walk past him in the rltce of mote love and good-will, multiply happy progress. The first converts in India homes, reform abuses, alleviate the will be the Brahmans of a future genera- woes of infancy and age, develop public tion. Already the valleys' have com· spirit and promote social improvement menced to rise. and the mountains are -all these secondary things it will do, beginning to be brought low. Now, as as it has been doing, till that shall bein ancient days, God is choosing for come a pleasant land to dwell in; all Himself a people who were not a people, these secondary things will it do, but, and in the sight of all the nations a better than all, it will do what it has worm shall be chosen with which to been doing-make peace between man's thresh the mountain. soul and his God, purify the heart, and teach man, while living here below, to Results and Prospects in Turkey, live as a citizen of the heavenly country, BY REV. C. C. TBACY, MARSOVAN.
Before the Crimean War evangelism had begun its work in the Turkish Em- "The Poor have the Gospel Preached did the Macedonian cry sound 110 loudly to Them." as at the present moment.
BY REV. CYRUS HAMLIN, D.D., LEXINGTON, " O'er the desert's burning sands, O'er the ocean's stormy wave, MASS. Voices cry from distant lands, The highest glory of modern missions Come to help us! Come to save I" is that unto the poor the Gospel is preached. Its greatest triumphs are And veteran toilers in the foreign field, among the poor-the common people. as they fall, one after another, echo with It should be so; for emphasis the words of Father Gulick, of the Sandwich Islands, uttered just be- 1. It is ill accord with the spirit and fore his death: "The nearer I get to example of Christ. He gave to the meso eternity the more grand and momentous sengers of John as proofs of His mes- does the cause of missions appear. In siahship, "The dead are raised, and comparison with this, how insignificant unto the poor the Gospel is preached." the pursuit of earthly pleasures, riches, or honor !" 2. They are the chief part of the human race. The common people in Naturally my own vision turns par. all heathen lands may justly be called ticularly to Southeastern Africa, where the poor. I have spent most of my life, and where the outlook is full of encouragement. I 3. They are the most accessible. The thank God that the British South Africa common people heard Him gladly. The Company, dominates so large a territory missionary churches in all lands have populated by tribes which for centuries very fe w converts among the rich and have been sunk in superstition and adprosperohs. dicted to barbarous customs. Of the Bantu race, numbering, it is supposed, 4. They constitute the brightest ex· about one fourth the population of Afriamples of the transforming power of the ca, the most interesting are those speak- Gospel. Out of these poor, degraded, ing the Zulu dialect, all of whom are ac. ignorant people come forth men and cessible, if we except the Amazimu, on women of saintly character, of superior Lake Tanganyika, to missionary opera. mental endowments, pure in life, un- tions. God in His providence has sent selfish, consecrated to the service of the the Anglo-Saxon race to the southern Lord, often not counting their lives dear part of the continent to prepare the way unto them. This is a transformation for the dissemination of His truth. which the world is compelled to take Laborers of the A. B. C. F. M. have been knowledge of. busy, during the past fifty years, in stocking the divine arsenal wit.h weapons 5. They are furnishing the agents for to use in the " holy war" that is to be the world's conversion. In God's good waged in conquering for Christ, Africans time they will rise into all the places of widely extended, but with a common power, for "the people shall be all kinship, ethnologically and linguisti. righteous," and the whole world shall cally considered. The Bible, religious haTe one Lord, one faith, and one bap. tracts, and elementary school books in tism in the Spirit. the Zulu language are available.
Signs of the Times in South Africa. The Zulu Mission has made a new de. parture, the result of which will be can· BY REV. JOSIAH TYLER, D.D., ST. JOHNS· templated with interest. I refer to the sending of Bome of its members to initio BURY, VT. ate work in the northern part of Gaza. land, with the promise of protection The most encouraging sign of the from its chief, Gungunyana. We have times, viewed in relation to the world's reason to believe that Natal natives, evangelization, is, in my opinion, the fact that nearly all parts of it are open And ready to receive the Gospel. Never graduates of the theological school, will labor, in treaty stipulation with Christian soon follow, and under the guidance of Powers. white missionaries, do good work for the Master in that new field. The Bible is translated into the lan- guages used by nearly nine tenths of these In Natal itself the missionary pros- vast multitudes of people. Christian pects were never brighter. labors have already been commenced in aU these lands. Converts have been Then and Now. made, churches organized, schools and colleges have been established, Christian BY REV. A. P. HAPPER, D.D., GLENSHAW, teachers and preachers have been train- ed, and a Christian literature prepared PA. in all these lands. The fields are every- where white to the harvest. Those who The outlook for missions is as hope- go forth now enter into the labors of ful as the providences and promises of their predecessors. These are a few of God can make it. the favoring providences of God. How great and glorious they are ! Our blessed Lord said : "All power is given unto Me in heaven and earth. Go The promises are all " yea" and ye, therefore, and teach all nations. " amen." "I will pour out My spirit Lo, I am with you always, unto the end upon all flesh." "All the ends of the of the world." For three hundred years earth shall see His salvation." "The after the ascension of our Lord, His dis- knowledge of God shall cover the whole ciples, in carrying out the commission, eaTth." "The kingdoms of this world were subject to persecutions,revilings, have become the kingdom of the Lord scourgings, imprisonments, and martyr- and of His Christ." The outlook, theredom by the authorities and people in ac- fore, of Christian mission is as hopeful cOl'dance with the laws of the empire of and sure as the existence and faithful- Rome. These things existed in addition ness of God. Heaven and earth shall to the ignorance, superstition, idolatry, pass away; but not one jot or tittle of wickedness and enmity to God which all that God hath spoken shall fail of a everywhere filled the hearts of the peo- glorious accomplishment. ple. With the accession 6f Constantine to the throne this exposure to legalized The Day is Dawning. opposition and violence was r(lmoved, and freedom and safety in the prosecu- BY REV. ALONZO BUNKER, D.D., TOUNGOO, tion of evangelistic work were secured. BURMA. A hundred years ago, when the first Protestant missionaries were sent forth, When Dr. Judson was once asked, the lands in which the 800,000 hea· after several years of labor in Burma, then and Moslems Jived were closed without a single convert, "What the to the entrance of the missionaries. prospect of success was?" he replied, The whole of Asia and Africa were "Success is as sure as the promises of closed. Now the countries in which the God." 1,000,000,000 of the non-Christian populations are, are open to the unrestricted In any outlook for success on mission entrance of the missionaries of the cross. fields, the promises of God afford a sure There is safe and comfortable convey-' resting-place for the feet of the weary ance on the vessels of commerce to every worker, and by faith the future is full land. In every land the messengers of of a glorious victory. Jesus" shall see the Gospel are under the protection of of the travail of his soul and be satisthe rulers of the Christian Powers of the fied." world. The free use of all evangelizing agencies and the liberty to converts to In the present age, however, there are profess Christianity are guaranteed by many" signs of the times" which give the rulers of the lands in which they us a lively hope of great successes in the near future, These signs 'are so manifest that it seems almost presumption cannot fail to show ~ remarkable mto mention them. crease of missionary knowledge and zeal First is the noticeable unrest among in Christian lands. The organized work those heathen nations with which the for the instruction of youth in all Chris Gospel has had most to do. Both among tian work, the practical results of this the Hindus and the Buddhist races teaching, as well as a drawing together their leaders are putting forth so maDY and a better organization among God's efforts to steady the ark of their faith people generally, is a wonderful adthat it is evident that they regard it in vance on the past. Taking this great danger. These attempts to adjust old movement as a response, under the faiths to the new light indicate their col- direction of the Holy Spirit, to inlapse, which may be much nearer than creasing calls from heathen lands, we many think. The Paramats of Burma, are obliged to stand with uncovered the Buddhist revivals in China and heads, for it is the work of our God. Japan, and the Brahmo.somaj of India He creates the call and prepares the anare but" signs of the tiwes. " swer. He sets the battle and plans the victory. Again, as God has a perfect plan in the natural, so in the spiritual world. Finally, the success of such evangel- " Even the hairs of your head .are num- ists as Miiller, Somerville, Pentecost. hered." So His places for the kingdom and others among nations where, a fllw of His Son are laid with infinite care, years ago, they would be neither reeven in the minutest detail. He calls ceived nor understood, is significant. His servants, chooses the nations He This, with the rapid progress of the will use, and plant.. His strategic cen- English language among Eastern natres of light wi th Divine wisdom. Look- tions, leads us to believe that the time is ing for this plan in work alreadyaccom- near when a nation shall be born in a plished, there is enough revealed to day. Yes! The day is dawning, and make the outlook for the immediate God's weary workers may well congratufuture full of thrilling anticipations. late each other, for all these things be- token a speedy proclamation of the This is true, not only among the more Gospel to all nations of the earth, and civilized races, hut emphatically so then cometh the end. among the" no peoples" who have been reached by the Gospel. Who could South America. have anticipated the results which have been achieved among the despised races BY BEV. CHARLES W. DREES, D.D., BUENOS of India? What a glorious outlook for the future of the Redeemer's kingdom, AIRES, ARGENTINA. through the zeal which they show in proclaiming the truth, even among their Doubtless each of the great mission former masters! fields of the Church possesses its own characteristic features of interest which Again, wherever we look there is, in constitute for each its own peculiar all the world, a marshalling of forces for claim upon the sympathy and help of or against our Lord. In heathen lands those who are engaged in the work of the work of the last century has been sending the Gospel message to a world largely preliminary. That work is now lying in darkness and in sin. near completion. Spiritual forces are cumulative. For this reason statistics South America, though perhaps least always fail to represent spiritual resnlts. heard of and least thought of, has its This massing of spiritual forces shows own case to urge, its own plea to make. us that the great battle is about to be And surely it has some special claim joined ; and this means victory, for our upon the interest of the churches of Captain was never defeated. A com- America. parison of the present with the past It is an American mission field. Its people share with us the heritage given By a marvellous historic development to the world by the penetrating genius, under the gllidance of that Providence the mighty faith and the God.sustained, which administers the government of indomitable perseverance of Coillmblls. this world with a view to its redemp- It is constitllted a mission field by the tion, this whole continent has been fact that its predominant religiolls opened to the proclamation of the Gos- thought and life are determined by a pel. With the siugle exception of Equa.
perverted and corrupted form of the dar, there are everywhere to be found Christian faith, while in the heart of religious toleration founded upon legal the continent there still remains the enactment, or upon a well-defined and darkness of paganism, unillumined by intelligent public conviction, a strong a single ray of the Light of the World. sentiment among inllllential men in This field, therefore, invites to each of favor of the prosecution of our evan- two chief forms of mission work. On gelical work, hearts prepared to receive the one hand it calls for the continu- the message and embrace the truth, and ance among peoples of Latin origin of frllits already gathered which are God's the work of the Reformation, which in seal of ap'proval upon the work already the sixteenth century won such mighty done and His call to the wide-open victories among the nations of Central doors which no man can shut.
and Northern Europe, while it was so strangely hindered in its progress and finally completely paralyzed among the Under the Southern Oross. Latin peoples of Southern Europe. On the other hand, it invites to the first MIsSIONS IN AUSTBALIA.
evangelization of pagan tribes who have BY REV. ROBERT STEEL, D.D., NEW SOUTH for centuries resisted the efforts of WALES. Roman Catholic missionaries, and have as yet never had the offer of a pure Gos- At the Federal Assembly of the Pres- pel teaching held out to them. A con- byterian Chllrches of Australia and Tas- tinent with 23,000,000 of Spanish and mania, held at Adelaide, in September, Portuguese mixed races, with 3,000,000 some interesting particulars were given of negro freedmen, and 40,000,000 of regarding the missions in Australia.
pagan Indians surely offers a vast field These embrace Chinese, the aborigines, for evangelization. and the Kanakas or Polynesians. Re- It is a continent of American repub- garding the latter there are some strik- lics, with ten nations who have modelled ing facts. There are now 9000 in Qlleens- their civil institutions after those of land. Several missionaries are working the United States of North America, among them. The Presbyterian mis- yet are lacking in that sense of indi- sionary is at Walkerstown, in a centre of vidual responsibility to God and regard 16 plantations. He has 1800 under in- for His revealed Word which are the struction, 233 of whom have been bap- only sure ground for truly republican tized. A great change for the better institutions. If we are to maintain has resulted from his labors. These American institutions for all America, natives are now learning habits of thrift, we must give the Bible and the faith of and they have $100,000 in the savings the Bible to South America. banks.
This continent, considered as a mis- The aboriginal mission in Northern sion field, has been left to the Christian Queensland is making progress. The churches of North America. The great government Resident at Thursday missionary societies of Great Britain Island lately visited the States, and and continental Ellrope have relegated expressed a hope that many more of to us the evangelization of this Western sllch might be established and a mis- world. sion vesst>l secured, New Hebrides. who loved us and gave Himself for us.
THE NANUA SLAVE TRAFFIC. We believe that the Gospel is the only real civilizer of man wherever found; BY RloIV. J. G. PATON, D.D. all brought under its power and influ. ence soon enjoy all the blessings of civ- Mr. Sawers, who was murdered lately ilization which accompany it and follow on Santo, was not "a young English in its train. The Master's advice is, missionary." as stated, but a trader liv- " Seek ye first the kingdom of God and ing on Santo. He had just been mar- His righteousness, and all other things ried to a British woman, to whom he shall be added unto you."
had been engaged for some twelve years; Many lives were taken, and are yet but instead of taking his bride with him taken, by the cannibals of those islands to his home, he left her at the mission who have not been reached by the en.
house of Rev. Joseph Annand, M.A., lightening, sanctifying power of the who had celebrated the marriage, and Gospel ; but on the twenty islands our went off in his boat avowedly to prepare mission occupies, life and property are his house for her. On reaching his sta. now comparatively safe, and they will tion, the Santo natives murdered him, become safe on all, as the natives are led for some reason unknown to us ; but to love and serve God. Trade and large even among our savages there is gener- commercial business is also now follow- ally some cause for such revenge upon ing in the wake of the teaching of the traders living among them. Gospel where a few years ago no white Mr. and Mrs. Annand, our excellent man durst set foot on shore without the missionaries living on Tangoa, off Santo, fear of being killed and eaten by the having recently opened a new station savages. Oh that such races could en- there among the cannibals, were placed joy communion with its blessings with- in considerable difficulty and danger by out its curses in intoxicating drinks, this murder. The natives all left their opium, dynamite, fire·arms, and vice, station and gave up attending the school as forced upon them by trading pioneers and church, and for a time the work of from civilized nations to their destruc- the missions among them was suspend- tion, as now among the remaining ed ; but Mr. Annand wisely and devot- heathen of our island! The wonder to edly improved the time at his printing- me is that they don't murder ten for press, printing the Gospel by Matthew, everyone of the slavers, or "Kanaka which he had translated into their Ian. labor traffickers," who are sailing about guage. French and Englishmen.of.war among the islands to kidnap and get have since punished the murderers of away, by every means in their power, Sawers and his party, if possible to in- all the young men and women who so timidate the il!landers from taking the fall into their hands. Britain would lives of other traders, and make them murder every man who so, under any and their property more safe till those pretense, robbed her of her sons and islands are annexed and under the gov. daughters, and the world would praise ernment of some civilized nation. How- her for it and support her in it ; and ever, we look not to ciVilization, but to yet she tolerates this blood-stained traffic the blessed, enlightening, and sanctify. with its many evils, as by law author- ing influences of the Holy Spirit on the ized in Queensland, New Caledonia, teaching of our dear Lord ,Jesus as reo etc., which is rapidly depopulating the vealed in the Scriptures to lead civil. islands and sweeping away defenceless ized or savage nations to fear God and races to satisfy the godless white men's respect the li ves and propert.y of others; greed of gain by them. Oh for the time hence we pray and labor by the Gospel when everyone sball do to his neighbor to lead all to know and love and serve as he would be done by from love to the Jesus Christ as theif God a!:ld SaViour, Lord Jesus! Double the Force. little for Christian nurture and the up. building of men unless they are supplied BY BD. BENBY N. COBB, D.D., NEW YORK with the Bible. 'rhe full equipment of mankind for the service of God calls not CITY. for the four Gospels alone, or the epis- tles alone, but for the law, the prophets, I don't know that I could put into and the Psalms also; for promise and .. 300" or 3000 .. Vords" my idea of type as well as fulfilment ; for the Old the really stupendous work before the Testament as well as the New; for the Church of Christ, the grand openings Bible as the one Book which teaches and opportunities for work or the bless- what man is to believe concerning God ed results already achieved. I am sure and what duty God requires of man. the churches of every name might, with immediate advantage, double at once Thus far we have only begun to supply the number of men and the amount of the world with this Book. It Bounds means now contributed to their foreigIl well to enumerate 3M languages in work. I know ours could. We should which men may read of Christ and His hardly need a day to consider where the salvation; but in only 90 of the 304 is increase should be bestowed. If this the entire Bible printed; and of these be so, how great does the responsibility 90 one half only are the product of this of the churches become, in view also century of missions. We count, then, of the means at their disposal! 214 languages which convey to men a part only of the revealed Word, while The Outlook for Bible Work. the entire Scriptures are inspired and profitable for them. Moreover, 56 of BY BET. EDWARD W. GILMAN, D.D., BIBLE the 214 have only a single portion of the Bible, a Gospel, or some other book, BOUSE, NEW YOBK. and 131 of them have less than the New Testament. Not to speak, then, of Ian. Every Christian heart recognizes with guages as yet unstudied and unwritten, gratitude and wonder the work which there is a call during the present decade has been accomplished in a century in for competent scholars to go on and preparing new versions of the Holy complete the translation of the New Scriptures and circulating them far and Testament in 131 languages and dia. wide in all parts of the world. A hun. lects, and to carry on to its end the dred years ago there were barely 50 lan- translation of the Old Testament in guages in which the Bible had been more than 200 different languages. printed; now some parts of it can be found in more than 300 languages and It takes a man a lifetime to translate dialects. The long list of new transla- every chapter of the Bible and faith. tions made since the founding of the fully reproduce the mind of the Spirit British and Foreign Bible Society in in a strange tongue. Mr. Bingham has 1804 is an enduring monument of PI'· just accomplished this for the Gilbert tient scholarship and resolute effort in Islanders, whose language he began to one line of Christian endeavor. reduce to writing in 1857, and his com- pleted work will not appear until 1893. But there remains an immense amount Then, as a rule, first translations are of work to be accomplished. The Bible tentative, sure to require revision and constitutes what St. Jerome called the chang!l after mistakes have been point. "divine library," and until all nations ed out and improvements have been snghave that entire library in a printed gested by experience. The Syriac Bible, book and in their own vernacular, the begun by Dr. Perkins and his associates evangelization of the world will not be in 1836, and first printed in 1852, has complete. A single chapter of the Bible been for years undergoing revision to may"indeed cast a flood of light upon a meet the wants of outlying communiti,s community, and, like the star in the east, may lead men to Christ. But the evangelization of a people implieR Christian institutions, and the family, the schoo], and the church accomplish hal whose dialects had not been studied by with the help of the Rev. John Edwards. the earliest missionaries to Persia. The Zulu Bible, commenced nearly sixty And for Spanish.speaking America it years ago, and first printed in 1883, is in the hands of revisers who will need has nearly ready for publication aver. years to get their work ready for the press. Marshman's Chinese Bible, sion of the Bible in Spanish, made by printed as early as 1822, has been followed by numerous recensions and in- the Rev. H. B. Pratt, of the Southern dependent versions; but for a standard Presbyterian ChUl'ch, with the aid of Chinese Bible, embodying the results of enlarged study of the language, we must numerous scholars, among whom are the look to the labors of a large committee which has but just been organized for Rev. H. C. Thomson, D.D., of the Theo. work. These are but hints of the toil and effort which must be given by the logical School at Tlalpam, Mexico, and missionaries now in the field and by their immediate successors and associ- the Rev. J. M. Lopez, of New York. It ates in one line of Christian service. is hoped that this translation will Their work will hardly be done in this generation. eventually be accepted as preferable to the one in common use, which was made nearly three hundred years ago.
[With two exceptions, the short arti. cles composing our Symposium were kindly contributed in response to a re- quest for a brief Bulletin. The other two are used, being adapted to the same end. All the writers have placed us under obligation, and have our thanks. -J. T. G.] Besides the above, Dr. Gilman favors A Word from the Arabia.n Mission. us with the following items: BY BEV. S. lII. ZWElIIEB. For missions in the Pacific Ocean under the care of the American Board We feel very much encouraged with (Congregational), the Bible Society has the prospect of work here. I am just just printed an edition of the books of back from a preaching tour of 700 miles Genesis and Exodus in the Ruk lan- up to Bagdad and down the Euphrates. guage, and also has in press the entire The latter river was never before visited Bible for tl1e Gilbert Islanders. by a missionary, as far as I could learn. From Hillah I came down in a native To meet an urgent appeal for Scrip- boat, and had some real experiences of tures from missionaries of different so- Bedouin life and Moslem prejudice, cieties laboring in South Africa, it is the more so as I went at Moharram preparing a set of photo-engraved plates season right through sacred territory. for a new edition of the Zulu Bible. Rev. Catine has much work with our Bible shop. We find quite a demand It has on hand for the Mission of the for our books, and sales have been en- Presbyterian Board in Persia a very couraging. difficult and costly work, the printing of the revised Syriac Bible, under the Re'enforcement in Japan. supervision of Rev. B. Labaree, D.D. This version has been very dear to the In the September REVIEW one of our Nestorian Christians since it was first esteemed corresponding editors, Rev. given to them by Dr. Justin Perkins Dr. Knox, of Japan (p. 654), reviewing and his associates some forty years the year 1891 in Japan, argued for the ago. maintenance of an adequate force, as "nothing is more discouraging than For the Creek and Seminole Indians, work half manned and half done." He who come under the care of Presbyte- advocated the policy of strong re·enrian, Methodist, and Baptist native pas- forcements of existing missions, and tors, it is printing for the first time a deprecated an increase of the number version of Genesis in the Muskokee lan- of feebly manned new missions. He guage, prepared by the Rev. J. R. Ram- referred to the new mission of the Evansay and Mrs. A. E. W. Robertson, Ph.D., g!~l Lutherans, who, he said, had sent out but one man. He asked: "Must it Lutheran Church. Its boara carefully send its little force, too small for effi- and prayerfully and long considered the ciency and yet large enough to increase question of beginning work in Japan_ our denominations already far too According to their best jUdgment, there many?" was still room there for our work_ The Rev. L. G. M. Miller, minister 'Every creature' has not yet been of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, reached there with the Gospel, and Winchester, Va., writes a bitter com- until this is the case, surely we too are plaint against these utterances finding equally entitled with Dr. Knox to seek their way into the REVIEW. We beg to to oueyour Lord's command. We in remind him that the REVIEW assumes no no way seek to hinder or disparage him responsibility for opinions or state- or the body of Christians he represents ments which appear over well-known in their work. We accord them the names. We seek to furnish an arena, right of judgment as to where they had not for controversy surely, but for free best labor. He ought to do the same expression of even widely divergent by us."
opinions. That there is more than one view concerning" polity" in Japan is well known. We cheerfully make room Programme for the Decennial Oonferfor the following from our corre- enoe in Bombay! 1892-93. spondent's communication, though it seems to UR that Dr. Knox's only plea [We are indebted to Rev. J. L. Philis for a large force, if any. Bishop Mal- lips, M.D., for this advance copy. He lalieu, of the Methodist Episcopal and Mr_ A. Manwaring will accept our Church, during his recent visit in Japan, pleaded with his board for re-en- thanks.-J. T. G.] forcement, because he could place the Thursday, Dec. 29th, 10 A.M. to 1 P.M.
right kind of men in a dozen cities not -" Missionary Work among the De- now occupied by a.ny missionary.- pressed Classes and the Masses." (a) [J, T. G.] Nature of Instruction given (i) before Mr. Miller says: Baptism (ii) after Baptism. (b) Moral and Spiritual Results Produced. (C) The "Dr. Knox's statement seems to im- Best Methods of Work for the Future. ply that 'one man' was contemplated Papers-Rev. J_ E. Clough, D.D., Onas the extent of our force in Japan. It gole, Madras; Rev. S_ Martin. D.D., appears that this is not the case. Not Sialkot, Panjab; Rev. E. W. Parker, only is another on the way now, but we D.D., Lucknow. Speakers-Rev. A. hope to continue to add to their num- . Campbell, Manbhum, Bengal; Rev. ber. We go with no purpose of creat- W. H. Campbell, M.A., B.D., Cuddaing 'any confusion.' Our aim is to pah, Madras; Rev. .Ruttonji Nowroji, preach the Gospel and that alone, and Auruugabad, Berar ; Rev. W. S. Sutherin no way to interfere with others who land, M.A., Kalimpong. Bengal.–2 to may be doing the Lord's work in other 4.30 P.M. (Sectional.) (1)" Social and parts of the field. Dr. Knox seems to Legal Rights of Native Christians.-Marimply that the field is already fully oc- riage and Divorce." Papers-Rev. R. A. cupied. It is very far from being so. I Hume, Ahmednagar; Rev. H. E. Perquote from Rev. J. A. B. Scherer, our kins, Atari, Panjab. Speakers-Rev. missionary now on the ground. Appaji Bapuji, Poona ; Rev. K. C. Cbat- There are not less than four cities of terjee, Hoshyarpur, Panjab. (2)" Work over 30,000 souls each where no foreign among Lepers." Paper, W. C. Bailey, missionary resides, not to mention nu- Esq., Edihburgh. Speakers-Rev. G. M. merous smaller towns and clusters of vil- Bullock, Almora. N-w. P. ; Rev. W. J. lages, 80me of which are actually asking Richards, Allepy, Travancore. for foreign assistance. Dr. Guido F. Friday, Dec. 30th, 10 A.M to 1 P.M.- Verbeck, the leader of Japan missiona- "The Native Church in India-its Or- ries, who authorizes the use of his name ganization and Self·Support." K. C. in this letter, said to me this summer Banerji, Esq., B.A., B.L., Calcutta. that he could undertake to name a hun- Papers-Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, D.D., dred places where missionaries could be Madanapalle, Madras; Rev. S. Coles, advantageously placed at once. He is Cotta, Ceylon. Speakers-Rev. F. Hahn.
not only the oldest missionary on the Lohardllggll, Chotta Nagpur ; Rev_ T_ S.
ground, having lived here thirty-three Johnson, M.D., Jabalpur, C. P. ; Rev.
years, but is everywhere respected for A. T. Rose, D.D., Rangoon, Burmah.– his wide knowledge and solidity of 2 to 4.30 P.M. (Sectional.) (1) "The judgment. Religious Training of the Young." (a) "Dr_ Knox is entitled to his opinion, General. (b) Y. M. C. A. ann. Y. W.
but so also are the authorities of the O. A. (c) Sunday-schools. Papers- Miss Gardner, Calcutta; D. McConau. Speaker, Rev. F. W. Warne, Calcutta: ghey. Esq., M.A., Madras; Dr. J. L. (The Calcutta Conference has been asked Phillips, Calcutta. Speakers-Miss Ab- to arrange for another paper and another bott, Bombay; Rev. W. J. P. Morrison, speaker.)-5.30 P.M. (Sectional.) (1) AmbalIa, Panjab ; Rev, J. E. Robinson, Men's Meeting. "Public Morals in Bombay; Mrs. Sorabji, Poona. (2) India." Speakers-Dr. Condon, Mus- "TheJesuitAdvanceinIndia." Paper, Boorie, N-w. P. ; A. S. Dyer, Esq., Bom- bay. (2) Meeting of the Christian Rev. C. A. E. Diez, Mangalore, Madras. Women Workers' Union. Speaker, Rev. M. H. Clark, M.D., Am· ritsar.–5.30 P.M. .. Public Temper- Tuesday, Jan. 3d, 10 A.M. to 1 P.M.- ance Meeting." Speakers-Rev. J. H. (2) "The Social and Legal Standing of Bateson, Simla; Rev. Thomas Evans, the Lower Classes." The Madras Con- Mussoorie ; Rev. A. Parker, Benares. ference has been asked to appoint writ. ers and speakers.–2 to 4.30 P.M. (Sec. '&turday. Dec. 31st, 10 A.M. to 1 P.M.- tional.) (1)" Work among Anglo.Ind- "Work among the Educated Classes of ians and Eurasians." Papers-Rev. India." (a) Their Numbers, Influence, H. Gouldsmith, M.A., Calcutta; Rev. and Diffusion; (b) Their Religious Atti- I. F. Row, Poona. Speakers-Rev. D. tude; (c) Methods of Dealing with Osborne, Mussoorie ; Rev. T. H. Whita- Them. Papers-Rev. R. Wright Hay, more, Madras. (2) ,. Missionary Com- Dacca, Bengal; Rev. M. Phillips, Madras; S. Sathianadhan, Esq., M.A., ity." Papers-Rev. A. Clifford, M.A., LL.B., Madras. Speakers-Rev. J. Calcutta; Bishop J. M. Thoburn, D.D., McLaurin, D.D., Bangalore; S. R. Calcutta. Speakers -Rev. F. Ashcroft, Modak, Esq., Ahmednagar; Rev. Gun- M.A., Ajmere ; Rev. H. Gulliford, Banpatrao Navalkar, Alibag.–2 to 4.30 galore; Rev. J. Shilli.dy, M.A., Surat. P.M. (Sectional.) (1)" Work among Women." Papers-Miss Bernard, Poo- Wednesday, Jan. 4th. 10 A.M. to 1 P.M. na; Mrs. Bissell, Ahmednagar ; Miss S. – " Christian Literature." (a) Vernacu. Mulvaney, Calcutta; Miss Thoburn, lar; (b) English; (c) the Scriptures. Lucknow. Speakers-Miss Greenfield, Papers-Rev. H. Haigh, Mysore City; Ludiana; Mrs. Longhurst, Madras; J. Murdoch, Esq., LL.D., Madras; Rev. Miss McPhail, L.R.C.P., Madras; Miss S. W. Organe, Madras; Rev. G. P. Tay. Wanton, Amritsar ; Miss Warrack, Cal- lor, M.A., B.D., Ahmedabad. Speakers cutta. (2) .. The Native Church-the -Rev. C. B. Newton, D.D., Lodiana ; Training and Position of its Ministry." Rev. A. W. Prautch, Thanna, Bombay; Rev. H. U. Weitbrecht, Ph.D., Batala, Papers-Rev. W. Hooper, D.D., Allaha- Panjab.–2 to 4.30 P.M. Business Arbad; Rev. J. P. Jones, M.A., Madura. rangements and Closing Exercises. Speakers-Rev. H. D. Goldsmith, M.A., There will be a prayer-meeting every Madras; Rev. J. Lazarus, B.A., Mad- morning at 7.30. The Bombay Confer- ence is asked to arrange for two or more ras ; Rev. D. A. W. Smith, D.D., Insein, lectures on "Questions of Religious Burmah.–5.30 P.M. "Public Mis- Thought in India," on evenings not sionary Meeting." Speakers-Rev. S. W. Howland, D.O., Jaffna, Ceylon; Rev. otherwise occupied. J. L. PIlILLIPS, J. E. Scott, Ph.D., Muttra, N-w. P. ; F,ev. J. Wilkie, B.D., Indore, C. I. Secretary Decennial Conference Provisional ISunday, Jan. 1st, 1893, 3 p.M.-Sermon Committee. by the Rev. G. Kerry, Calcutta; fol- A. MANWARING, lowed by United Holy Communion. Secretary Bombay Missionary (Jonference. Monday, Jan. 2d, 10 A.M. to 1 P.M.- " Education as a Missionary Agency." The statistical tables prepared for Papers~Rev. W. H. Findlay, M.A., Negapatam, Madras; Rev. D. Macki- this Conference show an enc{)uraging chan, D.D., Bombay; Rev. A. B. Wann, B.D., Calcutta. Speakers-Rev. J. C. R. increase in many particulars. The Pres- Ewing, D.D., Lahore; Rev. L. B. Wolf, M.A., Guntur, Madras; Rev. J. W. byterians lead in the number of socie- Youngson, Guzrat, Panjab.–2 to 4.30 P. M. (Sectional.) (J ) "Industrial ties at work in India; the Church of Work." Papers-Rev. J. Frohnmeyer, Tellicherry, Madras; Rev. T. Snell England in the Iumber of foreign or- Smith, Jaffna, Ceylon. Speakers-Rev. S. B. Fairbank D.D., Bombay; Rev. J. dained missionaries and in the num· Small, Poona.' (2) .. Plan of Uniform ber of native Christians; the Baptists Missionary Statistics." Paper, Rev. J. W. Thomas, Calcutta. (3)" The in the numter of communicants. The Observance of the Lord's Day in India." Paper, Rev. W. B. Phillips, Calcutta. PIesbyterians lead in Anglo-vernacular schools; the Church of England in ~he vernacular schools; and the Met,hodlsts in female education.
As the documents are not in full be- feonrceouurs~gweemewntiththheoyldafrfeomrdarbkys as to the compari- son of growth with that of other decades.
DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN
III.-DEPARTMENT OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR.
CONDUCTED BY PROFESSOR AMOS R. WELLS.
Ten Christian Endeavorers have gone dred and twelve scholars to its Sundayfrom societies in Victoria, Australia, to school during the past year. A noble foreign mission fields. That is one rea- showing, yet one that many an Amerison for the great prosperity of the Chris- can society might equal with a little tian Endeavor cause in that colony. more effort.
Here are some new committees they Not satisfied with separate temperhave adopted in Australia: a "good ance committees in the various societies, word" committee, to encourage and the West Division of the Chicago Union practise kindliness of speech; a .. flour has established a union temperance committee," to make dainty dishes for committee, which can unite the forces the sick and prepare more substantial and focus them effectively on many of food for the poor; a band of housekeep. the most crying evils of that wicked ing young ladies, to take charge of city. Why is not this a good idea for house, children, and Sunday dinner, all city unions? and give overworked mothers a chance to go to church; prayer bands, to ask The Friends are rapidly banding toand receive special blessings; and many gether their Endeavor societies into others. Of course, these things might Yearly Meeting Unions, analogous to be done without "committees," but the Conference and Presbyterial unions how seldom they are I of other denominations. Eight of these have been formed, and it is a most hope- A novel and valuable form of commit- ful fact that four of these unions are tee work, born on American soil, is that furnishing funds to support each a forof the "whatsoever" committee of a eign missionary. certain church in Washington, D. C. This is a committee whose purpose is to It is a distinctly understood Christian do the little things that, being every- Endeavor principle that all officers of body's business, are usually done by State and local unions-yes, and of the nobody. It does odds and ends of work United Society, too-shall serve without that Christian leaders are likely to think salaries, solely for the love of the Mashardly worth while. It is the gap-fill- ter. Secretary Baer has recently obing committee, and every society and tained the written statements of nearly church needs one. all State presidents and secretaries, who cordially affirm their agreement with Endeavor societies took active part in this principle. Even Dr. Clark himself what was, it is to be hoped, the final gets no pay for his services as president contest for Sunday closing of the World's of the United Society. The trustees Fair, the petitioning of the commis- also all serve purely for the love of the sioners. A large number of societies cause. and unions sent earnestly worded requests, fully signed, not only by their The earnest Canadian niissionary, own ;members, but by the prominent Rev. Egerton R. Young, has founded a men of their towns. large Christian Endeavor society among the Cree Indians of the Northwest Ter- Societies on this side the Pacific ritory. The essential Christian Endeavshould be stirred to healthy rivalry by or literature is being translated into the the brisk news that is coming in such a Cree language. :flood nowadays from Christian Endeavorers in Australia. An especially in- Two famous churches in the United spiring record is that of the Sunday- Kingdom have recently formed Chrisschool committee which o.dded one hun- tian Endeavor societies. One is in Glasgow, Scotland, the church of Rev. James Stalker, D.D. The other is in organized in the Presbyterian Mission of Birmingham, England, the church of Oakland, with the assistance of Rev.
Rev. R. W. Dale, D.D. Ug Poon Chew. Ly Moon was chosen A full Christian Endeavor manual in president. Among the refreshments the Armenian and Turkish languages that followed the first meeting was genu- has lately been prepared. The French ine tea.
are also translating Christian Endeavor The board of trustees of the United literature, and the societies are mul- Society has suffered its first loss at the tiplying, not merely in Paris, but in the hands of death. Choate Burnham, country districts. Esq., one of the earliest and stanchest Here is a good Christian Endeavor friends of the cause, has passed away.
missionary incident. In a certain so- He was an old man with a young and ciety a young lady tried earnestly for ardent heart, and he has been of the ut- four years to persuade her comrades to most service, not merely in the present establish a missionary committee. At prosperity of the Christian Endeavor last, wearied with her importunity, Miss movement, but in the earlier days, A. remarked, "Oh, do give it a trial! when it was winning its way and fight- G. will never let us alone until we do." ing its battles.
They gave it It six months' trial, and It is the Moravian Church now that the committee was not discontinued. wisely proposes to draw its Endeavorers On the contrary, the very Miss A. who together into a denominational Chris- made that slighting remark is now in tian Endeavor union. A strong or- training for missionary work, to be sup- ganization has been effected, the field ported by that same society. well divided, and great Christian En.
Mr. Alfred Hutton, a member ot Par- deavor growth may be expected among liament from Yorkshire, England, is an the Moravians.
ardent Endeavorer, and the treasurer or During the month of his stay in Aus- the Bradford Christian Endeavor Union. tralia Dr. Clark was expected to attend We have lately heard of several socie- and speak at seventy different meetings, ties whose temperance committees have and at many of them more than once!
made a specialty of raising money to Evidently his tour is more than a pleas.
send dmnkards, who wish to reform, to ure trip.
Keeley Cure or similar establishments. Here is the portrait of Dr. Clark as he • A few weeks ago news reached the appears to a prominent Australian Boston headquarters simultaneously of clergyman: "We think here that we extensions of Christian Endeavor work can understand some of the success of in localities as widely sundered as Chili the Christian Endeavor movement by and Burma. In each of these lands are the bearing and character of its founder.
seen the genuine Endeavor zeal and His magnificent sincerity and openness, helpfulness and methods of work. the complete and conspicuous absence Quietly but surely the idea of " senior of artificiality in nature and manner, societies of Christian Endeavor," where- mark a Christian gentleman strong in in older church-members and graduates attractive power. This to the general from the young people's society may observer. To those with whom he lived, work on in Christian Endeavor ways, is he blossomed more richly. At closer gaining ground. The Connecticut State quarters one felt that one was having convention urged the idea by a formal fellowship with a good man. The con- vote, and several religious papers of tact of sympathy was complete. Diplo- prominence are pushing the plan. Prac· macy was out of court. Heart touched tical trial in a number of churches is heart in a fellowship which one ever felt proving its value. precious. " California now has ..~other Chinese Dr. Clark's month in Australia was society of Christian Endeavor. It was one eminently fmitful of good to the cause. Everywhere were thronged audi- Moffat, Dr. Chapman, and many others. ences, eager attention and inquiry. the New York held the best convention of most unbounded hospitality and over· its history, with two thousand delegates, flowing cordiality. Through this visit with Mr. Sankey, Faye Huntington, Dr. of the president of the United Society, H. H. Stebbins, Rev. C. A. Dickinson, Christian Endeavor in America will gain and many other able speakers. Oregon as much as it gives, in enlarged plans had a wide·awake convention, and Minof work and revived enthusiasm. Pos· nesota too, with Dr. Wayland Hoyt, Dr. sibly the chief gain to the cause from H. H. French, Rev. R. W. Brokaw, and this journey will be the assurance, ·Rev. W. W. Sleeper. Vermont'sconven. placed beyond doutt, that Christian tion was the best in her history, from Endeavor is a world.movement, suited Dr. H. C. Farrar's stirring address to to all nations, and bringing forth equally the close. Iowa gathered five hundred glorious fruit under all skies. delegates from outside the convention city, and held a rousing meeting. New The conventions held by the State Jersey had eight hundred delegates, and, Christian Endeavor unions this fall among many 'other strong speakers, Dr. have been remarkable for their spiritual C. F. Deems. Seven hundred met in tone. the prominence and ability of the Wisconsin; Quebec's second annual speaker~. and the large numbers of the convention was large and enthusiastic; delegates. Never have Christian En· Missouri had seven hundred dele,g/ltes deavor State conventions excelled those and a magnificent programme, and Onof this season in these three particulars. tario's convention, with nearly a thou- The third annual convention of Texas sand delegates, with Dr. A. C. Dixon, drew together two hundred enthusiastic Bishop Baldwin, Dr. J. A. R. Dickson, delegates and a large body of able clergy- and Dr. S. P. Rose, was remarkably sucmen. Over a thousand Endeavorers cessful. Not the least noteworthy of came together in New Hampshire, to be the conventions of the two months addressed by such speakers as Dr. Ar. under review was the first State conven· thur Little, William Shaw, treasurer of tion held in South Carolina, a State far the United Society, William McNeil, behind the rest, hitherto, in Endeavor Thomas E. Besolow, the African prince, work. A full list of the prominent and Mrs. Alice May Scudder. Mr. San- speakers at these conventions would be key led the singing. The rousing meet· a remarkable one, not merely in the ing in Connecticut emphasized evan- number and prominence of the men, but gelization, and set on foot many practi. in the variety of evangelical faith repre· cal plans. Among the speakers were sented. Baptists and Methodists, Pres- General Howard, Dr. J. Wilbur Chap- byterians lind Congregationalists, Luman, Dr. Josiah Strong, Dr. D. J. Bur- therans, Reformed, Disciple, Moravian, rell, and Rev. N. Boynton. More than Quaker-all these, lind a score more, fifteen hundred Endeavorers gathered would be found fairly represented. To in Massachusetts, to be aroused to fresh fill Dr. Clark's place lit these convenenthusiasm by such men as Dr. James L. tions many men have given much time Hill, Rev. Lawrence Phelps, Rev. C. P. and earnest zeal. Prominent among Mills, Rev. Leroy S. Bean, Secretary these are Treasurer Shaw, Mr. William Gordon, of the Boston Y. M. C. A., Rev. McNeil, brother of the famous Scotch Henry T. McEwen, and Dr. W. E. Park. evangelist, and many members of the Five hundred Nebraskans held an espe· board of trustees. Overflow meetings cially helpful Endeavor convention. have been the rule at these meetings, More than two thousand of Pennsyl. the utmost enthusiasm has been mani. vania's Endeavorers met, and were ad· fested, and a beautiful spirit of consecra· dressed by Dr. W. H. McMillan, Dr. J. H. tion has been exhibited and fostered. Weber, Dr. Sylvanus Stall, President
DEPARTMENT
IV.-EDITORIAL. DEPARTMENT.
Dr. Strong's New Book. pIes Applied to the Two Great Prob- lems. Theadmirable article* in this number, by Dr. Josiah Strong, author of " Our Chapter XVI. An Enthusiasm for Hu- Country," alld one of our editorial cor· manity. respondents, we have obtained, by joint permission of the author and his pub. London, and, infact, all .England, is in a lishers, Messrs. Baker & Taylor, it being state of ferment. The well-known con- Chapter I. of Dr. Strong's forthcoming flict between Labor and Capital comes book, .. The New Era." Knowing the now and then, and with greater fregeneral plan and scope of the work just quency, to the front. Ten thousand about to appear, we greatly desired to Jews in the city'of London propose to print in thl'se pages the substance of its march barefooted through the streets ; magnificent opening chapter, partly for and it is said they are in a practically its intrinsic value as a source of inspira- half-starved condition. It is also said tion on missions, and partly to whet the that nearly twenty thousand engineers appetite of the reader for more. Dr. are out of employment in this metropo- Strong has struck the philosophy of his- lis alone. The poverty is abject and tory, and as one of the most vigorous appalling, and the condition of the thinkers of the age will command a poor threatens the very stability of the hearing. Our readers may be interested nation. This matter of the conflict beto know what other themes are to be tween employeril and employed must discussed in this book, and by Dr. have a speedy settlement; and he will Strong's permission we give the titles of be the greatest statesman of this present the other chapters : era who is able to reconcile these adjust.. ing interests and claims. At present no Chapter II. The Destiny of the Race. one has appeared above the horizon who Chapter III. The Contribution made seems competent to grapple with these by the Three Great Races of Ahtiquity. immense issues. There seems to be lit- Chapter IV. The Contribution made tle use in preaching the Gospel to halfby the Anglo-Saxon. starved people out of employment,whose Chapter V. The Authoritative Teach- particular clamor is for bread ; and this er.. is one of the greatest missionary ques- tions of the age. Chapter VI. The Two Fundamental' Laws of Christ. A Most Startling Faot, Chapter VII. Popular Discontent. One of the most remarkable events of Chapter VIII. The Problem of th, modern times is that vast Hindu Con_ Country. ference recently held at Benares India Chapter IX. The Problem of the City. to take steps toward the saving'of Hin: Chapter X. The Separation of the duism from the encroachments ot Masses from the Church. Christianity. Chapter XI. The Mission of the Church. Among other things, the Conference Chapter XII. The Necessity of New recommended that October 30th 1892 Methods. should be set apart as a special 'day of Chapter XIII. Necessity of Personal prayer to the Supreme Power for the Contact. preservation of the Hindu religion. Chapter XIV. Necessity of Co-operation. Probably in the whole history of the Chapter XV. The T~o Great Princi. world there has never before been a day set apart in the heathen or pagan or * "The Nineteenth Century One of Prepara- ~ohammedan lands for prayer for the tion," page 7. preservation of false faiths. But what This society has been in existence a mighty concession to the growing about five years, and its Board of Manpower of Christianity is the fact that its agement consists of 30 ministers and foes are impelled to cry to their gods, Christian workers representing the varilike the prophets of Baal, for their in- ous evangelical denominations. Its terposition in behalf of the corrupt reo head offices are in New York City, ligions of the world. corner of Broadway and Forty.fifth Street. It has now about 150 missiona- That same day-October 30th-was ries in various countries. About 25 set apart by the Student Volunteers for went out to the Congo last May, and two prayer for the breaking down of the bar- other parties to India in July and Auriers of heathen, pagan, and Moslem gust, consisting of 16 persons. On faiths. It is perhaps an equally signifi- Wednesday morning, November 9th, cant though melancholy fact that the another party of 14 sailed for Liversucceeding Sabbath, November 6th, was pool on their way to the Soudan. Their set apart in London as the" Museum field is the largest single country in Sunday," and that in many even of the Africa, with a popUlation of about evangelical churches and chapels that 90,000,000, stretching from Khartoum day was given up to the public plea for on the Red Sea to Sierra Leone on the the opening on the Lord's Day of the Atlantic Ocean, a strip of 4000 miles various museums and galleries of art. long by 1000 miles wide. This densely populated region is wholly unevangel- The preaching of the Gospel largely ized. gave way to what, in the eyes of the most sagacious students of social and The first missionary party sailed two religious questions, means the breaking years ago under the leadership of Mr. down of the sacred limits of Sabbath Kingman to this field from New York. rest. Others have since followed. The pres- ent reinforcement will increase the A Free Ch'lrch congress has just been working force to 20. Their base of held (November) at Manchester for the operations is Freetown, Sierra Leone, emphasizing of points of agreement be- and their line of advance is up the Rotween Nonconformists. It was very kelle River, which they have already aslargely attended, and many very admi- cended nearly 100 miles, and planted a rable addresses were delivered. We can- number of stations. The present party not have much hope of any close unity will occupy about 8 stations. while two obstacles continue to exist: first, denominational bigotry, such as Hardships in the Mission Field. shows itself in those Baptists who either cannot or will not see that any devout, It is a sign of the imperfection in our intelligent Scripture student can hon- mission work that we still hear so much estly differ from them on infant bap- spoken of the privations with which mis_ tism, believers' baptism, and immersion sionaries have" necessarily" to put up. as the only proper mode of baptism ; To every servant of God who offers himor secondly, loose and unwarrantable self for the work the question is put, views of the inspiration of the Scrip- " Are you really going to give up all sotures, such as some of us never can cial comforts and live in those barbarabide or quietly tolerate, make such ous regions ?" unity impossible. Naturally the earnest and obedient Missionary Reinforcements. follower of J eSUR Christ replies that "the love of God constraineth him," The International Missionary Alliance and lays his ha~d on the passages has just sent out a new party of mis· which mark out to him this path of sionaries to a most important and novel duty. He leaves the "hardships" in field. God's hands, for Him to manage. Once, tiously to resolve by the grace of God in conversation with a lady missionary, to undergo only those troubles and diffi- I let drop the word" hardship" in con- culties which He will see fit to lay upon nection with her work. She immediate- him, and no more. All other burdens ly broke in with, "Do not let me hear borne will tend to the exaltation of you use that word. We who have gone " self." His duty will not demand of feel the peace and joy we have in His him to live in a hut when he is able to service ample reward for any sacrifice." build his house and furnish it with some degree of comfort. Our Church .. In a service which Thy will appoints will never maintain a Christlike mis· There are no bonds for me, sionary activity upon the motto, " Use up and get more." For my inmost heart is taught thc truth That makes Thy children free ; I was struck with this in reading the life of James Gilmour. His career had And the life of self-renouncing love been very active and full of trials; he Is the life of liberty." had lived through many sufferings, but it was only when he learned to "pray But this is a subject continued for us more and work less, so that God may in any journal or biography of missiona- work through His servants," that his ries. work became largely blessed to himself and the people around. On the other hand, it is a mistake on the part of " friends" at home to think As a future missionary I look forward that the life of foreign workers must to enduring hardships, but only such as needs be a life of hardship. Does it fol- He may be pleased to send, and as long low that because he is going to heathen a life spent in such service to His glory lands he is to be poorly supplied with as possibly care and prudence can the ordinary comforts of life? Should make it. there be any difference between the minister at home and the minister in "Lead us not into temptation, but the foreign field? Are not both work- deliver us from evil. ' , We find nowhere ers in the same cause, servants of the in the Bible any hint authorizing us to same Master, and all Christians stew- pray for more suffering, so as to grow ards of God's money? holier by means of it. We accept it as He is pleased to send; His will be done. Must it be that the men who preach to those from whom the funds are drawn W.J.N. be better supplied than those who preach to those for whom funds are col- Light for the Ohuroh at Home. lected ? Where, then, is Christian love and unselfishness, hy which we prefer The missionary cause, which lies so one another? Nay, it i. the fault of close to the Saviour's heart, has now those very talkers whose months are full found a new channel to a multiplication of " hardships" that such actually exist! of its power. And this, like all inven- Let them begin by supplying fitly those tions, is so simple that we wonder that workers already in the field; and by it has not been in use for ages. The sending forth more men by their pray- Cross.Bearers' Missionary Reading Cirers and their money, these privations cle is swiftly binding the Christian world will speedily disappear. together and concentrating missionary zeal. Lastly, however, the future missionary should not think that he has a per- All those who are interested in mismit to sport unnecessary hardships. sions, and who earnestly desire to get The time for extraordinary deeds of into the depths of the missionary cause, mortification does not any more exist in may write to Rev. Z. M. Williams, A.M•• our Church. My body is a temple of St. Joseph, Mo., for a Handbook explain- God, and the endangering of it is break- ing this movement. Already inquiries ing the sixth commandment.
The young missionary has conscienhave been pouring in from all parts ever-widening area and with constantly of the United States, from Canada, increasing results. and even from England. Many great leaders of the different churches have " The missionaries, mostly young, are given their hearty endorsement to the all Presbyterians, all university men, and enterprise, and there have been a num- all carefully selected; partly by the Unitber of additions to the Circle recently. ed Presbyterian Church of Scotland and partly by the Irish Presbyterian Church. The movement contemplates an intelligent study of the whole subject of mis- "Besides the stations enumerated, sions, and without doubt will prove of there are many scores of other places immense value to the" Forward Move- where the Gospel is proclaimed by memment" in Christian missions. bers resident or sojourning for busi- ness. I am not aware of the existence It offers a three years' course of pre- of any considerable village where the scribed daily readings, with yearly ex- Gospel has not been proclaimed and aminations on the same. Such a course, Christian books offered for sale by the comprising travel, history, biography, admirably conducted colportage system philosophy, and studies of peoples, lan- of Manchuria, where every colporteur is guages, and customs is in itself an edu- an itinerant evangelist. Years ago the cation and promotive of real culture, preacher had proclaimed his message while stimulating men to noblest pur- again and again in every city ; and at poses and highest resolves. present there is scarcely a city in which there is not a permanent station or into Two Oorrections. which we are not taking steps to enter. Unless soma sudden blight, which I SOUTH AMERICA. cannot believe in, falls upon our widely spread and aggressive church, there is The statement in regard to the popu- no reason why every inhabitant of Man- churia will not have had an opportunity lation of South America on page 869 of of understanding the Gospel message within two or three decades. the November, 1892, REVIEW should " Our congregations begin at the port have read, "A proportion about equal of Newchwang and extend northward to the neigbborhood of the Songari. Last to one tenth that of Europe… The popu- year we added 3 new congregations to the 16 which were organized when our lation of South America is variously es- 2 missions combined to form the Pres- byterian Church of Manchuria. timated from 30,000,000 to 35,000,000, "The native preachers are mostly or somewhat less than that of the Brit- men of a fair amount of learning, who have been carefully selected, and are ish Isles. constantly trained in Scripture truth. They are set apart only after they have MANCHURIA. proved themselves fit for the seriously responsible position which they occupy. A correspondent calls our attention They are paid at an average of less than to a misstatement on page 711 of the £1 sterling per month. We look be- September REVIEW, where it is said that sides to at least 1000 of our members "Manchuria has 12,OOO,OOO-without a to act as unpaid preachers of the Gossingle missionary." It is an old-time pel. Indeed, we count upon every statement, long since out of date, and professed believer as a. preacher to all we gladly give the correction in full : his circle of acquaintances. We look to our native brethren, not to foreigners, to " There are in Manchuria 17 missiona- evangelize the country. JOHN Ross. rIes, 19 congregations, 43 dut-stations, 57 native preachers, 12 colporteurs. October 31st, 18n, there were 2037 members; there were baptized last year 490 persons. This year's statistics are not yet formulated, but the baptisms cannot be less.
.. The first of the above-mentioned members were baptized in 1873, since which year the work has gone on in an
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
Extracts and Translations from Foreign in the work that Central Africa is not to Periodicals. be evangelized by white men; too many of the conditions of life are against it. BY BEV. C. C. STARBUCK, ANDOVER, MASS. The European cannot make his home there as he does in South Africa, or on AFRICA. the highlands of the East Coast, or even at the extreme north; and we increas- _co A French Roman Catholic mis- ingly feel that the greater part of the sionary has laid before the French Geo- burden will have to fall upon the people graphical Society some interesting facts of the country themselves. Happily in regard to the Fangs, a well-known the natives are responding right nobly tribe in West Africa. He represents to the responsibilities laid upon them them as having an unusual degree of by their Master ; and their readiness to energy, and as virtually monopolizing witness concerning Him is one of the the ivory trade in the region in which most encouraging features of our work. they are found. The interesting fact is Their testimony is often very elementary brought to light that, although they wor- and crude, but God is being glorified ship as fetiches the skull of the gorilla thereby, and seeing that He is making and the horns of antelopes, they believe such use of His servants, we feel we are in a Supreme Being who created and pursuing the right policy in locating who upholds all things. This affords a ourselves in the most important centres fresh evidence that fetichism is often that are available, and in looking' to only a convenient device, a sort of in- Him to raise up messengers who, termediate, every-day, working religion, through the gracious influences of the which may co-exist with a clear concep- Holy Spirit, shall be enabled to carry tion of one Supreme Being, compared on the work in detail. We do not adwith whom the fetich is little more than vocate the maintenance of native evana convenient appliance. These people gelists by European churches, for we are warlike, and they always eat the feel it is wiser to throw the burden upon prisoners whom they capture."-Ohurch the native churches; for though it may at Home and Abroad. mean less apparent progress, we feel sure we are on right lines. Just so long _co You can never win an African un- as we bolstered up the native church at less you first love him; and then when Cameroons they were dependent upon you love him, like all human nature, he us, but when the Germans stepped in, responds to the love. The African has and they had to depend upon thema sweetness of character which I have selves, they developed a resourcefulness not found excelled even in England. and an ability that most surprised those The Africans of the Bible were gentle who knew them best; and not only and kind. I call to your mind Ebed have they been able to stand alone, but Melech, who lifted Jeremiah the Prophet they have so progressed that they have from the dungeon and the mire; Simon just completed their fifth new chapel the Cyrenian, who carried the Cross of since the fostering care of the English our beloved Master and Lord; the Ethi- churches was withdrawn. " opian eunuch who asked Philip the Evangelist to step up beside him, and -" To-day I saw the young Khedive. was willing to listen to the explanation His appearance impressed me most of the old Book. The African is the favorably. He has a fresh European same to-day." -Canon TAYLOR SMITH, in complexion, a frank, modest, pleasant Ohurch Missionary lntelligencer. expression, and seems to be resolved to take the reins, so unexpectedly put into -The Rev. George Grenfell writes to the Missionary Herald (English Baptist) : " It is quite plain to us who are engaged
EXTRACTS AND TRANSLATIONS
his hands, with honest purpose to do they proceed: "Does a European colohis best. All who know Sir Evelyn nist really expect that even the most Baring agree in regarding him as a thor- , down-trodden' African would willing. oughly wise, as well as firm adviHer; ly leave the cultivation of his own food but one thing that has specially im- crop to do the work of anyone else? pressed me in connection with the Brit- As long as the transport of the said disish occupation of Egypt, and Britain's trictis carried on in primitive fashion place and influence here, is its unob- by native bearers, so long will it be trusiveness. The British army of occu- hampered during the garden season by pation is the smallest; there is no un- failure of the supply of carriers. 1m· necessary parade of that force; in al. prove the means of transport by intromost all branches of administration ducing bullock wagons, and the diffi. Egyptian officials have the chief places, culty, comparatively speaking, disap. and in most cases only Egyptians are in pears. . ., Does a European colonist official authority; but what surprised imagine that the native of the Shire me most was to learn that Sir Evelyn Highlands is unwilling to work and can Baring has no precedence over the only be made to do so by presents or representatives of other European na- threats? Let him go and see the plan. tions. He comes in simply in order of tations of the Messrs. Buchanan Brothseniority. The Consul-General of Spain ers at Michiru, Lunzu, Chiradzulo, and is Dean of the Consular body, and ranks Zomba; then let him look at the buildfirst. ings erected at Mandala, Blantyre, and Zomba. These are the products of free "Next to the unobtrusiveness of labor. Does he remember the carriage Britain is its beneficent effectiveness. of the Good News, the Charles Janson, It is now twenty-four years since I was the Domira, and the other craft sailing last in Egypt. In that time I noticed now on Nyassa? . " That was done several very marked changes. I remem- by free labor in the days when no Euro. ber, for example, near the town of pean employer dared think of evic- Keneh, on a Sunday afternoon, seeing tion. . .. The natives themselves are 10,000 fellaheen (peasants) assembled on saying that if there occurs oppression the bank of the Nile, and being packed in such or any form, they will migrate into large barges, to be carried to some to the districts where there are no Europlace two days' sailing distant, to work, peans, and where they can be free to it might be, on some embankment, but live and cultivate their gardens in peace. as likely on something which was to en· The results will be the melancholy rich the arbitrary and self-indulgent spectacle that we see in the Cape, Free Khedive Ismail. For such work there State, Transvaal, and Natal colonies, was no pay. That system of forced where native and European life have labor, or corvle, has now nearly or quite separated entirely." ceased. The dual control of Britain and France condemned it, and British -The Moravian Brethren sent out to influence has pursued it to a timely end. Lake Nyassa, after a good deal of jour. It was the very same system applied to neying hither and thither in the counthe previously independent children of try, have finally found a settlement in Israel in Egypt which led to the Ex- the country of the boy-king Makapalile. odus."-Rev. JOHN ALISON, D.D., in Mis- " There is a village of neat cottages very sion Record of the Church of Scotland. near 0111' camping-place, and others not very far removed, about seventy in all, -Life and Work in British CentralAfri- with still others somewhat farther off. ca-printed at Blantyre-animadverts The inhabitants appear diligent, having on a practice which, unchecked, might hedges, fences, and irrigating ditches, easily degenerate into slave-holding. and growing in their gardens maize, The extracts will explain themselves as
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
sweet potatoes, malesi, and owning ernor, who for many years had been, cows. There is running water near by, and now is again, pastor of the Ando- clay for bricks, a supply of wood, a shel. halo Church in Antananarivo, and to ter against the detestable northwest whose wise administration and kindly wind. No swamps and no white ants, Christian character 1 had many testi.
and a situation 5000 feet above the lake monies. One of the natives, for in.
level – airy therefore and relatively stance, speaking of Ramaka, said to healthy. In short, all the external me: 'When anyone was ill, high or conditions are inviting; but that in the low, Ramaka would put his dignity on eyes of our brethren, and with right, is one side and go and visit him.' . . . A not that which alone suffices, nor yet fortnight's journey from Ambohimarina that they are in the region commended bl'Ought us to Anorontsanga. The gov.
to them by Dr. Kerr-Cross. Rather do ernor here, thank God, is one of the they seek for the earth the final deci- most intelligent and earnest Christian sion from heaven. They would fain men in the island. It is impossible to have from thence, if not a sign or won· be long in his company without seeing der, yet a token of assent, manifesting that for him' to live is Christ.' He is, itself in inward certainty and tranquil- in the first place, the servant of Christ, lity of mind respecting their undertak· in the second the servant of Ranavalo· ing. They know, moreover, that such manja1!:a, the queen of the island. All light from above must be the reward of the people I conversed with-Euro- prayer. Therefore, before they seek peans, Hindus, Johannamen, Hova, their rest, each for himself apart and Sakalava, Mozambiques-were lOUd in likewise all conjointly, they set forth his praises. 'He is truly our father and their thoughts and apprehensions, the mother,' said one man to me, 'and his matter on all its sides, as so often 0.1- only thoughts are for our good.' Thank ready, before Him, to whom this place God, again I say, for a man like Rako- is to be consecrated-Him whose name tovao, the Governor of Anorontsanga.
is to be proclaimed here in the wilder- He not only takes his turn in preaching ness. Thereupon there falls upon them at the church, but also teaches a weekly a joyful and settled confidence, and in Bible class. Every August, it seems, he that very evening it was decided for has a large gathering of children from them: Here abide we and build. Human nearer the schools, and also representa.
habitation and God's kingdom." -.M"~ tives from all the churches, which- sions·Blatt aus der Brildergemeine. though five years ago there were only MADAGASCAR. :five in existence-now number twenty. . Two days' journey south of -From the Chronicle: ., I had several Androvahonko brought us to Alldra- opportunities of meeting the congrega. nosamonta, one of the most important tion at this place, and preaching the trading centres on the northwest coast.
Gospel to them "-Ambohilllarina, in The governor is a man somewhat ad- the Province of Antornboka, at the north vanced in years, and is under Rakotovao.
end of the island-" as well as examin. He, too, is an earnest Christian (indeed, ing the school.children. There are more it was for this reason, added to his in- signs of life in the church here than in telligence, that Rakotovao placed him any of those I had hitherto visited, and here), and takes the deepest interest in I believe that there is a considerable religious matters, he himself teaching a number of genuine Christian people. Bible class every Monday morning.
They have formed as many as five out- "A series of special religious meet- stations, have placed over them an evan- ings have been held at Ambohipaning, gelist, and have provided teachers for in the centre of the Rev. C. Jukes's dis· the schools. • .• This good work was trict. • I have never,' says Mr. Jukes, initiated by Ramaka, the former gov· , known such a time since I have been
EXTRACTS AND 'l'RANSLATIONS
in the ctmntry. Nothing but the work- FARTHER INDIA AND THE ARCHIPELAGO. ing of the Spirit of God could have touched the people in such a way. Peo- -" What benefits can come to the ple came from all parts of the district, people [of Siam] through the preaching bringing little baskets of rice with them of the priests when it is given in a lanto last three days, some a distance of guage understood neither by the priests two days' journey. On the first morn- nor by the people? The homilies of ing, at half-past six, we had a prayer- Buddha in the Bali language are simply meeting, at which two hundred were committed to memory by the priests and present, and at nine 0' clock we assem- recited. It would be sinful for them to bled again, and after a Bible reading on preach in any other language. Neither " Sin" all united in making a solemn have I discovered in the priests any eviconfession to God. The chapel was dence of the missionary spirit or of care crowded, and the extreme stillness for the good of their fellow-men. The showed that the thoughts of the people two words which characterize Christianwere working. We broke up after a ity and Buddhism are as unlike as light three hours' service, and as the people and darkness. Christianity, love; Bud· left the chapel scarcely a word was dhism, selfishness. spoken. In the afternoon we met again at two o'clock, and continued until " For years I spent much time in pre. nearly five. Next morning there was senting the Gospel to the Buddhist another service at 6.30. At least three priests, and as I went from temple hundred were present. At the close of urged the priests to take up a crusade the subsequent meetings the people against the giant evils of Siam-gam. were very reluctant to disperse, and in bling, opium, and liquor-telling them the evening there was singing and pray- how these evils were ruining the poor er all over the village. All seemed to people, body and soul. be in some way concerned about the " Great Salvation." One after another " But invariably I received the heart. got up to acknowledge the good they less reply, 'Let them alone. Let it be had received at these meetings, and unto them according to their merit or likened the three days to the day of demerit.' "-Rev. EUGENE P. DUNLAP, Pentecost. After the meetings num- in Ohurch at Home and Abroad. bers came to us broken down under a sense of sin, and to ask what they must -" Beyond doubt we think a great do to be saved. During the whole time deal about the East Indies, but it is not I have been in Madagascar I have never always nor universally felt with any seen anything like this work.' .. vividness that the Christian Netherlands have in the East Indies a lofty, serious, -The Preachers' Union in Antanana- and noble calling to fulfil. It cannot rivo has, in addition to Sunday preach- have been the sole purpose of Divine ing, formed itself into a sort of Salva- Providence to make the Netherlands rich tion Army of sixty men, for the purpose through India. It has unquestionably of holding service on market days. also had in mind to make the Indies Three fourths of the London Mission- happy through the Netherlands. Be. ary Society's adherents throughout the yond doubt, on the whole, our dominworld belong to the Madagascar Mission. ion has been a blessing for India. It Each missionary has the oversight of has gradually introduced there order from sixty to seventy congregations. and quiet, peace and security, and here The college' has sent out two hundred and there has promoted prosperity; but and thirty young men, and more than is that enough ? Would that satisfy one hundred and ten of these are still God's ,will ? Have we no concern with in large centres of popUlation, higher than material interests? Shall we not suppose that these magnificent lands have been entrusted to the Chris- tian, the Protestant Netherlands, in
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
order that their simple.minded, on the and from the written word of doctrine, whole so obedient and far from intel- in order to ground it merely upon the lectually unapprehensive population subjective experience, only covers with might receive a share in our spiritual artificial flowers the bottomless depth be- advantages; that we should bring to fore which it places us. This faith that them the Uh1-istianity in which our ad· is thus left to lean on itself is not the vantages are rooted; the Gospel, which victory that has hitherto overcome the avails for them too as a power unto sal. world or that to-day is overcoming it. If vation ?" – Orgaan der Nederlandsche any work in the world reqilires a faith Zendingsvereeniging (organ of the Neth- that is not left to lean on itself, it is the erlands Missionary Association). work of missions."-Dr. WABNBCX, in – " Islam, in the East Indies, is very AUgemeine Missions.Zeitschrift.
favorably circumstanced for the work of -" There is an extraordinary inorease proselytism. While the Christians have of Jews to be noted generally. In spite to send missionaries from afar, with an of all their troubles and persecutions exclusively religious aim, and so are and tribulations, the nation is rapidly obliged to care for their support, the increasing. There is a great change in Islamites have no concern for any of their social condition. They are no these things. Their millsionaries are longer hooted and spurned in most the Arabs and the hadjis, who come to countries, as they used to be. We trade with the islanders, and Iwho in- know, of course, what is going on in struct them at their ease in the Moham- Russia-but that is the exception, not medan profession. If it were only the the rule. It is the desire of great Prot- Arabs that did this it would be bad estant societies, and generally of all enough; but now that of late years the thinking Protestants, to do good to the voyage to Mecca has become so much Jews. Then there is a general expecta- eosier, many of the natives journey tion, which we cannot deny to be a great thither. On their return they are hadjis, factor in the life of any people, that and have the repute of being initiated there is to be speedily Ii great national into all the mysteries of Islam; and in movement. Even the Jew begins to fact what the islanders need to know of look forward, and even the Jew thinks Islam is so extremely little, that any that, perhaps, after all, he has made a hadji can teach it with small pains. It mistake and that, perhaps, after all, the is simply the well-known profession of Messiah has come; and although you faith, circumcision, and the five duties, have not so many converts as could be of which practically the observance of a wished or expected, there are many single one is commonly held to suffice." thousands, in addition to professors, who -De Macedonier. really in their hearts believe that Jesus MrscELLANEous. Christ is the Son of God. But, my Christian friends. the return of the Jew -" We need a firm foundation nnder to his native land forebodes strife. We our feet if we are to have courage and know that in the last days perilous times joyfulness, to conquer the world for our shall come, and that there will be much Heavenly King; and this sure founda- suffering and sorrow among nations; tion can be no other than the univeraal but we believe that the Jew, with his Divine will of salvation, as it has been proud history and his long lineage, will made known in deed and word, and is again come to the land of his fathers, settled in the Scripture. Missions hover and that the prophecies will be fulfilled in the air if this objective authority for in relation thereto. We know also that the obedience of our faith is under. our Lord will come again with great joy, mined. All the brilliant rhetoric of and we know that we ought to be the modern theology, which divorces faith pioneers in the work. "-MABK STBWAllT, from the historical facts of redemption, ESQ., M.P., in Jewish Intelligence. THE WORLD AT LARGE. every appliance that science, ingenuity, -As a specimen of the" piety" cur- and lavish expenditure of money can rent in Christendom not so many centu· provide to make them comfortable, ries since, this is worth preserving. In spend one or two seasons in Arctic re- 1565, in a ship named The Jesus, Sir gions ; but very little is heard of the John Hawkins had aeized and was trans- men, and women, too, who, with scanty porting to America a cargo of slaves. appliances for making themselves com- Terrible storms were endured, but when fortable, spend twenty.five or thirty captain and crew came out alive, the years, and even their lives, in these officers entered in. the journal: "'Twas same regions, that the dark, desolate of the Lord, who never suffers His elect homes of the natives may receive the light of the Gospel. It takes from to perish '" $25,000 to $50,000 to fit out an Arctic expedition for two years-to do what? -Worth repeating, and equallyappli. Perhaps get a few miles farther north cable in every land under the sun. The than anyone else. But the Church question has frequently been asked, hesitates if asked to provide $10,000 for .. How shall we reach the full· blooded an Arctic mission." Indians with the Gospel?" A Quaker lady says : "To reach the full.blooded -It is two years since a band of mis· Indian, send after him a full-blooded sionaries assembled at Shanghai, China, issued a call for" 1000 men for China," Christian '" to be sent within five years. It was a large draft, but it is likely to be hon. -It is a great question, in what things ored. It is said that 350 of the recruits and just how far to conform to native called foi.- are already in the field. ideas and customs-that is; in non. essential matters like dress, modes of living, music, etc. For example, Dr.
Grundeman is positive that it is a serio -A poor colored man in the West In- ous mistake to attempt to reproduce in dies brought to one of the missionaries India the church architecture of Europe the sum of $13 to help in spreading the or America. -For that land Indian ideas Gospel, and when asked if that were and methods are vastly better. not too much for him to give, replied, -A.D. 395 is the date commonly " God's work must be done, Massa, and given for the complete evangelization I may be dead.'
of the Roman Empire, or three centu. -The following inscription was ries and a half after St. Paul set forth. placed upon the grave stone of a lit- The story of Europe's evangelization tle Irish boy: "I want to be a mis· fills 1000 years. Modern missions, sionary when I grow up to be a man; about which we are sometimes so im· but if I should die before I am old patient for immediate great results, are enough, I want this wish put on my but about 100 years old, and in some of tombstone, so that somebody else may the' great :fields they have been carried see it and go ill my place." on for a much shorter period. -John Ruskin has said, "If you do -Well, really, we must hasten to cut not wish for His kingdom, don't pray down expenses in the foreign field, for for it ; but if you do, you must do more it actually costs as much to support two than pray for it ; you must work for it." , missionary families in Japan for a year as it does to fire a single shot from one -The commander of a Chinese war'
of our big cannons! junk, when asked the nature of his ser- -Or, put it this way, as does Mr. vice, answered promptly: "Why, or- Lopp, a missionary of the American As. ders come, then go; that's it… And sociation in Alaska: " The world lauds why not also receive the command and admires Arctic explorers, who, with given by the Captain of our salvation? -A young Christian negro, who has arrive at Tabor Collegp, Iowa, this year spent four years at the Central Tennes- was Tonami Hyashi, from Kyoto, Japan, see College, in Nashville, Tenn., has sent by one of the missionaries who been called to a throne in Africa. His went out from Tabor_ The last to enter name is Momolu Massaquai, and he is Alexander Vozaks, from ThessaioniclL, came from the Vey country, a region of Greece. In the class of 1893 is a native interior Africa adjoining Liheria_ of Iceland. These all are preparing for -In Abyssinia, it is said, the ilIus- missionary service. A promising Botrated editions of the Bible all have the hemian is also one of the students.
original man, as a matter of course, -Wanted-a just proportion in our ebony-hued, While the devil is always giving to advance the Lord's work.
white. There do not seem to be very many -Dr. Sheldon Jackson, some time Mrs. Jellehys exclusively and absurdly Presbyterian" bishop" of the far North- devoted to Borrioboola Gha on the left west, and now Government Superin- bank of the Niger j for, according to a tendent of Schools in Alaska, seems to report of the foreign missions commitunite in happy fash,ion in his person the tee of the Buffalo, N. Y., Presbytery, functions of church and state. Thus, the Protestant Christians of the United he has heen breaking up the whiskey States expend annually for religious traffic with the Indians. He found 30 work in our own land $80,000,000 per barrels of the stuff on the whaling fleet year, or $1.32 for the evangelization of at Port Clarence, and had the satisfac- each person. The same Protestant tion of emptying it all into the sea. Be- Christians expend in behalf of those in sides. he has been making several trips heathendom $4,000,000 per year, or one to Siberia in search of reindeer, and has third of a cent each for the total popuimported 150, with experienced herders, lation. to teach the Alaskan natives how to take care of ,the animals. Thus it is expected -A missionary in China affirms that " during this very month more money that a new home product of flesh food will be spent in propitiating evil spirits will be provided. Along with these en- that have no existence than all the couraging items, the doctor also reports churches in the United States give in that there are now 34 Indian schools in one year to foreign missions."
Alaska with 1700 pupils. -Homes for the children of missiona- -No missionary periodical has re- ries are becoming refreshingly common cently reached this portion of the edi- in the home field. Thus, in addition to torial table fuller of interesting matter Auburndale, Oberlin has her Judson than the November number of Life and Cottage at least started in an old build- Light for Woman. In particular, Mrs. ing refitted for the purpose, but much Rand's story of calamities is worth read- needing a larger and better structure; ing. and Mrs. Eaton's account of work and the Presbyterian Board is pushing in Chihuahua, Mexico, and of scarcely forward a movement to establish two less interest is Mrs. Gulick's account of homes in Wooster, O.
the girl's boarding·school in San Sebas- -Connecticut contains nearly 30,000 tian, Spain. French Canadians, and Massachusetts -The oldest church in America is that about six times as many_ of San Miguel, in Santa Fe, N. M. It -In addition to the Chinese, and WIlR built in ] 545. Japanese, and Indians, and negroes, THE UNITED STATES. and Italians, and Finns, and Poles, and Hungarians, and Hebrews, Germans, -The ends of the earth are brought Scandinavians, and Irish, and many together. One of the first students to more thrust upon us to be Americanized and taught the Gospel according to the the education and the evangelization of New World conceptions thereof, New the negroes since the war." And it is York City and Brooklyn alone hold not estimated that to this sum the South has less than 45,000 Spanish.speaking peo- added $20,000,000.
ple. -'I.'he reinforcements to the fields of -A writer in the Catholic World, after the Baptist Missionary Union for 1892 a lamentation over the unbelief of numbered 81 missionaries. Of these 29 Americans in the claims of the Catholic returned to the fields of labor from Church, proposes an "apostolate of periods of rest, and 52 were missiona- prayer for the conversion of the United ries going out for the first time.
States." He charitably affirms that Practical Christian Oomity.-The atten- there is " practically little true knowl- tion of the Methodist missionary au· edge of the supernatural life outside of thorities being called to a violation in the Catholic Church." He prints a form Bulgaria of the agreement made years of prayer in which GOD is asked to in- ago with the American Board, they cline the hearts of Americans " to be. promptly rectified the matter, withdrawlieve in Thy Church." He promises ing the new mission begun inadvertent- that "24 masses shall be offered up with- ly in the territory of the Board. out charge for the benefit of those who will recite this prayer daily." -The Freedmen's Aid and Southern Education Society of the Methodist -The Tuskeegee, Ala., Normal and Episcopal Church received for the year Industrial Institute is by, of, and for ending June 30th, 1892, $367,751, aod the colored people; is undenomina- expended $363,613. Of the expenditional ; is located in the midst of the tures, $210,783 was for the support of great" black belt," and has 34 officers schools among colored people. and teachers, and 511 young men and women receiving industrial. mental, and -The income of the American Mis- Christian training to fit them for leader- sionary Association for 1891-92 was ship among their race. Of the 18 build. $430,569. In addition to its splendid ings used, 16 have been constructed al- work among the Freedmen in the South most wholly by student labor. There and the "mountain whites," 90 misis great need of funds for enlargement sionaries and teachers are sustained and to aid indigent pupils. among the Indians, and in boarding and day.schools 500 pupils are found. Be- -The Baptists, Methodists, and Pres· sides, 45 missionaries devote themselves byterians led the way, and now the to the Chinese upon the Pacific coast; Episcopalians, and also the Congrega. and as one result, we find this muchtionalists, follow hard after in declin- sinned-against class contributing $6290 ing to receive any longer government to th e treasuries of the local missions. aid for church schools among the Indians. The world will now watch with -The American Millennial Associadeep interest to see the Roman Catholic tion issues an appeal for funds sufficient Church join this noble procession. J.Jet to send one or more missionaries to church and state be separated and kept China to labor under the care of the apart. China Inland Mission.
-There are 2 Chinese girls studying -The Presbyterian Review, of Toronto, medicine in the University of Michigan, says that in his paper to the Council, who mean to return to their country as the Rev. Dr. Phillips, " the secretary of mISSIOnaries. They have exchanged colored work in the Southern Presbyte- their Chinese names for those of Mary rian Ohurch, made handsome acknowl- Stone and Ada Kahn. There are 3 edgment of the $30 000,000 of Northern young Chinese men also studying medi- money which has been freely spent on cine in the same institution. • Statistios of the Missionary Societies of the [THE following tables are intended to include only Foreign Missions-that is, missions to foreign hence is omitted the work of the Methodists, Baptists and others to Protestant Europe, as well as efforts almost wholly derived directly from the annual report. of the various Societies, and which in most cales figures were not at hand, recourse was had to a number of the most reliabl!, statistical authorities.) Home Missionary Constituency. Income.
·i. . ~ ~ ~ !~ i~ – SOCIETIES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA.
– – – – – – – – – – . – -~ – – -~ – – iii – – ~ – -~-w;; – – – — – Baptist Missionary Union…………. 1814 6,288 8,061 748,890 $575,773 $80,891 1,068 Southern Baptist Convention…. …… 18t/) 8,824 16,091 1,235,76~ 114.826 8,956 185 Free Baptist………. ..•…•…….•• 1836 1,531 Seventh·Day Baptist….. …………. 1847 1,314 82,683 34,913 215 13 Christian (Disciples)………………. 1875 100 American Christian Convention. . . . • . . . 1886 5,388 110 9,000 4,655 II 2 Congregationalist (A. B. C. F. M.)… .. 1810 1,510 4,886 7,246 641,051 65,366 250 45 1,700 120,000 5,203 ……… . 33 4,985 525,097 841,569 92,723 1,221 Lutheran General Council … , •. " • . •. .. 1869 925 1,995 317,145 1~,675 50 127 Lutheran General Synod…. •..•…•… 1837 979 1,437 164,640 Methodist Episcopal………………. 1819 12,914 25,861 2,240,354 48,772 2,945 12 786,295 169,999 320 BishOp Taylor's African Mission……. 1885 50,000 …….. .. 43 Methodist Episcopal, South…. ……. 1843 Protestant Methodist…..•.•.•.•.•…. , 1882 5,321 15,017 1,266,562 294,578 106 Wesleyan Methodist ………………. 1887 1,441 2,003 147,604 P..,otestant Episcopal……. . . .• . •• •. .. 1835 20,767 290 6 Presbyterian……………………… 1837 300 800 18,000 4,250 5,282 549,250 2,000 300 2 6,331 7,208 880,179 275,601 8,597 228 931,292 49,423 691 Presbyterian, Sonth……………….. 1861 1,239 2,572 182,516 130,276 2,850 132 United Presbyterian…… , ………… 1859 782 902 106,385 114,687 .24,491 20'1 Reformed Presbyterian (Covenanter) .. ' 1856 120 115 10,574 24,781 1,034 11 Reformed Presbyterian (Gen'! Synod).. 1836 SO 33 4,602 6,000 40 7 Cumberland Presbyterian………… .. 1852 1,670 2,916 171,609 22,499 1,386 10 Reformed (Dutch)………………… 1832 560 572 92,970 112,164 8.032 198 Reformed (German).. .. .. .. … .. .. . .. .. 1878 835 1,554 204,018 15,745 2,079 17 Associate Reformed, South. . .• ••.•. .. 1879 81 121 9.040 4,9~5 800 11 Evangelical Association. . . . . .. . …… 1876 1,864 2,043 145,603 14,899 609: 31 German Evangelical Synod………… 1883 675 870 187,432 10,800 1,000 8 United Brethren…………………… 1853 1,476 4,203 197,12.3 30,000 1,077 282 Friends………… …………… . .. 1868 .. . 794 80,655 29,278 125 22 Canada Baptist …… …………….. 1873 532 550 77,247 36,420 672 15 Canada CongregatIOnalist.. . … ……. 1881 103 140 10,103 2,287 ………. 1 1 Canada Methodist…….. …….. ….. 1873 1,285 1,268 250,89~ 93,060 Canada Pre.byterian……………….. 1844 1,000 I 6,2441 84 1,200 170'1521115'766 4,500 143 = Ten other Societies……….. …….. …… … …… …. …… ……… 178,921 [ 5,3~0 81 _ _ _ _ _T_o..;,tll;""l_'. _……………….. 73.~ lo8.768 iO,797,(f79 $5;006-;283 $469,419 5,346 United States and Canada for 1891-92.
landi, either heathen or Romanist, and nnder the management of missionaries other than natives; and for the evangelization of the Jews, the Freedmen, and even the Indians and Chinese. The figures are covered the bnlk of 1892, and BOmetimes the closing months of 1891. When, as in a few cases, the official Missionaries. I Native Helpers. Countries in which ~• Missions are Sustained.
-~ 1I – – – – – 89,014 12,285 1,188 22,284,India, Burmah, Assam, China, Japan, Africa I 748ICh(Clnoan,gJoa)p. an, Africa, Bra- 2,728 526 20 zil, Mexico, Italy.
7 2 9 8 Ii 13 44 13 815 41 95 3,619 India (Bengal).
2 2 2 …… 14 20 1 32 4 4 70 China (Shanghai). 17 7 12 1,015 158 10 2 .•..• 15 5 11 30 85 4 …… . 1 183 18 434 40,333 3,516 1,123 1 …… 10 …… 13 89 817lJapan, India, China, Tur- 5 ….. . 3 978 76 key. 174 159 200 2,400 3,034 150 Japan (Tokyo and two Ii II 2 89 103 l other centres).
47,380 Africa., Turkey, India, China, Japan, Microne· sia, Mexico, Spain, A us- tria, Hawaiian blands.
1,473 India (Madras).
6 …••. 6 2 3 178 195 374 8,082 848 223 5,174,India (Madras), Africa.
182 ….•. 175 139 247 2,397 3,595 334 24,717 3,636 1,430 86,878 Africa, S. America. China, 34 31 ……… .. 21 86 India, Korea, Malaysia, Bulgaria, Italy, Japan, Mexico.
9 320 100 38 500 Africa (Congo).
50 ….•. 42 5 … .. 187 284 62 5,980 936 22 800 Africa (West Coast), West 3 . . . .. 13 26 2 217 11 Indie•. Ii .•…. 5 4 241 iJapall (Yokohama, etc.).
2 •.•..• 2 1.. .. 10 15 1 250 10 1 208 Africa (Sierra Leone).
24 8 20 83 56 289 420 . 24 3,203 300 106 3,387 Greece, Africa, China, Japan, Haiti. 46 198 142 165 1,363 2,124 884 30,479 3,430 771 29,011 S. America, Guatemala, 210 Mexico, India, China, Japan, Korea, Siam, Syria, Persia. Africa. 7 33 21 32 91 186 35 2,702 391 26 1,363 China, Japan, Korea, Af- 43 rica, Greece, Italy. Mex- ico, Brazil. 8 24 26 24 494 601 41 10,445 947 253 10,887 Egypt, India.
1 5 7 …… 40 58 3 269 29 28 74OIsyria, Cyprus.
3 ….. 3 ……….. . 12 18 3 100 40 3 30 India (N. W. Provinces).
6 .••••• 66 2 17 37 10 650 89 4 298 Japan, Mexico.
I 24 8 25 14 37 282 385 53 5,559 498 146 4,541 ,China, Japan, India (Arcot). 2 66 Japan (Tokyo and Sen- 3 ….. . 3 3 7 15 31 12 1,656 125 dai).
2 •••••• 21 2 5 12 9 235 24 4 65 Mexico (Tampico, etc.).
7 ….. . 7 …… 5 24 48 5 378 43 18 Japan (Tokyo, etc.).
5 ….. . 4 1 …. .. 24 34 8 356 70 14 410 India (Central). l …. . 4 8 ….. . 40 5fi 25 6,500 1,000 19 600 Africa (West Coast, Sher- bro, Shaingay, etc.). 5 ….. . 36 56 13 465 10 19 848 Mexico, Japan, Syria, etc. 87 17 ….•. 15 ……….. . 102 134 24 2,660 420 41 350 India (Telugus).
2 …… 1 ……….. . 4 ••.. , ……. . ·1 40 Africa (We!t Central).
51 ….. 42 …… 16 89 198 …… 6,494…… 40 2,500 Japan (Tokyo, etc.), I 35 4 27 20 6 214 806 87 6,172 1 . . . . • 101 4,200 China, India, New Hebri- 20 [ ~~ 1,239 I Im 54 52 47 22 70 269 41 3,700 837 5ti .3,209 1,216 9,822 14,524 2,5251l56.649 30,600 5.882 182.205 2:J2 1,116 EUROPE. 218,000 : 140,000 from England. 20,000 from Scotland, from Ireland 57,000. In Great Britain.-This glowing set. 37 years, between 1853-90.3,415,000 Eng. ting.forth of Britain's greatness from lish have emigrated; 710,000 Scotch; an English source may well kindle also 2,832,000 Irish-in all, 7,211,000. To the American heart. And tremendous what numbers they have increased at missionary responsibility comes with their various destinations it is impossi. such dominion : "The material great. ble to calculate." ness of that world-wide realm which hails Victoria queen is indeed amazing. -It reads strangely. Can it benecos· It far exceeds that of any other empire, sary to use $150,000 of the Lord's money ancient or modem. The total area of for such a purpose? ., Dr. Clifford states the whole in square miles is nearly that Mr. Arthington, of Leeds, the well- 9,000,OOO-that is, 74 times the size of known benefactor of missions, is deepthe British Islands. The population of ly impressed with the mournful results the whole is 343,000,000, 9 times that of sectarian and ecclesiastical divisions of England, Scotland, and Ireland. in the mission field, and makes the The revenue of the whole reaches the munificent offer of £30,000 for the proprodigious sum of £222,000,000. Its motion qf denominational comity and mistrade in imports and exports sounds sirmary economy. The offer has set the like a fairy tale-£1,218,000,OOO. Im- friends of union to work, and it is proagination is exhausted as W'l glance from posed to convene a meeting of the secre· the docks of London, with her 5,000,000, taries of the leading missionary sociepast Liverpool, Glasgow, Birmingham, ties at once, to take advantage of the Leeds, and Sheffield, to the lakes, rivers, offer of Mr. Arthington." mountains, and forests of Canada; or to the fabulous splendors of India and -In October last the London Society Burmah ; or to the boundless J'esources bade farewell to 26 missionaries about of Africa, now beginning to be revealed to sail for foreign lands, making in all from the Cape and from Zanzibar; or 40 for the year, an encouragingly large to the stately cities of Australia and fraction of the 100 it is planned to send New Zealand-rivals to the ancient out in four years. European capitals. Canada, it has been said, with its popUlation of 5,000,000, -The Church Missionary Society has is as powerful as England was in the a loan department for supplying magic days of Cromwell, and may be as power· lanterns, slides, curiosities, etc. Dur. ful100 years hence as England is to. ing last:> ear there were loaned 808 sets day. Australia, with her 3,000,000, is of magic lantern slides, 72 lanterns, 347 as strong as the United States were diagrams, 372 maps, 81) sets of curiosi· when they became independent, and ties, and 1039 books. The slides were may at no very distant date be as strong lent for periods varying from one day as they are at the present time. Possi. to a month, and on an average each lanbilities of wealth and power beyond -the tern represented at least two exhibidream of the enthusiast lie within the tions. making a total of from 1600 to grasp of the English race in these inex- 2000 lantern lectures. haustible possessions. Our language is daily spoken by more than 100,000,000 -The United Methodist Free Church of people, is understood by 50,000,000 of England, organized in 1857, has more, and bids fair to become the lan- 417 ministers, 1608 churches, 3341 local guage of the world. The process of preachers, and 85,461 communicants. peopling from these shores the VRst ter. In its missions in Jamaica, Africa, ritories which have fallen to the English China, Australia, and New Zealand it race is continuaUy progressing. In 1890 has 66 ministers, 785 assistants as local the whole number of emigrants was preachers and class lea,ders, and n,7()1) members. -The Primitive M.ethodist Church of months of 1892 they were able to report England, organized in 1812, has 1049 50 Romanists received into 4 of the travelling preachers, 16,317 local preach- churches. ers, and 193,658 members. It has in .Africa 7 European missionaries, 44 white ·-Dr. HBrdeland, for 30 years Director and 486 colored members. of the Leipsic Society, retiring from that position, states that when he began, -The British and Foreign Sailors' So- in 1860, the number of Tamil converts ciety raised over £21,000 (including the connected with the society was 4600, sums raised for local purposes), and the and now it is over 14,000. Then there Missions to Seamen's Society, English were 9 missionaries, and now there are Established Church, raised £28,000 26. The pupils in the schools were during the last fiscal yeBr. 1000, and now there are 4700.
-The Bible Christians of England -The Lutheran Church is being pernave 271 ministers, assisted by 1899 secuted in the Baltic provinces of Ruslocal preachers, and about 30,000 mem- sia. Of 140 pastors in one province, bers. They have 8 missionaries in over 90 have been arrested on various China. pretexts, the chief one being that they have supplied their people with Bibles, -A new missionBrY society has been and so have been engaged in the book formed in England called the" Evan- trade. Another pretext is that they gelization Society for South America," have kept their records in German and taking as its doctrinal basis the Evan- not in Russian. It is plain that the gelical Alliance. It is undenominational government intends to stamp out every in its character, and will seek to co- system of religion but that of the Greek operate as far as possible with other so- Church. cieties in the South American field. The occasion for its formation was the -The Waldensian Church in Italy giving of a large sum of money to the has 137 workers. of whom 44 are pasmissionary bureau in connection with tors, having the oversight of as many the Y. M. C. A. of London, for the pur- churches, and 54 stations where the pose of evangelizing the Indian tribes work of evangelization is carried on. of Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. Religious services are held in 200 places, and it has been ascertained that the -Mr. Stanley declares of Alexander Gospel has been preached in the past Mackay that he was " the best mission· year to more than 50,000 persons to ary since Livingstone," and of his char- whom it was not preached, at least by acter," He had no time to fret and Waldensian workers. groan and weep; and God knows if ever a man had reason to think of ASIA. 'graves and worms and oblivion,' and to be doleful and lonely and sad, Mac- -According to Dr. H. H. Jessup, of kay had, when, after murderin~ his Beirut, the Oriental churches contain, bishop (Hannington) and burning his not including any in Greece or Russia: pupils and strangling his converts and Greeks, 1,000,000; Maronites, 230,000 ; clubbing to death his dark friends. Nestorian Catholics, 20,000; Greek Mwanga turned his eye of death on Catholics, 50,000; Jacobite Syrians, him." 30 000; other papal sects, 300,000; Nestorians. 140,000; Nestorians in In- The Continent -The climate is of dia, 116,000; Armenians, 3,000,000; the Arctic order in Austria, and the soil Copts, 200,000 ; Abyssinians, 4,500,000 ; is sterile. But the toilers of the Ameri- total, 9,586,000. Thus we have about can Board in that country are permitted 10,000,000 of nominal Christians scat· to taste in some measure the joys of the tered throqghout the great centres and harvest. For, during the first eight seats of Mohammedan population and impossible cures. One man wants' to power. be made clever, another to be made fat; -III. Persia, as elsewhere in the another to be cured of insanity, another Orient, the missionaries are sorely per- of tobacco, another of whiskey, another plexed over the problem of what to do of hunger, another of tea; another about the steady stream of promising wants to be made strong, so as to con· young men continually setting toward quer in gymnastic exercises; most men Europe and America for education and want medicine to make their beards other purposes. Many of them are thus grow; While almost every man, woman, lost to their people, though converted and child wants to have his or her skin and educated in the mission schools; made as white as that of the foreigner.
or, if they return full of evangelistic -In a Chinese Christian family at zeal, they bring also so many Occidental Amoy, a little boy, on asking to be bap. ideas and tastes as to be largely unfitted tized, was told that he was too young; for service. In particular, their de- that he might fall back if he made a mands for salary are altogether beyond profession when he was only a little the ability of the poverty-stricken popu- boy. To this he made the reply, Jesus lation to pay. has promised to carry the lambs in His -Communications from Persia to arms. I am only a little boy; it will be EngJish papers credit Miss Bradford, oosier for Jesus to carry me." This an American missionary, with remark- logic was too much for the father. He ably faithful service during the recent took him with him, lind the child was cholera epidemic. While others fled, soon baptized.
she stayed bravely at her post nursing -Robert Morrison went to China in the sick, and by her efforts many lives 1807, and died after twenty.seven years were spared. of labor, in 1834. At his death there China.-Theregion of Western China were only four converts and four Prol.
alone, that magnificent new world now estant missionaries in the whole empire.
fast 'opening to exploration and com- Now we find Morrison's converts reo merce, a region comprising the three placed by a host numbering 35,000 provinces of Szchuen, Yunlan, and chUl'ch.members, who last year gave Kwiechow, is larger by 20,000 square $44,000 for the spread of the Gospel in miles than Great Britain, Ireland, and their own land. "Behold these shall France, and contains 80,000,000 inhab- come from far ; and 10, these from the itants. north and from the west; and these -It is two years since a band of mis- from the land of Sinim [or China]" (lsa. sionaries assembled at Shanghai, China, 49 : 12).
issued a call for" one thousand men for -Again has the fateful Hoang.ho, or China," to be sent within five years .Yellow River, overflowed its banks, from the issuing of the call. It was spreading destruction far and wide.
a large draft, apparently, upon the The number of victims is stated at forces of the Church at home, but it 50,000.
is likely to be honored. It is said that -Manchuria, though lying outside three hundred and fifty of the recruits the limits of China proper, is yet a por- called for are already in the field. Fully tion of that vast empire. Its area is five hnndred young men are preparing about 400,000 square miles, and the to be preachers of the Gospel, and proba. population 12,000,000. Rev. John Ross, bly one hnndred and fifty more getting of the Scottish United Presbyterians, ready to be medical missionaries_ It is was the pioneer missionary, entering a good time to live. that country in 1872, and was soon fol- . -In Mongolia the missionary is often lowed by others. some of them sent by asked to perform absurd, -laughable, or the Irish Presbyterian Churoh. And now, after so short a time, there are will of their own. Women, indeed, are more than 2000 in the churches, of human beings, but they are of a lower whom 1550 have been gathered by the state than men, and never can attain to United Presbyterians. The toilers now full equality with them. The aim of number 17. female education, therefore, is perfect submission, not cultivation and develop- -A convert in the Shansi mission ex· ment of mind. In the other world the pressed it well when he was asked how condition of affairs is exactly the same, the Lord had changed his heart, He for the same laws govern there as here." said: .. I cannot tell how it was done, but I know that my heart is exceedingly Japan.-The Universalists report en- not the same." couraging progress in their mission in Japan. Three men and 1 woman are at -The :first insane asylum ever erect- work, together with 2 Japanese converts ed in the Chinese Kmpire is now being just ordained. In the Tokio theological projected by Dr. E. P. Thwing, who, school 6 students are found. with his wife and daughter, has gone to China at his own expense, to complete -A year ago Dr. Gordon received the arrangements at Canton. into one of the mission churches of Japan a woman who had kept a house -Are Chinese converts sincere and in of prostitution. Immediately on her earnest 1 It looks so. For Miss Grace conversion she set free all the girls she Wyckoff, of Pang.chuang, gives an ac- had bought, and since has been useful count of a hot Sunday afternoon in July in leading other notorious sinners to the last when she was greatly surprised to Saviour. see 4 women come into the yard from a .village 10 miles away. Three of them India.-The evils and follies of fash· were over sixty years of age, and their ion are not all confined to ci vilized faces were red with heat, and they were lands. It is in the heathen village of very weary. They came simply for a Senite, Burmah, that the women wear Christian service. At the same meet· from 30 to 40 pounds of brass wire about ing 16 other women were present from neck and limbs for ornament; and so villages at least 6 miles distant, and a attached to them are they, it is counted goodly number from nearer points. a sign of sound conversion when a Karen woman is willing to dispense with -With such teaching as this from the the load of metal. .. divine" classics of Confucius, we can understand why Chinese women are in -The Asiatic Quarterly Revimo is not a condition so abject. The authority is much in sympathy with missionaries. Dr. Faber, an eminent scholar, and the It is all the more remarkable that the statement appeared in the Chinese Mis· editor should speak of them as .. an un- sionary Recorder. Quoth the ancient rivalled disintegrating force," .. true sage : " Women are as different from alchemists, possessors of the philoso. men, as earth is from heaven. Dualism, pher's stone." He asks: "Isthis mag- not only in bodily form, but in the very num opus, on which the teaching of sev- essence of nature, is indicated and pro- eral hundred sects converges, a small claimed by the Chinese moralists of all matter 1 Is it naught to take the base . times, and the male belongs to 'yang,' metal, the outward civilization, the the female to 'yin.' Death and all pomp and riches from the heathen, and other evils have their origin in the to convert this dross for his benefit into , yin,' or female principle; life and blessing everlasting 1" prosperity come from its SUbjection to the ' yang,' or male principle, and it -A fine old Sikh said lately to a mis- iii therefore regarded as a law of nature sionary: .. Sahib, these neighbors of that women should be kept under the ours, since they became Isais (Chris. control of men, and not allowed any tians), have given up lying and thieving, and seem to be altogether changed." !
-For shame, if true! Can it be that the mint of the Holy Spirit."-Rev.
prejudioe has oolored this statement? A. J. Gordon. D.D.
"In India the Plymouth Brethren disturb -A zenana Christian worker in Delhi the missions. They are intense seota- says that there is scarcely a house in rians, and operate upon the mission that city not open to the reception of ohurohes rather than upon the heathen. the Gospel. The mission of the United Presbyterian Churoh at Gunjarala, in Upper India, AFRICA. has been seriously troubled by these proselyters_ Rev_ Babir Masih and his -Thanks to the energy and skill of son-in-law, a teacher in the mission the Frenoh, the Desert of Sahara is beschool, have resigned and joined the coming a garden. Within a few years Plymouthites. This sect is there under 12,000,000 acres of land have been made the direction of a ruan who was origi- fruitful by artesian wells. But there nally an Episcopalian, but who became a are 900,000,000 aores yet to be reolaimed before all the sand wastes are utilized.
Presbyterian, and is now outside of all – The stories told of the wealth to be churches. Its operations tend to divi- found in the gold and diamond fields of sion, always and everywhere." South Africa are well-nigh beyond be.
-An English justice in India, who is lief. Rev. Josiah Tyler, missionary, also honorary treasurer of the native writes of 100,000 ounces of gold a month church councils of the Church Missionary as the product of the Witwattlrsrand dis· Society in the Northwest Provinces, has trict ; and Sir Cecil Rhodes may well be offered a prize of 100 rupees for the best set down as the foremost of millionaires, essay on native churches. The special since he is owner of one of the richest question is the raising up of a self-sup- diamond-mines in Kimberly. a distriot porting native pastorate in that section, which has turned out thirty-six tons of and the essays are to make suggestions diamonds, worth about £6,500,000 a ton, for improved organization, oheapness of or, say, a total of $1,160,000,000. work and voluntary work in the pastoral, evangelistio and educational agencies – ' , The average Afrioan, if at all edu. of the churohes. The writers must be oated," declares Bishop Smythies, of members of the Church of England. Central Africa, "is a muoh more ready The essays may be in English, Urdn, speaker and a much better preacher Roman· Urdu, or Hindi. than the English clergy, when at three- and-twenty they are ordained deacons."
-Roman Catholic papers please copy. -Though it is unfortunate whenever Miss Mary Reed, the young lady mis- in any degree the Gospel must needs sionary of the Methodist Woman's For- lean for support upon an arm of flesh, eign Missionary Society, who was or resort even indirectly to carnal weapstricken with leprosy some months ago, ons, we yet read with pleasure that the and has consecrated her life to work strong arm of British authority is not among lepers in India, will take up her to be withdrawn from Uganda until permanent residence in the leper hos. March 31st of 1893 at least, and possi. pital at Chandag. She has been living bly not at all.
alone in a little bungalow near Miss -In spite of his hosts of terrible Budder's school at Pithoragarh. Amazons, King Behanzin, of Dahomey, -" Nearly $25,000,000 invested in has oome utterly to grief at the hands search for gold in India, and not $2500 of Colonel Dodds and his Frenoh troops, obtained after three years of hard since he has been ernshingly defeated labor."-India Times. "Look at aur in battle. and has lost his oapital, Abo· gold-mine in India -50,000 Telllglls dug mey. Nobody can object to "protec. from the heart of heathenism, whose tion" from such a monster.
faces now shine like precious ooins from -It costs to send missionaries to the new districts ~f Africa; but then it also – " You missionaries trouble us,"
pays. Since 1887, when missionary said an unchristianized Zulu lately.
labor began at Lake Tanganyika, 11 "Before you came our wives got food missionaries have fallen, and 11 others out of the ground for us, and brought have been forced to withdraw. But 3 us children and cattle. You make us centres of labor are firmly established, give up our wives, our beer, cattle for 2 gospels have been translated, and the our daughters, aud want us to spend people have learned to assemble for wor· money for clothes, books, and preach- ship, and converts are being baptized. ers. Life was easy before. You make -It is evident that missionary life, it very hard."
even in the interior of Africa, is not -The Berlin Missionary Society is altogether without its compensations. engaged in 6 sections of South and East For Mr. Arnot, in Garenganza, tells us Africa, and at the various stations has of a hunting expedition in which he gathered 11,456 communicants. A misbagged 8 antelope, 3 zebra, and 2 im- sionary stationed at Konigsberg writes: mense hippopotami. With his larder ,. Twenty-five years ago the number of thus supplied, he gave a Christmas feast baptized heathen in Natal was 2000, and to a great company of the natives, with the hippopotami for the piece de resist- now it is 8000. And the Boers, who ance, and zebra and antelope for side formerly looked coldly on, now regard the mission with favor. dishes. As the only drawback, during – an interval of the supper a family of -The French Protestant Mission in hyenas and 2 dog leopards made an as- Basutoland has 13 principal stations sault upon the camp and captured a por- and 129 out-stations, with day-schools tion of the provender. scattered through the whole country. It -In the Congo region at the present has nearly 8000 children upon its orditime there are 3 Catholic missions and nary school rolls, and has, besides these, 8 Protestant, among which is that found about 700 young men in training, either ed by Bishop Taylor. There are 28 sta- as teachers or in industrial schools tions and 95 missionaries. where trades are taught. At the princi- pal station at Morija there is a printing -It is now 150 years since the first and book-binding establishment, where, Hottentot was baptized by the Mora- a few months ago, an edition of 3000 vian missionary George Schmidt. There copies of a Sesuto reading-book was are at present in Cape Colony, under prepared entirely by native compositors the direction of the Moravian church, and printers. "In this way," says a 11 flourishing stations, with 22 mis- recent visitor, "the native is converted sionaries and about 9300 souls in their from the condition of a loafing savage care; 1 normal school and 19 common to that of a laborer." schools at the stations, with 2200 schol- ars ; 2 ordained natives, 2 aS6istant na- ISLANDS OF THE SEA. tive ministers, and about 150 native as- sistants. -Every Sunday morning 60 per cent -Mr. Swan, of the Arnot Mission in of the popUlation of the Hawaiian Central Africa, writing of the ravages Islands are in the pews of Protestant of the slave trade, says that at Katanga churches. Eighty-three pllr cent of the a boy of eight or ten years brings popUlation of the Fiji Islands are com.
about 40 cents in our money, a young municant members of the Protestant girl from $3 to $4, a woman from $1 to churches. But what a task is laid upon $1.20. Most of them are sold to Bihe the Hawaiian Christians in connection traders or to Arabs from the east. They with the 15,300 Chinese, 12,000 Portu- die in great numbers before reaching guese, 20,000 Japanese, and several the~r destination. thousand Mormons among the natives antI waifs and outcasts from all parts of audience-room with its two galleries was the world! crowded; the singing was magnificent. With one or two exceptions, every so- -Dr. Paton says of the New Hebrides: ciety in the whole colony was represent- .. Since I entered the field, thirty-four ed ; sometimes, in the case of the more years ago, by God's blessing on the nnit- distant, by only two or three members; ed labors of our missionaries He has often by a large company. As the roll given us about 14,000 converts, and of societies was called, each responded about 200 of them are engaged asnative by a passage of Scripture or a verse of a, teachers. " hymn, and the consecration was so genuine and spontaneous. the expres- -It is scarcely a quarter of a century sion so hearty and vigorous, that I am sinee the first baptism in Micronesia. sure the meeting will not soon be for- Now there are 46 self – supporting gotten in the religious circles of Sydchurches, with over 4300 church-mem- ney. Even after the Mizpah benedicbers. tion had been pronounced, the young people could not refrain from ,:inging ; -The United Norwegian 'Lutheran but all the way home through tne dark Church in the United States has been streets, at the railway station, and at notified that the Mission Society of Nor- every suburban place, where the train way will hand over to it the southern left its contingent of Christian Endeavpart of the island of Madagascar, includ- orers, the Endeavor songs were heard." ing the three mission stations, St. Augustine, Mangasoa, and Ft. Dauphin. -The Methodist churches of various names allover Australia are conferring -The rumored occupation by the with a view to union. In Sidney the British of the Johnston Islands in the representatives of the various bodies Pacific Ocean, 600 miles southwest of have resolved. by practically unanimous Honolulu, and of the Gilbert Islands, votes, that union is desirabl!J. The have an important bearing upon mis- name of the united church is to be sionary movements, since the rule of .. The Methodist Church of Australia." England would be more tolerant and conducive to the growth of Protestant· CENTRAL AMERICA. ism than that of Spain.
AUSTRALIA. -The Moravians have received the cordial consent or the Catholic govern. – A missionary training home has ment of Nicaragua to establish a mis. been opened in Melbourne. sion on its territory. It is hoped that this will result in the opening up of the -After hearing two missionary ser- whole of Nicaragua to mission work. mons in Melbourne recently, a man in very moderate circumstances sent $2500 -The Moravian Mission on the Mosto be divided between missions in India kito Coast (Nicaragua) has lost the little and New Guinea. sailing vessel (the Meta), so indispensa- ble to convey the missionaries, mails, -Here is Dr. Clark's account of an provisions, and other necessaries to Australian eonseoration meeting. It their 9 stat.ions north of Bluefields, the reads like a description of one of our capital of the Moskito Indian Territory. great conventions: "I have attended No lives were lost in the wreck, but the many consecration services in my life, schooner and her cargo are a dead loss, but very few that have exceeded in genu- and the vessel must be replaced as Boon ine spiritual power this meeting in the as possible. Centenary Wesleyan Church. The great
The Missionary Review of the World — February 1891
THE REGIONS BEYOND
MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.
YOLo XIV. No. 2.-0Id Series. –FEBRUARY.–YOL. IV. No. 2.-New Series.
I.-LITERATURE OF MISSIONS.
THE REGIONS BEYOND. * [EDITORIAL. ] The old Greeks were a worldly-wise people. In the Olympio games they showed their sagacity. Three pillars stood in the ancient stadium, respectively at the starting point, midway, and at the goal or turning point. On the first was inscribed a Greek word, whose force was, "Show yourself a man !" "Do your best!" On the last was a word which migh~ be rendered, "Stop here !" "Arrest your steps!" But on that midway pillar was the imperative ::i;'7rEVOE, " Speed you !" "Make haste !"
How much philosophy there was in that! No risk was greater than the· risk of overconfidence when success was but half attained. A racer, who at first outran the others, and at the middle of the course found himself ahead, would be tempted to 'relax his efforts; and so some athlete, who had reserved his strength for the supreme effort at the end of the race, would pass him by and get first to the goal.
Paul was a trained athlete in the spiritual sphere; and the law of his life was, "forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Spinoza wisely said that there is no more fatal foe to all progress than selfconceit and the laziness which self-conceit begets. To think and feel that we have already attained or are already perfect, is the narcotio that brings on the sleep of the sluggard and the slothful.
The motto of the great apostle of the Gentiles was, THE REGIONS BEYOND. He would be satisfied with no other man's method of measurement, with no narrow circumference of present attainment. He yearned to evangelize-to preach the Gospel in the Regions Beyond, and not to boast in another man's canon or measure as to territory already embraced in the scheme of labor.
That motto of Paul is the trne watchword of the Church in this new age of missions. After all the work of a century, we have only * The substance of an address at anniversary of China Inland Mission, Mildmay Hall, London, England, May 21,1890, and stenographically reported.- A.T.P. just begun. We are not even at the midway pillar; and God says, " Speed ye! Make haste! Forget the things behind and push for the Regions Beyond." And this will we do, by the grace of God!
This grand motto suggests various important applications: 1. The Regions Beyond, in the literal sense,of territory thus/ar unclaimed and unoccupied for Ghrist. If this great work of evangelizing the world is ever to be done, we must penetrate the deceptive halo of mere enthusiasm and come to the bare, hard facts of a world's destitution and degradation. Zeal is good, but zeal according to knowledge is better. To know the facts is to be oppressed with a great burden, for souls. To judge from what is sometimes said or written on missions, one wonld suppose that the work, not only of evangelization but of conversion, is going on so rapidly that we might wake any morning and find the whole world brought to Christ. Let us get past and behind this rose-colored cloud, and look at those great bald facts that, like those stopy shafts of eternity, the crags of the mountains, lift their awful forms before us-I,500,000,000 of human beings-enough, if they were moving, single file, past a given point, one every second, to consume fifty years, day and night, in passing, yet going down to the grave at the rate of more than one every second! Death, three times every century, sweeping the entire population 'of the globe into eternity, like chaff from a threshing-floor, to make room for a new generation! And this process going on for nineteen centuries, uninterruptedly, so that, since Cllt'ist was born, nearly sixty generations have lived and died, most of whom never heard of Him! What if all that host might be supposed to move in procession at the same rate we have already imagined! It would take over a thousand years! And, while we are talking about evangelizing the world, and some enthusiasts are prophesying its speedy conversion, is it not true that there are to.day more unsaved souls in the human family than there were last elmtury, or even last year? With all our missionary effort is not t 11e world';; population advancing faster than the churches of Christ are gathering converts? Surely it is time the church should fully awake to her responsibility. We act as though we had ages before us in which to preach, and the unsaved had ages before them in which to be reached, whereas our term of service and their term of life must very soon expire. The China Inland Mission found the germ of its being in the fact that, in Inland China alone, were eleven great populous provinces where as yet no missionary had gone to reside; and, in ten of the eleven, missionaries are now permanently working. Let the church not shrink from facing the facts: the destitution still unreached is appalling. What are 700 missionaries in China among 350,000,000 of souls? One missionary to half a million! About the same proportion of missionaries amc,ng the 250,000,000 or 300,000,000· of India, one to about 400,000! In Siam, with from 8,000,000 to 10,000,000, about a score of men and women, laboring among the native Siamese and Laos people, every male missionary having an average parish of a million souls, and cities with a population of 200,000 having not even a Bible-reader or native teacher!
Consider Africa's need! How little is it understood. Even a missionary journal gave currency to the misleading statement that the Dark Continent is " tolerably well supplied wi.th missionaries, as thirty-five missionary societies are now at work there." If you go across Siberia and down the eastern slope of the Kong Mountains, through the three Soudans, of the Niger, Lake Tchad and the Nile, 3,000 miles to the Red Sea, and if 400 miles north and south of your line of travel you could survey the land, you would find 90,000,000 of people with scarce one missionary! And farther south, in the Congo Free State, you might travel from Equatorville east to the Great Lake stations, and there is another territory 1,000 miles long by half as many broad, whose 40,000;000 of people when Stanley passed through Uganda had not yet seen a missionary! Doubtless Africa has to-day at least 200,000,000 of people who never saw a Bible or heard the first proclamation of the good news. And yet Africa is " tolerably well supplied with missionaries! "
Am I not justified in saying that we must get beyond and behind all this illusive glamour of ignorance and imagination? Yes, beyond evanescent touches of sympathy and passage of resolutions, and do something for souls that are dying without Christ.
In all the world we have six: thousand 01' seven thousand missionaries, representing 30,000,000 of church members-one for every five thousand! Whereas, if Protestant churches gave out of their membership one in three hundred, it would Imt 100,000 missionaries in the field, exclusive of the native helpers, who have for the last half century outnumbered four or fivefold the missionaries from Christian lands. These are, doubtless, familiar facts; but Sydney Smith said that for purposes of impression repetition is the only figure of speech worth a farthing. These facts must be beaten in by repeated blows. We must not only strike while the iron is hot, but make it hot by striking. Never will the people of God take up the work of missions as they ought until they both understand and feel the emergency and extremity of a dying world and their own opportunity and {)bligation with reference to it.
As to opportunity, there was never any such before. We live in ~ays more augustly awful than any in previous history. I would rather live in this year 1891 than to have lived when Christ walked the earth. Grand as would have been the privilege of seeing the Lord in the flesh and being closely associated with Him then, this day of grace offers us opportunities of service and privileges of fellowship which, in their way, are even more transcendent.
The regions beyond, of the whole world, now lie open before the children of God. Fifty years ago the burden of public and united prayer for missions was that God would open the doors of the nations to the preaching of the Gospel. In those days Japan was like a vessel hermetically sealed; China was the walled kingdom, fifteen hundred miles of solid barrier shutting out "the foreign devils;" India was 'in the selfish clutch of the East India Company; the islands of the sea were held by cannibal savages, and Africa was not even explored. A hun- dred years ago it seemed as though there was no chance of reaching the vast bulk of the race with the Gospel. A great wall of idolatry, superstition, prejudice, surrounded the nations, with here and there a solitary breach; now, that whole wall is down, wit.h here and there a. fragment remaining to oppose our advance. Let those who see no God in history tell us how changes so stupendous have been brought about inside one century. No human being, no combination of human elements could ever have done this. But" one day is with the Lord as a thousand years," and there have been single historic" days" in this period, in which He has wrought the work that ordinarily would have taken a millenium.
That one year 1858 may be selected as the annus mirabilis of modern missions. During that one year doors were opened giving access to one thousand millions of the human race. In that year, 1858, Great Britain, after two hundred years of exclusion, made her treaty with Japan. In that same year China, by the treaty of Tientsin, threw open not only her p.orts, but her interior, and provided that any Chinese subject might embrace the Christian faith without molestation or persecution. In that same year India was transferred from the sordid East India Company to the British crown, and Victoria became Empress of the Indies. In that same year the revolutionary changes in Papal Europe laid the basis of Free Italy. In that same year David Livingstone sailed a second time for South Africa to complete his pioneer path for missionaries. In that same year Benito Juarez, in Mexico, overthrew the monastic system, confiscated the estates and revenues of the Papal Church, and opened the way for Protestant missionaries to enter Central America. And in that same year Elizabeth Sale, of Helensburgh, Scotland, successfully penetrated the zenanas of Hindustarr, and led the way in woman's work for woman!
Was there ever such a year as 1858? Within less than a twelvemonth doors of approach were opened to from thirty to forty millions in Japan, three hundred to four hundred millions in China, two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions more in India, including all her millions of women and girls, two hundred and fifty to three hundred millions more in Africa, besides the hosts in Papal Italy and Mexico! When Paul and Barnabas came back to Antioch from their first mission tour, "they gathered the Church together and rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles." But did God ever open doors of access in Apostolic times with such rapidity and on such a scale of grandeur as in your day and mine? Who shall dare say that the days of supernatural working are past, ",hen such miracles qf Providence are performed before our ~ery eyes?
The apathy and lethargy of the Church of Jesus Christ are alarming, for they suggest a deadening of sensibility. We are like those that walk amid a blare and glare and flare, and whose eyes and ears are dazed and dulled by the glory of the scenes in t.he midst of which they are moving.• This year 1858 was not the only wonderful year in modern missionary history. In 1878 there was such a mighty movement of God's grace in India that sixty thousand people turned from idols in Tinnevelly and the Telugu country within six months! And it was in that same year that some twenty persons gave upwards of $4,000,000 to missions, as though God would show what on the one hand His grace could do among the heathen, and, on the other hand, in prompting a higher Christian liberality.
The Regions Beyond, thus marvelously opened to the Church, are a perpetual challenge to us to occupy till He comes. We need to get down on our faces before God for a greater Pentecostal baptism than the Church has ever yet known. All our efforts lack unity and harmony and business methods. On some mission fields a score of different denominations will sometimes be found, working side by side, in a comparatively small district, while in the Regions Beyond millions are without a single missionary. And our home fields are often overstocked in comparison. When in Scotland, on my mission tour, I found in one village, of perhaps 1,200 people, five fine church buildings with as many educated pastors; the entire church-going population could have been accommodated in one of those buildings, and cared for by one of those ministers, while the other four, with the money that their buildings cost, might have been evangelizing the interior of Chin.a, India or Africa, where each man might have a parish of from one million to ten million souls! There is something wrong in the Christian Church when denominational zeal outstrips that nobler zeal for the evangelization of the vast multitudes that are absolutely uncared for. It would seem that something is wrong, even in the basis of our missionary work, when the Church of God can calmly look on eight hundred million of human beings that, eve~ yet, after nineteen centuries, have not so much as heard whether there be a Christ or no ! When Rev: Geo. W. Chamberlain first went to Brazil, he found 10,000,000 of people in a nominally Papal land, who scarcely knew what a Bible was. One old patriarch of four score years, to whom he gave a Portuguese New Testament, and explained salvation by faith, said to him: "Young man, this is what I have long been waiting to hear. But where was your father when my father was alive that he never came to tell my father how to be saved?" Some such question as that we must all answer, if not before we die, at the judgment seat of Christ.
These Regions Beyond-this te;ritory unclaimed and unoccupied for Christ-should at once be possessed. Christ distinctly outlined for His Church her missionary policy: it is not concentration but diffusion. We cannot too often ring out this truth. Some have urged the American Board to concentrate its forces largely upon Turkey, and then, when Turkey is thoroughly evangelizeQ, it will, they say, furnish evangelists for the Regions Beyond. A similar policy has been urged upon the Presbyterian Board in New York as. to Japan, and the Church Missionary Society as to India. The argument is that we should unite our forces upon a limited field till it is thoroughly Christianized, and then make the newly converted people an evangelizing force to push on to the furtJlermost limits of the earth.
This looks well and sounds well at first suggestion; but is it scriptural? Our Master made no such discrimination. " Go ye into all the world," " unto the uttermost parts of the earth," and "'preach the GORpel to every creature." Those are onr marching orders. The policy of concentration more or less limits the area of the work of the Church. To follow such a policy is not to go into the Regions Beyond. We are tempted to choose fields comparatively neal', attractive, promising; fields offering prospect of large and quick harvests; and leave the more distant, destitute, degraded races of mankind to utter neglect. vVhile we are concentrating on Turkey, Japan or India, what is to become of the other millions of mankind that have only one lifetime in which to hear the Gospel?
Again we would peal out in the dull ears of a sluggish Church the signal of opportunity and obligation ! We are to take whatever men and women we can get and whatever money and other means we can gather and do just as OUI' Master bade us-go everywhere and to every creature with the Gospel, and do it at once. And when the Church of God will do her simple duty with faith in her Lord, the miracle of the loaves and fishes will be repeated on a larger scale in human history. 'fhe small provision, which seems nothing amil1 snch a vast multitude of hungry souls, will, when brought to the :Master and used along the lines of His command, again illustrate the miraculous mathematics of God. As we subtract from our supply, He will add to our resources. As we will divide, He will multiply; and He will increase for distribution what we decrease by distribution.
We write it solemnly and with profound conviction and deep emotion: Christ waits to see the travail of faith in the souls of His people before He can see the travail of His own soul in the redemption of the race! Never will that largest and last blessing come to our mission work until we emphasize evangelization. for which we are responsible rather than conversion for which we are not responsible; until we abandon our worldly-wise centralization and concentration and adopt the divine policy of universal extension and diffusion, going with all speed even to the uttermost parts of the earth and bearing among all nations our witness to our I.ord and His cross. From His cradle to His tomb, and from His sermon on the Galilean Mount, to His last commission, perhaps upon the same Mount, we seem to see but one commanding signal: it is a Hand pointing ~ TO THE REGIONS BEYOND. [To be continued. ] EACH religion has an appropriate symbol. The cross has come to represent Evangelical Christianity, as the crucifix does the Papacy, and the Greek cross the Greek Church. The wheel of endless transmigration may well stand for Buddhism, the iron ring of caste for Brahmanism, the crescent for Mohammedanism, the sun-disk for Parseeism, the tablet for Confucianism, the dragon for demon worship, the stone for fetichism, and the axe for a destructive atheism.
" BECAUSE iniquity abounds the love of many shall wax cold." No believer can afford simply to breathe a polluted atmosphere, and if his work for God compels such associations he must frequently go, as Christ did, apart with God, and on the lofty mountain tops breathe a pure air, taking long and deep inspirations of that purifying and strengthening oxygen and ozone. Prof. Bernard used to illustrate our unconscious accommodation to a vicious atmosphere by placing a sparrow under a bell glass receiver, with ail' enough for three hours respiration. Then, at the end of two hours, he put a sccond sparrow under the receivel', and it fell over dead, while the formcr bird was able to sustain the process of respiration for the remainillg hour. So there is a law not only of physical but of spiritual toleration. We learn to live in a polluted atmosphere, to accommodate ourselves to a low level of spiritual life. Could we come suddenly from a pure society into the carnal and worldly and selfish atmosphere often found even in Christian churches, we should be stifled. Let us live much with God, in the closet, and so learn to detect and flee from a contaminated atmosphere. May this law not explain in part the high consecration of true missionaries? They can maintain spiritual life amid snch surronndings only by mueh COil verse with God.
THE MISSION OUTLOOK
THE MISSION OU'l'LOOK.-II.
BY J. MURRAY MITCHELL, M.A., LL.D., NICE, FRANCE.
We proceed to speak of the foreign field. And first we ask what progress has been made in the evangelizing of the nations generally?
We sometimes hear even the friends of missions assert that the progress is deplorably small. 1Ve ask-small in comparison with what? If the answer be-small in proportion to the effort made, the answer runs clean counter to our deepest convictions. Considering how little man has done or tried to do, the blessing from on high ap- pears to us most graciously, most marvelously large. The seed we sow never perishes; it brings forth fifty, sixty and a hundred fold. Just compare the progress made in modern times with what was witnessed when the Gospel was preached even by apostolic lips. Some thoughtlessly speak as if the miracle of Pentecost had been frequently repeated through the early centuries. It was not so, even during the first. The highest estimate which we can possibly form of the number of professing Christians in the year 100 is not half a million, including childre'n, and some authorities make it considerably less. But, during the last century, more than 3,000,000 have been rescued from heathenism by Protestant missions alone. The Lord is pleaaed to bless our poor, initial efforts far beyond what we had reason to expect-for very feeble and faltering have these efforts been; and His marvelous goodness ought to impel us to run henceforth the way of His commandments.
1Ve are fully aware of the retort which is frequently made: "Yes, you have gained perhaps 3,000,000 from heathenism during the last century; but the heathen population of the world has been increased by a vastly greater number; and there are far more heathen now than there were a hundred years ago." True, but the Christian population of the world has been increasing too. Proportionally it seems to increase twice as fast as the heathen population; and by the end of the present century-that is, ten years hence-the Christian inhabitants will actually increase more rapidly than the heathen inhabitants. Of course, we may be told that merely nominal Christianity is of no value. But that is not true. Just compare the state of Europe with that of the heart of Africa! The last accounts, supplied by Stanley and Mackay, regarding interior Africa, are as horrible as the descriptions which Dante gives of hell. Europe is no paradise; but neither is it a pandemonium.
1Ve are amazed at the erroneous conceptions as to the progress of missions existing in quarters that ought to be well informed. A few years ago a journal of high name asserted that the conversions to Mohammedanism in British India were about a hundred thousand annually. More recently an anonymous writer in one of our most inflnential magazines maintained that the conversions to Islam were every year about 50,000, and that India was steadily becoming Mo- hammedan. It was of no use for missionaries to protest against these assertions; on such subjects they, good men, are supposed to be hopelessly prejudiced, and it is for able editors to put them right. But next comes Sir W. W. Hunter, whose knowledge of Indian sta- tistics is unquestioned, and he informs us that, so far as statistics are available, the general population of India, in nine years, has increased 8 per cent., but the Christian population 30 per cent.; and that, tak- ing Bengal as a sample, while the Mohammedans have increased 11 per cent. the Christians have increased 64 per cent. That particular error, then, is finally disposed of. So much as regards numbers; but what about character? No doubt there are black sheep in the flock. Missionaries are sometimes detleived by inquirers, and the children of {)onverts in heathendom are very like young people in Christendom. Still, there has been generally-we suppose universally-a remark- able elevation of the Christian community in intelligence and cllarac- tel', and, as a consequence, it has risen and is rising in position. In ~ndia, government returns show that crime' exists among native Chris- tians only to one-fifth the degree which obtains among the Hindus. We believe the same thing is tl'Ue of converts in China, Japan and Siam. It is remarkably true throughout the Dutch dominions in the islands of Eastern Asia, as we may have occasion to show a little farther on.
Letus now glance at the chief mission fields separately, beginning at the East: JAPAN.-The progress in this empire during the last twenty years ()r so in which it has been possible to preach the Gospel in public, has " been steady, and, as compared with that in other countries, even Tapid. Recently, among the educated or half e,ducated young men there have been manifestations of a feeling of dislike to foreigners; and probably the cry of " Japan for the Japanese" will wax louder and louder. The strong feeling of nationality will affect the missions and their ecclesiastical arrangements. Quite possibly foreign mis- sionaries will be told, before ten years are come and gone, that their presence is no longer needed; and this not scornfully or bitterly, but from a conviction that Japanese Christians can manage their own affairs and evangelize their countrymen better than foreigners can. For our part, we respect their feeling; and though we desire no abrupt severance of existing ties, we trust to see, ere long, the great spectacle of a national church in Japan-self-supporting, Eelf-gov- erned and self-extending. We say a national chttrch. The mission· aries are laudalby exerting themselves to reduce the number of eccle· siastical divisions among Christians. The Presbyterians have all united; they had almost coalesced with the Congregationalists, when a bar was unhappily interposed-from, America, if we mistake not. The Methodists wish to unite; and so do the Episcopalians and others.
Excellent, so far; but the Japanese Christians long for one grand, national church; and they will have it if foreigners do not interfere.
Em Oriente lux. Very probably the problem of union, at which the chutches of Europe and America are toiling, will receive its solution from the minds and hearts of more far-off Eastern Christians. That ought to humble the haughty West; but all of us, we trust, would heartily rejoice in the result. When we speak thus, we dream that there will be one grand united church holding the principles of the Reformation. The Roman and Greek churches will doubtless remain apart from this, and from each other, in Japan as in other places.
The new constitution of Japan gives full tolerance to Christianity, and the Gospel may now be preached over the length and breadth of the empire. Are the two old religions-Shintoism and Buddhism- likely soon to pass away? Some have answered yes; but we fear not. Shintoism is a vague, colorless creed, and one naturally leaps to the conclusion that it cannot long contend against the Gospel. But it is the old, ancestral faith; nearly all the vaunted glories of Japan are connected with it; and, probably, it will die slowly, as did the religion of Rome, even after Constantine's profession of Christianity.
How difficult to forget the national traditions handed down for more than two thousand years; how difficult to throw off the religious ideas they embody! Buddhism is an alien faith, though in itself more definite than Shintoism; but it may not perhaps survive its rival.
Confucianism has been the creed of many of the higher classes, and its worldly, cold philosophy may content them for a good while longer-all the more readily, because it can easily combine with the ancestral Shinto worship. • KOREA comes next-the'" hermit nation," as it used to be called; "the land of the morning calm," as it calls itself. Korea had very little distinctive religion. Shintoism was little known; Buddhism was proscribed; Confucianism influenced only a few among the higheF classes. Vague, confused superstition was all in all. But Korea happily has an easy alphabet, and multitudes, even of women, are able to read.
The beginnings of Protestant work in Korea are due to the Rcv. John Ros~, missionary of the (Scottish) United Presbyterian Church in Manchuria. He tra~slated various portions of the Scriptures illto Korean, from the year 1873 onwards. These were circulated in Northern Korea, and the result was truly remarkable-indeed, few things in mission history have been more so.* Then came the Ameri- can Mission, in 1884, being begun by Dr. Allen, a medical missionary, • See Report of Foreign Missions of (American) Presbyterian Church for 1890. In a spirit which does them much honor the Americans speak most war..lIy of the labors of the Scottish Mission, which preceded their own. whose professional skill was greatly valued in the highest quarters. An Episcopal Methodist Mission has followed, and recently an Angli- can one. Two laborers from the General Assembly of Victoria, in Australia, co-operate with the Presbyterian Mission. So far a mar- velous blessing has rested on the work. The opening of Korea has . been more sudden, and more complete, even than the opening of Japan.
CHINA.-In connection with China the eye first naturally fixes on the late Missionary Conference held at Shanghai. It was very large, very harmonious, very earnest and very hopeful. Of the arousing call to the Church of Christ to send China a thousand missionaries within the next five years we have already spoken. Especial stress was laid on the work of women. Dr. Williamson, since then, to the great loss of China, deceased, said that the permanent Christianization of China depends on the women, and that the women can be reached only by women. The conference did not take any narrow view of Christian work, and one of its solemn declarations was: "We hear a loud call to the Christian Church to supply Christian educationists for China." Lastly, it came to a most important resolution regarding the translation of the Scriptures into Chinese. Hitherto there have been rival versions, and interminable disputes aA to the rendering of im- pOl·tant words (even the name of God among them), and when the conference met, agreement on long-contested points seemed utterly hopeless. But the" great mountain" became" a plain," and satis- factory means were proposed for the preparation of versions in the high classical language, the colloquial :Mandarin, and an intermediate dialect. In addition to these there is a considerable number of local '. dialects, and arrangements were entered into by which versions into these will be made, or, if already made, harmonized. Had the Shanghai Conference achieved nothing more than this, all the labor and expense connected with long journeyings and a session of more than a fort- night would have been richly repaid.
SIAM.-Buddhism is the established religion in Siam; but here, as elsewhere, the name veils a mass of childish superstitions. The chief mission here has been the American Presbyterian, which began its work in 1840. Its operations are carried on mainly in the northern part-Laos. Some twenty years ago there was a severe persecution of the Christians; but, for some years past, opposition on the part of the government has completely died away. Education and medical work receive decided encouragement from the king and the high officials. All the missionaries seem to be full of hope.
NETHERLANDS, INDIA.-The Dutch possessions in Eastern Asia are so called by the Hollanders, though they have no connection with IIindustan. (They are part of Indict extra Gangem.) Until of late the Dutch authorities discountenanced missions, if they did not actively oppose them. '1'0 this day religion is at a low ebb among the Dutch inhabitants of Eastern Asia, and the clergy are often ,avowedly rationalistic. But the missions have done much faithful work, and the blessing from on high has rested on them. We give some remarkable figures in a note. * We understand that the oppo- sition of the authorities to missions has entirely ceased. They admit that the native Christians are visibly superior to the heathen (incluiing Mohammedans) in industry, cleanliness and morality. The owners of plantations in Java prefer native Christian laborers to all others. Let it be observed that, though the Mohammedans are zealous in proselytizing, yet the conversions from Islam to Christianity have been very numerous, especially of late.
INDIA. t-In this great field the battle between the Gospel and heathenism becomes hotter every day: "All reports of religious affairs are growing in urgency and interest."! 'l'he next Decennial Missionary Conference takes place two years hence, and the proceedings may be expected to be of absorbing interest.
There are vast diversities between different parts of India. Even the languages spoken amount, according to the census report, to 106, and some have reckoned as many as 132. The diversities among the inhabitants are astonishingly great. To use Lord Dufl'erin's words: "At one extremity you have the naked, savage hill-man, with his stone weapons, his head-hunting, his polyandrous habits, and his childish superstitions; and at the other extremity you have the Europeanized native gentleman, with his refinement and polish, his literary culture, his Western philosophy, and his advanced political ideas."
Even a lifetime barely suffices to supply a full, comprehensive idea of India. We are, therefore, continually in danger of drawing too general conclusions from particular facts. And hence come such ,conflicts of opinion as to the state of things in India. Some already tell us they can hear the wailing cry that" great Pan is dead"; § while others declare that, as yet, he has received no serious wound. We, therefore, entreat the friends who pay a cold-weather visit to India, and then rush home to proclaim the conclusions they have reached, to specify the part of the Indian Continent which they have studied and think they understand. On the other hand, we must request the men who knew India ten or fifteen years ago to remem- *Christians in Java (1873)….. …..•….• 5,673 " (1889) …………….. 11,229 in Snmatra (1873). .. .. .. . ….. 2,500 (1889) . .. .. .. .. …. 12,000 in all Dntch India (1873) …… 168,672 (1889) .•.••.250,000 ~ an increase of 66 per cent. nearly.
These figures are given by Inspektor Schreiber, of Barmen.
t Many of the principles we state regarding missions in India will apply to missions ,generally. :j: Last report of British and Foreign Bible Society, p. 184. § Ibid, p. 185. bel' that change now proceeds rapidly, even in what used to be called the" unchanging East."
The accessions to the Church of Christ in India continue to be chiefly drawn, as heretofore, from the races generally called abori-.
ginal-such as the Kols, Santals, Garos, Khasias, etc. (as in Burma from among the Karens). It was high time that missions should exert . themselves in behalf of these tribes; for, ere long, they would cer- tainly have been merged in the general Hindu population; the ab-.
sorption was steadily going on. We lately noticed an assertion by a high Indian official to the effect that Hinduism is gaining rather than losing ground. Quite true, in a sense. Uncivilized races are influenced by the civilized races near them; their vague demon wor- ship gives way before the more definite Hindu mythology, and their marriage and funeral rites fall gradually under the control of the Brahmans. Races that live apart eSyape this influence in a great degree; but those that have intercourse with the Hindus become more or less Hinduized. True, they are not received into the Hindu com- munity-they are not taken into caste; they are, so to speak, tied on to the great mass, not ingrafted into it. Other races, such as the Dhers, of Gujarat, or the Mhars and Mangs, of Maharashtra, no longer live apart from the Hindus; they are attached to the villages-permitted, not indeed to live in them, but around or near them. Among such races the progress of the Gospel is not much slower than among the more sequestered aborigines.
It is cheering to watch the steady elevation of these hitherto down-trodden races. The Brahmans, of course, sneer. Often have we heard them say, "We are too wary to swallow your bait, and so you go to those wretched outcasts." In truth, the missionary goes to all; but the proud Brahmans, as a rule, despise the message; while, in many cases, the poor and despised do not. And the reception of the truth raises and refines; the very expression of the countenance is changed. Then, when the children of converts are carefully taught and trained-and that this should be done is a most pressing, sacred duty-they compete, on no unequal terms, even with the intellectual Brahmans.
Thus the wrongs of ages are gradually becoming redressed; a social fabric, based on a new foundation, is slowly rising; and, by and by, the Christians will be not only the men of light, but the men of leading, too. .
Among the middle and higher classes the visible progress of the Gospel, as shown in the number of baptisms, is much slower than among the races we have just referred to. Hitherto it has been very difficult to reach these classes except through schools and colleges.
This is still true of India generally; but there are already exceptions to the rule, e~pecially in the largest cities. If evangelistic addresses were attentively listened to only when delivered in English, one might fear that the language, more than the meaning, formed the attraction; but earnest appeals in the vernacular, when the speaker wields it with any power, are also becoming acceptable. The change is immensely important. Educational missionaries ascribe it to the influence of Christian education, and we think they are right in doing so.
Attacks on educational missions continue to be made, as they have been for fifty years; but we see no new argument advanced. ""Ve suppose they will be repeated; but the missionaries will patiently toil on-aye, no kind of mission work is so toilsome as theirs, and assuredly it is not from a love of ease they take to it-and while they heartily rejoice in the extension of all kinds of missionary effort, they cannot, in faithfulness, give up their own. Education, both lower and higher, has become a necessity in India. Who is to give it? Government is disposed to withdraw more and more from its higher institutions, and (in a spirit which does it much honor) is expressing its belief that only those in which religious instruction is given can meet the necessities of India. Are Protestant missionaries to abandon the work?
Hoc Ithac1l8 velit, et magna mercentur AtridaJ. Nothing would delight the natives more; nothing would delight the Romanists more. The moulding of the higher thought of India would then be in the hands of these two classes. We hold that too much has been conceded already to the cry of " preaching, not teaching." The Cathedral Mission College, in Calcutta, in connection with the Church Missionary Society, founded by Bishop Cotton, was given up in 1880, under the impression that there were needlessly many colleges in Calcutta; but the demand for higher education has greatly increased since then, and the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society regret the closing, and for this reason, among others, that they now cannot get into touch with the influential student class as they used to do when their college was in existence.
Some people talk of educational missions as if they were merely educational. Is there one such mission in all India? We believe not. People who criticise what they call" Dr. Duff's system" should try to understand what that system was.
The fullest examination of this question with which we are acquainted is contained in the" Revised Special Report of the Foreign Missions Committee of the Church of Scotland on Educational Missions in India." The document comprises 213 pages, and embodies the opinion of eighty-four persons, connected with various churches, who were deemed well qualified to pronounce an opinIon on the important question proposed; and it shows that, after most patient and prolonged inquiry, the General Assembly of the Church resolved to maintain its educational efforts. The report deserves to be studied as a valuahle rer,ertory, not only of opinions, but of facts. We read that wheu the apostle and his companions were tossed up and down ill Adria, they "cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day." When some one rejoicingly pointed to the first streaks of dawn on the Eastern horizon, we wonder whether he re- ceived the chilling rebuke: "The dawn is nothing; we are waiting for the sunrise." But so speak many now. They do not believe in pro- cesses and preparations. They expect the sunrise immediately to follow midnight. Each of the higher religions of India covers as large an area as it did before; and many sorrowfully ask what im- pression, then, the Gospel is making on them. 'Ve reply that the Gospel never comes into real contact with heathenism without affect- ing it, and the influence exerted is in direct proportion to the com- pleteness of the cOlltact. The moral teachings of Christianityap- peal to natural reason and conscience; they carry with them their own bright evidence, and are acce})ted without much delay. The deeper mysteries, such as the divinity and atoning sacrifice of Christ, are, it may be for a long time, vehemently opposed by many; nor need we wonder at this, seeing that ., no man can call Jesus Lord but by the Holy Ghost." But when the Gospel is fully and faithfully proclaimed, it is never long proclaimed in vain. The truth is revealed to some; and these profess their faith, and, if need be, are prepared to suffer for it.
Now, in India, the higher religions are being shot through by the arrows of light; that is to say, the moral teachings-and much of the teaching regarding God contained in the Gospel is st.eadily penetrat- 'ing the mind of heathenism. The professors of heathen religions may deny that they borrow from Christianity; they may not be aware that they do borrow, but that does not alter the fact. One of the most noteworthy proofs of what we now affirm is supplied by a statement lately made by the high priest of the chief division of the Bombay Zorastrians, to the effect that the attributes ascribed in the Avesta to Ahuramazda are the same as the Old Testament ascribes to Jehovah. The statement is far from correct; but the high priest honestly believed what he so strongly affirmed. The wish was father to the thought.
We need hardly dwell longer on this. Every student of church history will see in it only a repetition of what occurred during the first three centuries. Heathenism was then compelled by the presence of the Gospel to remodel itself. "Reformed heathenism adopted features borrowed from Christianity, and even grew to be an imitation of it."* It thought to save itself by so doing. But by and by, as the lamented Liddon expressed it: "Conversions came with a rush."
Our readers must have been surprised to hear of the late sugges- * Uhlhorn "Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism," Bk. II., ch.3. tion, made by at least one man of influence, that the Bible be added to the Hindu sacred books. A very natural proposal, in the mouth of one who recognizes the steady onward march of Christianity, and would fain come to terms with it before it is too late. But the pro- gress of the truth is still more fully proved by the alarm that is so widely professed and the vehement efforts to oppose it-Hindu tracts,.
Hindu preachers-these are now sent forth in great numbers; and the Gospel is mercilessly attacked. The large society called the "Arya Samaj," gives in to Christianity so far that it surrenders po- lytheism, idol-worship, caste, and child-marriage, and permits the re-marriage of widows. It falls back on the Vedas as the sole author- itative scriptures, and, by torturing Sanskrit terms, it finds Christian and modern ideas in them. It is ienscpreecaisailnlgy.a f"rIafi d•woef cCohnrt iins tuiea nt oscshl eoeopls, ". Its propagandism is zealous and it cries, " our temples will soon be Christian churches."
But it is in vain that the Arya Samaj has abandoned three-fourths of Hinduism in order to save the remainder. Christianity is, so to speak, in the air.* It affects all the religious thinking of India; and its influence is seen in the remarkable attempts at reform which are happily becOI~ing so frequent. People may call these only social re- forms; but in India what is social is also religious. The Rajputana chiefs, bolder than the British Government, have limited marriage ex- penses and fixed the minimum marriage age for men at 18, and for women at 14. This is a stupendous change; and it involves stupen- dous consequences. The persistent efforts to encourage the re-mar- riage of widows; the refusal of the barbers of Bombay to shave the heads 'of widows; the formation of a social reform association, which held its third annual meeting in December, 1889, where it was noted with interest that several Hindu ladies were present; these and similar movements are, to anyone that knows the people of India, full of interest and promise; and, we repeat, that they are traceable, directly or indirectly, to the influence of Christianity. We spoke above of ideas changing; but there is also, though to a less extent, a change of institutions.
We have been Ilpeaking of Hindus. But the Mohammedans in India are also moving. Their antipathy to vVestern education is con- siderably mitigated. That enlightened man, Sir Synd Ahmad, tells us that his college at Alighar is flonrishing. If so, Moslem bigotry is proportionally declining.t Meantime, the uneducated Mohammed- ans-note especially what has happened in the north at Peshawur- * Since this was written, we find the same expression quoted in the Church Missionary Society Report. p. 172.
t A high Indian official, Sir Auckland Colvin, has said: "An Alighar col- lege man has become synonymous with a man of liberal ideas, advanced edu- cation and independent character." We have seen this college. We have ob-· served that its alumni are Mohammedan in little more than name. are as greatly terrified at the progress of Christianity as is the Arya Samaj among the Hindus. Zenana mission teachers are objects of especial dread to Mohammedans, as well as to Hindus. Let our sisters thankfully and strenuously persevere; their work is telling greatly.
[To be continued.] THE Church of God cripples all her mission boards and mission work by a selfish withholding of money for the Lord's cause, and then wonders at the slow progress of missions in fields where retrenchment makes all advance impossible. This absurd contradiction reminds us of the wars of Arminius (Hermann), Prince of Cherusci (16 B. C.- '16 A. D.) The Germans bored holes in the tongues of the Roman lawyers and judges, and then said, " Now, rattle away /"
ONE of the McAll workers in Paris was very much affected at finding a poor working woman, already in a dying condition, who bad strayed into one of the salles and there for the first time heard of Christ as the Good Shepherd of souls. She was trying to recall and put together in an intelligible shape the few hints she had picked up at that meeting, mere fragments of gospel truth, and when she found one at her bedside who could give her the whole truth about this great Saviour her joy was so great that she forgot even the agonies of dying! And yet there are literally millions of souls in France hungering for just such a Gospel.
MATERIALISU, like other forms of infidelity, has a basis of insincerity. At a meeting in Liverpool an evangelist publicly said: " I do not believe there is an honest man ill the world who really believes that we are all simply matter and go out of existence at death. If there is a real materialist in this audience I would like to see him." A man rose up and shouted: "Well, here is one." "Come up here," .said the evangelist, " I want all these people to see a man whose mother died like a dog, and that was the end of her." "You are a liar," shouted the man, " she was one of the best women that ever lived, and she's in h.eaven to-day /" The fellow was fairly. caught in his' own trap. He quite forgot for the moment his own creed!
THE efforts of churches which are not evangelical and which lack all true missionary spirit to found mission enterprises, simply to appear aggressive and seem abreast of other professed believers-in other words, to save themselves the humiliatio.n of a significant contrast-have always ended in disastrous failure. Often, instead of Christianizing the helthen, they themselves become heathenized. Those impulsive spurts in the direction of missions remind us of a significant phrase in the psalms, in which, referring to the triumphant passage of Israel over the Red Sea, the sacred writer adds, "which the Egyptians, assaying to do, were drowned /"
MISSION OF THE AMERICAN BOARD IN NORTH CHINA
A CONDENSED SKETCH OF THE MISSION OF THE AMER- ICAN BOARD IN NORTH CnINA.
HEXRY BLODGETT, D.D.
The history of the North China Mission is closely connected with that of the Shanghai Mission, and through that with the history of the Canton Mission, the first of the American Board, and of the American churches in China.
Mr. Bridgman, the first American missionary to China, arrived in Canton in the year 1830, twenty-three years after Dr. Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to this empire. In 1847 Mr. Bridgman , went to Shanghai as a delegate of his missionary brethcrn to assist in the translation of the Bible. This resulted in his permanent residence in that city, where he died in the year 1861. The translation made by Messrs. Bridgman and Culbertson into the written language of China is still in use, while the twenty volumes of the Chinese Re- pository, edited by Dr. Bridgm;tn, remain as an invaluable thesaurus of matters relating to China and the far East. .
In the year 1854 Messrs. Aitchison al,ld Blodget were sent out by the Board to join Dr. Bridgman at Shanghai, thus forming the Shanghai Mission. Mr. Macy joined the mission in 1858, making the fourth ordained missionary.
During the years in which the mission was continued at Shanghai, Dr. Bridgman was engaged in translating, also taking the pastoral care of the church connected with the boarding-school of girls, under the charge of Mrs. Bridgman. The three younger members of the mission were engaged in the usual work of teaching and preaching, as they were able, both in the city and the outlying country. 'rhe rule established soon after the opening of the" Five Ports,"
of twenty-fonr hours absence only, from one of the ports, was soon broken at Shanghai, and before long became a dead letter, Mission- aries made frequent tours into the interior. In the autumn of 1858 MassI'S. Aitchison and Burdon (now Bishop Burdon of Hong-Kong), after many journeys in the country together, took up their residence at Ping Hoo, a city of 100,000 inhabitants, seventy miles southwest of Shanghai. Here Mr. Aitchison remained for the winter, but re- turned at length to Shanghai in hope of commencing a mission in the llorth of China.
Such a movement seemed very desirable both to the Board, and to the memhers of the miRsion. Shanghai being the northernmost of the fi ve ports then opened, various European and American Societies had designated their missionaries to this city, so that, before the open- ing of China in 1860, more than thirty lahorers, representing as many as ten or eleven bodies of Christians in different countries were con- gregated there waiting for restrictions to be removed as a signal for advance to all parts of China. The year 1859 was one of sore trial to the Shanghai Mission. Mr. Macy died in April; Mr. Aitchison accepted in June a place offered him in the American Embassy, then about to proceed to Peking, in the hope that it might result in fixing his residence in the Northern Capital. He had only been eight days in Peking when he was taken ill, and after eleven days of suffering, died August 15th en rm£te to the .seaboard. He was buried in the Gulf of Chihli. In the autumn of the same year Mrs. Blodget was compelled by failure of health to re- turn to the United States.
In the following spring, 1860, Mr. Blodget for a like reason was forced to quit Shanghai. He went first to Japan, and, after two months at Kanagawa, embarked on a British transport, bound, for Taku to join the fleet about to rendezvous at that place. The ship ar- rived at her destination August 19th, just one year from the time, when, near the same spot, Mr. Aitchison was lowered to his watery grave.
A few days after her arrival the Taku Forts were taken, and in a short time all North China was open to the missionary and the mer- <lhant. Tientsin became an entrepot of foreign trade, and Peking the place of residence of the ministers of the various treaty powers of the West.
Early in September, of this year, Mr. Blodget landed in Taku, and on the 8th of November took up his residence in the city of Tientsin, being at that time and during the following winter the only Protestant missionary in this newly opened province.
The city was then garrisoned by the allied English and French forces. A lodgment was readily obtained in the barracks of the British soldiers, ana Christian work was commenced at once, both among the soldiers and the thronging multitudes of Chinese, who received with great friendliness the newly arrived missionary.
In April of the following year, 1861, Mr. Blodget had the happiness of welcoming to this field the Rev. J. Innocent, of the English Methodist Mission, and in May the Rev. J. Edkins (now Dr. Edkins), of the London Mission.
A journey to Peking in the month of May showed how entirely the country was open to travel, and to Christian effort; nor was any objection offered to passing about freely within the walls of the capital, even to those in no way connected with the legations.
During this month a chapel and houses for residence were rented within the city of Tientsin, and the Sabbath services were removed from the temple court, in which they had been held, to this place. Blind Chang, the first convert, was baptized in June, 1861. He was a 'veale man in humble life, but there is hope that he died a Christian.
Several journeys were undertaken, in this and the following year, for the exploration of this new field, as also for direct missionary ef- 'ort. These journeys extended to Teh-chen, in Shantung, on the South; to Pao Ting-fu, the capital of Chihli; to Tai Yuan-fn, Ta T'ung- fu, in Shansi; to Chang Chia K'eu (or Kalgan), on the Northwest;. also to T'ung Cheu and other cities east of Peking.
The Rev. J. Doolittle, of Fuhchau, spent the winter of 1862 and 1863 in Tientsin assisting in the work of the mission. Mr. Blodget spent the greater part of the winter in Peking, but returned to Tient- sin in view of the departure of Mr. Doolittle for Fuhchau. The mission was reinforced in 1863 by the arrival of the Rev. C. A. Stanley in March, and the Rev. L. D. Chapin in May. They took up their residence within the city walls, in houses which had been pur- chased the previous autumn through the aid of the late Dr. S.. W. Williams. Subsequently, on the ground of health, the residence of the missionaries was changed to the settlement, southeast of the city.
The principal labors of the missionaries have been in preaching the Gospel, and in the distribution of Christian books, both in the city and in the country. A day-school of boys has generally been maintained, and at times a few boarders have been taken in and cared for. The project of a higher institution of learning at Tientsin, in which the English language should be taught, has often been before the mis8ion, and has met with much favor.
The work of this station received a great impulse in the years foll0'Ying the famine of 1877. At that time the missionaries, furnished with funds to the amount of $10,000, more or less, by the liberality of Christian nations, threw themselves unreservedly into the work of famine relief, in which they were assisted also by members of the station at 'l"ungcheu. Their principal labors were in the region of P'ang Chuang, the central place of their work in Shantung. ~Iultitudes of the starving people were relieved in their distress. In this and the following years the missionaries found open doors and open hearts to the preaching of the Gospel. Several hundreds turned to the Saviour. The church was greatly enlarged, and a new station at P'ang Chuang was the result. The life of MI'. Smith, at one time greatly endangered by famine fever, was spared, and his labors are continued at this new station.
The importarice of Tientsin as the port of entrance, not only for Northern and Western Shantung, but also for Northern Ho Nan, for Shansi, Chihli, and inner Mongolia cannot be overestimated.
The station at Peking was formed in 1864. Though frequent visits had been made to this city by Mr. Blodget since May, 1861, it was not until February, 1864, that he took np his permanent residence here. Through the timely assistance of Dr. Williams, the present mission premises were purchased in March, and a chapel was opened in one of the rear buildings almost immediately for public preaching. This was a new departure for Peking, and one which attracted crowds of curious listeners. The pr~mises had been purchased from the Chinese for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; but that Society, being cramped by its own laws, was unable to take them over, and allowed this advantageous location to pass into the hands of the American Board.
On July 1st, Mrs. Bridgman arrived in Peking, having left New York when only partially recovered from a dangerous accident, and narrowly escaped the Alabama on the way. Mrs. Bridgman at once set herself to establish a girls' boarding-school, which has been continued ever since that time, and is now known as the" Bridgman School." She also gave to the Board the entire sum which had been expended for houses, lands and school buildings, amounting to not less than $5,000. In 1868 she left Peking, broken down in health, and spent the remainder of her days in Shanghai, where she died, in 1871. While in Shanghai, though in feeble health, she laid the foundations of a boarding-school for girls, and a dispensary, which, by her will, have passed into the hands of the Woman's Union Mission of New York.
The mission force in Peking was increased in November, 1864, by the arrival of the Rev. J. T. Gulick and Mrs. Gulick; and again, in August, 1865, by the arrival of the Rev. C. Goodrich and Mrs. Goodrich. A month before their arrival, in the early part of July, Mr. and Mrs. Gulick left Peking for Kalgan, to open a mission station in that city. The next reinforcement was by the coming of Mr. and Mrs. ·P. R. Hunt and Miss M. H. Porter, in 1868.
Miss Porter very soon took charge of the Bridgman School; Miss Chapin joined her in 1872. Under the efficient management of these ladies, and of Miss Haven, who arrived in 1879, t}Jis school has maintained a high character, and has been of the greatest service in training up young women suitable for wives for the native helpers, able also to take some part in Christian work. This school has formed the nucleus for efforts for women, botb in the city and in the country.
Mr. Hunt after twenty-seven years of service in India, came to Peking with the enthusiasm of youth to establish a mission press, and also to take charge of the financial affairs of the Mission. The press he established in 1869. It was at the time, and still remains, the only press of Protestant missions in North China. The money used for this purpose was supplied by the indemnity fund received from the Chinese Government after the burning of the mission press in Canton in 1858, and was originally given to the Board by the Bleecker Street Church, in New York, for the establishment of that press. Mr. Hunt was a skillful printer. vVork done by him was well done, whether in the establishment of the press, or in printing the books which issued from it.
During the nineteen years in which Mr. Hunt and Mr. Noble, who succeeded him, had charge of the press, there were printed on it, for the American Bible Society, the version of the New Testament, in Mandarin, prepared by the Peking Committee, that of the Old Testa- ment, also in the Mandarin, prepared by Bishop Schereschewsky, the Psalms and various portions of the New Testament; for the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, the four Gospels, with notes on the same; for the Church Mission Society, the book of Common Prayer; a series of Sabbath-school lesson papers and other works, for the North China Tract Society; a treatise on theology by Mr. Sheffield; several editions of a hymn book by Messrs. Blodget and Goodrich; a geography by Rev. L. D. Chapin; a smaller work on geography by Rev. L. W. Pilcher; a treatise on physiology by Dr. Porter; tracts and books by Miss M. H. Porter and l-Iiss M. E. Andrews, and, in addition, a con- siderable list of tracts and books not here enumerated. From the first this press has done a select work for local convenience-rather a large work for distant parts of China.
In commencing chapel preaching in Peking Mr. Blodget was assisted by the late Rev. VV. C. Burns, whose memory is still fragrant in the minds of some who heard the Gospel at that time. Subsequently Messrs. Goodrich, Holcombe and Roberts, each during the time of his connection with this station, labored in evangelist.ic work, both in the city and in the country. These are now succeeded by Messrs. Ament and Aiken. A good degree of success has attended these efforts, and frequent accessions in the city and at the country stations indicate a, constant growth in the membership of the church.
The boys' boarding-school in this station was discontinued in 1869. Two day-schools for boys have usually been maintained in the city, and at present there is one day-school in the country. There is also a day-school f~r girls in the city.
Perhaps there is no large city in Europe, or even in the whole world, more open to every sort. of evangelistic and educational labor, and to all the eleemosynary institutions of the Christian church than is Peking at the present time..
'rhe Kalgan station was opened by Rev. and Mrs. J. T. Gulick in the summer of 1865. Great difficulties were encountered in the early days of this station in renting houses and procuring suitable places for mission work. In the end unwearied patience, combined with great skill and prudence and unbounded charity in caring for the sick and needy, secured the desired result.
This station was reinforced in 1867 by the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Williams, in 1868 of lIr. Thompson, in 1870 of Miss Diament, and subsequently, after Mr. and Mrs. Gulick had left for Japan, by .iYlt-. and Mrs. Sprague, and Mr. and l-Irs. Roberts and Miss Dr. Murdock.
Healing the sick and a boys' day-school were from the first carried on jointly with evangelistic work at this station. After the coming of Dr. Murdock, a hospital and a diRpensary, including an opium refuge, were opened. A girls' boarding-school was established by Mrs. "Villiams, which is now under the charge of Miss Diament. The buildings for the school were erected largely by funds contributed by one of the mission families.
The Yu Cheu Valley, seventy miles southwest of Kalgan, has hitherto been the most fruitful part of this field, and in the city of Yu Cheu it is now proposed to estahlish a new station. Kalgan and Yu Cheu are solely in the charge of missionaries of the American Board. Other societies are not likely to enter this field.
Kalgan is located at a pass in the great wall. It has an outlook upon the rolling pasture lands of Mongolia. The roving Mongols are often seen in the streets of the city, and pass through in numbers on their way to Peking, or in their pilgrimages to Wu'l"ai in Shansi. The missionaries have often proposed labor for these sons of the desert, and something has been done among them. One convert to the Christian faith has been baptized in Kalgan. It has been suggested that one missionary should devote himself to this work.
The station at T'ungcho was opened by the Rev. L. D. Chapin in 1867. No serious difficulty was experienced in securing' residences. The people in 'l"ungcho have from the first been friendly to the missionaries. The station was reinforced in 1868 by the arrival of Miss Andrews, and in 1869 of Mr. and Mrs. Sheffield; Miss Evans reached T'ungcho in 1872; Mr. and Mrs. Goodrich, after their return from the United States in 1872 spent a year at Yu Cheu, and thence removed the following year to 'l"nngcho. Dr. Holhrook arrived in 1881, Mr. 1nd ]frs. Beach in 1883, Dr. and lVirs. Ingram in 1887, and Miss Miner in 1888.
The boarding-school for hoys, early established by Mr. Chapin, has been enlarged, and expanded by the efforts of Mr. Sheffield and others, so that it has now become the Mission High School. To this pupils are sent from all the stations of the mission to go through with a thorough course of study, in the hope that many of them will enter the Christian miuistry, and that all will hecome helpful in one way or another to the cause of Christ.
The course of study embraces a thorough knowledge of the Chinese classics, learning to compose in the written language, a familiar acquaintance with the Bible, including the study of Bible history and geography, and the committing to memory of quite a number of the books of the New Testament, also some of the more impo]·tant branches of gClleral knowledge and Western science, such as geography, mental and written arithmetic, algebra, geometry, chemistry, mechanics, phy~iology, geology and astronomy. It is de8iglled to extend the course and introduce higher branches as fast as the needs of the sehool and the circumstances of the mission make it expedient. The high school is to become the college. Connected with this high school is the theological seminary of the mission, designed for those who are prepal'ing to enter the ministry. Here the various departments of exegesis, systematic theology, church history, sacred rhetoric and the pastoral charge are attended to, so far as the attainments of the students and the circumstances of the case will allow. A great and an increasing amount of medical work has been done at this station from the first.
Through the energetic labors of Dr. Holbrook a hospital and dis- pensary were opened, the work in which is now vigorously carried forward by Dr. Ingram. Dispensaries are also opened at two country stations not remote from T'tmgcho. It is proposed that medical instruction shall be given to some of the students at this station.
General evangelization, both in the city and, to some extent, in the country, has been carried forward at thif station, in connection with the work of teaching, with hopeful results.
T'ungcho is the port of Peking, twelve miles distant from that city, with which it is soon to be connected by rail. Its accessibility by water and its abundant accommodations have made it to be chosen as the place for the annual gatherings of the mission.
The station. at Pao Ting fu was opened by Mr. Pierson in 1873. At no other place has so great difficulty been experienced in obtaining suitable residences for mission familieR. For more than a year Mr. Pierson lived in a Chinese inn, and until the present time he has occupied rented houses in a crowded ,part of the city. It is only within two years that the desired plot of ground has been purchased, in the southern suburb, upon which buildings have been erected to accommodate one or two families. Happily there has been no collision with the authorities or with the people. By uniform kindnessand prudent management all causes of offense have been avoided.
Here, as in Kalgan and T'ungcho, medical aid, though administered by unprofessional hands, has from the fhst been a most potent agency in removing prejudice and opening the hearts of the Chinese. After the arrival of Dr. Peck, in 1880, this branch of the work fell to llis care. Large numbers of patients flocked to his hospital and dispensary from the city and the surrounding region of country. Under the care of Dr. Merritt, who arrived in 1886, this useful work is still continued.
A school for boys, and one al.so for girls, in each of which there have been some boarding pupils, have been maintained at this station. "Vork for women has been carried forward b~r Mrs. Pierson and Miss Pierson. Colporteurs under the direction of 111'. Pierson have labored extensively in all that part of the province.
Pao Ting fu, as being the provincial capital, is a place of much political importance. Its situation at the head of river llavigation renders it a commercial emporium for grain, salt and various kinds of merchandise. All missionaries for Shansi pass through Pao Ting fu. This is the highway for officials passing from the capital to the south- western provinces of the empire. The place is well chosen as an im- portant and convenient centre for missionary labor.
The station at P'ang Chuang was the outgrowth of the work ~t Tientsin. Mr. Hou, a man whose name is held in loving remem- brance by the Christians of that region, heard the Gospel in P'ang Chuang from a native helper, and went himself to Tientsin to learn more of this new way. In the Gospel he found the truth for which he had elsewhere sought in vain, and was baptized in 1872.* "Within a few years he became himself a helper, his house the headquarters of the missionaries at every visit, as well as the centre of the famine re- lief work, and his village was afterwards chosen as the residence of missionaries designated to the Shantung station of the American Board. From the year 1872 the work in this region graduallyex- panded until, at the end of 1877, the annual additions brought the membership up to forty-three, representing twelve different villages." 'rhen followed the long to be remembered famine of 1877, and the famine relief, and the subsequent enlargement of the church, in view {)f which the mission resolved, in 1880, to open a new station at P'ang Chuang.
It has been usual in China, in all the missions, to locate mission- aries in large and important towns and cities. P'ang Chuang is al- m08t, if not quite, the only case of a mission station established in a rural district quite away from any city 01' great mart of trade. Yet the missionaries here have a great work on their hands. They are in the midst of a very populous region of country, so that within a radius of six miles there are approximately 150 villages and hamlets, {lontaining 60,000 inhabitants. In more than sixty of these villages they already have church members, and the lines or" their efforts are constantly reaching out into the outlying villages, towns and cities which are not distant from their central station.
The fact is, moreover, to, be remembered, in considering the location of this station, that in China the reverse is true of that which took place in the Roman Empire. There the villagers, or pagani, were the last to embrace the Christian faith. In China they are the first.
The greatest success of Christian missions in China have been thus far among the country people. Not only are they more simpleminded, but they have also less to fear in becoming Christians from loss of wealth or position, 01' of the means of earning their daily bread. The most independent man in China is the small farmer, who owns a few acres of land, and by daily toil earns his daily bread.
After some delay in the purchase of land and erecting houses, and * "Skellches of a CountryPal'ish," by Rev. A. H. Smith. further delay, occasioned by the opposition of a recusant magistrate, happily overcome by the friendly aid of the United States officials, the missionaries took up their abode in P'ang Chuang, in 1882, with a most cordial reception, and lively demonstrations of affection and gratitude on the part of the people. These kindly feelings have con- tinued, for the most part until the present time.
The labors of this station at the present time are the oversight and instruction of the native helpers, the care of the churches and dayschools, teaching the scriptures to men and women, and the wider range of evangelistic work. There is daily preaching to the dispensary patients, and regular preaching both at the central station and at the six outstations.
The medical work begun by Dr. Porter, and now carried forward by Dr. Peck, has been as in other parts of Ch,ina, of the greatest value to the. Christian name. The hospital, established largely through a gift of the late Dr. Williams, bears the name of this early mis8ionary of the Board, and devoted friend of the Chinese. Its fame has extended to regions far and near, and brings to the village of P'ang Chnang patients from all grades of society, some of whom have come hundreds of miles, and even from other provinces, to be healed of their diseases.
A commodious and tasteful chapel has been erected at this central station wholly by the offerings of members of the church, and of other churches in the mission without any assistance from the funds of the Board. Some of the outstations, stimulated by this example, are now moving in the same direction.
The field of labor set before the missionaries at P'ang Chuang is immense. Fifteen miles north is the city of Teh Cheu, with its surrounding towns and villages. The southern part of the province of Chihli, the northwestern part of Shantung, and the northern part of Ho-nan, all densely populated and covered with walled cities, tOWIl8, villages and hamlets, are easily accessihlo from this central station, and all invite the labors of Christian missions.
One step forward into this unoccupied region was taken in 1886, by the occupation of Lin Ching, a Department city forty miles southwest of P'ang Chuang, by the Rev. F. ~I. Chapin. The following' year premises were purchased for mission residences, and, ill 1888, Messrs. Chapin and Perkins removed their families to this new station. A kindly reception to the missionaries has been given by the people. The medical work of MI', Atwoo(l, who labored at this station for a time, and later by ~lr, and :;HI',", Perkin~, has heen, as ellSewhere, rno~t helpful' to the evangelistic work. Should the day evo!' come when the Chinese are as eager for the Gospel as they now are for the medicines of the foreign physician, the conversion of the Chinese will be at hand. The mission in North China is of recent origin, but it has been abundantly blessed of God. After more than thirty years of labor in Canton the American Board had but one station and several tens of converts. This was in the early stages of the China missions. In North China the Lord has given us in twenty-eight years five stations in the most important cities of Chihli, two stations in the western part of Shantung, and in these seven stations more than 1,000 converts. '1'he work laid upon the mission is great. The encouragements- to its performance are also gl·eat. The outlook for the future is full of promise. If the mission and its supporters go forward in humble trust in the ever present Saviour and in patient endurance of labor and trial, they will have the honor of being used by God, with other branches of His Church, to establish the Kingdom of Christ in these populous and powerful regions of China, into which ill His providence they were the first among Protestant missions to enter.
A PRIEST, finding a young Irish lad in his parish in possession of a Bible, att~mpted to take it from him on the plea that it was the prerogative of the spiritual father to feed his spiritual babes with " the sincere milk of the Word." " Your ri verence," replied the lad~ "I would rather kape the cow mYAelf."
A CLERICAL wag says that where denominational and sectarian feeling gets the upper hand in a community, even the church bells become intolerant and get a sectarian twang in the ears of the people. The Presbyterian bell seems to peal out, " Or-tho-doxy-orthodoxyl" the Episcopalian, "Con-fir-ma-tion-confirmation I" the :Methodist, "Come to the al-tar-come to the altar!" the Congregationalist, "Inde-pend-ence-independence I" and the Bapt5st, " '1Vant to be dipped-want to be dipped 1"
THE Island of Sumbawa (Sunda series) has the Tomhoro volcano on the north side. In 1815 was a terrific convulsion lasting over three months. '1'he sound was heard 1,000 miles off at Snmatra; the sky was dark with ashes at Java, and the sea covered with them to a depth of two feet for many miles. Awful whirlwinds swept over the land and sea, and out of 12,000 persons only 26 survived.
And yet, even such distress and desolation imperfectly represents, as in a figure, the awful destruction carried to body and soul by the prevalence of heathenism and paganism. Vice is deified and cruelty enthroned. Read Alexander Mackay's just-published memoirs, and get a glimpse of the atrocious cruelties of heathenism. It reminds us. of Java's Valley of Death, half a mile in circuit, where the prevalence of carbonic acid gas makes impossihle the survival of either animal or plant life. The JlIuseo Borbonico, at N aples, ~uggests that Pompeii lay in such a valley.
BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY
BUDDHISl{ AND CHRISl'IANIl'Y-A CRUSADE WHICH MUST BE MET.
BY F. F. ELLINWOOD, D.D.
On the 9th of November The New York Herald published an article of four columns and a half, over the signature of Baron Har- don Hickey, a professed Buddhist and missionary chosen to promul- gate Buddhist doctrines in the United States. To an interviewer of another paper Baron Hickey has expressed the belief that America is a peculiarly favorable field for the spread of Oriental doctrines.
The design of the article referred to, which was plausible and rather ably written, was to prove that the history and doctrines of the early Christianity were largely borrowed from Buddhist sources. A reply which was sent to '['lte Herald was refused admission to its columns, but inasmuch as this crusade is being waged in all parts of the United States where it ought to be met by the defenders of the Christian faith, that reply is herewith given in the columns of THE MISSIONARY REVIEW. "While well-established Christians and friends of miRsions are not to be disturbed by slich assailment~ as those of Baron Hickey, it is to be remembered that there is a vast border- land lying between the Christian church and the infidel associations of the country, and that it embraces millions of people, especially of the young, and' so long as our weapons of defense are so numerous snd so potential, it is not wise to leave this broad, neutral territory to the mercy of the enemy. The fact that many of the most influential and extensively circulated of our secular papers discriminate in favor of skepticism and irreligion, as being more sensational, renders it all the more necessary that the Christian church should be alert, and that through every legitimate avenue, the clear and convincing truth of Christianity should be as widely circulated as are the manifold errors of our time.
The assumption that Christ became a follower of Buddha is not new. There lies before me, a Buddhist Catechism, by Subhadra. which makes the same allegation. It declares that" the fundamental tenets and the personal character of the founder of Christianity are of Buddhist origin"; that "Jesus was an Arahat and attained Nirvana." Hardon Hickey goes farther and calls him the Maitreyeh whom Buddha predicted. There are a few truths mingled with Baron .Hickey's statements which should be distinguished from his erroneous conclusions. It is true that a limited intercourse was established between India and Greece by the conquests of Alexander, 327 B.C. A few references to Indian customs are found in Strabo, Arrian and Pliny, but it is the wildest assumption to claim that an influence which was so faint even in the great commercial marts, reached and moulded the peasant population of a J udean village, or that the influence was distinctively Buddhistic. Again it is true that asceticism prevailed throughout the East; but that th~ fasting of Christ was borrowed from Buddhism is absurd. ·Moses bsted forty days in Sinai centuries before Buddha was born. Besides, Indian asceticism belonged to Brahmanism and not to the Buddha. It was, indeed, practised by the Essenes, as it was also by the ancient Druids, the Peruvians, the },Iexicans, and even the Hottentots. Among the Jews there was an ascetic school of prophets at Gilgal centuries before Buddha's time.
The field of controversy on which Baron Hickey draws his sword has beeu fought over for the last hundred years, and the parallels which he presents have been exploded over and over again. A century ago Lieutenant Wilford espoused the theory that the entire civilization of Egypt, Palestine, Greece and Rome, including Christianity, had come from India. He importuned the pundits to search for manuscripts, and for a consideration they met the demand. He filled the magazines of Europe with his discoveries. But at last he was constrained to confess publicly that he had been the dupe of Brahman fraud.
A Frenchinan by the name of J acolliot has made a similar attempt in our own time, aiming to show that the life of Christ was a plagiarism upon the story of the Hindu Krishna. He, too, collected manuscripts and translated them; but Professor Max Muller has honeycombed his pompous displays of Oriental learning, and remanded him ~o the same category of dupes with Lieutenant Wilford. In volume V. of "Chips from a German Workshop," he says: "Much of the socalled Sanskrit is not Sanskrit at all, and J acolliot's ancient Vedic quotations are not Vedic and not ancient; they simply belong to the last half of the nineteenth century."
Ages ago Porphry adopted the same tactics, alleging that many things in the life of Christ had been anticipated by Pythagoras; and Julia Domna, wife of Severus, prompted Philostratus to work up a life of Apollonius of Tyana, which should match the history of Christ. (Uhlhorn's" Conflict," etc.) The very latest charge of plagiarism against Christianity has recently been made by the Aryas of India, who allege that the Westminster catechism has stolen its doctrinal statements from them.
Baron Hickey leaves us a little in doubt as to whether the copying from 13uddha is charged upon Christ and his immediate disciples or upon the "creed-mongers of Alexandria" at a later day, or whether all were concerned in the fraud. He thinks that there is no doubt that Christ studied Buddhism and became a disciple, and that Buddhist influence widely prevailed in Palestine. This implies that the Gospel history was in the outset strongly colored by the Buddhist narrative, and that Christ Himself adapted the events of His life to the Buddhist story. The emphasis, however, is put upon the plagiarism of the Alexandrine "creed-mongers." In replying as briefly as possible to Baron Hickey, I "hall endeavor to cover all these im- plications : In strong contrast with these cheap assertions of Alexandrine {lorruption and plagia)'ism is the frank admission of such keen critics as Renan, Yeiss, Volkmar, Schenkeland Hitzig, that the Gospel story as we have it was written during a generation in which some of the companions of Jesus still lived. Renan says of Mark's GORpel that "it is full of minute observations, coming, doubtless, from an eye-witness," and he asserts that :Matthew, Mark and I"uke were written "in substantially their present form by the men whose names they bear." These Gospels were the work of men who knew J eSUSj Matthew was one of the twelve; John, in his Epistle, speaks of him- self as an eye-witness. They were written in a historic age and were open to challenge. Thcy were nowhere contradicted in con- temporary history; they tit their environment and their age.
How is it with the authenticity of Buddhist literature? Oldenberg says: "For the when of things men of India have never had a propel' organ;" and Max Muller declares to the same effect that" the idea of a faithful, literal translation seems altogether foreign to Ori- ental minds." He also informs us that there is not a single manuscript relating to Buddhism ~'hich is a thousand years old, and scarcely one that can claim five hundred years. For centuries after Gautama's time nothing was written; all was transmitted by word of mouth. Buddhists themselves say that Pali canonical texts were written about 88 B.C.
Any fair comparison of the two histories should confine itself to the writings which are regarded as canonical and whose dates can be fixed. No more importance should be attached to the later Buddhist legends than to the "Apochryphal Gospels," or to the absurd "Ohristian I"egends," which appeared in the middle ages. The Buddhtst canon was adopted by the council of Patna, 242 B.C. The legends which Baron Hickey compares with the canonical story of Ohrist are not included in that canon, or, at most, very few of them. 'rhoy are drawn from certain poetical books written much later, and holding about the same relation to the Buddhist canon that the" Paradise Lost" and" Paradise Hegained," of Milton, bear to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Who would think of quoting "Paradise Lost" in any sober comparison of Biblical truth with the teachings of other religions?
Even the canonical literature, that which is supposed to contain tlIe true history and teachings of Buddha, is far from authoritative, owing to the acknowledged habit-acknowledged even by the author of the Dhammapada-of adding commentaries, notes, etc., to original teaclIings. Not only was thi8 common among Buddhist writers, but (lven more surprising liberties were taken with the narrative. For example, the legend describing Buddha's leave-taking of his harem is clearly borrowed from an earlier story of Yasa, a wealthy young householder of Benares, who, becoming disgusted with his harem, left his sleeping dancing girls, and fled to the Buddha for instruction. Davids and Oldenberg, in translating this legend from the" 11aha- vagga," say, in a note: "A well-known incident in the life of Buddha has evidently been shaped after the model of this story," and they declare that" nowhere in the Pall Pitakas is this scene of Buddha's leave-taking mentioned."
As another evidence of the way in which fact and fiction have been mixed and manipulated for a purpose, one of the legends, which has of-ten been presented as a parallel to the story of Christ, repre- sents the Buddha as repelling the temptation of :Mara by quoting texts of "scripture," and the scripture referred to was the Dhamma- pada. The blunder here is amusing; first, because the Dhammapada was compiled hundreds of years after Buddha's time, and second, there were no "scriptures" in Buddha's time, for nothing was written till two or three centuries later; and third, Buddha is made to quote his own subsequent teachings, for the Dhammapada clai.ms to consist of the sacred words of the" enlightened one." l10st of the legends of Buddhism were wholly written after the beginning of the Christian era, and it cannot be shown that any were written ill their present form until two or three centuries of that era had elapsed. T. Rhys Davids says of the" Lalita Yistara," which contains a very large proportion ofthem, that" there is no real proof that it existed in its present form before the year 600 A.D." The" Romantic Legend" cannot be traced farther back than the third century A.D. Oldenberg says, "No biography of Buddha has come down to us from ancient times, from the age of the Pali texts, and we can safely say that no such biography was in existence then." Beal declares that the Buddhist legend as found in the various epics of N cpaul, Thibet and China, "is not framed after any Indian model (of any date), but is to be found worked out, so to speak, among Northern peoples, who were ignorant of, or indifferent to, the pedantic stories of the Brahmans. In the Southern and primitive records the terms of the legend are wanting. Buddha is not born of a royal family/ he is not tempted befo1·e his enlightenment/ he works no miracles, and he is not a Universal Saviour."
The chances are decidedly that if any borrowing has been done it was on the side of Buddhism. :Mr. Hickey's assertion that 30,000 Buddhist monks from Alexandria once visited Ceylon (and he giyes this not as a legend but as a historic fact) is absurd on the face of it; hut that a Christian colony settled in 11alabar at a very early day is at tested by the presence of thousands of their followers even to this day. Christianity has always been restrictive and opposed to admixtures with other systems. It repelled the Neo-Platonism of the "creed-mongers" of Alexandria (they borrowed from Plato, not from Buddha), and it fought for two or three centuries against Gnosticism, Manichaeism and similar heresies; and the assumption, in the face of all this, that the Christian Church went out of its way to copy Indian Buddhism, must be due either to gross ignorance or to reckless misrepresentation.
On the other hand, it is in accordance with the very genius of Buddhism to borrow. It has absorbed every indigenous superstition, and entered into partnership with every local religious system from the Devil worship of Burmah and Ceylon to the'raouism of China and the Shintoo of Japan.
In its long-continued contact with Christianity it has changed from the original atheism of Gautama to various forms of theism, and in some of its sects, at least, from a staunch insistence on selfhelp alone to an out-and-out doctrine of salvation by faith. This is true of the Shin and Yodo sects of Japan. :From recognizing no God at all at first, Buddhism had, by the seventh century A.D., a veritable trinity with attributes resembling those of the Triune God of the Christians, and by the tenth century it had five trinities with one Supreme Adi-Buddha over them all. Each reader must judge whether these late interpolations of the system were borrowed from the New Testament Trinity which had been proclaimed through all the East many centuries before.
Buddhism is still absorbing various elements through the aid of its various apologists. Sir Edwin Arnold has greatly added to the force of its legends by the Christian phrases and Christian conceptions which he has read into them. Toward the close of the "I"ight of Asia" he also introduces into the Buddha's sermon at Kapilavostu the teachings of Herbert Spencer and others of our own time.
Even the" analogies" of the Buddhist legends, as a late apologist calls them, are undergoing a rapid development. Professor Seydel was ingenious enough, with the help of fact and fancy, to make out fifty-one" parallels" to the Gospel history; Baron Hickey has up to date" one hundred." Doubtless still more are to follow.
In discussing the specific charge of copying Buddhist legends in ~he Gospel narratives, we are met at the threshold by insurmountable improbabilities. To anyone who nnderstands the spirit of Judaism and its attitude toward heathenism of all kinds, it is simply inconceivable that the Christian disciples, whose aim it was to propagate the faith of their Master in a Jewish community, should have borrowed old Indian legends, which, by the very terms of Baron Hickey's supyosition, must have been widely known as such. And our Buddhist friends must admit that it is a little strange that the Scribes and Pharisees who were intelligent, and 3S alert as they were bitter, should never have exposed this transparent plagiarism. The great concern of the Apostles was to prove to Jews and Gentiles that Jesus was the Christ of Old Testament prophecy. The whole drift of their preaching and their epistles went to show that the Gospel history rested squarely and uncompromisingly on a Jewish basis. Peter and John, Stephen and Paul constantly" reasoned with the Jews out of their own Scriptures." How unspeakably absurd is the notion that they were trying to palm off on those keen Pharisees a Messiah who, though in the outset at Nazareth he publicly traced his commission to Old Testament prophecy, was all the while copying an atheistic philosopher of India.
It is equally inconceivable that the Christian fathers should have copied Buddhism. They resisted Persian mysticism as the work of the devil, and it was in that mysticism, if anywhere, that Buddhist influence existed in the Levant. Whoever has read 'l'ertullian's withering condemnation of Marcion may judge how far the fathers of the Church favored the heresies of the East. Augustine had himself been a Manichean mystic, and when after his conversion he became the great theologian of the Church, he must have known whether the teachings of the Buddha were being palmed off on the Christian world. The great leaders of that age were men of thorough scholarship and of the deepest moral earnestness. Many of them gave up their po!'sessions and devoted their lives to the promotion of the truths which they professed. Scores of them sealed their faith by martyr deaths.
But even if we were to accept the flippant allegation that they were all imposters, yet we should be met by an equally insurmountable difficulty in the utter silence of the able and bitter assailants of Christianity in the first two or three centuries. Celsus prepared himself for his well-known attack on Christianity with the utmost care, searching history, philosophy and every known religion from which he could derive an argument against the Christian faith. Why did he not strike at the very root of the matter by exposing those stupid" creed-mongers" who were attempting to playoff upon the intelligence of the Roman world a clumsy imitation of the far-famed Buddha? It was the very kind of thing that the enemies of Ch:'istianity wanted. vVhy should the adroit Porphyry attempt to wor~.;: up a few mere scraps of resemblance from the life of Pythagoras and why should the wife of a Roman emperor employ a man to trump up precisely such a story as our baronial friend now asks us to believe, when all they had to do was to lay their hands upon familiar legends which afforded an abundance of the very articles in demand?
But altogether the most stupendous improbability lies against the whole assumption that Christ and His followers based their" essential doctrines" on the teachings of the Buddha. The early Buddhism was atheistic. This is the common verdict of Davids, Childers, Sir Monier Williams, Kellogg and many others. The Buddha declared that "without cause and unknown is the life of man in this world," and he recognized no higher being to whom he owed reverence. The "Buddhist Catechism," to which I have already referred, shows that modern Buddhism has no recognition of God.
It says (page 58): "Buddhism teaches the reign of perfect goodness and wisdom without a personal God, continuance of individuality without an immortal soul, eternal happiness without a local heaven, the way of salvation without a vicarious Saviour, redemption worked out by each one himself without any prayers, sacrifices and penances, without the ministry of ordained priests, without the intercession of saints, without divine mercy." And then, by way of authentication, it adds: "These and many othel's which have become the fundamental doctrines of the Buddhist religion were recognized by the Buddha in the night of his enlightenment under the bodhi tree."
And yet we are told that this is the system which Christ and His followers copied! Compare this passage with the Lord's Prayer or with the discourse upon the lilies and its lesson of trusts-I appeal not merely to Christian men, but to any man who has brains and common-sense-was there ever so preposterous an attempt to establish an identity of doctrines? But what is the evidence found in the legends themselves? Several leading Oriental scholars, and men not at all biased in favor of Christianity, have carefully examined the subject, and have decided that there is no connection whatever. Professor Seydel, of Leipsic, who has given the most scientific plea for the so-called coincidences, of which he claims there are fifty-one, has classified them as: (1) Those which have been merely accidental, having arisen from similar causes and not necessarily implying any borrowing on either side. (2) Those which seem to have been borrowed f~om the one narrative or the other, and (3) those which he thinks were clearly copied by the Christian writers. In this last class he names but five out of the fifty-one.
Kuenen, who has little bias in favor of Christianity, and who has made a very thorough examination of Seydel's parallels, has completely refuted these five. (See" National Religion and Universal Religion," page 362.) And, speaking of the whole question, he says: "I think we may safely affirm that we must abstain from assigning to Buddhism the smallest direct influence on the origin of Christianity." He also says of similar theories of De Bunsen, "A single instance is enough to teach ns that inventive fancy plays the chief part in them." (" Hibbert Lectures," 1882.) Rhys Davids, whom Subhadra's "Buddhist Catechism" approves as the chief exponent of Buddhism, says on the same subject: "I {lan find no evidence of any actual or direct communication of those ideas common to Buddhism and Christianity from the East to the West. " Oldenberg denies their early date, and Beal denies them an Indian origin of any date.
Let us now ctmsider Baron Hickey's analogies seriatim: 1. "The genedogies of both Buddha and the Christ are traced from their fathers, not their mothers." This parallel would fit }Iohammed as well as Buddha. The whole argument rests upon the assumption that the mother of Buddha was a virgin, which is con- trary to canonical Buddhist history. The Sacred and Historic Book of Ceylon translated by Edward Upham, tell us that Buddha was born in wedlock. The late King of Siam, in a sketch of the Buddha, says that "he was born of natural generation." Subhadra in his Catechism says that "his parents were King Suddhodana and Queen Maya." Even the wild J ataka legends of Ceylon declare the same. 2. Baron Hickey declares that the conception by the Holy Ghost, announced by Gabriel, corresponds with Maya's dream of the white elephant. But his story of the white dove is manufactured for the purpose; no such myth was ever held by any Christian sect. 3. He compares the coming of the wise men with frankincense with the Brahmans who hastened with congratulations to the palace of Suddhodana. There is no canonical authority for the latter, though it was a common custom, and would have no significance. 4. "As Herod was afraid of the child, so King Bimbasara told his ministers to search the land to find whether any famous child had been born." Herod meant murder; Bimbasara, according to the Jataka legends, merely sent to inquire about the great teacher and his doctrines. 5. "The Simeon of the Bible corresponds with the Brahman Asita, an aged man who came to see the thirty-two marks and the eighty signs of the Buddha." This is a clumsy after-thought. How should anybody be looking for marks of a Buddha on a Hindu baby thirty years before Buddhism had been thought of? 6. "The presentation of Jesus in the temple is similar to a corresponding one in the childhood of the Buddha." This is one of Professor Seydel's" evident cases of borrowing." But such presentations of children were required under both the Jewish and the Hindu systems, and the claim of any particular parallel is weak. 7. "In his twelfth year Jesus was found in the temple, discoursing with the doctors, so, also, the father of Buddha found his son in the wood, surrounded by sages, etc." This does not agree with the Sinhalese legends, which say that the Buddha's youth was given to pleasure, and that his zenana contained 40,000 dancing girls. 8. "The Buddha bathed in the stream N aranjana, and J esu~ was baptized." This bath occurred when Buddha resolved to abandon his Brahmanical asceticism; he no longer regarded dirt as a means of grace. Whoever has seen a Hindu fakir besmeared with wet ashes will realize the significance of Buddha's "j:>ath, and, there- fore, of Baron Hickey's parallel.
9. "The forty days' fast in the wilderness is· common to both teachers." If any borrowing were required it would have been done from the life of Moses, who fasted forty days in Sinai. Buddha. never fasted forty days. The" Mahavagga" tells us that after his "enlightenment" he passed twenty-eight days i'njoyou8 meditation. His "Middle Path" shunned fasting as one extreme. He had begun to eat. He received his enlightenment on a full stomach-the first in six years.
10. There is no real parallel in the temptations of the two, though both are said to have been tempted. Buddha was tempted, according to Southern legends, several times and in respect to differ- ent things, but not at the beginning of his ministry.
11. "The heavens opening and the voice from heaven proclaiming the teacher are to be found in the Buddhist scriptures." Where?'
12. As to Buddha's Sermon on the Mount, high and breezy summits were often resorted to, especially the Vulture's Peak. It· was an incident of a hot climate in both caseS.
13. "The first disciples of Jesus, and even Jesus Himself, were at first followers of John the Baptist. The number of disciples in both accounts was at first five, afterwards sixty. "(?) As a matter of fact, Christ's disciples were not graduates from the school of John, but were called from their fishermen's boats. Instead of being a teacher of Jesus, John felt unworthy to unloose His shoe latchet.
14. "Both performed wonders." Buddha particularly disclaimed miraculous powers: the miracles were subsequent embellishments.
1.5. The incident of Buddha's walking on water needs a more particular statement with time and place and authority.
16. That both he and the Christ had a presentiment of death is very probable.
1 7. It is quite possible, also, that, among the thousands of Buddha's converts, were courtesans; but that the rich and brazen Ambapali who invited the Buddha and his disciples to dine, was the model after whom the Gospel narrative 'formed the picture of the crushed and penitent Magdalene, is far-fetched.
18. As for triumphal entries into cities-if a crowd of followers is meant, both, probably, had many-Christ at Jericho as well as at Jerusalem. Buddha is said to have been followed on one occasion by twelve hundred people, and King Bimbasara is said to have interviewed him with 80,000 of his overseers! 19. (( Both systems were missionary religions from the start." This is true; but how paltry is the notion that a mere motive of imi- tation prompted the wide-spread evangel of Christianity!
20. Weare told that (( Buddha fed the hungry," instead of which he was a mendicant and carried a beggar's bowl, and never performed a miracle.
. 21. As to the question asked of Jesus by the by-standers: (( Did this man sin or Bis parents that he was born blind?" If metempsychosis was in their minds, they could have borrowed it from the Greeks who had held it from the days of Pythagoras.
As to the general question, there seems to be little need of assuming that these shadowy coincidences denote borrowing on either side. Many of them are merely fanciful and are the work of modern apologists. Many others are such natural correspondences as might spring from similar causes. If incidents have in any case been borrowed, the chances are much greater that all-absorbing ever-changing Buddhism has been the copyist.
New York, November 25, 1890.
[The editor is constrained to add that the article which is printed above is, as he thinks, the most painstaking production that Dr. Ellinwood has, perhaps, ever written. It is felt by many who have seen it before it appeared in these pages that it ought to be put in some permanent form. Rev. Dr. Paxton, of Princeton Seminary, has pronounced it "a perfect rejoinder." vVe make a great mistake if we assume that merely ignoring and" pooh-poohing" at the active and aggressive movements of error are going to meet the case. The war is upon us. The old fathers of the early churcn did not confine themselves to pious denunciation. Think of Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Origen, how they fought with the beasts of Ephesus, and how magnificently they conquered the haughty heathenism of Greece and Rome. This paper will undoubtedly be reprinted in tract form.] WE often speak of ourselves as only" instruments in God's hands." It is our privilege to think of ourselves, if we are truly His servants, as agents. An instrument is a dumb, senseless, lifeless thing, which has no active, intelligent power even to co-operate with him who handles and uses it; but an agent (ago) is one who acts)· however, in behalf of, and under control of, another, yet acting intelligently and individually, as Aaron spoke under Moses' dictation. Even the ox and ass yield a voluntary, intelligent obedience, and are far above the plo}V they drag or the goad by which they are urged on. Weare God's agents, and He worketh not only by us, but in us, both to will and to work. (See Greek of Philippians, ii., 13.)
THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF'THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
II. THE PENTECOSTAL CHURCH.* BY PROFESSOR HENRY WOODWARD HULBERT.
It would be difficult to point out a scene of more dramatic historic interest than that laid in the upper room of prayer at Jerusalem in the year 30 A.D., between Thursday, May 18th, and Sunday, May 28th. The Master had gone, never to return to quiet again the doubt of a Thomas with a material argument. He had left them unexpectedly, but His parting words contained a promise and a command. The little, trembling church, ~he muscles of whose lips had hardly ceased articulating the question: "Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" was waiting with breathless expectation to be clothed upon with power. There sat restless Peter, the echoes of whose blasphemies had hardly died away. There were John and J ames and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of J ames. There were the women, Mary the mother of Jesus, and his. brethren and others, swelling the number of names to one hundred and twenty-one hundred and twenty poor, weak men and women in the midst of a rich and powerful civilization with as many millions. The minute hand in the great clock of destiny was rapidly nearingthe critical point. The child of many promises, the dream of patriarchs and kings and prophets, the only tangible outcome of the life and death of Jesus the Messiah-the fate of all seemed to hang in the balance. The whole future of the world-its wide-spread lands, its. unnumbered billions (present and to come)-lay in the prayers of a few broken-hearted, yet believing souls. 'Vho could have predicted the result?
Let us notice, in a cursory way, the geographical conditions. which surrounded this little church of six score members on May 28th,. 30 A.D. Putting aside very largely the profounder conditions, moral and intellectual, we ask: What were the natural, political, commercial, linguistic and racial features of the known world which were to compose the environment of the primitive church as it commenced its conquest of the globe? An answer to this question will involve a study of (1) the extent of the known world at that era, (2) the character and extent of the Roman civilization, (3) the commercial and' military relations of this civilization to outlying barbarism, (4) the spread of the Latin and especially the Greek languages, and lastly (5) the wide dispersion of the Jewish race throughout the world.
Take an ordinary school globe and cover up on it all that portion unknown to the geographers, 30 A.D., and we are at once impressed with * For article I. of this series see MISSIONAl!.Y REVIEW OF THE WORLD, Jan- uary, 1890, pp. 26-32. the small extent of the known world. It seems like a mere toy as contrasted with the great bustling earth of to-day. As far as civilization was concerned that was nothing more than a Mediterranean world. A stretch of three thousand miles east and west, and of fifteen hundred miles north and south contained it all. Britain was still unconquered. The fierce Parthian, hardly weaned from his pastoral life in Central Asia, was the greatest organized enemy of Rome. He had learned a little bit of the lesson of civilization from the conquered Persian, but he was still essentially barbaric. India was superficially known by navigators, and far-away China was reached by caravan routes. Travelers occasionally brought in reports of strange lands an.d peoples; captives struggled back to the confines of civilization with marvelous tales of Hyperborean paradises, and one-eyed monsters; but all about this confined areaof terra cognita lay the great, impenetrable cloud-land of terra incognita. The Pentecostal church prayerfully faced the Roman civilization, but what of the vast stretches of sea and land still veiled from their eyes, but included in their }faster's last command? In spite of ignorance, which they shared with the wisest of antiquity, the apostolic leaders were able to grasp the thought" every knee shall bow and every' tongue confess to God." Their faith was wider than the known world. They were assured that there could not be " Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, but Christ is all and in all." Peter's vision on the housetop at Joppa, teaching the impartial love of God to every human soul on earth, was the most comprehensive social lesson the world ever received. The apostles and the earliest evangelists are supposed to have done missionary work far outside the limits of the empire, going as far as India and Sonthern Russia.
But the immediate task before Christianity was the conquest of the centres of civilization-the Roman Empire. Let us notice the geographical characteristics of this Mediterranean world as related to the company of Christian believers in J ernsalem. (1) It was an empire of cities. Rome began with a city, she conquered cities, and from beginning to end her genius was municipal. In the East this was not so strictly true as in the West. The nomad life of the Orient could not be so easily brought and held together; but Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt were honeycombed with thrifty cities. Christianity must needs then handle cities and their thronging population. As the apostles looked out upon the Roman empire they found from four to five thousand cities to be reached. For three or four centuries Christianity was destined to be municipal in its methods, and this gave a determining bent to the whole future of the Church. (2) The tideless }:Iediterranean furnished easy access by water from city to city. It was covered with sails employed ill a thrifty commerce. The Roman fleet swept the pirates from the seas and gave security to the humblest craft. A great number of the cities were situated on or near the sea, and a map of the coast looks like a string of pearls broken only at the Bosphorus and at Gibraltar. (3) Splendid Ro- man roads connected all parts of the empire so that news was carried rapidly and power was quickly concentrated and distributed. From Jerusalem one could walk over these superb roads, a few years later, all the way to Scotland, with only the narrow bodies of water to cross, a distance of 4,080 Roman miles (3,740 English). Along these highways trudged the messenger of the Gospel, from city to city, counting the mile·stones as he went, and wondermg, perhaps, whether the words of the prophet were not fulfilled: "Cast ye up, cast ye up: prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people." (Isaiah Ivii~14.) (4) Over one hundred million people were thus by land and water ways compactly drawn together in a territory containing less than two million square miles. Geographically considered, no portion of the globe furnishe.s so interesting a bat~le·field for religious conquest as the territory of the old Roman empire.
Roman civilization spread itself outside its own regions by two methods-commercial and military-and Christianity must needs follow in the track of merchants and armies. Caravan rontes came streaming in like rivers into the common basin of the Mediterranean, through the trackless Sahara from Central Africa, down the Nile from the Great Lakes, from Yemen along the Red Sea, from the Persian Gulf through the Syrian desert, and from Mesapotamia, where was centred the trade of Central Asia. To this husy mart on the eastern border of the empire, came pouring in the treasures from the Persian Susa, from Hyrcania and from Bactria, which in turn drew npon China through Statio Mercatorum and upon Hindustan and Farther India through Clisobra.
Turning from the land trade to, the sea, the routes are no less numerous or patronized. The whole coast of Southern Asia was familiar to the merchants and regular routes by sea were open, find· ing their natural termini in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea. Along this extensive seaboard on the Indian Ocean the rude craft crept timi,lly without the compass, but the markets of Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome were well stocked with the dainties of the far East. Another thrifty line of commerce found its way from the great river systems of what is to.day Russia, down through the Bosphorus. Still 3nother line came pouring into the outlet of the Mediterranean from distant Britain, and daring navigators pushed along the coast of the North Sea, and even penetrated the Baltic lands in search of trade. If a little later we find Christianity firmly planted in far-away places let us not be astonished. The door was providentially open and the missionaries of the early church could easily enter. A very large portion of the earliest evangelists were merchants, and the laity from the first have furnished the main agencies for the spread of the Gospel.
Garrisons of Roman soldiers were stationed all along the borders of the empire. These military barracks soon became centres from which Christianity could spread outside the civilized world. The new religion took easily to the Roman camp and these isolated spots along the Rhine, the Danube, the Euxine and the Euphrates became points of light. Tracing the legend of St. George back to the facts of which it is a distortion, we find that he was one of these Roman soldiers. When the armies pushed beyond the boundaries of the empire Christianity was sure to go with them. Christian soldiers captured and enslaved by barbarians were the means of converting whole nations.
Another geographical condition of the greatest importance to Christianity was the wide extent of the territory over which the Greek and the Latin languages were spoken. The administration of civil and military government was through the Latin. The language of business, science and literature was the Greek. At the opening of the Christian era Hellenistic Greek was the lingua Franca of the Roman world. Greek colonies had been established all around the :Mediterranean, and these had determined the language of commerce-there has never been an instance in history where the language of commerce has failed finally to win its way to every station of life. It is a truism that Greek letters and arts conquered Rome more effectually than the legions of the Republic had overcome the Peninsula of Hellas. The New Testament was composed in this universal language, and all through the early centuries Christian churches were Hellenistic. Later on the Latin tongue took the supremacy in the 'Vestern world and still remains the liturgical language of the majority of Christians.
But more important to the Christian Church than any of the conditions mentioned was the geographical distribution of the Hebrew race. Everywhere synagogues were the early preaching-places of the apostles, and the majority of the Christians of the first century were of Jewish extraction. Christianity, as the fulfillment of the Old Testament religion, naturally turned to the be,lievers in that Revelation. Providentially, it seems, these seven millions of people, with their monotheism, their nobler conceptions of God and their purer ethics and life had been scattered broadcast over the Roman world and even beyond its boundaries. The Sibylline oracle says that "every land and every sea" was filled with them. Strabo, writing of the century before Christ, says that the Jewish people had already come into every city and that it was not easy to find a place in the world which had not received this race and was not occupied by them. Josephus, Philo, imperial epistles, as well as the Acts of the Apostles, tell the same story. Forcibly torn from their country, frightened away from Palestine, the battle-ground of the Asiatic world, enticed away by flattering offers from Ptolemy, Seleucidae and Roman governors, lured to the most distant climes by the hope of gain-this race started out on the most singular career history can show us of a nation keeping its nationality without a national terri- tory.
Let" us notice more particularly their whereabouts in the year 30 A.D. There were three centres about which the Jews were gathered in masses-Syria, Egypt and Mesopotamia-although some parts of Asia Minor and Cyrene in Africa might almost be ranked with the three·mentioned. At the time of which we are dealing there were, according to the latest and best authorities, four million Jews in Syria from the Taurus range to the Sinaitic peninsula-a population twice as large as that occupying that same region to-day. Jerusalem, Damascus and Antioch were the centres; but we may suppose that every city and village in Syria had representatives, and that houses of prayer were found everywhere.
In Egypt Philo (an Alexandrian Jew born about 20 B. c.) estimated that there were one million Jews out of a total of nine million inhabitants. The city of Alexandria had several quarters occupied exclusively by this race. Prayer-houses were found all over the city. Jews were scattered overthe Delta and up the Nile we know not how far. The Falashas of Abyssinia to-day indicate a powerful Jewish influence on the upper Nile at an early period. The Jewish sect of the Therapeutre had their chief seat on Lake Maroetis. The influence of the Alexandrian Jews was all out of proportion even to their great numbers.
There were one million Jews in Mesopotamia and Babylonia, on the very b,:mier of the empire. These were the descendants of those members of the ten tribas and of the Kingdom oi Judah, who had been carried away in captivity and had not returned. In fact, after the so-called return from captivity these eastern communities seem continually to have grown by accessivns from all parts. J osephud count:'! these colonies of his people not by thousands but by millions. The Talmudic schools of Babylon were equally influential with the western schools. Elsewhere it is estimated that there were scattered one million Jews, making seven millions in all. They seem to be living everywhere in Asia Minor. Strabo divides the inhabitants of Cyrene into four classes-citizens, agriculturists, metoikoi andJewsshowing that this race, so troublesome to the Roman authorities, was numerous there. We find traces of Jews all along the north coast of Africa. In Thrace, Macedonia and Greece we know from the Book of the Acts that they were plentiful. Agrippa's epistle to Caligula. also gives ample evidence. At Rome and Puteoli there were large colonies of Jews-Cicero, Suetonius, Philo and Josephus are our witnesses for Italy. They were found in Spain and Gaul in all the cities. 'Herod Archilaus was banished to Vienne and Herod Antipas to Lugdunum (I,yons) both in the Rhone Valley. Outside the Roman empire we know there were Jews in Ethiopia, Southern Arabia, Ar-' menia, Iberia, Chalchis, Crimea, II.):rcania, and even in distant China.. In fact, it is difficult to mention a district of the known world at the date 30 A.D., which did not have representatives of the Jewish race.
These, then, were the more important geographical conditions that faced the Pentecostal church of six score members. There was the Roman empire with its roads and harbors and languages. All about this lay unknown lands and tribes with theil' unnumbered millions. Scattered all over the known world were the Jewswho furnished just so many open doors to the religion ,of the Messiah. It will be the object of succeeding papers to show how the little church threw 'itself fearlessly into the conflict, and won province after province for the kingdom of its. Master, and to show how we have entered into their labors.
THE RAPID GROWTH OF ASIATIC POPULATIONS.
. This is written you from one of our inland stations, one of ~ group of a dozen villages right round about. The one thing that always strikes me in a Chinese town or village is the number of small children that are running loose all around. One thing is certain, the population of this already overgrown empire is certain to be kept ur.
More than that, it is growing within the past twenty-five years with increased rapidity. One estimate puts it now at a yearly advance of four millions. We dwell on the growth of our own population at home, but China is advancing nearly three times as fast. Forty millions in ten years is enough to start and stock a new nation.
Japan, too, is growing rapidly in numbers. A few years ago the people were estimated at thirty-seven or thirty-eight millions. Now the government puts them at forty millions. India, too, shows remarkable results. The census is taken there with great care by the British government. The last census was taken in 1881. Since the previous one taken along from 1867 to 1872 in the different provinces, the gain had been 15,010,304. In all these cases the population is by natural increa~e, and not, as in the United States, by immigration.
These are solemn and impressive figures taken in their 'bearing 011 Christian r'nissions. It will not do to wait till the Jerusalem folks are all converted. ""V. ASHMORE. Swatow, Ohina.
ARE WE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST?
ARE WE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST?
[FOR THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD.] " 'Vhosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple."-Luke xiv: 33.
"One thing thou Iackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, take up the cross, and follow me."-Mark x: 21.
" But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet."-Acts v: 1,2.
Examining ourselves, as individuals and as churches, how many disciples of Christ can we find, according to the criterion He has es- tablished in the explicit rule and the explicit injunction above quoted?
No dodging! Let us not get behind the pretense of a heart forsaking, while our hands tenaciously grasp the bulk of our possessions. Let us at least not mock God and" lie unto the Holy Ghost," by saying, "Yes, Lord, I give all to 'fhee," while we actually give nothing, or a dole, or a tithe; lest we join ourselves with Ananias and Sapphira.
in infamy as well as perdition. " Itwere better not to vow."
But all of us members of evangelical churches have thus vowed.
We have all made the profession, or pretense, of Ananias and Sap- phira. 'Ve have consecrated ourselves and all that we have-our persons, our possessions and our children to the Lord. WHERE then are the proceeds? Are they fully laid at His feet, according to the profession? Or is a " part" of them" kept back"? Is it an honest profession, or a lying pretense like that of those two dreadful monu- ments of the Lord's indignation at hypocrisy in the Church? 'Ve do not know how large a part Ananias and Sapphira kept back. Proba- bly it was a small proportion, such as they thought would not be noticed. How many modern Ananiases and Sapphiras are agreeing together to tempt the Spirit of ~he Lord, while joining in the com- muniun of His supreme self-sacrifice, by keeping back, not a minor proportion, but NEARLY ALL, of that which they have solemnly and Imblicly dedicated.
Far be it from us to judge one another. But let us remember that there is a Judge, and that if we would judge ourselves we shoald not be judged. Let us not flatter ourselves, or each other, with vain hopes in Christ that are explicitly excluded by His own reiterated warnings. Can sinners hope for heaven Who love this world so well ?
And are not the ministers of Christ themselves derelict if they €ncourage, even tacitly, the assumption of discipleship on the part of those who give no evidence of a bonafide assignment of so much as thcir pr-operty to the Lord that bought them?
W. C.
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS. 12::>
TRANSLATIONS FROM FOREIGN PERIODICALS.
BY REV. C. C. STARBUCK.
-De Macedonier gives the following statistics for Java: 'Vest Java, 11 missionaries, 21 congregations, 20 helpers, 1,963 souls; Bagalen, 4 missic;maries, 60 congregations, 2helpers, 5,937 souls; Salatega Mission, 5 missionaries, 18 congregations, 6 helpers, 534 souls; East Java, 9 missionaries, 27 congregations, 54 helpers, 6,276 souls. Whole number of souls, 14,710. In 1886, 10,979. Increase, 3,731; yearly rate, 11i per cent.
-De Heidenbode, the organ of the Nederlandsche Gereformeerde Zendingsvereeniging (Netherlands Reformed Missionary Association) says very pertinently: "When the sigh ascends from the churches to heaven: 'Lord, the 1,000,000,000 souls of the unchristian world have no bread,' whatis his answer? The same as in the wilderness to his disciples: 'Give ye them to eat.' He was compassionately willing to feed the hungering multitudes, yet he sent down no bread from heaven, and brought up no fish from the sea. The disciples were to give them what they had, and this He blesses, so that there is enough and to spare. Even so, He does not preach the Gospel to the nations through angels, or send down Bibles from heaven in all the varying tongues of earth. We are to give them what we have, and He will add the blessing. "
-The Journal des Missions for September, 1890, gives account of the baptism at Thaba-Bossiou, in Lessuto, of 90 adults.
-The following letter of welcome from King Lewanika, on the Zambesi, to M. Adolph Jalla, is not a bad letter from a heathen king: "To the new missionary, health! Come soon with the peace of thy God. I thank thee for thy letter. I too would fain see thee and salute thee soon, new missionary! I shall soon rejoice to see thee with my eyes. Health, health, it is I who love thee.-LEwANIKA."
-The Journal des Missions, .speaking of the efforts making by some governments to decoy the missionaries into the service of their particular interests, says: "Woe to the herald of the good news of Christ's free salvation who lets himself be enticed by a worldly master, under the cover of promoting civilization, into the service of colonial interests! Here, as elsewhere, everything goes to show that no man can serve two masters, that the church and the world are two distinct domains, that the salvation of souls and the supposed interests of colonists are the most often mutually incompatible."
-The definitive recognition, by England, of Madagascar as under the protectorate (a polite way of saying under the dominion) of France, has led to well-founded apprehensions concerning the London Society's missions there, which have Christianized the ruling tribe of the Hovas. We remember only too well the declaration of the Protestant Guizot: "France abroad means Catholicism." To be sure, the treaty expressly provides that" in the island of Madagascar the missionaries of the two countries shall enjoy a complete protection, religious tolerance, liberty for all forms of worship and for religious instruction are guaranteed." But who believes that if the Jesuits once more came to govern France they would allow it to keep this treaty except evasively? And England is not now the England of Cromwell, or even of Chatham. However, the Protestant steadfastness of Queen Pomare and the Tahitians will doubtless be emulated by Queen Ranavalona and the Hova churches. It is a matter of great thankfulness that the Protestant mission of our French brethren on the Zambesi is likely to be rescued from the ignoble clutch of Portugal and assigned to the benign guardianship of England. The inroads of the children of Mammon, unhappily, cannot be restrained by any power. " Never," says the Journal, "has the world witnessed a partition so gigantic. Whatever may come of it, He that sitteth in the heavens (says yet) I have set my Ki.ng upon my holy hill of Zion."
It is not to be understood, of course, that all the French colonial officers are hostile to Protestant missions. Some are themselves Protestants, and others are friendly to every elevating influence abroad, Protestant or Catholic. M. de Brazza, the great agent of extending the French authority along the right bank {)f the lower Congo, has himself urged the Societe des Missions to establish its mission on the Congo, and promised it his best support. And, although since the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, the French Protestants are only some 600,000 out of 38,000,000, yet their greater mental freedom, more earnest religion, and higher moral standard, make them an antagonizing power manifold greater than their numbers against both atheism and ultramontanism.
-Dr. Warneck, in the Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift, in answer to a deprecatory remark of Major Wissmann, that Protestant missions ought not to shrink from criticism, observes very pertinently that Protestants criticise their own missions rather too much than too little. Roman Catholics, possessed as they are with the instinct of infallibility, do not criticise theirs at all.
Major Wissmann puts the Roman Catholic missions in Africa above the Protestant, as putting the labora before the ora (which they would hardlyacknowledge), declaring that the Protestants reverse the order. Dr. Warneck replies that they do neither the one nor the other, but, as commanded by Jesus Christ, teach faith in Him, which then becomes the inner principle of both prayer and labor. Dr. Wissmann, like most of such men, seems to regard the Africans only in one light-their relation to the labor market. But, as Dr. Warneck remarks, the Catholic missionaries have bought children (doubtless with the most benevolent intentions) over whom they have power. The Protestants exhort to industry free people, over whom they have only influence. The immediate industrial results, therefore, are more noticeable on the side of the former. The lasting results will turn more largely to the credit of the latter. Even now Major Wissmann acknowledges that, industrially, the Livingstonia Mission equals the best Catholic misl!ions. The trouble with the Catholic missions is, that however benevolently they treat their converts, in so many cases they do not teach them how to go alone.
Dr. Warneck remarks that, although where the Roman Catholics, as in China, have been laboring for three centuries, they have naturally an absolutely greater number of converts, yet they seldom have relatively so large a number if we compare time, outlay, and number of laborers, and that in fields where they and the Protestants have both labored for nearly the same time, the absolutely greater number of converts is almost everywhere on the Protestant side, excluding the European immigrants whom the Catholic reports count in, and whom the Protestant reports count out. Even in East Africa, to which Major 'Wissmann principally refers,the Catholics (not including Uganda.the statistics of which are undetermined) only claim some 2,000 converts, over against some 4,500 of the Protestant missions.
"The present Protestant missions proceed simply in theway of the apostolic missions, when they put their confidence, not in the forms of outward worship, but in the power of evangelical truth. And to-day, also, we do not find that this confidence puts us to shame, as is shown by the results of our missions, e.g., in the South Sea Islands, as well as in West and East Africa, where we have gathered fully a million of free Christians from among the heathen into well organized, and in part already independent, churches. We may well allow that the outward worship of the Roman Church has a certain share in the results of her mission; but much more are these owing to other outward means, e.g., purchase of children, concession of temporal advantages, employment of the civil power, connivance with heathen irregularities, etc."
-In' view of the sharp national animosities, which have attached them- selves to the relations between the Anglo-American Stanley and the German Emin Pasha, the following judgment of Stanley, founded on his latest book, from the great German missionary magazine, is of much value. The Zeit- schrift, has throughout, while genuinely German, held itself clear of all exag- gerated nationalism, in matters which concern universal.humanity and the kingdom of God: "This book leaves no doubt that in Stanley we have to do not only with one of the most heroic, circumspect, enduring of travelers, but also with a warm friend of mankind, a great student of human nature, a wise dealer with men, and a conscientious performer of the commissions assigned to him. He is not lacking in self-consciousness, and the energy with which he is wont to act sometimes verges on recklessness; but without the inflexible firm- ness, which ever and anon degenerates into harshness, he would never have overcome the absolutely gigantic difficulties which lay in his way, and never have attained his end. But Stanley is by no means merely a valiant man of iron will, he has also a warm heart, is full of motherly carefulness, fidelity and devotion to his friends, white and black, nor is he wanting in humility and a sound feeling of piety." He would hardly be a Welshman if his sense of religion were not strong.
-The Societe Centrale Protestante d'Evangelisation, in its forty-third an- nual report, that of 1889, says: "It has a faith, and it confesses it. In this re- gard it has gone beyond the Synod of 1872. It used to be said, as it still is: Why these doctrines? Is not life enough? Bring near the prophets, remove the doctors; inflame the heart and take no care about the head. Inflame the heart with what? The heart, too, has need of reasons, and the reasons of the heart are the very doctrines which you reject. According as these doctrines are pre$ent or absent, religious fervor increases or declines. History teaches us that in all times moral is closely connected with doctrinal relaxation. Why, then, should we separate the prophets and the doctors, as if they did not belong together? They imply each other, they do not exclude each other. Let me only cite three names: St. Paul, St. Augustine, Luther-three glorious prophets and three illustrious doctors. But for the doctrines which it has adopted and propagated, the Central Society would not have done what it has done, for it would neither have felt nor kindled the same confidence."
-" France is divided into two camps, of equal passion, if not of equal strength. The religious society anathematizes the civil society; the civil society anathematizes the religious society, and ever and anon the one point on which they seem to agree is that it is the duty of each to murder the other. Lost in this tumult of battle, what are we doing, we, French Protestants of every denomination? We maintain religious faith and bless social progress. We show France how she may be at one with herself, and be at the same time Christian and liberal. If, weaned of their bitter and resultless struggles, civil and religious society are minded some. day to make peace, they will make it, not under our name, indeed, but on our territory. The triumph of Protestant principles, whether under Protestant forms or not, is the religious future of our country, and of every country." Free religion, not in the infidel but in the Christian sense, as against the compelled religion of the middle ages.
-The Danish churches raised for missionary purposes in 1888, about $24,000. ENGLISH AND AMERICAN EXTRACTS.
-The Church Missionary Gleaner for October reports as ready to go out six university men, six clergymen from the Islington school, nineteen single ladies and four others. Adding the wives-" whom we must never leave out of account "-and there is a total of ninety-one new missionaries. "But the day is rapidly coming when that will seem quite small."
-It seems that, as with the ark of old, each African tribe has been afraid to keep the bones of Bishop Hannington, being persuaded that the wrath of heaven has attended each attempt to detain them, until at last they are given to an Englishman who comes from the coast "by the route which Hannington" in his last moments, declared that he died to secure!"
-Miss Ridley, lately gone to China, says in the Gleaner: "I do not do much else but study. I am standing, as it were, on the brink of a wonderful ocean –this difficult, interesting and fascinating language-just playing with a few of the drops."
-It is known that the aborigines of Japan are the Ainos, or Ainus, now mostly found in the northern island, Yezo. They are very degraded, but are said to be rather of our type of race than of the Mongolian. It has been questioned whether they have retained any religion. But the Church Missionary Society missionary to them, Rev. J. Batchelor, writes in the Gleaner, that " they firmly believe in a God who is the life giver and benevolent sustainer of all, and they thankfully and dutifully acknowledge His gifts and mercies."
-It is known how highly the Church of Scotland, both Established and Free, values education in India. It is now, in the Established branch, engaged in reviewing this whole question, and corresponding widely with authorities in Indian affairs. Some of the answers deserve reporting: Sir Charles U. Aitchison, late lieutenant-governor of the Punjab, is very sure that if the chasm now yearning in Hindu belief is filled up by an unchristian theism, the church will have all the sapping and mining to do over again. He mentions the American College at Lahore, as one of the types of schools that ought to be multiplied through India, giving university training, together with the steady personal application of Christian truth by cultivated men. "God forbid," he says, "that I should undervalue preaching and evangelizing. I believe India is only waiting for some native St. Paul to turn by thousands to the Lord. But the more active you are in your schools the better you will be prepared for that day when it comes." Even now, he says, the most and the best converts are from the schools. f Sir William Wilson Hunter says that a Christian government cannot give anti-christian, and, in India, cannot give Christian teaching. The result is deplored, deservedly, by the natives of India. Missionary schools alone can make good the lack. Such schools the government feels free to aid. " It would not do," he says, "that just as Hinduism and Mohammedanism are entering the field of education more largely, Scotland should withdraw from it. Alexander Duff and John Lawrence," he remarks, " went to India in one fear. One saved India for England; the other rescued Christianity from sinking again into such a degradation as that into which the uneducated' Portuguese Christians' had brought it."
Sir William Muir, Sir Henry Ramsay and Sir Richard Temple give similar testimony.
The Rev. Robert Clark, of the Church Missionary Society, thinks that there are friendly Hindu and Moslem teachers whose influence is positively better than that of some nominally Christian teachers. He calls them "Hiram's Carpenters. " It is an error to suppose that the Scottish Establishment in India spendo chiefly for schools. £2,492 is spent for them; £5,488 on evangelistic work.
The Rev. D. Mackicham, D.D., of the Free Church, remarks that there are fewer conversions now at such schools than at first. This he attributes (1) to the great modifications of Hinduism, giving a temporary resting-place to many; (2) to the religious indifference of the age; (3) to the stronger political life awakening in India, carrying off much moral force–all temporary causes, but operative at present.
The Rev. A. Clifford, of the Church Missionary Society, says that "Dr. Duff's converts are the backbone of the native church in Bengal." Few, but mighty.
Bishop Caldwell and Mr. Sharrock declare that these higher schools are the unly way of reaching the higher castes. The Roman Catholics, moreover, are waking up to the importance of education, and the question is, into which scale enlightened India shall be thrown.
James Wilson, Esq., twenty-five years missionary in India, says that the condition of India, that is, especially of Hinduism, with iis compact society and overmastering religion, is unique. Individual conversions cannot be there, at present, the main end. India is a mighty rock to be tunneled, and educa- tion is the process of tunneling. The rate of conversion among the aborig- ines, who may be called the soft rock, does not at all give the rate among the Hindus, who are emphatically the hard rock. As yet, no method of labor has gained many conversions from Hinduism proper. That mission schools have not, therefore, is not against them, while for ultimate results we may well re- gard them as an indispensable agency.
The Hindus are beginning to be alarmed at the absence of ethicai teaching from the government schools. One Hindu journal, quite independent of direct missionary influence, calls for the introduction of a little book, called" The Precepts of Jesus," compiled by Rajah Ramahun Roy, the original leader, I believe, of the Brahmo Somaj. Says Mr. Wilson: "I have nothing to say against other methods of spreading the truth; but I, for one, have no regrets that so many years of my life were spent in India in diffusing among the young people of that country knowledge of any and every kind, including that knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation."
Judge Roberts, of the Punjab, brings like testimony to the grievous decline of morality and integrity which has followed the divorce of religion and education. The Rev. S. S. Allnutt, M.A., late of Cambridge, nowof Delhi, says that this system starves the HiNdu conscience, already weak, and leaves the intellectual to struggle with. the animal nature, aggravated by an English propaganda of atheism, "rampant, vaunting, undisguised." The vile Bradlaugh has recently, we remember, visited India, partly to prosecute this apostolate of hell. Even the Mohammedans, it appears (except the heretical Shiites) disdain to acknowledge sin before God, or profess repentance of it. Mr. Allnutt wholly condemns the too usual practice of allowing heathen teachers to give formal instruction in Christain doctrine. _ The Rev. John Paton, formerly chaFllain in Bombay says: "Convert all the aboriginal types and leave the Brahmanical castes untouched, and you have only touched Hindu religion by the fringe. Neglect neither Aryans nor non- Aryans, nor the methods best suited to the genius of either. A mighty citadel (and no citadel of heathenism compares with Hinduism) must be besieged with infinite patience and manful use of every form of appliance." Principal Miller, of Madras, says that the Jesuits have a broad outlook, and the Protestant missions, as yet, a narrow one. Shall educated India, he asks, be Jesuit or Protestant? He strongly condemns the helter-skelter mutual emu- lation of Protestant schools. One-fourth of their revenues, he says, have been spent in paralyzing another fourth.
Mr. Mozumdar, the Brahmo Somaj leader, says that he knows mission school graduates above others by their superior moral principle and greater firmness of character.
A Hindu jurist, callmg for religious education in government schools, de- clares it better that a few should embrace the faith of Christ than that all should become practical atheists.
The Rev. John Monson, B.D., of Calcutta, says that if Protestants do not want Protestant Christianity in India to be absorbed by Roman Catholicism, they must not relax, but intensify, their efforts for the higher education.
The Rev. Johr. Crawford, B.D., says: "Christ has gained, because natives have seen men of all Christian creeds in Britain establishing Christian colleges."
The Rev. Herbert J. Thomas remarks: "The best that the natives of India can say of the English Government is that it is without religion; and they think no better of the English on that account, as their newspapers abundantly show."
On the other hand, various eminent authorities, among them Sir Monier Williams, speak doubtfully as to the results of these schools.
In 1863 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland decided that its higher schools in India should be deeply modified, in the direction of much fuller instruction in religion. Thus modified, it appears to be the mind of the present Missionary Committee, that they ought decidedly to be maintained, as being a needed counteractive to the irreligion of the government schools, and as peculiarly agreeable to the Scottish genius. The General Assembly is yet to take action on the report of the committee.
The Colonial and Continental Church Society, an Anglican institution, formed "to send clergymen, cathechists and schoolma:sters to the colonies of Great Britain and to British residents in other parts of the world," is important among those many semi-missionary societies called into being by the peculiar nature and relations of that dominion" on which the sun never sets." Its total income for 1889-90 was £35,668, of which £17,600 was raised at home, the remainder in the colonies and on the continent. The society takes a part in the Indian missions of British America. It also aims at commending to the French-Canadians a purer form of the Gospel. It appears to represent principally the evangelical school of the Church of England. We observe that the Marquis of Salisbury is one of its subscribers, and that his eminent competitor is not. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel seems to do the same work for the High Church party, although it is an extensive, and in various places rather an interfering, foreign missionary society.
-The Church Missionary Intelligencer for October, 1890, remarks: "The British Empire at the present time is five times larger than that of ancient Persia under Darius; it is four times larger than that of Rome under Augustus; and it is one-eighth larger than all the Russias put together; it is three times the size of the United States, sixteen times that of France, and forty times that of Germany, if we leave out of account her recently acquired territory in Africa. Now, if we admit that God guides the affairs of men, surely there must be some sufficient reason fot placing such. vast popUlations under our control, and when we remember that all these pos~essions have come to us since. the Reformation, it seems as if we had in this fact a hint as to what the reason is!"
-The same number of the Intelligencer, warning against expectations of what may be called a tumultuary movement of conversion in India, says: "In very truth there is no possibility in India of such a thing as a popular movement. There is no public opinion-how could there be in a body of 250,000,000 of people, of divers races, speaking a great number of different languages, and disintegrated by the cleavage of caste, by no means conformable to the strata of society? The conversion of a whole caste would render that of the next above it none the easier, rather all the more difficult. The ocean of Indian thought has been for ages stagnant; there are in it neither tides nor prevailing currents. But the w~ter of life is pouring into it, and creating, at all events, local eddies, which go swirling onwards steadily, spite of their back-waters, towards the throne of Christ."
-The Intelligencer quotes from two organs of·two branches of the Brahmo Somaj the two following declarations: "Christ Jesus. . is as much necessary in this age and in India as He was 1,800 years ago in Judea. As sinful children of men, we, the people of India, are as much in need of the Living Son of the Living God as the people of Judea were in days gone by." "In Christ, humanity, possessing nothing, not even a stone to lay its head upon, declared nothing good but its Father in heaven, surrendered itself wholly to His will, was tortured and killed, and finally was raised to eternal glory and everlasting blessedness. Humanity was reconciled to divinity, and the earth witnessed the rare spectacle of a divine humanity reigning over her." The editor remarks: ,. There is something of a perverse current there, a tendency to philosophize away the realism of Christ's redemption, which is characteristically Indian. But let the Indian mind take its own course-it will be guided at last to the personal acceptance of Christ."
The Rev. Worthington Jukes, of the Afghan Mission of the C. M. S., speaks of a baptized convert of ten years' standing, Hazrat Ali Shah, as being a lineal descendant of Mohammed. He has given up his government appointment to devote himself to mission work.
-The Intelligencer, complaining of the abundance of orthodoxy and the lack of moral feeling in the negro Christianity of West Africa, remarks: "It is not a Luther that is wanted; it is a John the Baptist." Yet it remarks that there is enough of the right spirit to be making a visible impression on the Mohammedans.
-It is known that there is a difference of opinion among missionaries, here and there, as to the use of the native instead of the European dress. There can be no doubt, however, as to the wisdom of Dr. Harford-Battersby's course on the Upper Niger. He says, in the Intelligencer: "For the first time adopted the native dress. Found it very comfortable, and well adapted to the climate. The turban, I believe, is far the best protection from the sun; the tabe, or gown, which is very loose, admits of free ventilation, and at the same time can be modified to suit almost any change of the weather except rain. Below we have the loose trousers and sandals for the feet-very comfortable. It is delightful altogether to have discarded boots and socks." Elsewhere it is remarked how pleased the people are to have the white men condescend to dress like themselves!
-The Intelligencer for October gives from the Matin the following statistics of Roman Catholic missions, mostly French, in Central Africa. The Catholic Missions of Lyons have in the Kingdom of Benin 6 stations, 1 college, 10 schools, 8 orphanages; on the Gold Coast, 6 stations, 3 schools and orphanages; on the Niger, 2 schools and 2 orphanages; in Dahomey, 8 stations,4 schools and 5 orphanages. The Brethren of the Holy Ghost have in Cimbabasie 4 stations, schools and 1seminary; in Gaboon, 6 stations, 3industrial schools; in Senegambia, 15 stations, 1 seminary, 1 printing office, 16 schools, 1 industrial school, 1 orphanage and 1 asylum; at Sierra Leone, 2 stations and schools; in French Congo, 7 stations, 5 schools; in the Lower Congo, 9 stations,l seminary, 5 schools; in Zanzibar, 11 stations, 6 schools, 2 hospitals, 1 industrial school. The White Fathers (Cardinal Lavigerie's missionaries) have in Nyassaland 2 stations, 3 orphanages, 4 schools; in the Sahara, 7 stations; in Kabylia, 1 station; in Nizab, 12 stations, 8 schools, 2 seminaries, 8 orphanages; Upper Congo. 2 stations, 4 schools; in Unyanyembe, 2 stations; at Zanzibar, 1 station; at Tanganyika, 3 stations, schools and orphanages.
-The Intelligencer remarks: "India is becoming more and more visited in the cold season, not only by politicians, and litterateurs, and students, and sportsmen, but by the messengers of Christ. The' missioner' is becoming as distinct a variety of them as the' missionary.'"
-The Bishop of Lahore, at a recent C. M. S. meeting in India, referred to the noble work opening in Kashmir. He said that many converts had recently been gathered in, and all over the district congregations of seventy or eighty met in the simplest of little churches for worship. These churches had not cost more than a rupee per sitting, if he might use that term, for, with the exception of the Bishop, for whom, in consideration of his infirmities, a chair was provided, sittings there were none [laughter]; the people all sat on the ground. The simple service was conducted and joined in with great fervor, and his heart was much touched by a beautiful cUdtom they had of repeating Jai Prabhu Yesu (Victory to the Lord Jesus) as they rose at the conclusion of their service.
STUDENT VOLUNTEER MOVEMENT.
Mr. Max Wood Moorhead writes that: " A Conference of the Student Volunteer Movement is to be held in Cleveland, Ohio, February 26th to March 1st. "The objects are: (1) To bring volunteers and secretaries of foreign mission societies into personal contact; (2) to acquaint the Church with the character, scope and purpose of 'the movement'; (3) to stimulate and arouse to action student volunteers. Christian citizens offer to entertain a thousand guests, and volunteers in hundreds will probably avail themselves of this hospitality. "Such a convention will give secretaries of various boards in the United States and Canada opportunity to confer with candidates, and define the relation which should exist between them; and societies will communicate their spirit and their methods. "The following societies have been invited to send representatires: Young Men's Christian Association, the Young Women's Christian Association, the American Inter-Seminary Missionary Alliance, the Canadian Inter-Collegiate Missionary Alliance, the United Society of Christian Endeavor, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, the Epworth League, etc. From many missionary agencies comes the cry of' Debt!' 'Retrench!' The Church seems largely indifferent to the Master's appeal for laborers. We earnestly hope and pray that this gathering may result in a renewed spirit of obedience to the command of Christ, and, consequelitly, the actual sending forth of many laborers. "Foreign missionaries, now at home on furlough, from' every quarter of the globe, will be present. "Will the readers of THE REVIEW pray that all prepartions may be in conformity to God's will, and that all who participate in the coming Conference may be led by the Holy Spirit?"
INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT
II.-INTERNATIONAL DEPARTMENT.
EDITED AND· CONDUCTED BY REV. J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
Editorial Items.-[J. T. G.] mission agents, whether English or It will be gratifying to the friends African, that are, in their jUdgment, "vessels meet for the Master's use." of humanity everywhere, to know Earthen vessels they may be; we do that at the last Holland signed the not look for perfection in human in- agreement of the Brussels Confer- struments or instrumentalities; but .ence, authorizing a tariff for revenue ~ve do deeply feel that true missionary work is the Getting forth of the Lord in the Congo Free State, to raise a Jesus Christ both as Saviour and as special fund for the suppression of the King and that this work must be slave trade. If she had held out in done 'by those who, however feeble in themselves, do know Him as their her refusal to concur, the entire Brus- Saviour and obey Him as their King, sels Conference would have been a and who seek, by the power of the failure, as it required unanimous con- Holy Ghost, to be examp~es ': in w<,>r?, in conversation, in chanty, m spInt, sBeenrtlinofTtrheeatysio~f-na1t8o8r5y, powers to the in faith, in purity." to make it ef- -It would be amusing, if it were fective in this modification of the free not so serious, to note the present con- troversyabout mission comity. Here trade clause of the original constitu- are the Baptists criticising the Method- ists for entering Rangoon, and the tion. Lutherans in turn criticising the Bap- tists in. Guntur because they "im- -It is time the good people of this mersed several of their teachers under discipline for irregular conduct." Then country gave a half-hour to the man- we have the Church of England Mis- sionary Society complained of by the ner in which the United States Gov- Presbyterians in Persia, for interfer- ing with their constituency, and so on, ernment is made to play the part of sometimes with cause, and, possibly, sometimes without cause, for we do procuress in the case of Chinese w0n;ten not claim to pass judgment on any of these cases. And all this comes on us at San Francisco. We are not saymg when the brethren are reading essays and making addresses on missionary a word now in favor of letting the comity. We printed in May last an able paper read before the Calcutta Chinese in, nor about our disreputable Missionary Conference on this subject by Bishop Thoburn. That met with a violation of treaty with China; but rejoinder in the same conference by Rev. Mr. Clifford, and now the subabout those who are let in, and the ject is treated in the December num- ber of The Church Mis.'lionary Intellipurposes for which they are admitted.
No Chinese can be landed without a writ of habeas corpus from the district court of the United States. Eleven thousand of these have been issued in order to land Chinese men and women, and ninety-nine out of every hundred of these women are known to be brought hither for the vilest uses of white men as well as Chinese. The President and his Cabinet ought not to allow the majesty of law to screen slavery and lust after this fashion.
-Here is a model utterance by the gencer. The writer concludes by Church of England Missionary Society saying facetiously: "The American in connection with some administra- missionary, though often a magnifitive difficulties in one of their West cent specimen of a Christian gentle- Africa missions, which might well be man is, nevertheless, to the end an adopted as a manifesto by all mis- American, given to going ahead, and -sionary societies: not absolutely beyond the temptation of filibustering. And the English The Committee are solemnly deter- missionary is apt to be ineradicably a mined in humble dgeivpeentdheenSc~eciuetpyo'ns Divine' strength, to support only to mission agenCies and John Bull, accustomed to dwelling on an island, and with no particularpen- next ten years, and hence it is now chant for being interfered with by two-hundred-fold greater than it others." But during the while in was at the beginning of the present which these various brethren discuss century. and re-discuss the modifications nec- essary in the mission co-operative Mr. Gladstone says we have not only policy of the past, a writer in the Har- multiplied wealth in a ratio that is un- vest Fieldsuggests some modus vivendi precedented in the world's history, that the work be not hindered. but we have multiplied the variety of pleasures which wealth commands, What About Our Surplus Wealth 7 also, in a correspondingly unparalleled degree. The New York World recently pub- lished a list of the richest people ia the Archdeacon Farrar is credited with United States, with a rough estimate the statAment that the working-classes of their wealth. We say rough esti- of Great Britain are saving annually mate because when one of these five hundred millions of dollars, and gentlemen, in a legal proceeding, tes- the British nation fifteen hundred miltified, as is asserted, that he could not lions. tell within ten or twelve millions of dollars what his fortune did amount The Japan Mail some while ago to, he only represented the rest of the said there was wealth enough in a very wealthy persons whose fortunes single block of warehouses, between are in part in more or less fluctuating Cornhill and Regent streets, in London securities. It is not assumed there- to buy up the whole of Yeddo, Japan, fore, by us, that the article referred and possibly five times over. It is disto presents precise knowledge, and tinctly the Christian nations that are in some cases may be grossly incor- adding in geometrical ratio to their rect. surplus wealth.
Nevertheless, the outline stands sub- Allowing all this to stand for the stantially representative of the facts moment, take another factor, as well in the case. Here are the names, then, established as careful and consciof seventy-five individuals whose for- entious computation can make so intunes are estimated at more than five definite a propo~ition. It is stated millions of dollars. It includes three after careful examination that the inmen thought to be worth over one crease in the wealth of the Protestant hundred millions of dollars each, and Christians of the United States equals thirty-five individual fortunes which five hundred millions of dollars anexceed ten millions of dollars each. nually. That amounts to the assertion that every three years Protestant The leading statistician of Great Christendom in this country accumu- Britain is made responsible for the lates an aggregated surplus fortune, statement that the increase of the equal to the total estimated fortunes world's wealth between the years 1800 of a hundred and twenty-five of the and 1870 was greater than that of the wealthiest persons in the land, or that eighteen hundred years preceding each year Protestant Christians in this century; and, still further, that the United States lay by a fortune the increase of the wealth in the equal to the sum total accumulated world between the years 1870 and through many years by the Rockefel- 1880 was equal to that accumulated lers, Astors, Goulds and Vanderbi~ts, between 1800 and 1870. In other as estimated by the World's table. words, the world doubled its wealth in the first seventy years of this cen- Now, we have not a word, at this tury, and added an equal sum in the writing, to say about the special dan- gers to any community, in any coun- try or century, of such vast augmenta- tion of wealth. Mr. Gladstone has done well to point out that it is indi- economies; after-we repeat the sumrectly a fertile source of the negative mary-after it has used all it needed, religious tendency of our day. But given all it would, and wasted most we do not propose to moralize about wantonly, it yet has a reserve of unit in one way or another. What we spent fortune reaching the enormous write to accomplish is this: to press sum of $500,000,000 annually! home on every Christian in the land who has any surplus, who one year And this is not supposed to be thE> with another, or after an interval of "saving" of the irreligious or ignorant, ten years, finds he has accumulated but of the very best type of Christian some" savings," the question: What commonwealth. What ought we to are the special obligations growing do with this surplus? What account from savings? will we render of it at last? Not one- sixtieth of so much as these' , savings" If annually the Protestant Christians is given to save the world outside of of this land are accumulating five our country, adding what men give times the wealth of the few men who while living and leave after death. own a hundred millions of property after a lifetime, or as the accretions of We cast no reflections. We read no more than one generation, what is homilies. We prescribe no action.' this same Protestant Christendom pro- We only put an interrogation point posing to do with these five hundred before one part of the Christian millions of annual surplus? It must Church in the richest and most luxube borne in mind just what the charac- riant land on the globe over against ter of this is. It is not what these the increment of its savings. Christians now want. It is what is left. After our Protestant Christen- J. T. G. dom has supplied all its wants, catered as far as it pleases to all its whims, The Press in Heathen Lands. spent on its viands all it cared to indulge in, wornjust" as good or expen- BY J. T. GRACEY. sive raiment as it has pleased to buy, indulged itself in art and literature The area of the reading population and travel, spent on the education of of the worla has been vastly extended chilUren all it could be induced to within the century, and in heathen spend, made merry the Christmas and lands as a direct result, in large part, of other holidays, indulged ~n all lawful, the modernmission. In India the Hindu possibly some questionable amuse- and Mohammedan readers are increasments, hospitably and socially enter- ing at present at the rate of a million tained friends and neighbors; after it and a half a year. Before the translahas, besides all this, generously spent tion of the Bible scarcely one-thirtieth in charity and benevolences, sustained part of the population of Bengal could all the churches, built all the colleges, read, and at the beginning of this cenand subscribed as liberally as it could turythat vast province and its Bengalibe induced to subscribe for missions speaking millions had no prose literain this and other lands; after it has, ture; now it is extensive and rapidly in a word, been as public-spirited as increasing. it pleased to be in forwarding all humanitarianism and religion while What we say of Bengal is but typiliving, and bequeathed all it would to cal of the rest of India and of other be spent or given away after death parts of the Moslem and heathen -spent, donated, squandered, be- world where the mission has entered. queathed; and after it has wasted untold thousands, being reckless of Not to delay with further illustra- tions in heathen lands, though the literary vaulting of young Japan is a tempting theme, let us take a single illustration from Moslem literature. That we will select, not from Delhi or Lucknow, which furnish most start- publishes newspapers in a dozen oJ' ling and arousing facts of recent liter- morelanguages,would ofitselfindicate ary ventures, but from the dead-line the relation of the mission to literary of the Moslem intellect in the coun- activity. Butthe intent of this present tries lying on the eastern borders of paper is to call attention to the use the Mediterranean. We pass by the which is being made by the press of twenty millions of pages of Arabic some heathen lands in antagonism to literature issued in Beirut in 1889 by Christianity. Illustrations are abun-' the Presbyterians, because it is Chris- dant in Japan and in Moslem lands. tian, and even the great dictionaries, We will, however, limit ourselves to grammars and chrestomatics in Ara- selections from India. bic, of the Roman Catholic press at Beirut, for the same reason. All of the six hundred native news- papers of India, except a half-dozen, The Moslem literary stir is indicated may be set down as inimical to Chris- by the officially reported pUblications tianity. In all the larger Indian cities in Constantinople in three months of there'is a fair proportion of youths 1889, of which 143 were Turkish, 3 who have received an English educa- • Arabic, 2 F re~, and the others tion, many of whom are bitterly hos- in Armenian, Neo-Greek, Bulgarian, tile to Christianity. There is an abun- Servian, French and Italian. dant supply of imported European infidel literature sown broadcast Egypt is not a country to which one among these young men. But not is likely to turn to find the freshest only is the newspaper turned against literature. But the presses of Cairo us, but organizations modeled after are turning out works of vast impor- our Christian tract societies have been tance. The Turkish, dictiona~y, established and are in active operation. "Kamus," and the "Tag-al-aurus," The" Free Thought Depot" in Madras the great dictionary of classical Ara- issues a list of 124 separate works, in- bic, seven volumes-of the total ten- cl_ding 34 publications of Bradlaugh, of which have been issued in rapid suc- 19 of Mrs. Besant, 16 of Ingersoll, and cession, and which will cost, perhaps, others of Paine, Voltaire and other forty dollars, mark anything but a well-known infidel publicists. Inger- Dead Sea or a. low Nile of literary soll's lectures have the largest sale. interest. Some of these have deceptive titles. "A Bible Hand-book for Mission The modern newspaper has become School StUdents and Inquiring Chris- a power in these lands. Beirut pub- tians" and " The Bible Dissector for lishes eight political and four literary the Use of Mission School Students" and religious periodicals. Damascus, are illusive titles. The" Elements of Aleppo, Jerusalem and Bagdad have Social Economy" is said to be a most their newspapers. demoralizing advocacy of free lust, in which marriage is denounced. This We have said the missjon was the tract literature is being circulated by source or occasion of much of this benevolent contributions like those literary culture in all the lands where made to our own tract societies. Edu- it has entered. That might go with- cated natives are paying monthly sub- out the saying, but that we wish to scriptions of ten dollars to disseminate fasten responsibility on the mission to these tracts and books. One rajah in foster and direct, if it cannot control, Bengal is known to have subscribed the agency it has created or awakened ten thousand dollars for this object. into energy. That a single American Others are spending great sums for missionary society should have re- the purpose of printing literature in duced, through its agents, perhaps advocacy or defense of their own twenty languages to writing, and have published approaching three thousand writings in fifty or more dialects, and religions. Some of them are appeals of Jesus, and make a great pretence of humility. But inwardly they are to their own people to arouse them- saying: "Alas, has it come to this, selves because of the aggressions of that we should be beaten by these the Christain forces. people !" The famous poet, Shakspeare, Some of these tracts and booklets has' said: "Good wine needs no push." He means that if a thing really posare rejoillders to Christian books. sesses worth it needs not be puffed. Rev. Dunlap Moore's tract entitled For instance, a spicemonger, when "An Examination of Jainism" is an- his goods are worthless, makes a great swered in "A Reply to an Examina- display of them, and ostentatiously in- vites everybody whom he sees, saying: tion of Jainism, " or, in native words, "These are good spices; come and " a slap on the Christian face." Some buy." Not so the man who has really are curiously mixed. Here is one on good ones. People go to him wherever " A Warning to the Cow Protectors and he may be. Now you see missionaries going about. They say that the Bible, an Answer to Christians," one part de- which is impure and has not a grain fending cow killing, the other part of truth in it, is the word of God, and filled with sneers and taunts at the they shout in every street: "Come, missionaries. A Christian tract, " The brethren. This is an excellent religion, Choice of a Guru," claiming that Jesus a good caste." Why do they thus Christ is a world teacher, is answered shout? Because if they do not, not one person will go to them.
in another tract, "An Examination ***** of Jesus." Christians cast suspicion upon the More curious, however, is the cate- story that Hanuman (the monkey- -chism of the Hindu Tract Society, god) leapt over the sea to Ceylon. But an equal objection lies against the with sixteen questions and answers story of Christ walking on the sea. By bodily from the Westminster Cate- holding hi,. breath a person may leap chism, including the definition of God. an immense distance; but no amount of suppression will prevent a man All this is done because it is "good, and from drowning. To say that it will is Christianity borrowed it from Aryan- a lie. From incidents ,like these it is ism, which is chronologically the pre- clear that the Bible is the work of decessor of Christianity." man and not the word of God, and that But others are bitterly and blas- even Jesus Christ was only a man phemously antagonistic to Christianity like the rest of us. itself, and contain most wanton attacks on the Bible. This is illus- ***** llilissionaries say hat idolatry is child's play. But surely the worship trated in a wildly blasphemous Aryan of the cross is a superstition worthy of tract, published by the Hindu Tract scorn. It is only on a level with the Society, entitled "Jesus Christ a play of children who put up broom- Fool." It is said by the editor of the sticks and call them soldiers. These people put one stick across another Harvest Field to be too shocking to and worship it because Christ died on such a cross. They call our worship be translated for English readers. He, idolatry: we may well call theirs stickhowever, presents two ".mild" para- worship.
graphs, as he styles them, to show Now, there is really in all this the animus of the publication. We nothing to discour~ge, however it,may copy these for the same purpose: shock. We have long been familiar There are many sects in this world, with attacks like these from much and usually each sect contents itself with the practice of its own religion. better brains, and have learned how But it is not so with these Christians. futile they are.
They are bound to increase their num- But othertracts show still a different bers, and so they sent out missionaries, while they themselves remain quietly vein. Here is an extract from one published by the Arya Samaj, transat home. Is this just? These missionaries are ignorant and very covet- lated from the Tamil: ous. 'Vhen they are beaten or abused Missionaries come from Britain at or mocked they quote the commands a great cost and tell us that we are in heathen darkness, and that a bundle ing and virtual destruction that are of fables called the Bible is the true imminent. Hence the organization Vendanta (inspired book) which alone of clubs, the publication of tracts, can enlighten us. They have cast pamphlets, and articles in newspapers, their net over our children by teach- the appointment of learned men ing them in their schools, and they among them as preachers and defend- have already made thousands of Chris- ers of the old faith, the relaxation of tians, and are continuing to do so. caste rules and restrictions, and the They have penetrated into the most various other devices that are now be- out-of-the-way villages, and built ing employed to defeat the purpose of churches there. If we continue to the Lord and His people, and prop up sleep as we have done in the past not an effete and decaying system. And one will be found worshiping in our it is no small tribute to the value of temples in a very short time; why the the agency that we employ that our temples themselves will be converted opponents have taken a leaf out of the into Christian churches! Do you not Christian book, and are, in many know that the number of Christians is places, sedulously imitating our exincreasing and the number of Hindu ample. We engage evangelists and religionists decreasing every day? pay them; so do they; and when the How long will water remain in a well available local talent is not sufficient which continually lets out, but re- they look elsewhere, as is evidenced ceives none in? If our religion is by an advertisement for preachers incessantly drained by Christianity that has recently been appearing in without receiving any accessions, how the Bombay daily papers; the publican it last? When our country is cations of the several tract societies turned into the wilderness of Christi- are sought to be refuted by tracts and anity will the herb of Hinduism grow? leaflets, well written both in English We must not fear the missionaries and the vernacular, published and because they have white faces, or be- circulated under the auspices of a cause they belong to the ruling class. Hindu tract society; and Christianity There is no connection between the and its teachings are steadily maligned government and Christianity, for the and misrepresented with an ability Queen Empress proclaimed neutrality and an earnestness worthy of a better in all religious matters in 1858. We cause. must, therefore, oppose the missionaries with all our might. Whenever In 1786 the youthful Spaulding they stand up to preach, let Hindu preachers stand up and start rival wrote to F. H. Jacobi that he had preaching at a distance of forty feet from them, acd they will soon flee heard Biester say: "We must not reaway! Let caste and sectarian differences be forgotten, and let all the lax our efforts, and then in twenty people join as one man to banish Christianity from our land. All possi- years' time the name of Jesus, in a ble efforts should be made to win back those who have embraced Christianity, religious sense,will be no more heard." and all children should be withdrawn from mission schools. That was in Germany, and since then The Missionary Herald, of the Pres- Germany has furnished a large pro- byterian Church in Ireland, review- portion of the most intelligent and ag- ing the report of the Hindu Gujarat gressive missionary force in the world.
Tract and Book Society, says: But the stern fact remains that we The Hindus ha,e at last realized have created an agency for the adthat there is something in Christianity itself, and in well-directed Christian vancement of Christianity, which the effort, that is not to be repelled by any of the rough-and-ready methods heathen are turning against us; and, hitherto tried; Christianity is to-day felt to be an aggressive power, mov- worse, which we are not using ouring with an ever-increasing force, which must in some way be resisted, selves with anything like the I:;kill or and its influence counteracted, if Hindu society is to be saved, and the in the proportions that we should do. antiquated fabric of Hindu religious and social life is to escape the remouId- We have created a vast reading community of Christians also without giving them anything like an ade- quate supply of their literary needs.
We have not utilized the press at all commensurately with its place, power and opportunities. This is a field where the societies might combine for co-operative work much more largely than they do. There should be a great by that time India would adopt her pan-mission council on the subject reform. A few friends and organizaof missionary literature distinctively tions pledged her $10,000 annually. for non-Christian lands and for Roman Of $25,000 required for a permanent Catholic countries. There might be building, $18,000 have been raised. economic distribution of the material which would help to make much Of her work for the school in Bommore of the funds already contributed. bay, Ramabai writes as follows: It is a subject demanding special consideration by specialists.-J. T. G. "Besides visiting families, I have found it necessary to gather women Pundita Ramabai's Work. together and acquaint them with my The cultured little Hindu lady, work. I have, therefore, now and Ramabai, is carrying on a unique then, to invite ladies of the high castes, work against great odds, and we de- get up entertainments for them, leclight to note her success. A conversa- ture on different subjects, and encourtion which a missionary had with her age and implore them in various ways some time since was thus reported in to take an interest in women's educathe Bombay Guardian: The missionary tion and progress. They will not asked and she answered as follows: listen to me if I begin at once to talk " Are you saved?" to them about my school and its ob- " Yes." jects. They have been taught to dis- " Do you believe in Jesus Christ as like widows and look down upon their your Saviour? " education. So we have very carefully "Yes." to approach them, show them the " Many people believe in Christ in beauties of intellectual pursuits, make their heads and not in their hearts. them realize the superiority of en- Do you believe in Ghrist with your lightened life to one of perpetual heart 7" ignorance, talk to them about the "Yes." blessedness of useful life, and thus "Are your sins forgiven through gradually teach them to look upon Him?" themselves and the widows as beings "Yes." who have more value than cats, dogs, " Praise the dear Lord." or mere puppets in the hands of men. It will be remembered that she More opposition to our work is to be opened the school for Hindu widows met from women than from men in at Bombay in March,1889. We so- certain quarters. Many women of licited from Miss A. P. Granger, the Bombay are now beginning to take secretary of the Ramabai Association, a interest in our school, as they have contribution relating to the work that been several times invited and enterhas since been developed, and we now tained here." have the pleasure of making extracts from Miss Granger's reply. Miss Granger favors us with the fol- In March, 1890, one year from its lowing statements: opening, the school numbered twentyseven pupils, twelve of them being " In view of its ultimate dependence high caste child-widows. Five child- upon Hindu support alone it was dewidows have since been added. In- cided to move the school to Poona, on struction is given in Marathi, English the 1st of November, the objections and Sanskrit, and also in sewing, etc. first made by the Advisory Board to Ramabai asked the assistance of this its establishment there, having been country for ten years only, belieying removed. The larger expenses of an English city like Bombay, and the su- perior advantages of Poona as a stronger hold of Brahmanism, are the two most important reasons for this C'11anJ:0. " Ramabai's first idea of the location the Uriion, in this country, whose ad- of the school for Hindu widows was dress he knew. Poona. On many accounts she felt it would be wiser to place the school The library of the International there. She was, however, overruled by others and the school was opened Missionary Union is as yet an experi- in Bombay. The officers of the asso- ciation do not hesitate to state that it ment. This little sheet is sent out, has been fully as successful as they anticipated. It is not on that account after some unavoidable delays, to all that a change is now being made. A suitable building with ample grounds the members whose present address have been secured for the Sharada Sadan, at a moderate rent and wise can be ascertained, chiefly to test the arrangements made for the conduct of the school and boarding depart- question of the call for such a library. ment. On account of her approach- ing marriage, the teacher who went We have pleasure in presenting a list out from this country has resigned her position but an efficient successor of such books as we have thus far se- had been found. It was expected that all the boarders would go with Rama- cured, with an approximate indication bai to Poona. of the postage on each. Whoever " In view of this change we would ask more earnestly than ever before wishes to take out one of these books for the sympathy, support and prayers of the American people, and will close is requested to send this amount of . with Professor Max Muller'stribute to the character of our head: 'I have postage to the librarian, and after never been in India; but I have known many Indians, both men and women, keeping the book one month to return and I do not exaggerate when I tell you that some of them need fear no it by post, prepaying the amount comparison with the best men and women whom it has been my good necessary. A book may be renewed fortune to know in England, France, or Germany. Whether for unselfish- if desired a second month when not ness or devotion to high ideals, truth- fulness, purityand real, livingreligion, asked for elsewhere. I know no better hero than Keshub Chunder Sen, no heroine greater than Any donations of books or pamph- Ramabai; and I am proud to have been allowed to count both among my lets or money for the library will. be best friends.' " thankfully received; also any sugges; International Missionary Union Notes. tions as to how lt can be made more Circulating Library.-The librarian of the incipient circulating library of useful to the members. the International Missionary Union, is the Rev. James Mudge, East Pep- POSTAGE. perill, Mass. He recently sent the fol- lowing circular to all the members of Our Indian Mission, Gordon………….. 2Oc. London Missionary Conference, 2 vols, .. " 15c. Indian Evangelical 'Review, vols. 2, 3, 4, 5, 1874-1878……………. _………. " .. 14c. Romance of Missions, Miss M. A. 'Vest … 14c. Siam and Laos, Dr. House and others……13c. Decennial Conference, Calcutta ………. 120. Missionary year-Book……………. " .. 12c. Among the Turks, Dr. Hamlin………… 120. On Horseback in Cappadocia, Barrows…. lOc. Two thousand Miles in Mexico, McCarthy. lOc. Letters from India, Bruce……… …… 8c. Great Value of Missions, Liggins…. ….. 7c. India, J. T. Gracey …………………… 7c. Woman's Medical Work, Mrs. Gracey….. 7c. Ann H. Judson………………………. 7c. Sarah B. Judson………. ………… 7c. Memorial Papers of the Marathi Mission .. 30. Natural History of the Marathi Bible.. …. 30. Africa in a Nutshell, Thompson …. ,…… 20. China, J. T. Gracey …………………. lc. Open Doors, J. T. Gracey……… …….. 1c. Moravian Mission in Alaska, Hamilton … lc.
Also THE MISSIONARY REVIEW OF THE WORLD for 1888, 1889, 1890 in separate numbers, anyone of which can be ordered as above, postage four cent.s, thus enabling any member to refer to any article or articled. Most of the papers read before the Union in these years are to be found herein. The next meeting of the Interna- when the pressing claims of India, tional Missionary Union will be held at Clifton Springs, New York, June 10th China, and especially of Africa, were to 17th. We give the notice thus early that missionaries in this country may the subject of conversation, resolved be the better enabled to make preparations to attend; and that those abroad to memorialize the Society with refermay know when to send their greetings, their suggestions, or their papers. ence to a great forward movement. Essays and letters are solicited from members now on the foreign field as That memorial seems to have prothey constitute the" Outlook Committee." All such papers or correspond- duced a profound impression upon the ence should be sent to Rev. J. T. Gracey, 161 Pearl Street, Rochester, committee of the Church Missionary N. Y., or to Rev. W. H. Belden, Secretary, Bristol, Conn. Society, and they have caused the -The members of the International memorial to be printed and widely Missionary Union, will note with active interest, we trust, the appeal that circulated with the earnest desire that Rev. Arthur H. Smith and Dr. Henry D.Porter, both members of the Union, they may be guided by the Divine make in the December number of the Missionary Herald for aid for the Spirit in their deliberations on· the Chinese suffering from flood and famine, over not less than 4,000 square matter. It is stated that the Church miles of the Chihli Province. Thousands of families are homeless. The Missionary Society is supported, even Famine Relief Committee in Shanghai, after giving $60,000 for relief of nominally, by less than a third part of the sufferers has closed its books, but the distress still continues. No two the Church of England, and it cermen within our knowledge could more judiciously distribute the few tainly is a courageous thought to add thousand dollars they ask for than to its present staff of European misthose two brethren,and we are quite sionaries one thousand within five or sure, the need will continue for some six years. Yet such is the proposal. while yet. Send money to Mr. L. S. The memorial makes certain sugges- Ward, No 1 Somerset Street, Boston, tions as to these reinforcements, es- Mass pecially the following: 1. That evan- gelists should be sent into the mission One Thousand Additional Mission- fields in groups, each group being as- aries !" sociated under a leader. 2. That the services of lay-workers should be used The English Church Missionary So- much more than hitherto. 3. That ci€'ty presents a scheme for the send- mechanics and working men and ing forth, within the next five or women whose hearts God has touched six years, from the Church Mission- should form parts of these groups. ary Society alone, one thousand ad- The suggestion of such an increase in ditional missionaries. At the Kes- the working forces is startling simply wick Convention, in July last, mem- because it is such a sudden increase bersof the Church Missionary Sodety to the present numbers. That portion gathered at the house of a friend, of the Church of Englantl which operates through the Church Mission- ary Society is amply able to provide the money, to provide the workers and the supplies for such an advance, and the need is imperativ€'. And what is true of Christians in England is true of Christians in America. The forces might be and ought to be doubled and trebled. There are abundant means of support in the hands of those who bear Christ's name. Young men and young women are in training, and a large portion of them have already pledged themselves to this work. Shall not the Christian churches of America, and the Consti- tuency of the American Board espe- cially, anew and at once "attempt great things for God, and expect great thingR from Him?" It is time for a grand forward movement. There are men enough and wealth enough in our churches to respond to the present call for an advance, if there is a will to do so.-The Missionary Herald.
EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS
IH.-EDITORIAL NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS.
-After much painstaking in proof- of population not later than October, reading, the electrotyping process is 1892.
chargeable with a bad blunder in the -At the recent meeting of the January issue of the REVIEW. The American Board, in Minneapolis, the top line of page 5f belongs on page 5f) "Committee of Nine" reported that If readers will make a marginal note contributions to missions have not kept on the page to this effect, it will avoid pace with those to other benevol.
confusion. ent causes. No explanation was at- -The year 1892, which marks the tempted but they implied that the dis- 400th anniversary of the discovery of cussions and division of feeling as to America, also marks the centenary missionary policy, might account for of the formation of the first great this relative decline of receipts for missionary society of England, whose foreign missionary work.
distinctive purpose was the evange- The meeting presented many at- lization of the world. It was on the tractions and not a few wholesome second day of October, 1792, at Ket- lessons. Dr. N. G. Clark's paper on tering, that William Carey and his "Higher Christian Education as Re- brother Baptists formed the now lated to Foreign Mission Work ;" Dr.
famous Baptist Society, and laid thir- G. K. Alden's discussion of " Mission- teen pounds, two shillings and six ary Motives;" Dr. Judson Smith's pence on God's altar, as the beginning paper on the" Missionary Outlook,"
of the great enterprise of organized and Dr. Storr's address as President, foreign missionary work. were among the most notable features It is our deep conviction that it of that great annivprsary. The papers would be a great mistake if this referred to, must be read to be appre- memorable era were allowed to pass by ciated. Dr. Clark pleads for higher without another great 'Vorld's Con- Christian education in order to pre- vention, such as was held in London, serve and turn to account the religious in 1888. If such a gathering could sentiment of the people among whom begin at Kettering, in Andrew Ful- we labor; and for the sake of a native ler's old' chapel, with a consecration ministry adequate in character and in meeting in the house of Widow Beebe numbers to meet the intellectual and Wallis, which is still standing, and spiritual wants of their countrymen where that society was formally or- and to share with missionaries in the ganized, what an inspiration would responsibilities of establishing such such a beginning afford for an un- Christian institutions as shall secure paralleled series of missionary assem- the success of the missionary enter- blings! The end of a century seems prise. He holds that the " men must an appropriate time for the gathering be reared on the ground." Dr. G. K.
up of the results of missions in all Alden sets forth as motive forces: (1) parts of the world, and the projec- "Profound convictions as to this pres- tion of new lines of enterprise and en- ent sinful and perishing world and its deavor for the century to come. Is great need. (2) Profound convictions it too much to hope that this next as to the superabounding riches of century of missions may not have divine grace in Jesus Christ, the great passed Ulatil the whole world shall provision. (3) Profound convictions of have been acquainted with the Gos- the personal command, the personal pel? 'Ve hope that at an early day trust, and the personal responsibility the leaders of missionary enterprises to bear the good tidings at once to all in all parts of the world will co- men." Dr. Judson Smith says Chrisoperate to call such a world's con- tianity is becoming the dominant revention in some of the great centres ligion of the world; communication between all parts of the world is be- -In the August number for 1890, coming easier; the world, with only the statistics are given for Protest- here and there an exception, is ac- ant missions in China, which are re- cessible to the Gospel; and that mod- peated in the December issue, page ern missions are successful. At home 934, as the strength of the United missionary contributions are being en- Presbyterian force. Of course, the lat- larged; the supply of missionaries is ter is an error. It should read: "As increasing, and the church is com- furnished by the Presbyterians." mitted to mission work as never before. -The late Dr. Alexander William- son, of China, was identified for some -In Scotland the question of dis- 30 years with the London Missionary establishment has produced no little Society, then with the National Bible excitement. It seems almost certain Society of Scotland, and the United to come before the next Parliament. Presbyterian Church. As a translator There is certainly a religious interest and distributor of religious literature among the Scottish churches. The in the Chinese tongue, he filled a attendance upon church services is, we unique position, and to these labors -venture to say, better than in any was singularly devoted. His extensive other country in the world. The travels, researches, grasp of missions, number of praying men, and especially passion for a more economic distribupraying young men, struck us with tion of the working force, made him peculiar force in recent visits to Scot- an authority. His" Journeys in land. We cannot conceal our pro- North China," ranks as a standard found solicitude for the progressive work. His late wife, a most gifted theology which is moving many, we woman, wrote "Old Highways in fear, away from the old landmarks of China." Dr. Williamson died of nethe faith. No doubt there are many phritis, possibly due in part to his arwho are interested in these questions duous toil in thfl recent Shanghai intellectually, whose hearts are per- Conference. His prodigious activity fectly loyal to Christ and the truth, is rivaled by few of the most devoted but we fear the flffect of this ad- workers in the Middle Kingdom. vanced theological opinion upon the younger clergy of Scotland. At the -China owes to Christian missionsame time so deep is the interest in aries a great debt for information on a missions in this land of martyrs and vast range of topics. But a little while missionanes, that the practical work ago, the Chinese were wholly depend. of the churches, both at home and ent on the Peking Gazette; now they abroad, is largelyantidoting the influ- have some twenty-eight publications. ence of this skeptical opinion. The missionaries have supplied an enormous number of translations of We can never more speak or write of European booksonscience, geography, Scotland without the feeling which a history, mathematics, philosophy, etc. son would have for his mother. We They have translated the Bible into add the words of Dr. W. M. Taylor: not less than twelve Chinese dialects, "I say without any hesitation that and are now busy at fifteen more. when interesting foreign missions are Dr. Legge's investigations into the maintained in a church to the normal ancient systems of the Chinese phipoint, all other activities and agencies losophers are embodied in Professor at home will go of themselves and as Max Muller's" Sacred Books of the things, of course, while, if there be a East," and American authors have lack of devotion to that noble enter- given the world the "Middle Kingprise, nothing else will be prosecuted dom," and the" Chinese-English Dicwith either enthusiasm or success." tionary." So writes Mr. Johnston, of These are true words. Bolton.
THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS
IV.-THE MONTHLY CONCERT OF MISSIONS.
lJy J. T. GRACEY, D.D.
China. –.:.. China is a vast field. many centuries they have been in full That is a statement that grows by enjoyment of them, and on every side· every line of comparison we can lay. the evidences of long-established Here is a late attempt by Rev. Dr. wealth and commercial enterprise are· B. D. Gray, in the Foreign Mission observable.
Journal of the Southern Baptists (see " From the great wall to the frontier December number; it is published at of Tong-king, and from Thibet to the Richmond, Va.): . China Sea the country is dotted over "A single province of hers con- with rich and populous cities, which verted would be equal to the conver- are connected one with another by sion of whole nations elsewhere. Con- well-trodden roads or water highways.
vert anyone of her eighteen provinces In these busy centres of industry mer- and you would have more than all chants from all parts of the empire Brazil and Mexico. Anyone of a are to be found, who are as ready to dozen of her provinces would be more deal in the fabrics of the native looms, than the conversion of all Italy. As porcelain, tea and other native pro- goes China, so goes Asia. She is to- ducts, as in cottons, metals and day the citadel of paganism. Secure woolens of Europe.
her to Christ, and you secure all her " The rivers and canals are crowded dependencies, as Thibet, Turkistan, the vessels bearing silks and satins Mongolia, Manchuria and Korea. from Cheh-kiang .and Kiang-su, tea Break down her idols and you de- from Gan-hwuy and Ho-nan, and rice throne the greater part of heathenism from the southern provinces to parts at a stroke! " of the empire which give in exchange CHINESE EMIGRATION. for such gifts the corn and other pro- Dr. R. H. Graves says: ducts which they are able to spare."
"There are 50,000 of these in the. In the matter of the language, Dr.
Philippine Islands; 50,000 in the Eng- Douglas says: lish colony at Singapore, where they " By means of their three classes of own four-fifths of all the real estate; characters, the hieroglyphics, ideo- 50,000 more in the Malay Peninsula; grams and phonetics, the Chinese 1,300,000 in Siam; thousands in Cochin have been able to express and pre– China. and thousands more in Borneo, serve the thoughts and sayings of theit Java and Sumatra. The colonies greatest and wisest writers through a founded by the Spaniards, Dutch, series of centuries which dwarfs int« French and English are being rapidly insignificance all Western ideas of filled up by Chinese. In the Sand- antiquity. For thirty centuries China- wich Islands there are more Chinese men have been accumulating stores of men than men of the native race." literary wealth, which are of them- China is a fertile region. Professor selves sufficiently important to attract Douglas, at University College, thus the attention of scholars and to stir described it: the literary ambition of students, and "From one end of the country to which do so in almost every country.
another the land blossoms as the rose, But by the fresh discoveries of Messrs.
and yields to the diligent and carpfu} De Lacouperie and Ball, not only is a tillage of the natives enough and to new interest added to the language, spare of all that is necessary for 'the but it is brought into close and inti- comfort and well-being of man. Nor mate relation with the tongues spoken have these advantages become the by the great civilizing nations of the.
recent possessions of the people. For world." Great changes are taking place in every form and righteousness too.
China. Rev. Young J. Allen, D.D., The doctrine of mediation is recog- LL.D., read an able paper before the' nized.
Shanghai Conference on this topic, in 4. They have some knowledge of a which he classified these changes as: true and living God, a power on whom (1) Compulsory, or those necessitated cOu.;}try, family and individual pros- by force or treaty obligations. The perity depends.
compulsory occupation by the allies, 5. They possess an implied knowl- in 1860, of the imperial capital was edge of immortality. Their emperors followed by a treaty which gave com- never die, they ascend.
merce and missions the right of un- 6. There is a providential prepara- molested access to the entire land. (2) tion. China is open from end to end.
The semi-compulsory changes, or At the Shanghai Conference this was those initiated with a view to adjust- called in question as to Ho-nan, but ments. The Chinese knew that the Hudson Taylor said it was politically treaty must be fulfilled, and that in open, though persecution and oppos- reorganizing their government they ition were great.
could not do better than copy the OBSTAOLES AND DIFFICuLTIES.
strong points of their late adversaries. 1. To the heathen becoming Chris- Hence, the innovations of foreign tians. No one can state the ca.'le of military camps, arsenals, customs, the Chinese better than the Chinese, schools, coast surveys, etc. (3) Spon- and so we "let a native Chinese taneous-voluntary changes. Inter- Christian minister state the point of national relations become cordial. The the difficulties of the native Chinaman press is callEJd into requisition, news- in learning about Christianity.
papers and books are translated. China Rev. Y. K. Yen, speaking at the has become conscious of her wants, a Shanghai Conference, said: mint, banks, post.offices follow. (4) "We must understand the peculiar Imperial, or those which define the character of the Chinese. (1) They position and policy of the country. have hazy ideas about gods. A Chi- ADVANTAGES AND HELPS. nese who went to the United States Rev. Dr. Williamson pointed out was written to by his father that his some while ago, in Evangelical Chris- sixth mother was well. What can a tendom, that there is a providential man who has six mothers know of a preparation in China for the reception mother's love? (2) The Chinese have and spread of the Gospel. hazy ideas about sin, which they con- 1. There is an educational prepa- found with crirpe, treading on one's ration. They say: "The mind is the toes, being late to dinner-the same man." The competitive examinations character for all. (3) They have hazy have quickened theinteUect of China. ideas about a future life. At a This gave rise to schools. Hence the Chinese death-bed there is never a large percentage of readers. Then word about future happiness, but only there is one written language for the about mourning and money. If they whole empire. There is asocial prepa- did Rot think the gods could affect .
ration. Through the observance of men's bodies the temples would be filial obligation has trained the nation deserted and ancestral worship would to subordination to law and order. decline. They are not to blame. It is There is no communism nor nihilism their misfortune and not their fault.
here. Divine authority can be easily The Chinese cannot see Christianity as taught. we see it."
3. There is a moral preparation. This is jUtlt what Rev. Judson Smith, The heart is recognized as the seat of D.D., has said in other language and on morals. Benevolence is urged in an opposite side of the globe: "It is not simply the greatness of anity yet they can be reached. He the population of China that makes her evangelization difficult. It is said his church in Monkdon included rather the institutions of the Chinese; it is the Chinese character; it is the in its members five or six Mandarins, Chinese history inwrought into insti- tutions; instinct in the life of the men with literary degrees; that many people. Making them a nation of themselves, exclusive, caring not, others of the Mandarins are at heart knowing not, heeding not of aught that goes on in the world outside of Christians, and many more very them; not desiring the arts we are so ready to bring them; not wishing the friendly. institutions that we would gladly see thrive among them; scorning the The mission schools are becoming a faith that we deem their life and their salvation." power for good in China. One would 2. To native Ohristians. The same fancy that there would be great preju- Christian native, already quoted (Rev. Y. K. Yen), said again at the great dice against the teaching of Christimissionary conference last year some very sensible things about the difficul- anity in connection with secular eduties to the mission work growing out of the conservatism of the Chinese. cation, but it is amongst the marvelous He said that "the Chinese Christians are not in the same favorable circum- providences of God that in scarcely stances as Christians in other lands. The former have fifty generations of any heathen country does this long heathenism behind them. They have much to contend with. We should prove an obstruction. not expect the same enterprise, activity and piety as from from foreigners. The teaching of Christianity does Missionaries often speak disparagingly of Chinese Christians. This, consider- not inure to the disadvantage of the ing the circumstances, is unreasonable and unjust. Western civilization is mission schools in China. We can furmarked by diversity. Eastern civilization by uniformity. Chinese are nish no better evidence of this than is not active physically, morally and spiritually. If I were active physi- found in the report to Government in cally I should not have this queue today. If any other Chinese would cut Hong Kong, made in 1889: off his hair and shorten his skirts I would do so too. They have a load Referring now to the 7,101 scholars upon them. All Chinese worship is who attended, during the year 1889, for selfishness. They have no knowl- schools under the· supervision of the edge of God; no recognition of being education department, there were as His sons." many as 4,814 attending voluntary schools, where they received a Chris- All classes are reached in China. tian education, whilst 2,293 scholars Rev. John Ross said at the London attended government schools, receiv- Conference that while the literary ing a secular education. The secular class in China are opposed to Christi- government schools are, as a rule, bet- ter provided for than the voluntary religious schools as regards money matters, house accommodation, school materials, staff, organization, and dis- cipline, and when charging fees, keep their fees far below the rate charged in voluntary schools of a correspond- ing class. Nevertheless, the voluntary schools, which freely teach Christian- ity without the restraint of any con- science clauses Whatever, and are in every respect conducted as denomi- national mission schools, receive from the public double the amount of pat- ronage bestowed on government schools. This clearly shows that parents of children, in Hong Kong, as Europe. prefer, on thewhole, religious to secular education, even when the latter is cheaper.
This was made by Dr. Eistel as in- spector of schools. It only confirms the judgment of Dr. F. Stewart, who was inspector of schools, but who died recently, who said: The advance in education is one of the most gratifying features in the progress of the colony. There is yet twenty-eight, is introduced at court much to be done, and female educa- by Lao-tse, is appointed chief magistion is only in its infancy; but the trate of Chung-too, introduces praclines on which the system is moving tically ajury system; for thirteen years seem to be correct, and time alone is becomes a homeless wanderer, and required to reclaim those portions of henceforth abandons himself to letters the field which remain untouched. and religion, and wanders from court to court to obtain converts to his ideal THE RESULTS ARE ENCOURAGING. government. He died, having prac- tically remained unrecognized us a The statistics at the Shanghai Con- successful reformer. After his death ference last May, showed: Of foreign his teachings became powerful. Every missionaries, men, 589; wives, 390; year 66,000 animals are now offered single women, 316. Total, 1,295. Na- in sacrifice to this sage. Here is the tive helpers, ordained, 209; unor- chorus chanted in the great sacrificial dalned, 1,260; female helpers, 180. ceremony to him: Medical work, hospitals, 61; dispensaries, 43; patients in 1889, 348,439. "Confucius, Confucius I How great is Con- Churches, organized, 520; wholly self- fucius! supporting, 94; half self-supporting, 22; one-fourth self-supporting, 27. Before Confucius there never was a. Confu- Bible distribution, Bibles, etc. Total, cius; 665,987. Communicants, 37,287; pupils in schools, 16,816. Contributions by Since Confucius, there never has been a. Connative churches, $36,884. fucius; MEN AND WOMEN ARE WANTED. Confucius, Confucius I How great is Con- fucius! " Ministers and laymen are called for. The Shanghai Conference asks soberly The emperor himself offers this for 1,000 men in five years. Their ap- prayer to Confucius: "I, the emperor, peal was published ,far and wide. offer a sacrifice to the philosopher Then there have been specific appeals. Confucius, the ancient teacher, the The mISSIOnaries of the Baptist perfect sage, and say, 0, teacher, in churches in America, now in China, virtue equal to heaven and earth, have appealed to the Baptists of whose doctrines embrace the past America alone to send 100 men. time and the present. . . • in reverent observance of the old statutes, with Oonfuoia.nism and Oonfuoius. victims, silks, spirits and fruits, 1 carefully offer sacrifice to thee. Mayst "Great men have short biogra- thou enjoy the sacrifice." (See Duphies," says Carlyle. The rule is not Bois's" Dragon, Image and Demon," broken in the case of Confucius. The p.l24.) outline of his biography can be given in a paragraph. He was born in the " If the Chinese," says an author, State of Tsow, B.C. 551, of noble an- "pay divine honors to any being in cestry whose record reached unbroken heaven, or on earth, or under the for over two thousand years backward earth, it is to Confucius." from his cradle. His father was a soldier of great prowess and of daring CONFUCIUS AS A FOUNDER OF A bravery. He was married at nineteen, rose from keeper of the public stores, RELIGION. to the cnarge of public lands. At twenty-two he taught letters, ethics, Fairbairn says, in his "Studies in devotion of soul and truthfulness. He the Philosophy of Religion and Hisearly became cosmopolitan: "I am tory," that" without Confucius China a man who belongs equally to the had been without a native religion." north and the south and the east and the west." He studies music at Dr. Legge, in his "Religions of China," boldly corrects this erroneous statement. Religion in China does not date from Confucius. His grand- son asserted that Confucius only "handed down" and "displayed" the ancient teachings and took them of etiquette, taking the place of ethics: for his model. Confucius himself said a skeptical denial of any relation be- he was a" transmitter, not a maker" tween man and a living God, taking of the doctrines of the ancients. Cer- the place of religion, while there is tainly the "transmitter" gave color encouraged a sort of worship of human to that which he transmitted. China genius, combined with a set of des- does not owe its national religion to potic political theories. But who Confucius. But if he did not originate can honestly call this a religion? " it, neither did he discountenance it or alter it'in any sensible degree. But Over and over we are told that Con- Confucius did emphasize the moral fucianism is not a religion, only a duties as taught or implied in the system of morality. This needs large religion of the ancients as of first im- modification. So far as the element portance and of much easier compre- of worship enters into the element of hension than the speculative side of religion it is distinctly, pervasively, theology or the religious superstition penetratingly, a religion. about the unseen. Dr. Faber pointed this out with One thing has been plainly pointed emphasis at the late General Conferout as to the effect of Confucius' large ence of Missionaries at Shanghai. "Religion," he says, "pervades every emphasis of practical duties. Dr. movement of official life in China. Matheson (St. Giles Lecturer) says: A glance at the Peking Gazette will convince the most skeptical of the "Since the days of Confucius the truth of this statement. We find there speculative element has declined and mentioned not only worship of ances~ the Chinese mind has sought truth tors, of Confucius, of innumerable almost exclusively in the path of deified worthies, but also of the duality morals." of heaven and earth, of sun, moon, stars, wind, clouds, rain, thunder, the Much has been written about Con- ocean, mountains, rivers, the four fucius in relation to the "Golden regions, the four seasons, the years, Rule." He is credited with being the months and days. Astrology, selection originator of this. But Dr. Legge, of lucky and unlucky days, omens, than whom he has no stouter cham- charms, exorcism and other superstipion, says here he tarnished a doc- tiQlls are sanctioned by imperial trine of the ancients rather than pro- authority." (See The Messenger, Shanghai, June, 1890.) claimed it. Confucius is said to have CONFUCIANISM AS A THEOLOGY. advocated the negative side of the Golden Rule: "Do not unto others This same Dr. Faber, at another time, what you would not that they distinctly pointed out some of the should do unto you." But the ancients aspects of absolute negation in Conwe~t further than that. Lao-tze fucianism as a religon. He says: taught: "Return good for eviL" But Confucius said: "What then will you 1. "Confucianism recognizes no return for good? Recompense injury relation to a living God." with justice, and return good for good." How nearly this shades, how- 2. "It makes no distinction between ever, to the Christian teaching! the human soul and body, nor is there any clear definition of man, either IS CONFUCIANISM A RELIGION? from a physical or psychological point of view." The China Review contained years since an article in which the writer 3. "All men are said to possess the said: disposition and strength necessary for "Confucianism pure and simple is, the attainment of moral perfection, in our opinion, no religion at all. The but the contrast with the actual state essence of Confuciani"m is an anti- remains unexplained." quarian adherence to traditional forms 4. There is wanting in Confucian- have no rights in relation to their ism a decided and serious tone in its parents; subjects are like children; of treatment of the doctrine of sin, for, human rights there are none-first with the exception of the moral retri- and last there are only duties. Po- bution in social life, it mentions no lygamy is sanctioned and presup- punishment for sin. It is devoid of a posed, so is polytheism. Filial piety deep insight into sin and evil. extends even to worship. In ordinary life the son must" manifest his rever- 5. It "knows no mediator, none ence, in his nourishing of his parents, that could restore original nature iJi in his endeavor to give them pleasure; accordance with the ideal which man when they are ill he feels the greatest finds in himself." anxiety; in mourning for them, when dead, he exhibits every demonstration 6. "Prayer and its ethical power of grief; in sacrificing to them he dis- finds no place" in his system. plays the utmost solemnity."
7. There is, with the exception of Confucius taught the supreme value ancestral worship, which is devoid of of personal character. The" charac- true ethical value, no clear conception ter of Alexander of Russia was worth of the dogma'of immorality. a constitution," says Colton. Confu- cius would make every character a 8. "All rewards are expected in constitution and by-laws besides. To this world." be and not to appear is the correctest thing. The wise man will assail his Confucius plainly held that these own vices and not another's: "I am are things beyond the grasp of human not concerned that I have no place; I intelligence. You cannot figure to am concerned how I may fit myself yourself the nature of God. You for one." The substance of three cannot certainly know that there is hundred pieces of the "Book of any point of contrast between His Poetry," says a recent author, may be nature and yours; hence prayers and expressed in: "Have no depraved sacrifices are of doubtful utility. All thoughts." this lies in the region of imagination; it may represent truth; it may not. "The man who, in view of gain, Neither can be demonstrated. Yet he thinks of righteousness, in view of did not forbid worship. "Sacrifice as danger, is prepared to give up his life, and who does not forget an agreement if your sacrifice were a reality; wor- however far back it extends-such a man may be reckoned a complete ship Shin as if Shin were really man. . . . "Man is born for uprightpresent." But meanwhile your chief ness. They who know the truth are concern is with the visible and palpa- not equal to those who love it, and ble nniverse and with the homely they who love it are not equal to those tasks of life. The opposition to Chris- who find delight in it." tian points of theology is entire and fundamental. But the rule of right is not indivi· dual conscience, but rather the uni- CONFUCIANISM AS A MORAL FORCE. versal conscience of mankind. Man must do all this without any help, hu- In what way and sense is Confu- man or divine. He fails, and Confucianism a moral force? There must cianism does not attempt to account be something in it by which it has for the failure. It only stands alongheld sway for these centuries. Espec- side of the failure and says man was ially in the face of sundry marked born to be good. It does not even furdefects in its ethical teaching. It con- nish an example. founds ethics with ceremonies and politics, it asserts that certain musical The sceptre of authority, of all pomelodies influence morals; its system of social life is tyrannous: women are slaves, and may be bought and sold ·as sheep in the shambles; children litical power, hence the centre of all guised as a Thibetan, accompanied by political government is morals. a Sikkim Lama, who was a sub-in- spector of schools employed by the "Withal," Mr. Edkins says, "Confu- British government. cianism has not made the Chinese a moral people. They exhibit a lament- Yet, it is not true that we do not able want of moral strength. The know much about the country and standard of principle among them is the people. The" Cyc10predia Britankept low by the habits of the people. nica" has a quite elaborate article, in They do not appear ashamed when which a great deal of information is they are discovered to have told an condensed, and there are many sources untruth." (See Edkin's "Religion in of information about this land. China.") We summarize from sources,learned Archdeacon Hardwick says: "How and popular, too numerous to name, many are the points in which Con- in the following statements: fucian tenets are opposed to Christianity, it were superfluous to enumer- THE COUNTRY. ate. The opposition in respect of doctrines is entire and fundamental. Thibet, or Tibet-for there seems no It is the opposition of nature and of preference in the spelling-or to use grace, of unregenerate and regenerate the native name, Bodyul " The counprinciples, of sight and faith, of earth- try of the god," or Bhotiya, or lyand of heavenly, And how vast Bhoots, is a section of table lands ten will, therefore, beth~ revolution in the to sixteen thonsand feet above the moral nature of the Chinaman if he sea, stretching from the Upper HimashaH ever learn to practice the un- laya Mountains and those of Yunnan, worldly lessons of the Gospel." (See on to the mountains of China in one " Christ and Other Masters," p. 57.) direction, and to those of Turkistan in another. It is difficult of access in all Confucian conservativism is essen- directions and equally difficult to travtial and inherent. It is the greatest erse. The world owes the Jesuits a obstruction to all progress. debt here as in so many other places for the earliest maps, though here as Thibet. elsewhere those made early in the It is quite the fashion to dismiss eighteenth century were crude and Thibet with the statement that very often misleading. There is no exact little is known of this country and its survey had, except in Western Thibet people. That is only true in a very where, as in Kashmir, it is the most qualified sense. The ordinary student complete. may not have a hand-book, as he has of Bavaria or Switzerland, and the The Britannica is full enough on casual reader may not be easily re- climate, products, industries and ferred to anyone or two volumes many other common matters to have from which to find at a glance what it suffice t-o refer our readers to that he wishes to know of what is known, source. and only now and again has any European been permitted to make any THE PEOPLE. personal investigation by actually traversing the country, as did Alexan- The most probably correct estimate der Csoma de Koros, who made his of the population is from a Russian way from Hungary to Thibet on foot; source which puts it at six millions. or as an enterprising Hindu, Sarat Chandra Das, who, it is alleged, re- The people themselves are worth n.. cently made a tour in Thibet dis- fuller note than a mere reference. The Turanian family of races separate into two great divisions-the Northen~ and the Southern. The Northern com- prehends the Tungus, t,he Mongol, the Tartar, and the Finn branches. The Southern includes the Malay, the Bhotiy,a and the Tamil races: The represent the Chinese government in Indo-Bhotiyas are in the northeast Thibet. These direct exclusively the countries of India, on the Himalayas foreign and military administration and in the valleys of the Brahmaputra. of the country. The civil and relig- The stronglanguage of affinitybetween ious government is left in native these tribes in Burmah and in Thibet hands. The number of Chinese troops is manifest if the chain of gradual rarely equals 4,500 men. modifications from tribe to tribe is followed. But the original Bhotiya The Dalai Lama is the supreme race are Thibetans, and they live in authority in civil government. He Thibet, not alone, but with Mongoli- resides in the famous temple palace of ans who are supposed to have been Potala near Lhasa. He is an incarsettled there since the days of Genghis nation of Buddha, and his soul passes Khan. from him into another body when he dies, in order that there may be a per- The HoI' or Horpa occupy the west- petual incarnation of Buddha at the ern part of Northern Thibet, and ex- head of the Thibetan affairs. They tend into Chinese Tartary or Little do not shout, but they might, with pe- Bokhara. They are nomads, not culiar propriety: "The king is-dead; agriculturists, and more Tartar than long live the king!" for the Dalai Thibetan in their habits. They are Lama never dies. He only disappears mostly Buddhists. But some of them in the form of one man to reappear are Moslems even within Thibet: at the same instant in the form of Turks in blood, Bhots in language. some infant born at the moment of In Ladak both the creed and the liter- the apparent death of the king. They ature are Buddhist, but in blood and search the land to find this childlanguage they are Bhot. Ladak's po- Buddha, place him on the throne, and litical relations are with British India run the Government through a vice. and Kashmir. The Bhot element in roy till he comes to maturity. His its distinct type can not be seen but duties are simply to sit cross-legged in in Chinese Thibet. his temple, and from time to time ex- tend his hand in benediction on his In appearance the Thibetans re- worshipers. semble the Chinese and the Mongols, though, according to Hodgson, many This joint headship of state and of the mountaineers differ entirely church has inhered in the Dalai Lama from the Turanian, and approach the since 1640. There are many other Aryan type. No absolutely white grand lamas, but they are subordinate skins are seen, but often a very pale to the Dalai Lama who is at once brown complexion with red hair and emperor and pope. Below these still gray eyes, and a good deal of bloom are monk-lamas, who act as scribes, on the children's faces. In appearance physicians, sorcerers, etc. It is frethey resemble Chinese and Mongols, quently the case that the correspondnot Hindus, and are more athletic ences of Lamaism with the Roman than either. They are of the same Catholic form of Christianity are overfamily as the Burmese, and their emphasized, at least very incorrect languages are like. Yet Thibetans inferences are made from these. The have no tradition or notion of a pro- Lama ceremonies of baptism, confirgenitor of the human race. There is mation. The ecclesiasticism of pope no caste, yet the social habits are and cardinal, archbishops, priors, Hindu in most r~spects. Polyandra monasteries and nunneries, abbots, prevails, and Polygamy obtains. etc., are all here. But these similar- ities are often strained, and the differ- Since 1720 Thibet has been a depend- ences in them are very great. ency of China, under the Viceroy of Sze-Chuen. Two imperial delegates Lamaism is a compound of Shamanism, Sivaism and Buddhism. The But Thibet was not without a re- Thibetan form of Buddhism is, how- ligion till it imported Buddism and ever, wholly unique. Writers are Sivaism from India. It had an earlier constantly saying this is the strong- creed, though but illy formulated till hold of Buddhism without any ap- Buddhism came. It is known as the parent discrimination. Buddhism in Bon Religion. Eighteen principal ,"ods Burmah is one thing; in Ceylon it is are enumerated. Originally it was a another thing; it is still another sort of nature worship, mixed with thing in Thibet. It is not in its ori- a superstitious element; later on, ginal purity in Thibet. It is strongly adopted from Shamans and the Sivamodified by surrounding religious ites of India, and now further mixed notions. It was born in Thibet contem- with Buddhist ideas. poraneously with the Sikh religion in the Punjab and with the Lutheran CHRISTIANITY IN THmET. Reformation in Europe. In its monasteries in Thibet are preserved heaps The Roman Catholics nave tried to upon heaps of Buddhist literature, the introduce Christianity on the Chinese language Thibetan, but the alphabet border. They began this in 1846, and being Indian, and they may date from made some inroads till 1865, when the second century. They differ in their mission property at Bonga was their language much from the spoken destroyed by fire by the Thibetaus. language of Thibet to-day. Again they endeavored to work, but in 1887 were again driven out, only For much of this class of informa- two of their nine centres being untion one must search ethnological and touched. philological works, like Brace's "Races of the Old World," " Latham's On the west the Moravians have Philology," Hodgson's great works, sought to enter the country, but have and other books like Cunningham's had to stay in British Lahore. They Ladak (the title has gone from us just commenced this mission at the sugnow). gestion of Gutzlaff, in 1853, by send- ing Messrs. Pagell and Hyde, two Max Muller, too, will often let in laymen, who endeavored to reach light, as for instance, in his" Chips," Thibet by way of Russia, but were deetc., where he says: feated in the attempt, and then tried the -India route by way of Simla, in "People have complained of the 1854, to Kyelang in Lahore, and eslength of the sacred books of other tablished a mission house 10,000 feet nations, but there are none that ap- above the sea, and at Poo, in Kunaproach in bulk to the sacred canon of war, in 1865. At this latter place they the Thibetans. It consists of two col- number forty converts. They have lections, commonly called the Kanjur done a large amount of translation of and Tanjur." Scriptures, grammars, etc., into Thibetan, and sent these into Thibet, The Kanjur consists in different where it is said all the lamas can editions of 100, 102 or 108 volumes read, and the lamas, remember, folio. It comprises 1,083 distinct number eighty thousand! works. The Tanjur consists of 225 volumes folio, each weighing from -Father Agostino, a preaching four to five pounds in the Peking edi- friar, has been addressing flocks of tion, which edition was sold for $3,000 people in Rome, and among them by the Emperor Khian-Lung. A copy even skeptical scientists. He is an of the Kanjur was bartered for 7,000 impassioned orator, and has been oxen, and a copy of Kanjur and called the "modem Savonarola." Tanjur together was sold for 1,200 Nevertheless, he is an ignorant Romansilver roubles. (See Vol. XX., ist and worships the Virgin. " Asiatic Researches.")
GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE
V.-GENERAL MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.
-Mr. H. W. Frost writes that the Missionaries employed, 121; days inundation in the region about Tient- labored, 23,182; stations supplied, 710; sin, in province of Chihli, was caused miles traveled, 200,443; sermons by very heavy rain-falls in the moun- preached, 12,029; Exhortations and tains: The waters spread with unex- other religious addresses, 6,587; total ampled suddenness. Mud villages sermons, 18,616; baptized into mission were completely dissolved, and swept churches, 1,893; received by letter away with their inhabitants; some and restoration by mission churches, who escaped with life lost ~he crops 2,267; total received by mission Dn which they depended for the eight churches, 4,160; professed conversions, months to come. Probably 4,000,000 2,619; churches assisted in organizing, Df people will depend on charity, in 103; prayer meetings assisted in orthis province alone, until May next. ganizing, 405; Sunday-schoolsassisted Active relief committees are at work, in organizing, 250; prayer meetings ascertaining the extent of the calam- led, 3,224; elders or bishops assisted ity, and devising means of help. The in ordaining, 43; deacons assisted in government is repairing the embank- ordaining, 98; pages religious literments, and has issued an imperialre- ature distributed, 522,789; reliigious script ordering Tls.60,000, to be dis- visits, 28,611; church houses built in tributed among sufferers. All this, connection with labor, No. 39, cost, however, is inadequate to raise the $29,965.00; books, Bibles, etc., distrirecipients above the bare preservation buted, No. 2,406, cost, $1,061.03; colof life. Rev. G. W. Clarke, of the lected for State missions, $35,357.77. China Inland Mission, writes, that to keep these people from November 15th -The Dutch Reformed Church of to March 15th, at two cents a day for Cape Colony, which has 175,555 bapadults and one cent for children up to tized white members, is coming, says twelve years, would cost $9,000,QOO. the Rev. Charles Starbuck, under Even now famine is upon the people Scottish and English Stimulus, to who can get but one meal, and that show a much more animated missionvery poor food, every twenty-four ary zeal. "Stellenbosch, with its theohours. Here is a chance not only to logical institute, is very especially a help the starving, but to reach them focus of missionary zeal." Among the with the b.read of life. The judicious others, the Wesleyan Missionary Sohelp given in 1871, 1878, 1888, re- ciety is most prominent. It has (in the moved many prejudices against mis- west) 9 stations, 6 missionaries, 96 na. sionaries and resulted in soul-saving:. tive helpers, 1,476 communicants, 1,467 scholars. The South African If any feel moved to contribute, a Wesleyans are quite independent of draft on London, England, sent to the the British conference. In the whole Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Cor- Colony they have 71 stations, 156 poration, Shanghai, China, or a post- churches and chapels, 55 clergymen, office order or New York draft, sent to 1,198 native helpers, 16,840 communi- Mr. H. W. Frost,No. 30 Sheeter Street, cants, 88,000 baptized adherents, 218 Toronto, Canada,will be forwarded to schools, 310 teachers, 13,803 scholars. the relief of the suffering millions. "But no other British society laboring in South Africa compares with the -Mr. J. B. Cranfill, superintendent Scottish societies as respects' capabilof missions, incloses summary of ity, sobriety and diligence, combined Texas (Baptist) mission work, from with true evangelical piety." The Free September 30,1889, to September 30, Church of Scotland has 9 stations, 10 1890: ordained Europeans, 2 ordained na- cational and industrial training. The tives, 23 native helpers, 4214 commu- United Presbyterians have 11 stations, nicants, 12,113 baptized adherents, 12 missionaries, 60 native helpers, 2,307 3,510 scholars. Their institute at Love- communicants, 8,080 baptized adherdale (largely assisted by the colonial ents, 43 schools, 1,735 scholars.-Illu8government) is a great force for edu- trated Weekly.
Foreign Mission Notes, by Rev. James Johnston, Bolton, England.
The Missionary Death Roll. secrated in Edinburgh on All Soul's Bishop Callaway.-At the close of Day, 1874, he settled at Umtata, March last, in his seventy-third year, around which grew up a small town, passed away the Right Reverend a pro-cathedral, a theological training Henry Callaway, D.D., first bishop of college for natives, schools for native St. John's, South Africa. Born in and European boys and girls, a hospi- Crediton, Devonshire, on the 17th of tal, and other institutions. Through- January, 1817; he early attached him- out his wide diocese he toiled with self to the Society of Friends. He inexhaustible zeal. On the failure of pursued the medical profession with health, in 1886, he formally resigned marked distinction, in London, and returned to his native land. True though his interest in religious ques- to the apostolic spirit, he devoted all tions and pre-eminently his strong his property to Spring Vale when he convictions on missions ultimately in- withdrew, and subsequently gave to duced him to join the Established the Established Church a sum of Church. On the formation of the £2,000 on his retirement. Bishop Cal- See of ~atal, he responded to Bishop laway will rank with Africa's most Colenso's call and was ordained laborious and enlightened missionary at Norwich Cathedral, August, 1854. heralds.
After a voyage of fourteen weeks to Mr. A. M. Mackay.-By the death Port Durban, he was appointed in the of this eminent missionary a lament- capacity of priest, in September, 1855, able blank is created in the Uganda to St. Andrews, Pietermaritzburg, the Mission. Most probably this event oc- first church erected in Natal. He ClIrred at Usambiro, on the southwest speedily became a conspicuous worker of Victoria Nyanza, 750 miles inland.
among the heathen and in the study Mr. Mackay was born at the Rhynie of the Kaffir language. Three years Manse, Aberdeenshire, in 1849, where later he obtained a grant of 3,000 acres his father was a noted Presbyterian of land, a day's journey from Rich- minister. Educated partly at home mond, where he founded the famous and at the Northern University, he Spring Vale Station, a prolific centre later went to Berlin in order to follow of Christianizing influence. He as- the profession of engineering. There sisted in reducing the Kaffir language he won no inconsiderable reputation to written form, and chiefly in trans- for ability and accomplislmIents. Mr.
lating nearly the whole of the Scrip- Stanley's historic letter, inviting mis- tures and Prayer Book. In this sionaries, in 1885, to the dominions of tongue, followed by a literal transla- Mtesa, moved the young engineer in tion in English, he wrote a book en- Germany to offer himself for service titled, "Zulu Nursery Tales." On the as an artisan missionary to the Church Scotch Established Church founding Missionary Society. He was readily in 1873, the Bishopric of Independent accepted, and on the 27th of April, Kaffraria, lying between Natal and 1876, sailed with the first party.
Cape Colony, Dr. Callaway was of- His desire to go forward on landing fered and accepted the. charge. Con- was frustrated by a serious illness. During his months of waiting by the classes. A pamphlet named "Times seaboard he made important surveys of Refreshing in Spain," recently pub- and laid out a useful road as far as lished in Glasgow, contains a bright Mpwapwa. When the news of the narrative of his toils for the better tragic deaths of Lieutenant Shergold school accommodation of the families Smith and Mr. O'Neill on Victoria Ny- connected with the Rio Tinto Com- anza came to hand, he resolved at pany, and increased facilities of wor- every hazard to join the lonely re- ship. He was equally esteemed by maining missionary, the Rev. C. T. the officers and seamen at the ship- Wilson. In December, 1878, he ping port for whom he opened a res- reached Mtesa's capital. Through a taurant and readiug-room, and as ~uccession of hardships, perils and ca- steadfastly sought their spiritual wel- lamities, he displayed the highest de- fare.
votion and splendid fortitude. House Rev. T. German Jones.-By the and boat-building, implement-mak- unexpected decease of this notable ing, teaching agriculture, managing mISSIOnary, the Welsh Calvanistic the printing-press, and proclaiming Methodists are bereft of one who held the message of eternal life, occupied a foremost position in the mission his nights and days among the tribes cause in the East. An overworked of Uganda. Under threat or in cap- system compelled him to sail from tivity he tarried within Uganda Ter- Calcutta, with his wife, on the 17th of ritoryuntil he was driven forth by the last March. The relatives and friends Mohammedan revolt in 1888. At his who repaired to Gravesend to await temporary abode, Usambiro, every the incoming steamer were terribly one knows how faithfully he succored shocked to learn on her arrival that the followers of Stanley and Emin on the home-voyaging missionary died on their coastward march. His decease the previous day, April 14th. In many robs the Church Missionary Society of respects his career was a remarkable its most conspicuous foreign agent,and one. A native of Anglesey, he was the whole missionary world of one of employed for some years as a working the most energetic and successful mis- quarrier. On completing his studies sionary pioneers of modern times. in Bala College he was called to the Rev. James Lundie, M.A.-To ministry of the Welsh Calvanistic the deep sorrow of the English and Church. His foreign labors began at Spaniards at Huelva, Spain, this be- the mission station of the Khasia loved missionary died unexpectedly Hills, India. By an unremitting en- on the 21st of March. At Edinburgh thusiasm he was witness to abun- University, where a few years past he dant spiritual harvests. His services received the Master of Arts degree, to the British government at the time two of his brothers on that occasion of the Indian mutiny were the means had the same honor conferred upon of averting a general rising in the them. One of the latter, Mr. Marsh- neighborhood. All through the awful all Lundie accompanied him to Spain cholera plague in India he labored un- and there ultimately succumbed in flaggingly, e5pecially in bearing the the Master's cause. The third of the stricken to the crowded hospitals.
brothers, the Rev. John Lundie, re- For his devotion on successive famine presents the Scotch United Presby- outbreaks he won the public thanks terians in Kaffraria, in which capacity of the Indian authorities and the he is sustained by a genuine mission- grateful affection of the poorest classes.
ary partner. The subject of this me- With fine literary tastes he combined morial notice was on the eve of com- an extensive and profound Oriental pleting special work for the benefit of scholarship. A large concourse of the English residents and the native mourners and spectators attended the funeral at Smithdown. Cemetery, here. My church, after many years Liverpool, on April 18th. of imancy and adolescence under another, and a part of the time under United States. my ministry, is giving signs of growth. New Orleans, June 30, 1890. EDITORS OF THE MISSIONARY RE- My church is a missionary church, VIEW:-As chairman of the Assembly'S and our young members are being dili- Standing Committee of' Foreign Mis- gently trained as soldiers for the war, sions, at Chattanooga, it was my duty and I hesitate not to declare that the to shape and present the favorable re- Church is so essentially missionary in ,sponse to an overture from the pro- her constitution, that to neglect or to fessors of our colored institution at do slackly this work, is to forfeit the Tuskaloosa, to begin a mission in the charter received from the King. Dark Continent. ,Two missionaries, -one white and the other black, are Yours, in our dear Lord, now on their way to Africa, and our R. Q. MALLARD. Assembly, at its late session in Ash- ville, resolved W reinforce them with Lutherans in all Languages. four additional laborers as soon as the means could be realized. In order to The Lutheran is a church of many deepen the interest of our people in languages. The latest statistics show this new mission, and stimulate that of her baptized membership greater generosity and prayerfulness, throughout the world 32,000,000 speak I sent the article enclosed, entitled, German, 5,300,000 Swedish, 2,500,000 "Wheah's Appeal," to our organ, The Norwegian, 2,300,000 Danish, 2,048,- Southwestern Presbyterian. Possibly 000 Finnish, 1,250,000 English, 1,113,- it might he made of larger service in 000 Hungarian, 624,000 Livonian, 480,- awakening interest in the evangeli- 000 Courlanish, 272,000 Esthnian,70,000 zation of a land long neglected, but French, 70,000 Icelandic, 48,000 Bohetoward which the eyes of the whole mian, and that in every other civilized -civilized as well as Christian world are tongue she is well represented, num- bering in the world 28,406 educated now being turned.* ministers, 38,381 church edifices, and 50,061,280 baptized members. This Your REVIEW, which I have only of church, though taking its origin in late been able to take, is invaluable to Germany, seems to know no fatherme in the preparation of missionary land or mother tongue. She is at sermons, and in the monthly concert home everywhere. of prayer, which I have always observed in my ministry. It is of great Wesleyan Missionary Society.- value in keeping my own soul stirred The society is reported struggling -on the matter which engaged the last against financial difficulties, for the thoughts of our dear Master before He relief of which an earnest call is made. mounted the throne. Your REVIEW Notwithstanding a carefully admin- ~nables the soldier of the Cross to istered expenditure, the current inmount occasionally above the dust and come does not keep pace with. it. smoke of the battle to the serene Possibly for the decrease the embitmountain-top, whence he can, at a tered controversy with Dr. Lunn and glance, survey the entire field of con- Mr. Hughes may be partly accountflict, only to descend with heightened able. The majority of the older courage to his place in the host. British missionary organizations re- gard the obstacles in the way of rais- Allow me to thank you warmly for ing their necessary incomes as multithe help you are giving m~ in my work plying rather than diminishing. The birth of numerous modern societies • We regret that space compels us to omit largely explain this dilemma, for they this strong appeal.-ED. draw upon supporters identified with " Word has been received from the long-established agencies. illustrious Department of Instruction The Salvation Army derives a at Constantinople, addressed to the princely income from the Christian government guarding the interests of public, whereas, General Booth does Syria, to the effect that there has been not aid any other organization, even issued an imperial order in favor of those traveling on corresponding lines Mr. Henry Jessup, a subject of the to his own. honored American republic, based Interest was shown at the Man- upon a statement and petition ad- chester Auxiliary of the Wesleyan dressed by him, permitting him to Society, attended by the Rev. W. H. publish the Weekly Neshra, which Findlay, M.A., of Negapatam,and the had been previously suppressed, this Rev. Professor Patterson, of Madras, permission being granted on the con- in the presence of two old-time Wes- dition that the paper shall not treat of leyan advocates of missions. One of· any political matters, nor of any oc- the veterans, who presided, Mr. Oeo. currences whatsoever which may taktf Cussons, was within a few days of place within the empire or outside its completing his eighty-eighth birthday; borders, but shall treat solely of re- the other patriarch, Mr. John Napier, ligious, scientific and moral questions.
has already entered on his ninetieth But this permission is restricted by the year. The occasion was made deeply condition that nothing shall be printed memorable by the masterly defence in it which directly or indirectly of educational work amid the great opposes any of the religious beliefs centres of population in India. Pro- current in the governments ruled and fessor Patterson held that the policy guarded by the Sultan, and also by the which had been maintained for many condition that a copy of the contents years by the Protestant missionaries of the paper be sent before it is in regard to this phase of activity was printed and published to the govern- wise and justified by its results. ment censor that he may sanction its printing and publication after he has -Liberty of the Press in Turkey. ascertained that in no respect, in The Neshra, an Arabic newspaper single words or in sentences, has there published by the American mission in been any infringement of this condi- Beirut, Syria, was suppressed without tion. The exalted local government cause, months ago, by orders from will inform him of the nature of this Constantinople. Efforts have been concession. "
made, by interviews with the local Turkish soldiers, hemmed in by authorities and by petitions to Con- bayonets and cannon, shout at the stantinople, by the intervention orthe close of their daily reviews, "Long United States consul and of the am- live the Sultan!" American Chris- bassador, to secure permission for its tians interested in the redemption of resumption, but all in vain until the Turkey will wait for further proofs of pre~ent time. the fostering care of the Sultan's gov- An Arabic paper from Beirut, re- ernment before heartily echoing this ceived here recently, publishes the fol- prayer.-Church at Home and Abroad.
lowing notice of the Sultan's gracious edict, from which our readers can Jews.-Baron Hirsch gives $10,000 judge of the nature of the " liberty of a month toward the relief of the Jews the press" in Turkey, and of the re- exiled from Russia and seeking homes strictions to which the missionaries in the United States. The American are subject in their work. This is a Hebrew says: literal translation of the Arabic "A census of the district south of copy:' Houston street and east of Broadway shows Russian and Roumanian Jews were clothed with different clothing; far in excess of one hundred thou- and were of different habits and ways sand, and the average increase by im- of life. Yet I never realized the one migration is about twenty thousand ness of the human family more than I per annum. The committee propose did that day. The poet says, "One using the Hirsch fund in educating touch of nature makes the whole world these people so as to become self-sus- kin." But one touch from the hand taining by entering trades or occupa- of Christ can do far more than that. tions which are new to them, and to It can abolish all differences, makes enable them to amalgamate rapidly us feel that we are the children of a with the people among whom they common Father, saved by a common work or dwell. Classes have been Saviour, heirs of a common inheriopened for teaching children sufficient tance, pilgrims to a common home.- English to prepare them to attend the Samoa, Past and Present, by Rev. public schools; for instructing adults Oharles Phillips. in English, in American history, methods and customs; for fitting girls Monthly Bulletin. for other occupations than tailoring, for making men handy with tools, -A Chinese society of Christian whereby they can more rapidly obtain brethren, organized in East 39th renumerative employment. It has Street, New York City, has, on the first been proposed to teach them various floor, a room for religious meetings, trades, and put some at agriculture, and, on the second, apartments for and so scatter them in different voca- the sick and homeless. It began with tions. With the aid of the employment twenty-six members, who paid $70 bureauofthe United HebrewCharities, per month for the house. positions have been found for a large number of men, the Hirsch fund pay- -A school for the Chinese, opened ing the expense of transporting them at Kelley's, North Carolina, called the to the points where they are to work, " Oriental Academy," began with and in some cases tools have been seven pupils direct from Canton, and given them." is on a farm, and the system is indus- trial. It is designed for Chinamen Samoa. – A South Sea Com- wishing to be educated, but prevented munion. At the close of a service by race prejudice or lack of funds several hundreds remained to com- from entering an American school. memorate our Lord's death. For bread The school is non-sectarian, is under the natives have often only the kernel the auspices of leading Chinamen, of the cocoanut, and for wine only the and will offer opportunities for selfmilk of the cocoanut, the natural support. bread and wine of the country. The scene was very striking. Only four- -In the Sabbath-school of the teen years since the mission ship first Clarendon Baptist Church, in Boston, approached the island. Then they whose pastoris Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon, were only a herd of naked savages. is a class of one hundred of native Now" clothed and in their right Chinese. They support three of their minds," numbers of them gather countrymen as preachers in their own around the table of the Lord. There land. seemed hardly any point of resemblance between preacher and people. -A united prayer-meeting in con- We were of different races; spoke nection with the week of prayer, for different languages; were of different woman's work in the mission-field, coloring; ate different kinds of food; was held in Exeter Hall, Friday, January 9th, at 3 P. M. Representa- tives of various zenana societies were present and took part in the proceed- said that not until the end of the ings. seventeenth century did the popula- tion number more than 60,000,000, If -A converted Chinaman on our so, what remarkable growth has Pacific coast sold himself as a coolie characterized these last two centuries, in New Guinea, for the sake of work- notwithstanding famines, droughts, ing among his own countrymen. pestilences and wars. Within the last Before he died he was the means of two centuries has occurred the two the conversion of two hundred of his notable reigns of Kanghi and Keincompanions. lung, each lasting nearly sixty years, and were characterized by tranquility -The statement is again made that and good laws. The educational Mr. C. F. Studd, one of the China system also stimulates the increase of Inland missionaries, placed his for- population. The cultivation of silk tune of $500,000 in the hands of the engages a large number of persons, trustees, the interest of which is to go from the tending of the mulberry to the mission, while he shares the trees to the last step in the production common lot of missionaries. Whether of the fabric. About one in nine of this statement is true or not we are not the people is a washerman, one in ten able to say. is engaged in the cultivation of the soil, one in 100 is a bricklayer, or a -Laotsze Yaotze Nahtsze, a cele- stonemason, or a carpenter, and one brated philosopher of China, founder in 120 is a tailor, while one in 140 is a of the Tabu Sect, or Sect of Reason, blacksmith. was born 104 years before Christ. His name means" old boy," because -France is now much the largest he is believed to have been eighty land owner in Africa. Her territory years old at birth. will extend from the Mediterranean almost to the Gulf of Guinea. Even -Forty societies are at work in the great Sahara will now be under China, with between eight hundred French control. and nine hundred missionaries and teachers: -From mid-China we have news of a remarkable revival, great numbers -Dr. J. G. Kerr, of the China Mis_ being brought out of the darkness of sion, read a paper at a meeting of the heathenism. The Rev. George Clark Medical Missionary Association, at has preached to audiences numbering Shanghai, on May 20th, last year, his 4,000. Even the intensely cold weather subject being "Medical Missionaries did not prevent the people from in Relation to the Medical Profession." coming night after night. Stanley He lays great stress upon the moral Smith reports two hundred and ten value of the work of those who, to- baptized at one time and as many gether with the healing of the body, more inquirers. offer to the people that religious faith which has produced the best men and -A missionary home and business women, husbands and wives, citizens agency has been established at No. 8 and neighbors, and governments upon Seward Road, Shanghai, of which Mr. the face of the earth. Edward Evans writes: -Canton is a real Chinese city, but "It is designed as a halting-place Hong Kong is simply:a British settle- for all arriving and departing missionment. aries, of which there is now a large travel through Shanghai, which, with -The population of China is be- the exception of Hong Kong, is the port lieved to be, according to the most re- of entry for all China for Europe and liable statistics, 380,000,000. The America. The China Inland Mission people show a marvelous energy in multiplying. They thrive upon what others regard as starvation diet. It is has recently erected a beautiful and you can lift first the children of the commodious place, costing over rising generation. $50,000, for its own missionaries. The American Presbyterian is the only -At a recent session of the SociaL other society, of all who are repre- Scientists in Saratoga, N. Y., Dr. T. sented in China, who have any home W. Couthers advocated a practical for its missionaries in Shanghai. method of treating drunkards. He' All the more need is there for a Chris- would put the inebriate on the plan of tian home to welcome and shelter and the small-pox patient and put him into pass on new arrivals, often suffering quarantine till he recovers. He would after sea-sickness' of a long voyage, take away his personalliberly, declare and bewildered with the new and him both incapable and irresponsible, strange sights and conditions they are and so strike a death blow at' the entering. The missionaries in the saloons with the pauperism and crime interior have need also of some one to that proceed from it. receive and forward supplies sent them from home, and purchase such things -Samoa has recently attracted'. as they require for home use. The much attention. A large proportion agency is designed to meet this need. of the Samoans are Christians, and a The home is not supported by any missionary says that he would be denomination or society, and is a willing to match any twenty men, simple effort of an independent women and children that he might worker. It is to be carried on so as to meet there against any twenty met at just cover its expenses." random in this country as to their knowledge of the Word of God. -Rev. Dennis Osborne (India) baptized over 500 persons last winter, -In Africa the number of missionand hopes for similar success this sea- aries exceeds five hundred and the son. number of converts four hundred thousand, increasing by about twenty- -Count Campello is addressing five thousand a year. During the very large gatherings in Italy, urging past five years Africa has furnished his hearers to renounce Papacy and more than two hundred martyrs. affirm the infallibility of none but Jesus Christ. He presses the Gospel -A Missionary Reading Circle remessage upon the careless and skepti- cently organized at Columbia, Mo. cal, but his preaching is not unmixed It is an endeavor to unite young with politics. people in a systematic course of read- ing upon the subject of missions. The -Rev. John McNeil, who succeeded course will cover about three years, Rev. J. Oswald Dikes at Regent Square and those who engage in it will be Church, London, is to be relieved examined and certified as graduates from his evening service, that he may upon the completion of the course. proclaim the Gospel in destitute The course for the first year covers regions in London and round about. the lives of Judson and Livingstone, Mr. McNeil has very remarkable gifts Dr. Strong's charming book, "The as an evangelist, and it seems as Missionary Review and the Crisis of though he should not be confined Missions." The admission fee is fifty within the limits of anyone church. cents per annum. We would be glad if such reading circles might be estab- -The motto of Dr. Guthrie's whole lished in every part of our country. Ragged School work was " Prevention Information is what is particularly better than Cure." It is impossible to needed to awaken missionary con· raise the lower classes in towns unless science,